In praise of … Alain de Botton

Editorial: The philosopher's plan for secular temples may be a flop, but there is space for creative conversation about the purpose of religion

Literary heavyweights that need to lighten up

Open thread: As Ivanhoe has its word-count slashed to aid popularity, which books would you like to see cut back in length?

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo cancelled in India

Oscar-nominated thriller withdrawn from release in India after director David Fincher refuses to cut 'unsuitable' sex scenes

Palestinian bookshop owner celebrates Jerusalem residency ruling

Munther Fahmi's campaign to be allowed to stay in his birth city was backed by eminent literary figures

Umberto Eco: ‘It’s culture, not war, that cements European identity’

The writer and semiologist advocates a sexual revolution to make us all 'European'

Alain de Botton’s ‘temples for atheists’ have a foundational flaw

Steve Rose: Aren't believers just as likely to appreciate a shrine to perspective? And doesn't the Large Hadron Collider qualify as a rationalist temple? De Botton's doctrine feels a trifle holy

This could be Carl Jung’s century

Andrew Samuels: The psychoanalyst saw himself as a sort of therapist for western culture, and his diagnosis of its ills resonates today

Megaupload investigation: Kim Dotcom denied bail

File-sharing multimillionaire faces four more weeks in jail in New Zealand after judge warns he could try to flee to Germany

John Milton, part 8: Adam and Eve find in loss a new paradise glimpsed

Jessica Martin: How to believe: In the last in our Paradise Lost series, Adam and Eve, deaf now to God, wander into a world of death, love and distant hope

Rudi van Dantzig obituary

Choreographer of socially aware ballets who became a novelist

The Tailor of Ulm: A Possible History of Communism in the Twentieth Century by Lucio Magri – review

The Italian Communist party comes out surprisingly well in this memoir written by an ousted comrade, writes Donald Sassoon

Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton – review

Alain de Botton's attempt to encourage secular society to steal religion's most fruitful ideas is admirable but ultimately hollow, says Richard Coles

How Birdsong creates a replica of first world war’s tunnels

Expert archaeologist helped drama producers make exact model of underground network

Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari’a Law by Sadakat Kadri – review

Sharia law, often seen as draconian, is shown to have a richly varied and fluid history in this thought‑provoking study, writes Aatish Taseer