A very political festival indeed

Why do the seasonal messages from all the world’s Christian leaders sound a bit like Guardian editorials? The Archbishop of Canterbury spoke of our duty to the environment – no surprise there from a self-confessed “bearded lefty”. But the Queen...

Non-religious in Europe are disadvantaged, claim secularists

Europeans who have no religion are growing in number but are becoming increasingly disadvantaged in the political process. This was the claim by the National Secular Society at a meeting in the European Parliament on “Religion and Politics in the New Europe” sponsored...

Australian Christians wrestle with a political Rudd slide

In commenting on the significance of the defeat of John Howard and the Coalition Liberal/National Party government less than twenty-four hours after the election, and assessing the victory of the Australian Labor Party and Kevin Rudd, one needs to bear in mind that...

Moving politics beyond pantomime

Only a matter of weeks ago, the traditional party conference season was predictably dominated by the “yes or no?” and “will he, won’t he?” shows. First, commentators tried to box leaders into making pledges they could readily deconstruct. Then, everybody speculated...

The body as religious evidence

Towards the end of this past summer, findings were reported from a series of laboratory tests conducted in both England and Switzerland , in which researchers effectively sought to disturb the sensory signals received by the brain. This caused study participants to...