Caspar David Friedrich: The Cross Around Christmas 1808 a young painter of no considerable reputation staged an exhibition of recent works in Dresden. The piece de resistance of the show was ‘The Cross’, which was given pride of place on [...]
Test the spirit We should assess Islam in the light of New Testament teaching Patrick Henry Reardon, senior editor of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity Although I think it obvious that Muslims and Christians nowadays should talk to one [...]
The mask of this world A monk of Mount Athos You... suffer for those things that are thought to be good, positive and creative... for the work of the people... called ‘labour’. In fact it is slavery, since even when [...]
Holding on Andy Hawes is Warden of Edenham Regional Retreat House Many people think of the practice of prayer as an extension of an intellectual activity. Prayer is a form of thinking. It has words in sentences; it can involve [...]
Art ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM Oxford Admission free At the end of last year the V&A and the Ashmolean both opened major refurbishments, the V&A of its medieval and Renaissance galleries, and the Ashmolean of almost the entire museum. Both museums received [...]
Vatican Lay woman takes key job When talk turns to ‘women in the church,’ the normal association in the public mind is with debates over the ordination of women to the priesthood. Because there’s been no movement on that front, [...]
John Masding promotes the next Guardians’Day Juvenal’s famous question inspired me nearly twenty years ago to call for a change in the law of parochial vacancies, so that each benefice could have an impartial Guardian, drawn from an elected regional [...]
Bullying is all too common in the church. Rachael Maskell describes how Unite is attempting to tackle the problem, and how we should too 'I never thought that this would happen to me’ are the first words that we most [...]
David Skeoch remembers the late Bishop of London Graham Leonard was born on the old feast of the Apparition of St Michael, a date for which he had a particular regard when he moved to Truro, since it was associated [...]
It is widely expected that when Pope Benedict comes to England this year he will preside at a ceremony to mark the beatification of John Henry Newman. Apart from any notions of sanctity, Newman deserves the highest accolade – because [...]