A virtue saved from neglect

Hope is the poor relation of faith and charity, its fellow theological virtues, and the Pope’s encyclical Spe Salvi focuses our attention on it once more, emphasising how life-changing it can be. A Dominican theologian here points also to wider implications for the Church...

Patrons of the political arts

The case of David Abrahams has focused attention once more on the way political parties are funded in Britain, and the influence that donations might have on MPs. Here, a major donor to Labour argues that the time has come for benefactors to step aside and let the state take over...

Christ’s protector and ours, too

One of the eight surviving pre-iconoclastic images of Mary is to be found in a museum in Kiev. In her second reflection in our Advent series, Wendy Beckett gazes on a sixth-century icon of the Virgin and Child that reflects the totality of God’s love...

And what of this world?

The Pope’s encyclical on hope provides a moving account of this theological virtue. From an Anglican perspective, writes the Bishop of Durham, it offers a surprising account of purgatory but disappointingly little about the renewal of the earth or the coming of the kingdom...

Putin marches on

The United Russia landslide in parliamentary elections this week, which were effectively a referendum on the president, will allow him to hang on to the reins of power, even though he is barred from standing in next year’s presidential elections...

Sense of justice

A new commission replacing those overseeing racial equality, disability rights and equal opportunities has been given a vast range of tasks, but the real surprise is the reappearance of a language of human rights. Will the divide within its remit cause internal tension within this new super-body?...

Bringing Iran in from the cold

American intelligence reports this week claimed that Iran has stalled on its nuclear programme. President Bush remains unconvinced that the country is no longer a threat. But one alternative that could yet enhance peace in the region is for the West to adopt a more conciliatory approach...

In hope we were saved

This is an edited version of Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Spe Salvi, published in Rome on 30 November...

Not by our merits alone

As Advent continues, this Prayer over the Gifts reflects on our dependence on God and the need for his mercy. Our hope is in his tenderness and his generosity towards us, a generosity made manifest at Christmas. Daniel McCarthy is our guide to the prayer...

Wait, and see

For some people the Christmas story is their only contact with the Gospel.Advent provides, literally, a God-given opportunity to engage with the Christian message in an ever deeper way...

What the turkey ate for Christmas

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