Life

Sleep better and lose weight: the health benefits of abstaining from alcohol
Sleep better and lose weight: the health benefits of abstaining from alcohol

Researchers at the University of Sussex also found that just one dry month led to lower levels of alcohol consumption throughout the year

New recycling process could help your Christmas tree lead a surprising second life
New recycling process could help your Christmas tree lead a surprising second life

It wouldn't be Christmas without a tree, but which is more sustainable – a real tree or a plastic one?

Going to the movies and museums cuts risk of depression
Going to the movies and museums cuts risk of depression

Older people who regularly go to the movies and other cultural events are nearly a third less likely to have depression.

Now and Not Yet: What the Bible says about the Kingdom of God
Now and Not Yet: What the Bible says about the Kingdom of God

Nothing illustrates both the challenge, and the fundamental importance, of developing In-tension-al Faith more than those words 'now' and 'not yet'.

Lovingly liberated: Paul's theology of the cross
Lovingly liberated: Paul's theology of the cross

The story of Jesus, his cross and resurrection, is our own story.

Christmas cards featuring alcohol are reinforcing binge drinking as a social norm, say health experts
Christmas cards featuring alcohol are reinforcing binge drinking as a social norm, say health experts

Christmas cards and birthday cards that make light of drinking are reinforcing negative social attitudes around excessive alcohol consumption, experts warn in the British Medical Journal.

Post-natal depression in dads linked to emotional problems in teenage daughters
Post-natal depression in dads linked to emotional problems in teenage daughters

One in 20 dads was found to have experienced post-natal depression, a condition commonly associated with mothers of newborns

Who were the Magi and why did they come to worship Jesus?
Who were the Magi and why did they come to worship Jesus?

In the Western Christian tradition, they have been given names – Balthasar, king of Chaldea, Caspar, king of Tarshish, and Melchior, king of Nubia. But none of these are original.

Christmas season left Victorian shop workers 'more dead than alive'

Many of our festive traditions – from exchanging cards and pulling crackers to decorating trees – were popularised by the Victorians.

Charles Dickens and the birth of the classic English Christmas dinner
Charles Dickens and the birth of the classic English Christmas dinner

Charles Dickens popularised the traditional, English Christmas in 1843 in his novel A Christmas Carol, when Bob Cratchit and his family sit down on Christmas Day to eat a dinner of goose with mashed potatoes and apple sauce accompanied by sage and onion stuffing and followed by Christmas pudding.

'The Numinous Woman': How a Cornish poet caught the mystery of the Incarnation
'The Numinous Woman': How a Cornish poet caught the mystery of the Incarnation

One of the most intriguing of Christmas poems is not as well known as it should be.

Good news of great joy: Immanuel has come
Good news of great joy: Immanuel has come

I remember my first Santa Claus doubts. How could a fat man get down a skinny chimney, not just at our house, but at the houses of little boys and girls all over the world?

What has Isaiah's Immanuel prophecy got to do with the birth of Jesus?
What has Isaiah's Immanuel prophecy got to do with the birth of Jesus?

What's gone before is a picture of muddle and confusion, fear, politics, war, destruction and hunger. We skip all that and go straight to the nice bit.

The lost message of Christmas: Why we need to read Matthew 1
The lost message of Christmas: Why we need to read Matthew 1

One passage that's never, ever read at the carol service is Matthew 1: 1-17.

Why I don't care about putting on a perfect Christmas
Why I don't care about putting on a perfect Christmas

There is nothing wrong with excelling at hospitality and there is certainly nothing wrong with opening up our lives to share with others in need.

UK scientists are more atheist than the rest of the population
UK scientists are more atheist than the rest of the population

Nearly half of the UK's scientists do not believe in God, researchers have found.