Sacred mysteries - Christopher Howse

'I spent a night of Gothick horror in Mexico last week, shut up in the mouldering remains of an old monastery in the hands of an unknown cult.'

Some churches in Britain still preserve pairs of tongs which wardens once used to remove quarrelsome dogs. Bishops used to wear mitres on top of wigs. Some Jews wear a key as part of their belts to avoid Sabbath prohibitions on carrying things. Until 1968 Catholics ate no meat on Fridays.

Man is a ritual animal, and the religious life of mankind is mixed up in the strange customs and habits of every day.

In Sacred Mysteries, Christopher Howse explores the human face of religion. Collecting 90 of the best of his Saturday columns from The Daily Telegraph, he recounts strange lives, finds chickens kept in church, plumbs prayer, examines rites of passage and attempts to understand Islam.