TMO Tags: church and state
Religion for Atheists – Alain de Botton Interview
Tuesday, June 12th, 2012When religion and atheisim collide, at least in the columns of most newspapers and magazines, the arguments usually boil down to the essentials of faith vs reason; to whether religious belief has a place in secular society; to the supposed intolerance of the ‘new atheism’ or to whether atheism is in itself merely a sophisticated [...]
The Ryan Report into Child-Abuse: If I were a good man and a priest I would leave the church now.
Friday, May 1st, 2009The Ryan Report into the abuse of children in Irish schools run by Roman Catholic religious organisations is a sobering document. Its contents are so shocking that it takes a certain act of will to believe in its findings. Reports of sexual violence of every conceivable kind co-exist with descriptions of systematic or casual brutality [...]
Who Killed Roberto Calvi
Wednesday, August 1st, 2007In July of 1982, just a month after the discovery of his body – hanging from some scaffolding under Blackfriars bridge – a London inquest ruled that Italian Banker Roberto Calvi had committed suicide. It was a verdict that raised eyebrows in England, and provoked disbelief in Italy. Calvi, known as ‘God’s Banker’ because of [...]
Balancing the Renaissance – Tim Parks on Medici Money
Thursday, February 1st, 2007Banking, something we take for granted, was a relatively new industry in the 15th Century when the Medici family made their fortune from it. Relatively new, and perilously close to the mortal sin of usury. Tim Parks, the noted english novelist, commentator, and literary critic, in Medici Money. Banking, Metaphysics and Art in Fifteenth Century [...]
Cosa Nostra – rebranding the Mafia.
Wednesday, June 1st, 2005“The mafia, in the strict sense of Cosa Nostra, the hierarchical criminal organization based in Sicily, does not ‘run Italy’ as you sometimes hear people rather glibly say,” explains John Dickie, senior lecturer in Italian at the University of London, and author of Cosa Nostra – a history of the Sicilian Mafia. It’s in response [...]
Fundamentalism by Malise Ruthven – A review
Sunday, May 1st, 2005Here, Ruthven begins by explaining the original context in which the term ‘fundamentalism’ was used, that of American Protestantism, and continues to analyze a number of religious movements around the world using the same frame of reference. He explains that Fundamentalism can initially be understood as “tradition made self-aware and consequently defensive”. In this argument, [...]
