COLUMN

5 CL I F FORD LONGLEY

‘Consummation is never discussed. Is this embarrassment, or is there a wider significance?’

9 SARA MAITLAND

‘The poem’s Jesus is a Saxon-style Lord who does not passively accept his doom’

1 2 CHRISTOPHER HOWSE’S

PRESSWATCH ‘Techno is not really my genre, indeed I’d almost prefer listening to Professor Sandel’

1 3 PARISH PRACTICE 1 4 NOTEBOOK 1 5 L ETTERS 1 6 THE L I V I NG S P I R I T 1 7 PUZZLES

S PRING BOOKS

1 8 CHARLES POWELL

Reagan and Thatcher: the difficult relationship Richard Aldous

LYNN ROBERTS The Coward’s Tale Vanessa Gebbie

T IMOTHY BR I TTA I N - CATLIN Freemasonry and the Enlightenment: architecture, symbols and influences James Stevens Curl

ARTS

2 3 F EATURE

Laura Gascoigne Damien Hirst

THEATRE Mark Lawson Misterman

T E L EV I S I ON John Morrish 9/11: The Lost Tapes

C I NEMA Francine Stock Marley

CONTENTS

2 1 APRIL 2 0 1 2

F EATURES

COVER STORY 4 Why religion is good for you Mark Vernon

Recent studies have suggested that people with faith are happier than non-believers. But the reports are missing one key component

6 As the guns fall silent, the people dare to hope

Kari Mariska Pries A fragile peace has been brokered by the Church between El Salvador’s warring gangs

8 On the offensive Peter Jones

It should take more than a tendentious claim of ‘offensiveness’ to justify a ban on free expression, says a leading political philosopher

1 0 Spies need scrutiny, too Conor Gearty

The Government is considering allowing closed court proceedings in terrorism cases, but is it to save the blushes of the security services?

1 1 Holy birds of the heavens Mary Colwell

Swifts will soon be arriving on Britain’s shores, but many of their traditional nesting sites are disappearing

2 7 THE CHURCH I N THE WORLD

Kuwait passes law imposing death penalty for blasphemy 3 0 L ETTER FROM ROME 3 1 NEWS FROM BRITAIN AND I RELAND

Nichols criticises VAT on church renovations

COVER ILLUSTRATION: DANI JIMENEZ

21 April 2012 | THE TABLET | 3