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A llama’s not just for Christmas
Abigail Frymann
Ethical gifts from online charity catalogues are proving increasingly popular this Christmas, with nearly half of all respondents to a recent Tablet survey saying they plan buy everything from latrines to textbooks for the developing world as a way of marking the feast
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Church in the World
‘Misleading’ theologian condemned
Belgium
Discovery could avert clash with university | | Rome
Russian Orthodox leader meets Pope | Spain
Christian group forces closure of abortion clinic | | United States
Colouring book gives child-abuse warning | Zimbabwe
Fuel shortages bring pastoral work to a halt | |
Featured Articles
Softly, softly
Gerald O’Collins
A teaching document published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith yesterday provides a seasonal wake-up call to evangelise. But it maintains a more conciliatory tone than its ‘One True Church’ document issued last July that upset leaders of other Churches
Kabul at the crossroads
Raymond Whitaker
Gordon Brown’s new aid package for Afghanistan is a rejection of a ‘muddling through’ strategy. And as our correspondent discovered, it’s a much needed policy. Unemployment is high, money has been squandered, and the Taliban is resurgent Converted by the pen
Robert Harvey
Newly published letters between a deeply devout poet, the Marchesa Maria Curtopassi, and one of Italy’s leading anticlerical intellectuals, Benedetto Croce, reveal the sincerity of his acceptance of the existence of God. The surprising result has been a message of reconciliation from the Vatican 
In God they trust
Gerard Baker
Religion continues to play an integral part in American politics. But, as the Mormon candidate Mitt Romney is finding out, it increasingly has to be the ‘right’ sort of religion
We are what we build
John Merivale
The best design is the embodiment of our beliefs, from our notion of aesthetics to Christian ethos. And a new church building or religious house is a way for faith to engage the culture in which it finds itself. According to one architect, the nuns of Stanbrook have managed it, but others haven’t
Transformed by God’s light
Mary, full of Grace III
Sr Wendy Beckett
A friend’s skilful detective work enabled Wendy Beckett to track down the most elusive pre-iconoclastic icons of Mary in Rome. Among them is a Madonna and Child finally brought to light after being hidden under later layers of paint
At the heart of hope
D. Vincent Twomey
One of Benedict XVI’s former students and a current member of the influential Ratzinger-Schülerkreis analyses the Pope’s second encyclical,
Spe Salvi, which he argues highlights the most urgent need of our day
Hymns for a thousand tongues
Andrew Bradstock
‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ is one of our most popular carols and has even inspired the design of this year’s Christmas stamps. Its composer, Charles Wesley, born 300 years ago this month, is one of the most celebrated hymn writers in the English language, yet he remains in the shadow of his brother, John
Fulfilling his plan
Listen to the Word
Daniel McCarthy
The Prayer over the Gifts for the third week in Advent recalls God’s
gift of himself to us in the Incarnation, as Daniel McCarthy explains. The mystery hidden for generations is at last revealed On the threshold
Parish Practice
Peter McGrail
All transitions take time, and Advent is a period of transition par excellence.
It is possible to embrace the uncertainties and unresolved issues typical of such times and recognise them in the season’s liturgies
Laid down in Bethlehem
From the Vineyard
N. O'Phile
News from Britain and Ireland Hoon undecided on whether to allow free vote on embryo bill More home news Book Reviews New battle for the soul of Europe
God’s Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe’s religious crisis
Philip Jenkins
Reviewed by Christian W. Troll
For the rest of this week's book reviews visit The Tablet Bookshop.
© The Tablet Publishing Company
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