what about faith?

Guest editor and Columist Dave Belden, a self-confessed agnostic, challenges us all to examine what faith and religion mean to us in the 21st Century. From the most extreme fundamentalism to cosmopolitan cynics, we all want something to believe in.
Friday 30th April

Siberian Shamans Come in From the Cold

Ken Hyder, 30 April 2010
After decades of repression, Siberia’s shamans are re-emerging. Ken Hyder is a musician who performs with a Tuvan shaman. His novel describes the culture of contemporary shamanism as it emerges after decades of repression. Part one of three.
Tuesday 19th September

A Jewish-German alliance for Europe's future

Julia Neuberger, 19 September 2006
The first graduation of rabbis in Germany since 1945 is an opportunity to revivify the great German-Jewish cultural symbiosis and to place Jewish community life anew at Europe's heart, says Julia Neuberger, in her address to mark the occasion at Dresden’s Abraham Geiger College.
Wednesday 8th March

'Best not to take it too far': how the British cut religion down to size

Callum Brown, 8 March 2006
When Britain's prime minister mentions God on primetime TV, millions of citizens are puzzled or outraged. Is this Tony Blair's problem, or theirs? Callum Brown traces the long withdrawing whimper of "Christian Britain".
Thursday 19th January

Pope Benedict's indifference and Africa's faith

David Mikhail, 19 January 2006
Pope Benedict XVI must address African poverty to avoid jettisoning the Catholic Church’s African following, and his predecessor’s legacy, says David Mikhail.
Thursday 31st March

Pope John Paul II and democracy

Neal Ascherson, 31 March 2005
In his long life, the Polish pope, Karol Wojtyła, was at the forefront of the struggle for liberty. But in his twenty-six years at the Vatican, where did this towering figure stand on democracy? The distinguished writer Neal Ascherson dissects an ambiguous legacy.
Friday 5th March

Unbearable Passion

Dave Belden, 5 March 2004
Mel Gibson’s controversial new film, “The Passion of Christ”, is violent, harrowing and almost impossible to watch. So don’t, recommends Dave Belden.
Friday 27th February

Shakers alive: the song of Sabbathday Lake

Philip John Davies, 27 February 2004
The Shaker religious community survived 18th century emigration from England to America to build a pacific community of sexual equals. Its founder’s “birthday” on 29 February is an occasion to celebrate a creative adaptation embodied in the Shakers’ unique design heritage.
Monday 11th August

It takes a generation: the Puritan route to Enlightenment

Dave Belden, 11 August 2003
The argument of Khoren Arisian that religious extremism poses a danger to American democracy is simplistic and ahistorical. The Puritan impact on American politics contains egalitarian vigour as well as intolerance, social conscience as well as theological dogma. Be patient, says Dave Belden: the descendants of today’s fundamentalists will champion a new era of social liberalism.
Monday 28th July

Religious zealotry and the crisis of American democracy

Khoren Arisian, 28 July 2003
The danger of religious fundamentalism has been present in the American political bloodstream since the arrival of the Puritans. Now, with a government of religious conservatives locked in a polarising mindset of us-them and good-evil, the threat it poses is not just to American freedom, but to the world’s.
Thursday 24th July

Jihad reloaded: popular culture and wars of faith

Omair Ahmad, 24 July 2003
Hollywood products like “The Matrix”, “X-Men” and their sequels indulge the spectacle of violence and terrorism in the name of a nebulous ‘truth’, and thus echo the very mental strategies of al-Qaida. But they also make available narratives of meaning that illuminate the realities of power which imprison the world. Should their consumers be alarmed or amused?
Monday 14th July

Ring of prophecy

Omair Ahmad, 14 July 2003
A wary platform encounter with a self-styled spiritual warrior offers unexpectedly renewed hope to a weary Omair Ahmad.
Monday 16th June

Sceptic on the cancer table

Dave Belden, 16 June 2003
In the aftermath of a cancer operation, inveterate sceptic and openDemocracy columnist Dave Belden is treated by a healer. Might his sickness really have roots in his childhood? Can she address its cause at the level of ‘energy’? If so, what else might she heal? Is she a cheap gypsy or the real thing? What does he believe?
Wednesday 21st May

Cultivating optimism

Dave Belden, 21 May 2003
The addictions to bad news and to boosterism are alike protections from reality. One encourages cynicism, the other complacency; both evade responsibility for the world’s horror. For Dave Belden, it has been a long road to global optimism. But in the wake of the avalanche of violence and grief in the Iraq war, he wonders if giving up TV is a condition of sustaining long-term hope for the planet.
Sunday 6th April

Clear thinking

Dave Belden, 6 April 2003
The trouble with close-knit groups, according to psychiatrist Arthur Deikman, is that they stop thinking realistically. Is this true of the Bush team? Could this Iraq war be Bush’s Bay of Pigs, rather than his Cuban missile crisis?
Wednesday 19th March

Dangerous dreams, indispensable dreams

Dave Belden, 19 March 2003
Radical dreamers, often religious, have shaped today’s democracies. In a fundamentalist age like ours, how can we be inspired by them without falling foul of their totalitarian tendencies?
Tuesday 11th February

Davos and Porto Alegre - together against the forces of darkness

Dave Belden, 11 February 2003
In the interests of democracy and wealth creation, we need both Davos and Porto Alegre, and we need them to work together.
Tuesday 28th January

Kissing the chaos

Dave Belden, 28 January 2003
Where Dave Belden lives, the computer has put every home, school, neighbourhood in close encounter with fantasies of power, violence, and lust. Should we fortify our minds, or learn how to live freely amongst darkness?
Wednesday 8th January

What fuels religious wars today?

Dave Belden, 8 January 2003
As traditional societies cross the bridge to modernity, is their encounter with the globalised world bound to erupt in religious conflict? Or is there another way across?
Tuesday 17th December

A few pinches of salt

Dave Belden, 17 December 2002
Returning to openDemocracy after his father’s funeral, Dave Belden salutes his positive outlook and sturdy belief, before engaging in his readers’ earlier responses.
Monday 25th November

The light within: Muslims in transition

Omair Ahmad, 25 November 2002
In dialogue with Dave Belden, one Muslim Indian living in America voices the optimism of a rising generation. In an atmosphere of freedom to speak the truth, and despite political oppression in Islamic states and secularist pressures in the west, Muslims are making progress by changing from within the faith.
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