There’s a certain admirable honesty in those rebellious souls who turn away from religion entirely: the preacher’s daughter who gets a lip piercing and declares herself polyamorous, and libertarian ...

When he was a small boy, Diarmaid MacCulloch's parents used to drive him round historic churches. Little did they know that they had created a monster, with the history of the Christian Church ...

There's a whole world under the surface and only Ron has any idea about it. And sometimes the two worlds collide, and sometimes they don't. Ron holds them at arm's length from each other. Watch every ...

Listen to more stories on the Noa app. Over many centuries, interpretations of the Bible have led kings and elected leaders alike to, among other things, set prohibitions on divorce, criminalize ...

In “Lower Than the Angels,” the historian Diarmaid MacCulloch traces two millenniums of libidinal frustration. An 18th-century painting depicts the resurrected ...

Slate receives a commission when you purchase items using the links on this page. Thank you for your support. Lower Than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity—the kind of hefty tome inevitably ...

Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity. By Diarmaid MacCulloch. Allen Lane; 688 pages; £35. To be published in America by Viking in April 2025; $40 The worry was the Virgin Mary’s ...