how to believe

• Nick Spencer: Machiavelli’s The Prince

• Machiavelli’s The Prince, part 1: the challenge of power

  Nick Spencer: How to believe: The first of a series examining the great political tract of the Italian Renaissance asks: how do we utilise power to do good while utilising evil to keep power? 79 comments

  • Machiavelli’s The Prince, part two: humanism and the lessons of history
  • Machiavelli’s The Prince, part three: the personal in the political
  • Machiavelli’s The Prince, part four: benevolence to complement brutality
  • Machiavelli’s The Prince, part five: reversing the virtues
  • Machiavelli’s The Prince, part 6: was Machiavelli an atheist?
  • Machiavelli’s The Prince, part 7: the two sides of human nature
  • Machiavelli’s The Prince, part 8: a lingering love of justice

• Tina Beattie: Thomas Aquinas

• Thomas Aquinas, part 1: rediscovering a father of modernity

  Tina Beattie: How to believe: Thomas Aquinas was the greatest philosopher of the Christian middle ages. So what can he teach us that we have forgotten? 470 comments

  • Thomas Aquinas, part 2: the mind as soul
  • Thomas Aquinas, part 3: scripture, reason and the being of God
  • Thomas Aquinas, part 4: how did the world begin?
  • Thomas Aquinas, part 5: what does it mean to be human?
  • Thomas Aquinas, part 6: natural law
  • Thomas Aquinas, part 7: the question of evil
  • Thomas Aquinas, part 8: Thomas for today

• Jessica Martin: John Milton

• John Milton, part 1: a puzzling epic of heaven and hell

  Jessica Martin: How to believe: The first of a new series on John Milton’s epic Christian poem, Paradise Lost 435 comments

  • John Milton, part 2: marrying the epic with the sacred
  • John Milton, part 3: does Paradise Lost really attempt to justify God’s ways?
  • John Milton, part 4: the language of a universal hubbub wild
  • John Milton, part 5: the devil’s best lines
  • John Milton, part 6: of course the poet can’t justify God
  • John Milton, part 7: Adam, Eve and partnership
  • John Milton, part 8: Adam and Eve find in loss a new paradise glimpsed

• Giles Fraser: Isaiah Berlin

• Isaiah Berlin, part 1: what is liberalism?

  Giles Fraser: How to believe: Ann Coulter’s sustained attack on liberalism as a leftwing philosophy demonstrates a confusion about its political origins 189 comments

  • Isaiah Berlin, part 2: what is ‘good’ freedom?
  • Isaiah Berlin, part 3: the anti-liberalism of the ‘big society’
  • Isaiah Berlin, part 4: Liberalism’s flawed freedom

• Nick Spencer: the political Bible

• The political Bible, part 1: A foundation for British attitudes

  Nick Spencer: The Bible has a discomfiting tendency to cut across our natural political categories in a profoundly complex manner 530 comments

  • The political Bible, part 2: justice. When is a king not a king?
  • The political Bible, part 3: how Britain came to accept democracy
  • The political Bible, part 4: toleration
  • The political Bible, part 5: equality
  • The political Bible, part 6: welfare
  • The political Bible, part 7: nationhood
  • The political Bible, part 8: freedom and order

• Mark Vernon: Carl Jung

• Carl Jung, part 1: Taking inner life seriously

  Mark Vernon: Achieving the right balance between what Jung called the ego and self is key to his theory of personality development 348 comments

  • Carl Jung, part 2: A troubled relationship with Freud – and the Nazis
  • Carl Jung, part 3: Encountering the unconscious
  • Carl Jung, part 4: Do archetypes exist?
  • Carl Jung, part 5: Psychological types
  • Carl Jung, part 6: Synchronicity
  • Carl Jung, part 7: The power of acceptance
  • Carl Jung, part 8: Religion and the search for meaning

• Peter Thompson: Karl Marx

• Karl Marx, part 1: Religion, the wrong answer to the right question

  Peter Thompson: Marx thought that to understand religion correctly would allow one to understand the whole of human history 561 comments

  • Karl Marx, part 2: How Marxism came to dominate socialist thinking
  • Karl Marx, part 3: Men make their own history
  • Karl Marx, part 4: ‘Workers of the world, unite!’
  • Karl Marx, part 5: The problem of power
  • Karl Marx, part 6: The economics of power
  • Karl Marx, part 7: The psychology of alienation
  • Karl Marx, part 8: Modernity and the privatisation of hope

• Clare Carlisle: Spinoza

• Spinoza, part 1: Philosophy as a way of life

  Clare Carlisle: For this 17th century outsider, philosophy is like a spiritual practice, whose goal is happiness and liberation
  385 comments

  • Spinoza, part 2: Miracles and God’s will
  • Spinoza, part 3: What God is not
  • Spinoza, part 4: All there is, is God
  • Spinoza, part 5: On human nature
  • Spinoza, part 6: Understanding the emotions
  • Spinoza, part 7: On the ethics of the self
  • Spinoza, part 8: Reading the Ethics

• Jane Williams: The Book of Genesis

• The Book of Genesis, part 1: God created

  Jane Williams: Genesis looks at what the culture around it believes about the nature of the material world, and disagrees with it profoundly 523 comments

  • The Book of Genesis, part 2: In the beginning
  • The Book of Genesis, part 3: Creation – and afterwards
  • The Book of Genesis, part 4: The problem and the answer
  • The Book of Genesis, part 5: Genesis and the imagination
  • The Book of Genesis, part 6: Patriarchs and others
  • The Book of Genesis, part 7: The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
  • The Book of Genesis, part 8: Why this story?

• Mark Vernon: William James

• William James, part 1: A religious man for our times

  Mark Vernon: Existentially troubled and intellectually brilliant, James is still well worth reading for matters of truth, pluralism and God 184 comments

  • William James, part 2: The scientific study of religion
  • William James, part 3: On original sin
  • William James, part 4: The psychology of conversion
  • William James, part 5: Saintliness
  • William James, part 6: Mystical states
  • William James, part 7: Agnosticism and the will to believe
  • William James part 8: Agnosticism and pragmatic pluralism

• Alan Wilson: The Book of Common Prayer

• The Book of Common Prayer, part 1: An English ragbag

  Alan Wilson: The Book of Common Prayer has shaped English spirituality for nearly 450 years. What are its enduring qualities? 12 comments

  • The Book of Common Prayer, part 2: Wetting baby’s head
  • The Book of Common Prayer, part 3: An excellent mystery of coupling
  • The Book of Common Prayer, part 4: In the midst of life
  • The Book of Common Prayer, part 5: The importance of evensong
  • The Book of Common Prayer, part 6: Fencing the table
  • The Book of Common Prayer, part 7: The joy of being a miserable sinner
  • The Book of Common Prayer, part 8: Liturgy and society

• Alexander Goldberg: The Book of Job

• The Book of Job, part 1: Who was Job? Why does he matter?

  Alexander Goldberg: The Book of Job is the first document in history to take seriously the question of why really bad things happen to really good people 513 comments

  • The Book of Job, part 2: Theodicy on the street
  • The Book of Job, part 3: Balaam, Yithro, and Job
  • The Book of Job, part 4: Theodicy on ‘Planet Auschwitz’
  • The Book of Job, part 5: Job’s wife – did she bless or curse?
  • The Book of Job, part 6: Satan
  • The Book of Job, part 7: A life for a life?
  • The Book of Job, part 8: Where is the God of history today?

• Sarah Bakewell: Montaigne, philosopher of life

• Montaigne, philosopher of life, part 1: How to live

  Sarah Bakewell: How to believe: What is it to be a human being? Why do I behave as I do? Montaigne did not flinch from these essential questions 86 comments

  • Montaigne, philosopher of life, part 2: Learning not to be afraid
  • Montaigne, philosopher of life, part 3: Believer and doubter
  • Montaigne, philosopher of life, part 4: Borrowing the cat’s point of view
  • Montaigne, philosopher of life, part 5: Humanity, cruelty and fellow-feeling
  • Montaigne, philosopher of life, part 6: The moment is everything
  • Montaigne, philosopher of life, part 7: What can we learn from Montaigne?

• Clare Carlisle: Kierkegaard’s world

• Kierkegaard’s world, part 1: What does it mean to exist?

  Clare Carlisle: For Kierkegaard, the most pressing question for each person is the meaning of his or her own existence 237 comments

  • Kierkegaard’s world, part 2: Truth of knowledge and truth of life
  • Kierkegaard’s world, part 3: The story of Abraham and Isaac
  • Kierkegaard’s world, part 4: ‘The essentially human is passion’
  • Kierkegaard’s world, part 5: The task of becoming a Christian
  • Kierkegaard’s world, part 6: On learning to suffer
  • Kierkegaard’s world, part 7: Spiritlessness
  • Kierkegaard’s world part 8: God and possibility

• Giles Fraser: Investigating Wittgenstein

• Investigating Wittgenstein, part 1: Falling in love

  Giles Fraser: Wittgenstein is a philosopher whom people find it easy to get obsessed with. What’s the secret of his attraction? 303 comments

  • Investigating Wittgenstein, part 2: Meaning is use
  • Investigating Wittgenstein, part 3: Religion as a language game
  • Investigating Wittgenstein, part 4: Private language
  • Investigating Wittgenstein, part 5: Other selves
  • Investigating Wittgenstein, part 6: What see’st thou else?
  • Investigating Wittgenstein, part 7: Abandoning the lost battle

• Franklin Lewis: Rumi’s Masnavi

• Rumi’s Masnavi, part 1: World figure or new age fad?

  Franklin Lewis: Rumi’s influence has long been felt throughout the Muslim world. Will his recent success in the west prove as long lasting? 36 comments

  • Rumi’s Masnavi, part 2: Under the surface
  • Rumi’s Masnavi, part 3: Knowledge and certainty
  • Rumi’s Masnavi, part 4: Rumi’s Sufism
  • Rumi’s Masnavi, part 5: On love
  • Rumi’s Masnavi, part 6: Unity of being
  • Rumi’s Masnavi, part 7: God’s grace
  • Rumi’s Masnavi, part 8: Echoes of celestial music

• Paul Helm: On Calvin

• On Calvin, part 1: Global reach

  Paul Helm: Calvin’s influence is still being felt today. But the reformer was a complex man, with a dark side 10 comments

  • On Calvin, part 2: A practical theology
  • On Calvin, part 3: Knowledge of God and of ourselves
  • On Calvin, part 4: Word and spirit
  • On Calvin, part 5: Predestination
  • On Calvin, part 6: The world
  • On Calvin, part 7: Heresy and death
  • On Calvin, part 8: The legacy

• Mark Vernon: Plato’s Dialogues

• Plato’s Dialogues, part 1: Why Plato?

  Mark Vernon: Plato increasingly looks not just like a generator of footnotes, but a philosopher whose time is coming again 118 comments

  • Plato’s Dialogues, part 2: Who was Plato’s Socrates?
  • Plato’s dialogues, part 3: Philosophy as a way of life
  • Plato’s Dialogues, part 4: What do you love?
  • Plato’s Dialogues, part 5: Love and the perception of forms
  • Plato’s Dialogues, part 6: The philosophical school
    
  • Plato’s Dialogues, part 7: Plato and Christianity
  • Plato’s Dialogues, part 8: A man for all seasons

• Simon Critchley: Heidegger’s Being and Time

• Being and Time, part 1: Why Heidegger matters

  Simon Critchley: The most important continental philosopher of the last century was also a Nazi. How did he get there? What can we learn from him? 221 comments

  • Being and Time, part 2: On ‘mineness’
  • Being and Time, part 3: Being-in-the-world
  • Being and Time, part 4: Thrown into this world
  • Being and Time, part 5: Anxiety
  • Being and Time part 6: Death
  • Being and Time, part 7: Conscience
  • Being and Time, part 8: Temporality

• Mary Midgley: Hobbes’s Leviathan

• Hobbes’s Leviathan, part 1: Strange selves

  Mary Midgley: How to believe: Thomas Hobbes invented, in Leviathan, the modern idea of the individual. It has been hugely politically liberating. But is it realistic? 69 comments

  • Hobbes’s Leviathan, Part 2: Freedom and Desolation
  • Hobbes’s Leviathan, Part 3: What is selfishness?
  • Hobbes’s Leviathan, part 4: Selling total freedom
  • Hobbes’s Leviathan, part 5: The end of individualism
  • Hobbes’s Leviathan, part 6: Responses to readers
  • Hobbes’s Leviathan, part 7: His idea of war
  • Hobbes, part 8: Can we Ride the Leviathan?

• Julian Baggini: Hume on religion

• Hume on religion, part 1: The agnostic philosopher

  Julian Baggini: The most pressing and telling critiques of religion not only cannot, but should not, attempt to deliver any fatal blows 139 comments

  • Hume on religion, part 2: Faith or reason
  • Hume on religion, part 3: How he skewered intelligent design
  • Hume on religion: response to comments
  • Hume on religion, part 4: The limits of scepticism
  • Hume on religion, part 5: Reason to be cautious
  • Hume on religion, part 6: True religion looks a lot like false
  • Hume on religion, part 7: Soul-searching
  • Hume on Religion: response to comments
  • Hume on religion, part 8: What did he believe?

• Jane Williams: Acts of the Apostles

• Acts of the Apostles, part 1: A band of brothers

  Jane Williams: Acts tells the story of a disparate group of men who, against the odds, came to spearhead an international movement 53 comments

  • Acts of the Apostles, part 2: Who is Luke?
  • Acts of the Apostles, part 3: An ideal church?
  • Acts of the Apostles, part 4: The story of Paul
  • Acts of the Apostles: Response to comments
  • Acts of the Apostles, part 5: Christianity on the road
  • Acts of the Apostles, part 6: The gentile mission
  • Acts of the Apostles: Response to comments
  • Acts of the Apostles, part 7: The Acts of the Holy Spirit
  • Acts of the Apostles, part 8: Echoing down the ages

• Giles Fraser: On the Genealogy of Morals

• On the Genealogy of Morals part 1: Meet Dr Nietzsche

  Giles Fraser: Nietzsche thought religion in general, and Christianity in particular, was a corruption of the human spirit 88 comments

  • Meet Dr Nietzsche: Response to comments
  • On the Genealogy of Morals part 2: The slave morality
  • On the Genealogy of Morals, part 3: The birth of the übermensch
  • On the Genealogy of Morals, part 4: Is Christianity cowardly?
  • On the Genealogy of Morals, part 5: Breaking the cycle of conflict
  • On the Genealogy of Morals, part 6: Superman goes mad in solitude
  • On the Genealogy of Morals, part 7: Nietzsche contra dogma

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