Culture Articles
Israelophobia: The newest version of the oldest hatred and what to do about it, by Jake Wallis Simon
Friends may remember an article I wrote just a year ago: ‘Is the Religious Society of Friends antisemitic?’ (30 September 2022). It was based on an analysis of letters and articles in the Friend. It provoked a wide range of responses, not all critical. I haven’t been able to pursue the...
Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig
I have never owned a Barbie. I went into the cinema with roughly the views articulated by politically-savvy teenager Sasha when she first meets Barbie: ‘You’ve been making women feel bad about themselves since you were invented.’
Dear diary
I am so sorry that once again today I have not been able to save the world. Somehow there is never enough time. Problems arise in unexpected places and so, because of me, once more the world will fall apart. All my fault. Of course.
Out of Excuses: The Loving Earth poetry book, edited by Tracey Martin
This is a unique climate text. A colourful book, the size of a double CD, it is part of the Loving Earth Project, which has been exhibited in the UK, France, Belgium and the US.
Meeting
Breath held – while still idling in and out. Breath as a bubble, something caught and sealed. Breath expanding then, becoming its own country, world, see: whole continents of breath.
Odessa Cathedral, July 2023
The rash of wounded cities spreads across the map; I walk Odessa in my mind once more, to join a festival of loss, of torn-up friendships in a poisoned land. Into this sacred space we came together with knees which faithful bent, with lips which kissed the antique ikon of...
A Secular Age (2007), by Charles Taylor, and God’s Funeral (1999), by A N Wilson
There is a (probably apocryphal) story of a meeting between Napoleon Bonaparte and Pierre-Simon Laplace, the astronomer and physicist, in 1802. Napoleon comments that he has heard that Laplace has written ‘a large book on the system of the universe’ without mentioning God at all. Laplace’s cool, perhaps even dismissive,...
Neediness
Some things you may not need any more than an earthworm needs a toothpick. And some needs can be habits in which you’ve snuggled far too comfortably. Of course, some people might assert that you need to mend your ways – to suit their...
The Living Fountain: Remembrances of Quaker Christianity, by Benjamin Wood
Just look at these chapter headings: ‘The Problem of “Thin” Quakerism’, ‘The Romantic Quakerism of Rufus Jones’, ‘The Unquiet Presence of God’, ‘Recovering the Slow Jesus’, ‘Heaven: Walking the Road with Anne Conway’ – goodness! Who’s Anne Conway? I couldn’t wait, and frankly, now I can’t cope. I...
The worship of nature
The harp at Nature’s advent strung Has never ceased to play; The song the stars of morning sung Has never died away. And prayer is made, and praise is given, By all things near and far; The ocean looketh up to heaven, ...