Just Seen
Media, issues and events in the spotlight - Past Topics 2
More Equal Than Others
- The difficulty we have in agreeing shared values means the wealthiest and the poorest grow further apart. Inequality has become a fashionable topic again after years of neglect. However, like discussion of immigration,
The Clash Of Personalities
- Extroverts and introverts together give groups balance and harmony. Why then does the western world increasingly favour one type over the other? In today’s debate about identity and the many forms it may take,
In praise Of Understatement
- A gem of a Polish film affords us the space to reflect on life and faith without being told what to think. To visit the cinema today to find something to watch is to subject yourself either to a nerve-shredding,
Educating Character
- If good character leads to better life chances, how do we instil it in schools? Developing character is one of the core purposes of education according to the progressive think tank Demos in its report Character Nation.
On being Bored
- Who is brave enough to let the boredom they feel speak to them rather than trying to suppress it? Those who do may just be the recipients of a rich spiritual encounter
The Child With The man In His Eyes
- This classic of the cinema is a paean to the beauty of growing up and the idle and aimless hours which make us who we are. Any review of the film Boyhood is likely to lapse into numbing cliché,
The Killing Fields
- Ethnic conflict is something we know little about, cocooned in politically stable countries. Does it matter that we don't? Remember Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur? If so, this puts you in the one half of the British population that does.
The Shadow
- It's official: Britons don't talk about death. If only we knew how to co-opt it into ordinary life. We have an edgy relationship with dying; as Woody Allen once said: ‘I’m not afraid of death,
What Do We Mean By Luck?
- Both society and the Church are uneasy talking about the role of luck in life. More honesty about its effects might help us address the injustices about which God cares.
The Hour Of darkness
- How do we express our morality in the ferment of war and bear witness to God? A favourite military aphorism, that no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy, implies the difficulty we have in controlling the outcome of conflict.