Viewpoint

Football clubs and religion have features in common; there is belonging to a beloved community, high levels of commitment - capable of generating violence - knowledgeable commentators, rules, regulations and an informed debate about them. But the relative importance of noise and silence is not one of them. True, singing, hymns or chants and acclamation is part of celebration in both. But there is ... Read More

You bump into the past quite often in Berlin. There's the curated remains of the Wall, the vast architectural hymn to militarism of the Soviet war memorial in Treptow, and the disorientating claustrophobia of Daniel Libeskind's building housing the Jewish museum. To contemplate the confession of the Nazi horrors and the sufferings of war, spend time in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, near the ... Read More

Mark Etkind writes: The just-published letter (referred to here) signed by religious leaders opposing antisemitism makes some good points - especially the message to 'our Jewish brothers and sisters. This country belongs to you as much as any of us.' But claims that 'the spectre of Jewish people being stabbed at random in the street, killed defending their synagogues and Jewish infrastructure bein... Read More

Mark Etkind, son of a survivor of the Lodz Ghetto and various concentration camps including Buchenwald - and co-organiser of Holocaust survivors and descendants against the Gaza genocide, writes: Thanks for you and your colleagues' coverage of the appalling antisemitic attack in Golders Green. But this horror should not be used to justify more restrictions on British people's right to protest. Sta... Read More

Dr Ian Linden gave this lecture at Queen's University Belfast on Saturday: Since Theodor Herzl encouraged Lord Rothschild and the British Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, to embrace a Jewish colonization of Sinai, Palestine and Cyprus in the late 1890s, the historical evolution of Jewish settlement in Palestine was marked by the paired imperial concerns, Ethnicity and Land. As Uganda, propo... Read More

To speak of creation as music is to marry physics and theology with awe: the cosmos is the score for God's ongoing song. "The morning stars sang together and the heavenly beings of God shouted with joy." (Job 38:7). Before light in creation, there was sound: the symphony of atoms and molecules vibrating and dancing to the rhythm and beat of Abba (Mark 14:36; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6), the compo... Read More

The Pope is back safely from his visit to four African countries. Little was said about the danger to him when in Bamenda in Cameroon in the midst of a civil war, or Equatorial Guinea where Putin's Africa Corps (the old Wagner Group) look after its murderous President. During his visit to Nigeria in 2003, President George W Bush travelled protected in his heavily armoured Cadillac, The Beast. The ... Read More

Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly evolved into a force which is reshaping news, economies, healthcare, education, and daily life. Pope Leo XIV, in his Message for the 60th World Day of Social Communications, Preserving Human Voices and Faces, addresses AI because of its far-reaching implications. The Pope warns against "a naive and unquestioning reliance on artificial intelligence as an omn... Read More

Dr Anna Rowlands, St Hilda Professor of Catholic Social Thought and Practice at the Department of Theology and Religion & Centre for Catholic Studies, Durham University, writes: An edition of The Economist Bagehot column from a few months ago makes for an interesting read. Its author argues that, on the Left of British politics, a debate is opening up again about the moral basis of taxation a... Read More

"[Leo] wasn't on any list to be Pope, and was only put there by the Church because he was American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump. If I wasn't in the White House, Leo wouldn't be in the Vatican….Leo should get his act together as Pope, use common sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a politician". Don... Read More

There is a danger in this time of peril, general sense of helplessness, and fear of diversity, in seeking sanctuary in groups of comforting sameness. It may be in ethnic identities seeking recognition, small political movements, or finding solace in religious piety. Each of these options offer more rewards than generalised apathy. They may in their different ways counteract secular promotion of in... Read More

Until recently, nations gave lip service to international laws that classified certain actions during conflict - attacking hospitals and essential civilian infrastructure like power generation and desalination plants - as illegal. Such attacks might only be lawful if the military advantage gained outweighed the loss of civilian life. The problem arose - vexing politicians, military leaders and hum... Read More

"The abuse and manipulation of God's name to justify this and any other war is the gravest sin we can commit at the present time". Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Patriarch of Jerusalem, 17 March 2026. What do Peter Hegseth, US Secretary of Defence, Naim Qassem, secretary-General of Hezbollah, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israeli Minister of National Security, have in common? They all believe that mili... Read More

Anger and apathy, Bankers and BREXIT, Corruption and COVID, the ABC of Britain's decline, has determined our recent history. The Venerable Bede wrote in the 8th century that history should record the "evil of wicked men" to avoid sin, while describing the "good things of good men" to encourage virtue. James Macintyre's insightful and balanced Gordon Brown: Power with Purpose, Bloomsbury 2026, fal... Read More