The politics and current affairs magazine The Spectator, has been praised for its artwork of Jesus on the cross on its front cover this week.
The Easter issue is bright yellow, with a black cross and silhouette of Jesus, with a sun behind him. It was created by Morten Morland, who also does political cartoons for The Times.
Andrew Neil, BBC presenter and chairman of The Spectator magazine, commended the design.
The featured article inside is by Luke Coppen, Europe editor of the Catholic News agency, who told Premier: "I think it's a very grabbing cover. What it suggests to me is that we're currently going through this moment of suffering as a nation. So, the image shows Jesus on the cross, but he's also looking towards a sun, a great bright image, which I think suggests the hope of Easter, which will come.
"I think that's quite a good image for where we are at the moment because this is an awful time for so many people. However, we are just about to celebrate Easter, albeit be at home, and the message of Easter is surely that there will be hope to come in days to come."
Speaking about how 'Christian' a cover it is for a non-faith magazine, he said: "The cross speaks across nations and across cultures and also to non-believers as well because it's such a potent image of suffering. I was very pleasantly surprised that it was there on the cover and certainly people are reacting to it quite strongly online which I think is only a good thing and people are really debating these this question of what's going to happen to the faith after after this awful, awful experience."
Luke Coppen
Coppen's article focuses on the current debate about whether the church will be ruined by coronavirus or will experience revival. Many sociologists argue that going to church is simply a habit which, once broken, will not return.
Coppen explained his own view: "I'm a pessimist in the short term...however, I do believe what the great G.K. Chesterton said - that the church often goes through these crises in which it appears that it's going to die out and it always comes back again, and this is a great mystery of the Christian faith.
"The very origins of the faith, as we're thinking about them this week, are doom and despair and that's the very moment in which God intervened in history to change everything. I think, as a Christian believer, we can look forward, ultimately, to a flourishing church but, in the meantime, I think this is a very devastating crisis for Christians and many others."
