Lower Than the Angels by Diarmaid MacCulloch review – sex and the church
A superb history of Christianity’s 2,000-year relationship with our animal instincts
Rapture by Emily Maguire review – tale of medieval female pope feels fresh and intimate
This sensual account of a woman seeking knowledge and God in a man’s world brings us close to matters of faith and the body
My week at Kanye’s: John Safran on his time squatting in the rapper’s mansion
The Jewish Australian comedian-journalist spent a week living in one of West’s houses in Los Angeles. This is what he learned
American author Joy Williams: ‘The comfy story has got to change’
The novelist and short story writer on her new book about Azrael, the angel of death, her encounters with Raymond Carver and Richard Yates, and why fiction should be uncanny
Heinz-Peter King obituary
Other lives: Lecturer and historian at St Andrews University who was an expert on the Cistercian Order
Pope Francis to publish Hope, the first memoir from a sitting pontiff
Due out in January, the book deals with ‘some of the crucial moments of his papacy and some of the most controversial questions of our present times’
Muslims Don’t Matter by Sayeeda Warsi review – a stinging rebuke to former colleagues
Islamophobia is rife, says the former cabinet minister, with Conservative hypocrisy and inaction partly to blame
Canberra Liberal apologises for writing book that paints rosy colonisation picture and skips frontier wars
One exercise in History of Australia, a student workbook and teaching manual, asks pupils to discuss how Aboriginal people were ‘blessed’ by the British coming
Rare and ornate 14th-century Bible sells at auction for £5.3m
New owners of Shem Tov Bible, which has survived countless wars and upheavals, plan to put it on public display
‘I thought of the church as a friend and it slapped me in the face’: historian Diarmaid MacCulloch on the Church of England’s hypocrisy
The award-winning author, ecclesiastical historian and church-goer on his incendiary new book about sex and the church, challenging centuries of self-serving homophobia, fakery and abuse. He is primed for the backlash…
Philosophy professor Jeffrey J Kripal: ‘Thinking about a UFO as some kind of extraterrestrial spaceship is naive’
The academic and author draws on quantum mechanics, English romantic philosophy and mysticism to explore a new theory of mind that embraces the paranormal
‘In Britain, we are still astonishingly ignorant’: the hidden story of how ancient India shaped the west
The flow of knowledge from India to Europe on everything from maths to astronomy has gone unacknowledged by historians
Young Hawke by David Day review – a gritty, disturbing addition to former prime minister’s story
The childhood roots of Bob Hawke’s adult bad behaviour are carefully examined in this biography of the often lionised figure
Concerning the Future of Souls: 99 Stories of Azrael by Joy Williams review – brilliantly deadpan
A master of the short story explores mortality and beyond, through these funny, boundlessly intelligent visions of the angel of death
Pope Francis says future priests should read poetry and fiction
The pontiff argues it is dangerous to write off literature as ‘a minor art’ as it offers an antidote to our ‘obsession with screens’ and nurtures human sympathy