Salman Taseer, Governor of Punjab, was assassinated by one of his guards for speaking out against the death penalty for a Christian woman who allegedly blasphemed Mohammed.   Some Moslem clerics have applauded this assassination.   Aasia Bibi, the woman sentenced to death, had allegedly been in dispute with Muslim women labourers who objected to sharing a bowl of water with her, and it is alleged that personal scores are being settled.   Hers was the only Christian family in the village.  A radical cleric has promised a bounty to anyone who carries out the verdict.

Religious extremism hurts us all.    What can we do?

The church of St Peter in Begur, a small Catalonian town, presents a fascinating glimpse of how the medieval church wielded its power.  The walls of the nave and the whole of the apse were covered in paintings – saints, angels, bishops.    High up on the apse wall behind the altar was an almond-shaped lozenge, a mandala (a Sanskrit word signifying a sacred space) depicting the trinity, but in a form I’d never seen before.  Two men were seated together.  The elder, “God the Father” sported, of course, a long white beard.  The younger, “Jesus the Son”, seated at the Father’s right hand, wore a crown and a chasuble – the priest-king.   Beneath their feet a dove hovered, beak facing down.

Congratulations, BBC.    The four episodes of “The Nativity” on BBC1 were extremely moving.   The actual birth scene succeeded in being both realistic and supernatural.    Linking the precise time of the birth with the actual and visible conjunction of celestial bodies gave the sense that this birth was, indeed, “out of this world.”