Great pretender
Feminist icon, anti-Catholic fabrication – or just a woman battling in a man’s world? Sally Feldman uncovers the mysteries of Pope Joan
Human Rights & Ethics
“To forgive, divine?”
Is forgiveness just for the devout? asks Eve Garrad
There will be blood
Butchery is always a messy business, but is religiously inspired ritual slaughter really worse than other methods? Physiologist Harold Hillman dissects the evidence
It’s all just words
Blasphemer, failure, hypocrite, comedian – Stewart Lee tells Caspar Melville why he’s so offensive
No nonsense: Laurie Taylor interviews Mary Warnock
Philosopher Mary Warnock tells Laurie Taylor why religion and politics shouldn’t mix
Should Britain ban the burqa?
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Kenan Malik debate whether the UK should follow the French
Aid wars
Mired in controversy from Afghanistan to Sudan, humanitarianism itself is in crisis. Susie Linfield surveys the battlefield
Work ethics
When religious beliefs conflict with professional duties how do we decide what's fair? We asked Richard Rowson, the man who wrote the rules
The Catholic Church acts as a law unto itself
Child abuse is far from the only crime the Vatican has to admit. Just look at its record in Africa, says Richard Wilson
Book Review: On Evil by Terry Eagleton
Beneath the diaphanous veil of ambiguity, the wit and the nuance-sense Terry Eagleton fails to get to the real heart of darkness, says AC Grayling