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Society

Essays and videos on social issues, history, political life and the future

A bustling 19th-century cityscape featuring a wide street with construction activity, carriages and pedestrians. Hills and a bridge are also visible under a cloudy sky.

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essay

Religion

Conscientious unbelievers

How, a century ago, radical freethinkers quietly and persistently subverted Scotland’s Christian establishment

Felicity Loughlin

Illustration of a female group in white togas and red headbands, standing with arms raised before a flaming brazier in a Roman temple with columns.

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video

The ancient world

The six priestesses who kept the flame of ancient Rome alight at risk of death

5 minutes

A portrait of a man with glasses and a cap, adorned with garlands of flowers, and surrounded by strings of marigolds and leaves.

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Religion

Inventing Hindu supremacy

Vinayak Savarkar ridiculed Gandhi, preaching that anti-Muslim violence was the only means to unite India into a nation

Mihir Dalal

Person holding a painting of Jesus Christ amid a rubble-strewn landscape with damaged buildings and trees in the background.

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Religion

There was no Jesus

How could a cult leader draw crowds, inspire devotion and die by crucifixion, yet leave no mark in contemporary records?

Gavin Evans

A woman with grey hair lies down, partially covered with a colourful, patterned blanket against a textured wall.

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video

Human rights and justice

Witch hunts persist as a horrifying, deadly reality in pockets of rural India

24 minutes

Marble statue depicting Apollo and Daphne, set against a detailed, ornate ceiling in a classical style room. Daphne is reaching upward with flowing hair.

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video

Art

The overlooked polymath whose theatrical oeuvre made all of Rome a stage

30 minutes

Men are seen in a nondescript office type rooma against sunlight streaming through the window, their hands raised in devotion

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Religion

Indomitable Sufis

Once a centre of Afghan culture, Sufism seems to have disappeared in the maelstrom of war and upheaval. But still it survives

Annika Schmeding

Medieval illustration of a crowned figure, holding a sceptre, wearing a blue cloak over an intricately patterned robe, seated against a parchment background.

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video

Religion

Hear from blasphemes, sceptics and free-thinkers in this ‘tour of medieval unbelief’

52 minutes

Two fashionably dressed women in modern style hijabs descend steps beneath a blue sky

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Religion

Secularism in Iran

Postcolonial intellectuals and Iran’s rulers agree that secularism is just Western imperialism in disguise. They are wrong

Patrick Hassan & Hossein Dabbagh

Ancient bronze statue of a winged figure with raised hand, displaying a humanoid form and detailed feathered wings, set against a dark background.

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video

The ancient world

Meet the absentee gods and nefarious spirits of ancient Mesopotamia

6 minutes

A black and white photo showing a group of men in traditional Middle Eastern attire, with two men seated in the foreground and several standing behind.

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Religion

Praying in shoes

The Sunni movement of Salafism was born at the beginning of the 20th century, with the goal of modelling life on the 7th

Aaron Rock-Singer

Woman with brown hair in a “Jews for Reproductive Freedom” shirt smiling and holding papers and a water bottle at an outdoor event.

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Religion

How Jewish leaders in the US are fighting abortion bans on religious grounds

24 minutes

A person gently caressing a calf’s head, both looking content, in a field during sunset.

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Values and beliefs

How the plight of holy cows is used to radicalise teenagers in small-town India

24 minutes

A man in traditional attire with a colourful beaded headdress and a staff over his shoulder, standing outdoors.

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Spirituality

Trek alongside spiritual pilgrims on a treacherous journey across Pakistan

6 minutes

Vintage black-and-white image of two young children standing outside, a boy wearing a jumper and a girl in a dress. They’re in the middle of explaining religion.

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video

Religion

From God’s shoes to satellites in heaven – children weigh in on religion

8 minutes

A group of men wearing traditional Middle Eastern attire and formal coats gathered outdoors, one man in focus with a fez.

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Nations and empires

The Arab Kingdom

Amid the chaos of the First World War, a new pan-Arab empire was proclaimed. It faltered, but its historical lessons remain

Adam Mestyan

Surreal painting of fantastical creatures engaged in various activities, including playing a musical instrument, riding animals, and interacting with each other.

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Religion

Miracles not magic

It took a tremendous effort to distinguish early Christianity from the finely tuned world of pagan beliefs and rituals

Martha Rampton

Medieval illustration shows a knight kneeling before a monk in a building, receiving a cross-shaped item; a horse stands nearby.

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History

Warfare as mercy and love

The daggers that knights carried to the crusades help us understand why they thought of holy war as an act of love

William Chester Jordan

Woman looking out of a stone building window; clothes drying on a line extend from an upper window above her.

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Thinkers and theories

A philosophy of secrets

Jacques Derrida was fascinated by the figure of the Marrano Jew, whose identity could barely be told even to themselves

Peter Salmon

Painting of a silhouetted figure sitting in front of two windows, with a glowing outline emphasizing their form in a dark room.

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Consciousness and altered states

Stuck with the soul

The idea of the soul is obviously a nonsense, yet its immaterial mysterious nature has deep hooks in the human psyche

David P Barash

A group of bearded men wearing dark clothing and hats, holding long wooden sticks, standing in front of a white building with arched windows.

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Religion

At the Kremlin in 1943

Stalin presented Orthodox leaders with a proposal: the Soviet state that had destroyed their Church would bring it back

Kathryn David

Painting depicting a religious scene with monks climbing a ladder, angels assisting, and demons pulling some monks down.

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History of science

Inventing heaven

For hundreds of years, Christians knew exactly where heaven was: above us and above the stars. Then came the new cosmologists

Stephen Case

A uniformed police officer stands in the foreground, while a young monk in red robes looks out from a window of a concrete building in the background.

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Ethics

The lethal act

The Buddha taught not to kill, yet his followers have at times disobeyed him. Can murderers still be Buddhists?

Martin Kovan

Painting depicting the arrest of Jesus, with soldiers in armour seizing him and a figure holding a lantern. The scene is dramatic and darkly lit.

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Religion

The imperative betrayal

The mystery of why Judas forsook Jesus goes to the heart of Christianity. A newly translated gospel offers a new view

David Brakke