-
Jesus and Marx
My attention was arrested by the title of a book published last year: ‘Living a Marxist Life: Why Marx is a Drug You Should Probably Take’ [1] This continues the mesmeric attraction of Karl Marx that has been renewed, especially since his 200th birthday in 2018. This summer, Yanis Varoufakis the former Greek finance minister, Read more
-
Why you don’t want to be just a New Testament Christian
The Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio – National Gallery, London Foolish disciples After Easter this year I was pulled up short by reading the passage in the Gospel of Luke chapter 24, which we fondly call ‘The Two on the Road to Emmaus’, despite the fact that there were obviously three of them. What caught Read more
-
How to check if you’re a migrant
I think I’m a migrant. Seriously. You might be too. It’s worth checking. The idea was first put into my head by no less than the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. He was addressing a seminar on ‘New Testament metaphors for the church’. The meeting had already considered metaphors like ‘the body of Christ’ Read more
-
Easter 2025
He was six years old, innocently walking down Newtown Avenue in Blackrock, County Dublin. Suddenly he had to ask for his mother’s help because he had seen a graphic horror image – right there in broad daylight. ‘What are they doing to him, Mummy?’ She parried his question with, ‘Well, it’s not a nice thing Read more
-
Blood-thinners
I went to the dentist last week, and discovered that I was obliged to tell him, ‘I’m on blood-thinners’. Since last I saw him, my doctor had put me on blood anti-coagulants. The dentists like to know that sort of thing in case your mouth starts to bleed in the midst of a procedure. It Read more
-
There may have been two St Patricks, and St Brigid might not have existed. But there are no doubts about Jesus
The self-sacrifice of Jesus affects us more than you might think, and more than any saint ever did This year started innocuously enough. But we had scarcely left January before we were dragged through St Brigid’s Day. After being deluged with the reported goodwill for Brigid, I thought it was only right to perform the Read more
the electrician's children 