Before toilet paper wiping your bottom could be a hazardous business, and religious advice hardly helped matters. Richard Smyth sifts through the evidence
The switch to digital has given British religious broadcasting a boost. James Gray visits one of the new Christian channels redefining faith on TV
Warren Ellis enjoys a ripping rewrite of the nativity, from the man who brought us Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
The latest novel from "collapsed Catholic" Colm Tóibín – a fictionalised account of the "crochety old widow" Mary – confirms him to be the greatest living writer in English, says Jonathan Rée
Andrew Mueller enjoys the peevish outrage of the inadvertently hilarious moral crusader Mary Whitehouse
During his 50-year career singer-songwriter Labi Siffre has played Soho jazz clubs, been covered by Madness and Kenny Rogers, sampled by Dr Dre and Kanye West and gained global status with his anti-Apartheid anthem ‘Something Inside So Strong’. We find out what keeps him strong.
Myra Zepf's hints for a happy humanist holiday
Philip Womack revels in the short stories of Joseph O'Connor
With the whiff of rebellion again in the air, the work of Victor Serge is being rediscovered. Not before time, says Owen Hatherley
Laurie Taylor springs a leak