Volume 123 Issue 3 May/June 2008

Editorial: Backwards and forwards: With the decline of the old-style Christian Right, are US evangelicals growing up?

Cover Story

Power to the pulpit: Religion has always been an election issue in America. But in the current campaign, argues James Crabtree, it’s not just the Republicans who are courting the faith vote

A small point of doctrine: Taking your own life is a mortal sin, says the Catholic Church. Unless you happen to be a Bishop, finds Colin Brewer
Crater of doom?: In science, as in life, some stories are too good to be true, says Ted Nield

Western front: While secularists sleep well-funded creationists are on the march in Europe says Peter C Kjærgaard
Heights of madness: As Sex and the City totters on to the big screen, Sally Feldman celebrates the agony and the ecstasy of the stiletto
Writing on the wall: Henri Lefebvre, the theoretician of the Paris uprising of 1968, saw that society’s most profound truths were etched on everyday life, discovers Daniel Miller
Drambuie in Damascus: Forget the booze cruise, Winston Fletcher finds that, with a little patience, you can get sozzled in Syria
Forked tongue: Doug Ireland examines the reputation of Tariq Ramadan, the man widely hailed as the saviour of Islam
Memories of a promised land: Sixty years since its foundation Mike Marqusee and Eliane Glaser explore the state of Israel
Death on air: Sanal Edamuruku on the night a guru tried to kill him live on Indian TV

Motley crew: Laurie Taylor gets medieval with the cults
Thinkers: Face to face: Heidegger’s former disciple Emmanuel Levinas, a victim of Nazism, pioneered a humanism for the 21st century argues Roger Davidson
Diary: Man the hedgerows: The spirit of freedom lives on in parklife, says Ken Worpole

Field of nightmares: As festival season begins Andrew Mueller counts off the reasons to avoid them

ID: The Quest for Identity in the 21st Century by Susan Greenfield: Bill Thompson has mixed feelings about Susan Greenfield
The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley: Helene Joffe prepares for the worst
The Book of Dead Philosophers by Simon Critchley: Simon May comes face to face with mortality
Metropole by Ferenc Karinthy: Jonathan Derbyshire admires a dystopian classic
The Roads to Modernity: the British, French and American Enlightenments by Gertrude Himmelfarb: Stephen Howe asks why Gordon Brown is endorsing Neocon history
The Sun and Moon Corrupted by Philip Ball: Philip Womack enjoys a popular scientist's debut novel