Volume 127

Issue 1: January/February 2012

Cover story: Abby Ohlheiser assesses the God 'n' Guns Republicans hoping to challenge Obama for the White House; evangelists are enjoying a British TV revival, finds Francis Beckett; Paul Sims talks to veteran Middle East watcher Fuad Nahdi about the future of the Arab Spring; Andrew Mueller on faith in The Simpsons; is evidence-based policy a realistic expectation, asks Richard Wilson; Cullen Murphy on how the Inquisition ignited the modern police state; dieting can harm your humanism, argues Sally Feldman; medicine and superstition at the Wellcome Collection; Holocaust history is under attack in Hungary, finds Thomas Land; Claire Tomalin tells Matthew Adams about the conflicted life of Charles Dickens; PLUS: Andy Hamilton on his sympathy for the Devil; Kitty Ferguson in praise of Stephen Hawking; Marcus Chown on Jupiter's volcanic moon Io; Jamila Bey on being black, female and atheist; Frederick Sternfelt condemns the cartoon cowardice of the Anglo-American press; Lyndsey Jones surveys the irrationalism of the markets; Padraig Reidy welcomes Ireland's new humanist president; Myra Zepf on why you shouldn't answer your kids' questions; Laurie Taylor talks sadly too himself; Michael Binyon revisits Cold War brinksmanship; Natalie Haynes enjoys a Nigerian travelogue; Owen Jones explores redneck America; Adam Rutherford tires of zombie creationist arguments; Nina Power puzzles over a heavyweight intellectual partnership.

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