Walk the tightrope
We don’t need religion, but mystical traditions still have a lot to teach us, says John Burnside
Ideas
Dissing God
Long before the New Atheists, believers – from Job to Heinrich Heine – were picking fights with the Almighty, says Jonathan Rée
The last Crusade
The claim that Christianity provides the bedrock of Western culture might serve the interests of extremists, but it is a betrayal of a far more complex history, argues Kenan Malik
A life in eight ads
Sam Delaney measures out his days in iconic adverts
Book review: The Tyranny of Choice by Renata Salecl
Nina Power appreciates a sharp critique of consumerism
Book review: Humanity 2.0 by Steve Fuller
Angela Saini is frustrated by Steve Fuller
Quiz: a tea-time teaser
Rational thought is required in the humanist tearooms, in Quizmaster Chris Maslanka's latest New Humanist quiz
Human folly
Half a millennium ago a book by a Catholic theologian unwittingly ignited a secular revolution. Matthew Adams salutes Erasmus
Varieties of irreligious experience
There are many ways not to believe. Jonathan Rée on the evoluton of atheist thought
Book review: Ragnarok – The End of the Gods
Philip Womack is chilled by AS Byatt's magnificent retelling of the Norse myth