Public life demands ‘tough’ corporate attributes rather than what it labels ‘soft’ personal ones – like love and gratitude. Simon Barrow argues that the communal cultivation of loving relation is needed to help redirect the official anonymity of the social order.

Armed Forces Day will be celebrated in the UK for the first time on 27 June 2009. Savi Hensman asks whether the government's rhetoric is matched by reality.

Talmudic study opens the door to an understanding of obedience that does not crush the enquiring mind, says Giles Fraser. The text of Scripture, rightly understood, both questions us and affirms our questioning.

As the political fallout from recent scandals continues, many are in favour of change, says Simon Barrow. But they do not necessarily want this change to make any real difference.

The bailout of the banks has left old assumptions about public finances behind. It's time to decide what our priorities are and look around for the money to fund them, says Jonathan Bartley

Try to imagine a world in which only things acceptable to pure reason are deemed legitimate, suggests Giles Fraser. It would be to imagine the most desperately impoverished cultural and emotional (let alone spiritual) desert.

Often Christians behave as if their central convictions about God has little practical bearing on the world and its problems, says Simon Barrow. On the contrary, being engaged by the Trinitarian mystery of God is central to facing up to the world's lesions with realism and hope.

Churches could have a vital role to play in rejuvenating democracy, says Jonathan Bartley. But it needs to be through a faith-engagement with politics based on openness and change.

Few words are bandied about with such casual abandon as “liberal”, says Giles Fraser. It can stand for the liberality and generosity vital to any outlook, but it can also mean an exulting of individualism and a damaging denial of inherited wisdom.

Dismissing those who want to reform faith schools as 'useful idiots' for a 'secularist conspiracy' misrepresents the facts, feeds absolutism and undermines sensible debate, say Simon Barrow & Jonathan Bartley. It also shows how weak the anti-reform case really is.

The Church of England has at last set out what is means by a "Christian ethos" in schooling, says Jonathan Bartley. Its espoused values are very positive. So now is the time to end discrimination in schools run by the church but funded by the general taxpayer.

The furore about MP’s expenses has temporarily overshadowed all other political issues, says Simon Barrow. But it is perhaps better seen as a symptom of a much wider disconnect between governors and governed.

The Anglican Consultative Council has been meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, writes Savi Hensman. But when will Christians really learn the harsh lessons about how hatred and homophobia are inimical to the Gospel?

The grim situation in Sri Lanka shows the hazards of extreme ethnic nationalism, says Savi Hensman. In today’s world, many people – whether they regard themselves as atheists, agnostics or religious believers – in reality put their ‘nation’ first, often symbolised by a flag.

Some traditional loyalties bind us to dominant economic, political, social and religious systems, says Simon Barrow. The Gospel of Jesus turns such commitments upside down.