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PHOTO: ALAMY/AP Ethiopian New Year is a major religious event in the capital, Addis Ababa 24 COLUMN Christopher Howse’s Notebook ‘I find the King’s head on the new first-class stamps a little reminiscent of Franco’s’ / 5 REGULARS Word from the Cloisters 15 Puzzles 15 Letters 16 The Living Spirit 17 CONTENTS 21 SEPTEMBER 2024 // VOL. 278 NO. 9570 FEATURES 4 / In thrall to the ancients Pope Francis has said that he would like to visit China, but what if he and China’s leader met? What does Xi Jinping believe in? / BY MICHAEL SHERIDAN 6 / Truly our sister How has the surge in the number of people making pilgrimages affected England’s leading Marian shrine? / BY MARGARET HEBBLETHWAITE 8 / The Tablet Interview: Diarmaid MacCulloch The historian and broadcaster finds that the more he writes about the Church of England, the more he is drawn back to it / BY PETER STANFORD 10 / Reasons of the heart Why believe in God? Making sense of religious faith requires richer resources than can be supplied by the ‘analytic’ approach / BY JOHN COTTINGHAM 12 / ‘The worst thing that can happen …’ Millions of women, mostly in Africa, experience appalling suffering and shame due to a devastating but preventable medical condition / BY SARAH MAC DONALD 13 / Too soon to prune Many of the tasks that gardening traditionalists might be ticking off their autumn to-do list can, in fact, wait / BY ISABEL LLOYD NEWS 24 / The Church in the World / News briefing 25 / Baghdad patriarch reports five bishops to the Pope 27 / View from Rome 28 / News from Britain and Ireland / News briefing 29 / Eucharist the ‘fount and source of evangelisation’ COVER: STEPHEN REID ARTS / PAGE 18 Music Sing Inside ALEXANDRA COGHLAN Theatre Show & Tell MARK LAWSON Exhibition Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers JOANNA MOORHEAD Cinema Sugarcane ISABELLE GREY BOOKS / PAGE 21 Patrick Hudson The Revelation of Ireland: 1995-2020 DIARMAID FERRITER Ben Philipps The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading SAM LEITH Chris Nancollas Speed reading on AI Christopher Jamison There Are Rivers in the Sky ELIF SHAFAK Elena Curti A Church Near You in Wales: An Introduction to Medieval Welsh Churches DENIS DUNSTONE For more features, news, analysis and comment, visit www.thetablet.co.uk 21 SEPTEMBER 2024 | THE TABLET | 3

PHOTO: ALAMY/AP

Ethiopian New Year is a major religious event in the capital, Addis Ababa 24

COLUMN

Christopher Howse’s Notebook ‘I find the King’s head on the new first-class stamps a little reminiscent of Franco’s’ / 5

REGULARS Word from the Cloisters 15 Puzzles 15 Letters 16 The Living Spirit 17

CONTENTS 21 SEPTEMBER 2024 // VOL. 278 NO. 9570

FEATURES

4 / In thrall to the ancients Pope Francis has said that he would like to visit China, but what if he and China’s leader met? What does Xi Jinping believe in? / BY MICHAEL SHERIDAN

6 / Truly our sister

How has the surge in the number of people making pilgrimages affected England’s leading Marian shrine? / BY MARGARET HEBBLETHWAITE 8 / The Tablet Interview: Diarmaid MacCulloch The historian and broadcaster finds that the more he writes about the Church of

England, the more he is drawn back to it / BY PETER STANFORD

10 / Reasons of the heart Why believe in God? Making sense of religious faith requires richer resources than can be supplied by the ‘analytic’ approach / BY JOHN COTTINGHAM

12 / ‘The worst thing that can happen …’ Millions of women, mostly in Africa, experience appalling suffering and shame due to a devastating but preventable medical condition / BY SARAH MAC DONALD

13 / Too soon to prune

Many of the tasks that gardening traditionalists might be ticking off their autumn to-do list can, in fact, wait / BY ISABEL LLOYD

NEWS

24 / The Church in the World / News briefing 25 / Baghdad patriarch reports five bishops to the Pope

27 / View from Rome 28 / News from Britain and Ireland / News briefing 29 / Eucharist the ‘fount and source of evangelisation’

COVER: STEPHEN REID

ARTS / PAGE 18 Music Sing Inside ALEXANDRA COGHLAN Theatre Show & Tell MARK LAWSON Exhibition Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers JOANNA MOORHEAD Cinema Sugarcane ISABELLE GREY

BOOKS / PAGE 21

Patrick Hudson The Revelation of Ireland: 1995-2020 DIARMAID FERRITER Ben Philipps The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading SAM LEITH Chris Nancollas Speed reading on AI Christopher Jamison There Are Rivers in the Sky ELIF SHAFAK Elena Curti A Church Near You in Wales: An Introduction to Medieval Welsh Churches DENIS DUNSTONE

For more features, news, analysis and comment, visit www.thetablet.co.uk

21 SEPTEMBER 2024 | THE TABLET | 3

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