faith & ideas

Here we host debates on values, ethics, philosophy, spirituality, religions, and belief systems. There has never been a more important time to understand ourselves and one another better.
Friday 20th January

The Great Partnership: multiculturalism, faith and citizenship

Robin Llewellyn, 20 January 2012
Do the supposedly civilised values of human rights and responsible citizenry become exclusionary, used to divide rather than unite? Is religion a partner of liberty? On the day the British parliament considers a bill proposing the banning of headscarves in public places, Robin Llewellyn reviews Jonathan Sacks' ‘The Great Partnership: God, Science, and the Search for Meaning’
Wednesday 21st December

2011, a year of wonder

Tina Beattie, 21 December 2011
A great scientific breakthrough is also a path to appreciating the core ingredient of our humanity, says Tina Beattie.
Wednesday 23rd November

An arch-visionary of Canterbury

Theo Hobson, 23 November 2011
The leading religious authority of the Church of England has disappointed many of the hopes invested in him. Rowan Williams has indeed failed to address the challenges facing the Church and the Anglican Communion, not least its historic entanglement with state power. This is the project that his successor must understand, says Theo Hobson.
Wednesday 7th September

9/11: the identity-politics trap

Sami Zubaida, 7 September 2011
The reaction to the attacks of 11 September 2001 included an instinctive veneration of their chief architect. Its deeper foundation is a regressive and widespread ethno-religious view of the world, says Sami Zubaida.
Tuesday 6th September

The dinner-party revolution

Keith Kahn-Harris, 6 September 2011
The dinner-party is a symbol of complacent presumption, the last occasion to be associated with genuine dialogue or the jolt of rethinking. But it’s possible to renew the ritual in surprising ways - and really caring about the food is just the start, says Keith Kahn-Harris.
Friday 26th August

Indonesia: pluralism vs vigilantism

Charles Reading, 26 August 2011
A pattern of violence against the Ahmadiyah religious community, in which the perpetrators enjoy near-impunity and official indulgence, is disfiguring Indonesia. It also presents a wider challenge to the country’s vital search for a model of religious tolerance in public life, says Charles Reading.
Monday 2nd May

Bin Laden, Dostoevsky and the reality principle: an interview with André Glucksmann

André Glucksmann, 2 May 2011
Europe is trapped by complacency and an all too human desire for oblivious contentment, says a leading French philosopher. This helps ensure the success of the nihilistic terror and extremist ideology exemplified by al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein. (From the archive, originally published 31 March 2003)
Thursday 7th April

Moderate secularism: a European conception

Tariq Modood, 7 April 2011
The question of religion’s place in modern secular societies is intellectually contested and politically divisive. Here, the scholar Tariq Modood argues that European experience and institutional development can favour an accommodative model that respects religion yet goes beyond both toleration and even civic recognition. This moderate secularism, he says, meets the test of core democratic values while avoiding the dangers that fear-induced exclusion of religion from the public sphere would entail.
Tuesday 8th February

Egypt, and the post-Islamist middle east

Asef Bayat, 8 February 2011
The portrayal of Egypt’s uprising in terms of its potential capture by Islamists is doubly misleading, says Asef Bayat: for this misses both the true character of the people’s movement and the transformation of the Arab world’s religious politics.
Thursday 27th January

Multiculturalism, Britishness, and Muslims

Tariq Modood, 27 January 2011
The idea of multiculturalism has been subjected to greater criticism in recent years, especially on the grounds that it is divisive and undercuts other solidarities of society, class or nation. But a fuller understanding of the context in which the arguments for multiculturalism arose and evolved can help both address some of the simplifications that now cluster around it and achieve a more nuanced view, says Tariq Modood.
Wednesday 26th January

The religious crisis of American liberalism

Theo Hobson, 26 January 2011
The extraordinary arc of Barack Obama’s popular appeal tells a deeper story of America: of how the relationship between liberalism and religion was forged, then frayed and broken, and how the president’s rhetoric offered the mirage of healing. Theo Hobson asks what, if anything, can be recovered from the ashes of a once-potent compact.
Thursday 28th October

The “Islam” drumbeat: an Orwellian story

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, 28 October 2010
A reductive and tendentious portrayal of Islam and its followers is spreading across Europe and America. It is all too reminiscent of the chilling world imagined by George Orwell, says Arshin Adib-Moghaddam
Friday 22nd October

Pope Benedict: the faith of authority

Michael Walsh, 22 October 2010
A delicate papal visit to Britain was in the end a diplomatic success. All the more reason to examine the ideas it advanced, says Michael Walsh.
Tuesday 5th October

Ayodhya: verdict and consequence

Deep K Datta-Ray, 5 October 2010
An Indian court’s ruling on the Hindu-Muslim dispute over the sacred site of Ayodhya sheds light on the relationship between two forms of rationality in India, says Deep K Datta-Ray.
Thursday 15th July

Europe's Muslims: burqa laws, women's lives

Sara Silvestri, 15 July 2010
Several European states - France, Italy, Belgium and Britain among them - are involved in legal, social or political disputes over the dress-codes of Muslim women. A detailed and alert survey of the variegated experiences and attitudes involved is the best way to understand a complex issue, says Sara Silvestri.
Monday 17th May

Siberian Shamans Come in From the Cold (part 3)

Ken Hyder, 17 May 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 three of three.
Monday 10th May

Siberian Shamans Come in From the Cold (part 2)

Ken Hyder, 10 May 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 two of three.
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.
Wednesday 14th April

The Catholic church’s scandal: modern crisis, ancient roots

Tina Beattie, 14 April 2010
The sexual violation of young people within the Catholic church is the poisonous legacy of a long tradition of contempt for human sexuality in an institution which has privileged secrecy and unaccountable power over transparency and participation. But the silence and darkness revealed by the scandal must not be allowed to define the majority of Catholics who are the living church, says Tina Beattie.
Wednesday 24th March

Iran: torch of fire, politics of fun

Asef Bayat, 24 March 2010
The doctrinal contempt of Islamist regimes for popular festivals such as the Iranian nowrooz (new year) extends to suspicion of every expression of spontaneous life. The result is to conjure the very rituals of resistance they fear, says Asef Bayat. 
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