If we could view Muhammad as we do any other important historical figure we would surely consider him to be one of the greatest geniuses the world has known.

The trouble with a lot of modern theology and a lot of modern thinking about God, is that we think of God a sort of being like ourselves, but bigger and better with likes and dislikes similar to our own.

Even before 9/11 I was gripped by a sense of dread: our lack of criticism about what we were doing in the Middle East - the slagging off of a whole religious tradition.

[T]he family is a school of compassion because it is here that we learn to live with other people. (68)

Religions have always stressed that compassion is not only central to religious life, it is the key to enlightenment and it the true test of spirituality. But there have always have been those who'd rather put easier goals, like doctrine conformity, in place.

When you feel compassion, you dethrone yourself from the centre of the world.

I had failed to make a gift of myself to God.