Society
essay
Religion
Conscientious unbelievers
How, a century ago, radical freethinkers quietly and persistently subverted Scotland’s Christian establishment
Felicity Loughlin
video
The ancient world
The six priestesses who kept the flame of ancient Rome alight at risk of death
5 minutes
essay
Religion
Inventing Hindu supremacy
Vinayak Savarkar ridiculed Gandhi, preaching that anti-Muslim violence was the only means to unite India into a nation
Mihir Dalal
essay
Religion
There was no Jesus
How could a cult leader draw crowds, inspire devotion and die by crucifixion, yet leave no mark in contemporary records?
Gavin Evans
video
Human rights and justice
Witch hunts persist as a horrifying, deadly reality in pockets of rural India
24 minutes
video
Art
The overlooked polymath whose theatrical oeuvre made all of Rome a stage
30 minutes
essay
Religion
Indomitable Sufis
Once a centre of Afghan culture, Sufism seems to have disappeared in the maelstrom of war and upheaval. But still it survives
Annika Schmeding
video
Religion
Hear from blasphemes, sceptics and free-thinkers in this ‘tour of medieval unbelief’
52 minutes
essay
Religion
Secularism in Iran
Postcolonial intellectuals and Iran’s rulers agree that secularism is just Western imperialism in disguise. They are wrong
Patrick Hassan & Hossein Dabbagh
video
The ancient world
Meet the absentee gods and nefarious spirits of ancient Mesopotamia
6 minutes
essay
Religion
Praying in shoes
The Sunni movement of Salafism was born at the beginning of the 20th century, with the goal of modelling life on the 7th
Aaron Rock-Singer
video
Religion
How Jewish leaders in the US are fighting abortion bans on religious grounds
24 minutes
video
Values and beliefs
How the plight of holy cows is used to radicalise teenagers in small-town India
24 minutes
video
Spirituality
Trek alongside spiritual pilgrims on a treacherous journey across Pakistan
6 minutes
video
Religion
From God’s shoes to satellites in heaven – children weigh in on religion
8 minutes
essay
Nations and empires
The Arab Kingdom
Amid the chaos of the First World War, a new pan-Arab empire was proclaimed. It faltered, but its historical lessons remain
Adam Mestyan
essay
Religion
Miracles not magic
It took a tremendous effort to distinguish early Christianity from the finely tuned world of pagan beliefs and rituals
Martha Rampton
essay
History
Warfare as mercy and love
The daggers that knights carried to the crusades help us understand why they thought of holy war as an act of love
William Chester Jordan
essay
Thinkers and theories
A philosophy of secrets
Jacques Derrida was fascinated by the figure of the Marrano Jew, whose identity could barely be told even to themselves
Peter Salmon
essay
Consciousness and altered states
Stuck with the soul
The idea of the soul is obviously a nonsense, yet its immaterial mysterious nature has deep hooks in the human psyche
David P Barash
essay
Religion
At the Kremlin in 1943
Stalin presented Orthodox leaders with a proposal: the Soviet state that had destroyed their Church would bring it back
Kathryn David
essay
History of science
Inventing heaven
For hundreds of years, Christians knew exactly where heaven was: above us and above the stars. Then came the new cosmologists
Stephen Case
essay
Ethics
The lethal act
The Buddha taught not to kill, yet his followers have at times disobeyed him. Can murderers still be Buddhists?
Martin Kovan
essay
Religion
The imperative betrayal
The mystery of why Judas forsook Jesus goes to the heart of Christianity. A newly translated gospel offers a new view
David Brakke