Editorial: Bleaker still and bleaker?
What do they mean by 'post-secular'?
Faith & Religion
Slice of life
For some it's barbaric, for others a religious imperative. But why, asks Sally Feldman, is circumcision still the most frequently performed operation in the world?
Secret openings
You don't have to be religious to experience inexplicable moments of epiphany, argues Laurie Taylor
Hostile takeover
A powerful coalition is trying to define Europe as Christian. And, warns Donald Sassoon, they must be stopped at once
Napoleon in Egypt by Paul Strathern
In 1789 Napoleon set off to conquer the East. We're still living with the fallout, says Michael Binyon
In Denial
Nick Cohen caused a furore when he published "What's Left?", an excoriating attack on what he sees as liberal hypocrisy. Here he answers his critics
Free from crooked things
Buddhism is fatalistic, deeply misogynist and riven with superstition. And yet, argues Karen Connelly, it also inspires resistance to tyranny and the fight for freedom
Be tolerant or else
Eliane Glaser challenges a core British value
Blind faith
Does it derive from delusion or derangement, irrationality or something deeper? Laurie Taylor explores the meaning of belief
Editorial: He did God
Tony Blair helped bring the toxic certainties of religious belief back into politics and culture. Let's hope Gordon Brown doesn't do the same, says Caspar Melville