One of things that I love about Brew@2  (which happens every Tuesday in term time) is how seemingly separate strains of conversation oven converge in surprising ways.  This semester we’ve invited anyone who is interested to add a topic of...

I recently had one of my sons come for a visit. He is keen to make sure I take some exercise and so takes me on long, rambling walks all over Bath. I think in his mind it is a...

The third Sunday in January has become designated as World Religion Day.  Resorting to Google I find that this practice started in 1950 with the intention of highlighting the positive spiritual principles that underlie all religions and promoting religious harmony. ...

Eight days after his birth Jesus was named. Luke records: On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived. (Luke 2:21) After...

This blog is an invitation to us all to wake up and see afresh the wonder of Christmas. The landing point of this blog is the following two verses from Psalm 139: 5 You hem me in behind and before,...

I was looking forward to the carol service and nativity play.  I knew it would be a real feel-good event, with proud parents (and grandparents) watching their children dressed up as shepherds, some slightly wobbly angels with tinsel wings and...

In the run up to Christmas (formerly known as Advent) each year there is a survey conducted to find the most popular Christmas Carol. For many years the same carol has occupied the number one, or occasionally the number two,...

In the next week there is going to be an unusual phenomenon in the night sky when the planet Mars goes behind the Moon. This was observed many centuries ago and was one piece of evidence that early astrologers used...

At the end of November 2018, I was standing with a colleague on the South Bank looking across at the Houses of Parliament. We were about to present a paper at sports conference in Lambeth Palace. The lights were on...

Islam did not only recognize religious diversity, but it also encouraged associating with this diversity. In this context, Islam’s theology of al-Taʿāruf (coming into contact with one another) takes a central position, as maybe understood from Q. 49:13, which highlights one...