Jonathan Jones writes for The Guardian No faith in flesh: art exposes Christianity’s original sin.
“For centuries, defenders of the nude in art have faced a battle against Christian fear of the naked human form.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury and the comedian, writer and broadcaster Frank Skinner recently “sat down for an in-depth exchange of views on the state of Christianity today”.
Archbishop Rowan and Frank Skinner in conversation
Sarah Ditum argues in The Guardian that it is Time for burial to die a death.
“We should stop treating cemeteries like a cupboard under the stairs and embrace new ways of disposing of the dead.”
John Dominic Crossan writes for The Huffington Post about The Search for the Historical Paul: How to Read The Letters of Paul [with particular reference to Philemon].
Savitri Hensman writes for The Guardian that Direct, compassionate intervention on earth is not God’s remit but ours.
“God offers no instant fix in adversity. He respects our free will and asks us to use it well.”
Burial has been rather contaminated these last couple of centuries as ordinary folk have aped the rich and powerful in demanding exclusive grave space and permanent monuments. Given that the average mediaeval God’s Acre contained between 20,000 and 30,000 burials, ‘letting go’ must have been much more straightforward then (I write this in the shadow of St Peter’s ossuary, where almost all of the 2,700 people there are anonymous).