rituals and ceremonies. We need to listen carefully to the biblical criticism of religion. No book, not even by Marx and his followers, is more scathing of empty religion than the Bible. The prophets of the eighth and seventh century BC were outspoken in their denunciation of the formalism and hypocrisy of Israelite worship. Jesus then applied their critique to the Pharisees of his day: ‘These people … honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me’ (Isaiah 29:13; Mark 7:6). And this