Can a scientist believe in God? Chris Moss, Jesuit priest and astronomer, says yes. From the very beginning, some might say, Chris Moss’ future was ‘in the stars’. Growing up in Preston, the only town in England with its own research observatory, he rubbed shoulders with astronomers before he even [...]

What were the formative years of Jesus like? Is there anything we can really know about what they call “the hidden years”? Could he read and write? What level of education did he have? What languages did he speak? Jim McPolin SJ looks at these questions.

Here Paul Andrews SJ talks about making contact – with people and with God.

In this public lecture, Diarmuid Martin, Coadjutor Archbishop of Dublin, assesses the need for change and renewal in the Church, looking especially at the necessity for the Church to listen and be humble, after the model of the Virgin Mary, mother of the Church.

Donal Dorr, missionary and theologian, takes a fresh look at spirituality, sexuality and globalisation in the light of the Church’s meaning and message.

Here the brothers of the Taizé community offer a series of short meditations on questions of God, the Christian faith and what it means to believe. We all seek a meaningful life. The questions asked here lead on to intimate communion with the mystery of God.

Michael Byrne reflects on his journey from vagueness and doubt towards certainty and faith, and he considers what it means to be a committed Catholic in Ireland today. Kevin O’Higgins SJ responds to Michael’s article.

What do we know of Jesus’ family life? What is to be said of those the Gospels call ‘his brothers and sisters’? Could he have not been married? Did he join the clergy? How did he come in conflict with the priests? James Mc Polin SJ tries answer these questions.

The passion and death of Jesus are moments of high drama and everything that happens has its own significance. Philip Fogarty SJ tries to put us in touch with each of these meanings.

Robert McClory takes some well-known instances of dissenting voices in the Church, from Galileo to John Courtney Murray, and explains how they have helped the Church to see more clearly.

Andrew Pierce and Geraldine Smyth OP edit this tribute to Gabriel Daly OSA. It is a collection of essays on faith and culture by such authors as Enda McDonagh, David Tracy and Johann Baptist Metz.

Alex Wright, Director of SCM Press, calls for theologians and churches to dialogue seriously with contemporary culture in a world where religion and faith are becoming ever more marginal.

Anne Marie Lee, from her experience of working with deprived people, stresses the importance for each of us of the value we attach to human suffering.

Right from Jesus’ first preaching he was in conflict with his fellow townspeople, with the Jewish leaders and was executed by Pilate as a political rebel. Each gospel shows different points of view about Jesus. James Mc Polin SJ explains.

Gail Northgrave gives us some perspectives on the real meaning of Christmas. Her message is: “If you look close enough you’ll see Him smiling at you through your loved ones”.

Dermot Lane invites Christians to deepen their faith by exploring some of the fundamental issues of contemporary theology, such as the religious meaning of experience, the nature of Christian revelation and the place of grace and faith in Christian life.

This excellent book by Hugh Rayment-Pickard is a model of clarity and accessibility. It introduces the key themes, movements and thinkers in theology and religious studies.

We should beware of neglecting the great religious value of our ordinary experience of the world, says Donagh O’Shea OP.

The word ‘saviour’ was a title applied to the gods of the Greek and Roman world but also to kings, philosophers, emperors, physicians and statesmen. James McPolin SJ gives us some idea of what it means to call Jesus ‘the merciful saviour’.

The central movement in Christianity is from death to life. Death is often the spiritual death of guilt, sin, injustice; life is often the liberating joy of doing the right thing. Columban Missionary Fr Shay Cullen sent us this story for Easter 2008.

Philip Fogarty SJ responds to the disappearance of the sense of God’s presence in the secular culture of our day, and he broaches in particular the question of how God can be understood in the context of a world of suffering.

This book by Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, is the first in a series. It is an attempt to give an inspiring account of Jesus. It looks at his baptism, his temptations, his proclamation of the kingdom of God, the sermon on the mount up to when he declares [...]

Carmel Mongey SSC finds a rich vein of knowledge about God’s motherly love for us all in a parable from St Luke’s Gospel and she suggests an Ignatian approach to exploring this text.

Jesus himself prayed in times of emergency and wanted others to pray along with him. His prayer shows him in a very intimate relationship with the one he calls “Abba”, Dada. He urges us to pray in like manner. James McPolin SJ introduces us to Jesus at prayer.

Teresa is bewildered by the suggestion that we should ‘fear God’. Bernard McGuckian SJ explains the background to such a teaching and the richness to its worth.

Eamonn Bredin invites all who wish to be disciples of Christ to look again at the Jesus of the New Testament and at the struggles of those first disciples who saw Jesus die as a criminal on the cross, and then to embark on a journey of re-assessing their own [...]

“We are made to be at home with God. That we are not yet at home is not, in itself, occasion for surprise. For we are travellers, pilgrim people….” This book by Nicholas Lash opens with a critique of Richard Dawkins, goes on to discuss the ‘impossibility of atheism’, distinguish [...]

Philip Fogarty SJ responds to a query about God’s seeming unfairness – specifically about God permitting terrible suffering around the world.

Central to Jesus’s life is his befriending of sinners. This was one of the central criticisms of his behaviour and the cause of much confrontation with the Jews and especially with Scribes and Pharisees. James McPolin draws out what the Gospels tell us.

Fr Peter McVerry SJ pushes us to take a look at Jesus and Christianity through the eyes of the poor, the sick and the marginalised. And this calls for some hard decisions, like, Who do you not want to live beside you?