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Simon Barrow's blog

IS/ISIS and the dark side of modernity

Karen Armstrong, whose new book Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence invites far more subtle understanding of the relationship between faith and fratricide globally, has written a characteristically thoughtful piece on IS/ISIS for The New Statesman magazine: 'Wahhabism to ISIS: how Saudi Arabia exported the main source of global terrorism'.

First Sunday in Advent: God's alternative

Advent, the season of expectation, arrived for us in 2014 on Sunday 30th November.

Different visions of Scotland's future

A public roundtable discussion of 'Scotland: Our Visions and Divisions', chaired by Allan Little (BBC), will take place on Wednesday 19th November, 6:00pm – 7:15pm in the Martin Hall, New College, the University of Edinburgh, EH1 2LX (followed by a reception in the Rainy Hall).

Deadline approaches for arts and culture journalism award

There are now just under two weeks to go for entrants for the first Jan Fairley Award, sponsored by the the National Union of Journalists and supported by The Scotsman newspaper. The deadline is midnight on Sunday 30th November 2014.

The dangerous business of remembering

The online Jesuit journal 'Thinking Faith' has some useful and thought-provoking articles connected with Remembrance and the First World War centenary in its latest issue.

How ought war to be remembered in schools?

'How ought war to be remembered in schools?' is the question David Aldridge asks in the journal Impact, published by the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain. It is well worth reading alongside Ekklesia's report on 'Re-imagining Remembrance' (www.ekklesia.co.uk/research/reimagining_remembrance).

The challenge of remembrance

This year Remembrance Day and the Sunday events associated with it will have an added poignancy because of the marking of the centenary of the First World War and all the discussion and debate that has occasioned.

General Theological Seminary: build reconciliation through justice

The crisis at General Theological Seminary in New York has not only produced important acts of solidarity towards eight fine professors unjustly sacked for their protests about what they have experienced as bullying within the GTS administrative system, it has also begun to spark some wider questions about the future of seminary-style education and mainstream US Protestantism.

Reinstate the faculty unjustly dismissed from General Theological Seminary

The tragic and deplorable situation at General Theological Seminary in New York, USA, where eight loyal faculty members at present stand dismissed for their action in seeking to address "a workplace with a retaliatory and hostile environment", is one which has regrettably sad echoes in other situations in religious bodies I have known over the years.

Imagination: Scotland’s Festival of Ideas at the Glad Café, Glasgow

The Glad Cafe in Shawlands, Glasgow, is hosting two important post-referendum sessions on Sunday 5th October 2014, under the banner of 'Imagination: Scotland’s Festival of Ideas'.