Illustration inspired by Goethe’s Faust I’ve always preferred my devils civilised. Not the horned livestock of Sunday-school murals, nor the pantomime villain with a pitchfork and a contract written in sulphur. Those devils are easy to spot, which is why they’re mostly harmless. The devil that troubles me — the one who lingers — is … Continue reading The Smiling Corroder
Tag: Religion
The Legion in the Swine: A Short Sermon on Empty Souls and Borrowed Flesh
Some passages in Scripture read like thunder: sharp crack, sudden light, then a silence in which something ancient vibrates in the bones. The story of the Gadarene demoniac is one of them. A naked man shrieking among the tombs; chains snapped like wet wool; a village too afraid to bury its dead without one eye … Continue reading The Legion in the Swine: A Short Sermon on Empty Souls and Borrowed Flesh
The Cry from the Cross
The question drifted across my day like an unexpected visitor — not hostile, not foolish, just curious: ‘If Jesus is God, then who was He talking to on the cross?’ It’s not the first time I’ve been asked it. In fact, it seems to surface every few months, usually in the same tone: part intrigue, … Continue reading The Cry from the Cross
The Christmas Stamp Scandal
Image: © Royal Mail. Used for commentary/critique. —or— How the Holy Family Became Too Brown for Britain There’s nothing more British than a Christmas stamp scandal. Every year, the nation that once ruled half the world now works itself into a moral froth over an adhesive square worth a pound twenty-five. It’s as though we … Continue reading The Christmas Stamp Scandal
Christmastown in the Third Heaven: A Pilgrim’s Progress Through Pastel Nonsense
Christmas seems to fly around quicker as I get older, and I’ve had this little belter in draft for a while now. And there are moments in the modern Church when I feel that the early Reformers may have burned the wrong books. Luther fretted over indulgences; Calvin worried about predestination; Cranmer toyed with liturgies. … Continue reading Christmastown in the Third Heaven: A Pilgrim’s Progress Through Pastel Nonsense
Wording 