Religion and theology

In a busy decade following two decades of inaction, the ranks of institutions bearing the ‘university’ title has expanded at almost one a year

After agreeing takeover of three more colleges, the University of Divinity looks to other fields – and states – for renewal

Inhaling one another’s insights could help scholars assuage public confusion about this crucial but confusing concept, says Jacques Berlinerblau

Robert Eaglestone reflects on the limits of hagiography

Robert A. Segal is unconvinced by an argument about the depth of religious racism

Ruby Guyatt enjoys a wide-ranging account of how developments in religion have often been shaped by changes in the climate

Ann Hughes enjoys a richly detailed account of how Henry VIII imposed his power over the church

Jan Machielsen considers the ‘cancel culture’ of the Counter-Reformation and its echoes today

The religious studies professor on her early love of ‘contrarian kids’, biblical wordplay and the ‘fruitful’ conversation between religion and science

James Stevens Curl has reservations about a broad overview of the development of Christianity through its architecture

Ann Hughes enjoys a set of sharp, wide-ranging essays by a historian who revolutionised our understanding of early modern Europe

Robert A. Segal applauds a comprehensive survey of the distinctions and similarities between the three great Religions of the Book

Ruby Guyatt enjoys a sharp account of the shallow Western infatuation with Eastern religions

There are lessons for academia in the scandal of the pornographer, the fake papyrus and a theologian’s fall, says author

The Classics scholar and author of Mapping the Afterlife: From Homer to Dante talks about discovering Roman Britain in the Australian heat and how a sports-car-driving teacher fuelled her interest in Latin

Robert A. Segal questions the assumptions behind a wide-ranging survey of world religions

Ruby Guyatt regrets the lack of women in an elegant survey of a concept we seem not to be able to do without

Research and discussion about early Islam could represent a ‘step towards political and economic cooperation’

Michael Marinetto enjoys a bold attempt to challenge the scientific consensus about consciousness

Ruby Guyatt considers the ‘eruptive public spaces’ where conflict can flare up between scholars and the faith groups they study

Simon Young is not totally convinced by a wide-ranging account of the development of belief in witchcraft

Geoffrey Alderman is impressed by a study of the origins and development of a vile calumny against the Jews 

Kathryn M. Rudy enjoys a useful summary of recent research on how the instruments of Christ’s Passion were displayed and venerated in the Middle Ages 

Tributes paid to a pioneering scholar who helped ‘push the boundaries of how we think and feel theologically to address the needs of the world’

A. W. Purdue is sceptical about an analysis of the great debates about sexual and other freedoms that marked the dawn of a more permissive era

David Lehmann assesses a journalistic account of clerical abuse in Central America

At a time when stress and mental health issues are endemic within universities, Erin K. Wilson considers the small steps she is determined to take in order to be part of the solution

Book of the week: Angelia Wilson applauds a bold new analysis of how the Republican Party’s determination to appeal to patriarchal, racist and religious voters reshaped politics in the US

Tributes paid to a scholar whose passions ranged from Tamil Buddhism to Bob Marley

Robert A. Segal applauds a striking analysis of the real relations between church and state in the US

Torkel Brekke is unconvinced by a new version of an old argument about the economics of belief

John Cornwell wonders whether a major new Catholic council could help address the challenges the Church faces today

David Lehmann praises an ambitious attempt to take religion seriously on its own terms

Conference hears about the challenges of coexistence between proselytising religious students and their secular peers

Report finds groups such as Christian Union can play an important role

Ursula King enjoys an insiders’ account of a leading ecological and spiritual thinker

David Katz is unimpressed by an attempt to imagine a different Israel from elsewhere

British Academy report highlights falling student numbers and ageing academic workforce

Alec Ryrie reports from a skirmish in the culture wars that proves surprisingly illuminating

Book of the week: Robert Segal on a work that strives to restore the centrality of narrative to tales as old as time

Tributes paid to Chicago authority on Buddhism

This appraisal of the gospels does not transform our understanding of them, says Robert A. Segal

Migrants’ stories remind us of the paradox of a comparatively affluent Europe that shows a lack of compassion for outsiders, writes Amina Yaqin

Book of the week: it’s human to crave spiritual transcendence, even through psychedelics, writes Andrew Hussey

Book of the week: if the material world does not exhaust reality, what lies beyond? asks Simon Oliver

Despite its success in highlighting the complexity of Holy See diplomacy, this work falls short of addressing its role as a moral actor, says Luke Cahill

Amid war, intellectual believers worked to imagine a future peacetime society, learns Leo Mellor

Book of the week: Emily Michelson learns that the home and the items in it were the heart of Renaissance religion

Margarita Vaysman finds out why Russian writers use negative images of Christ to explore religion

Exploring what comes first, religion or politics, can help us understand societal divides in the US, says Angelia Wilson

Human beings’ need for religion goes far beyond the management of emotions, says Ursula King

University of London member is the first significant UK higher education institution to close since medieval times

Pioneering scholar of black feminism remembered

The differences between Jesus and philosophers cannot be ignored, writes Robert Segal

An original book about the changes to arts and technology reaches a disappointing conclusion, finds Scott Mandelbrote

This study of God and country could ask more questions of its subjects, says Angelia Wilson

Papal infallibility became dogma only when Pius IX sought a means to shore up his authority as the Church’s power waned, writes John Cornwell

Clive Marsh tunes in to the rock on which evangelicals built appeals to widen their flock

Tributes paid to anthropologist who specialised in study of modern Egypt

Project encourages students to explore the past of Roehampton’s Georgian mansions and teacher training colleges