Life & Faith

The human brain is the most complex object known to exist in the universe. This is the thought that Marilynne Robinson begins many of her classes with. The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and acclaimed essayist is a Professor at the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop. “I want to encourage my young writers to value their characters sufficiently to make them complex enough to be credible and als...

The story of Christianity and Aboriginal culture in Australia, is one of tragedy, loss and deep sorrow. “It was the church’s decree that they pillage our land and conquer us,” Larissa Minniecon says. “So through Christianity, or churches - we have lost everything.” Larissa is a Kabi Kabi woman and a Torres Strait Islander. She is also a Christian woman. In fact, her last name may sound familiar -...

It may feel like we’re living in an increasingly secular world, but the numbers tell a different story.  According to a recent study, by the year 2050, the number of people in the world without any religious affiliation will decline as a share of the global population. At the same time, Muslims and Christians are on track to make up nearly equal shares of the world’s population – around one-third...

Ivy is 105 years old and she loves music. She sings along to “old-timers” in the car when she’s traveling around Australia, and listens to “sad” songs before she goes to bed. “I usually have the music playing softly,” she says, “I go to sleep that way.” The truth is, Ivy hasn’t done that for a while. She lives with dementia and has been a resident at a care home in Sydney’s north for the past coup...

One of the defining narratives of the twenty-first century is the threat of global terrorism. It dominates the news cycle and is one of our society’s greatest fears. According to a recent Pew study, Australians consider the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) as the global threat they are most concerned about – 69 per cent of people responded that they were “very concerned” about ISIS, ahead of climate...

“It’s a mixed blessing to see yourself in your kids,” says Geoff Broughton, the rector at Paddington Anglican Church in Sydney. He’s only half joking. As an adopted child, the first time he met a ‘blood relative’ was at the birth of his son. Watching his son grow up and take on his likeness stirred something in Geoff that he had never felt before – a desire to find out about his birth family. By a...

Nothing in life is certain but death and taxes. But if death is something we all face at some point, and grief is part of the human experience, we talk about them surprisingly little. In fact, it’s something we don’t necessarily do all that well as a culture. “The word death is not pronounced in New York, in Paris, in London, because it burns the lips,” wrote the poet Octavio Paz in 1961. His word...

“I don’t have a creative bone in my body.” You’ve probably said that before, or heard someone say that before. But Ken Wytsma won’t say it. And if he hears it, he won’t believe it. “Artistic ability is a talent some possess,” he writes in his latest book, Create Vs. Copy. “Creativity is a human trait.” In our fast-paced and rapidly changing world, it’s not uncommon to feel overwhelmed or anxious....

The Bible is the best-selling book of all time - today, over 100 million copies a year are either sold or given away for free around the world. It’s also had an immeasurable impact on the world, for better and for worse. In 2017, the Bible is getting its own museum. The Museum of the Bible is due to open in the middle of Washington DC, just a few blocks from the US Capitol and the Smithsonian, wit...

More than ever, left and right and ‘us and them’ seem like interminable divides, which makes it harder than ever to live productively alongside, and argue peaceably with, those with whom we disagree. What art is there to learning to disagree well, and what can Christianity offer in this regard? We speak to Scott Sauls, senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and author...

A Sydney siege survivor and the Anglican Dean of Sydney reflect on the ‘golden rule’ this Easter – love your neighbour as yourself.  “I honestly was freaking out. I thought I had a terrorist next to me.” Have you ever made a snap judgment based on how a person looked, or what a person was wearing? Kylie Beach was on a flight recently and the seat next to her was empty – but it wasn’t meant to be....

Almost all past US presidents have been openly religious, and close to half of them belong to the nation’s major Protestant denominations. “It’s always better to be something than nothing,” Dr David Smith says when it comes to presidential candidates expressing their faith. In this episode, Dr Smith explores the influence of religion in the 2016 Presidential primaries and beyond, and unpacks the c...

The Easter story, as it is typically told,starts with the death of Jesus on the cross and ends with the Resurrection. But what happened after? This was the question that screenwriter Paul Aiello and producer Patrick Aiello that sparked the idea for their latest movie, Risen. The story that unfolds is told through the eyes of Clavius (Joseph Fiennes), aRoman tribune who is investigating the disappe...

We want young people to have a healthy sense of themselves but artificially inflating their self-esteem, argue its detractors, is not the way to go about it. We speak to John Smith, author of Beyond the Myth of Self-esteem: Finding Fulfilment , and psychologist Collett Smart about where true self-worth might be found. 

The availability of online pornography has been called one of the biggest unconscious social experiments ever conducted. Research has shown that more than 90% of boys under the age of 16, and around 60% of girls, have visited a porn site online, and this exposure is having significant effects on the way that children and teenagers think about their own sexuality and relate to one another.  Liz Wal...

Simon Smart and Natasha Moore discuss some of the films nominated for the 2016 Oscars: The Big Short , Brooklyn , 45 Years , and Spotlight . Each of them talks about things we don’t really want to talk about - or offers viewers a moral dilemma to muddle through.

We discuss two myths of the modern age: a reliance upon pop evolutionary psychology that seeks to account for human behaviour via an appeal to our evolutionary past, and the ‘sex myth’ that links our individual worth and value to our bedroom antics.

Our first Life & Faith podcast for 2016 gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse into CPX’s new documentary about the good, the bad, and the ugly of Christian history. It’s called For the Love of God: How the Church is better and worse than you ever imagined . 

In light of a Church of England survey that found that as many as 4 in 10 British people don’t believe Jesus was a real person, historian John Dickson explains why the academy is in no such doubt that Jesus existed. We also discuss the meaning and significance of the Christmas story today – and why it absolutely matters that there was a baby in the manger.

If stories in the American news media are anything to go by, free speech is under assault on American college campuses. On this Life & Faith, we discuss this recent trend, as well as the banning of the Lord’s Prayer from UK cinemas, and explore the implications of excluding certain ideas from discussion.

Domestic abuse within the church dominated headlines early in 2015. On this Life & Faith we speak with Sandy Grant, who is heading up the Task Force to address Domestic Abuse within the Sydney Anglican Diocese, and speak with Barbara Roberts, survivor of domestic abuse, victim advocate, and author of a book on abuse and divorce within the church. If you are experiencing domestic abuse, we urge you...

On the occasion of the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, we talk about modern slavery with Jenny Stanger, National Manager of the Salvation Army’s initiative The Freedom Partnership, and explore slavery in the biblical context with John Dickson, historian and co-founder of the Centre for Public Christianity. For more information on The Freedom Partnership, see endslavery.salvos.org.a...

In The Life of I: The New Culture of Narcissism Anne Manne has written a sobering, and at times depressing, account of the way that our hypercompetitive, capitalist culture is making us more narcissistic: eager to seek our own interests at the expense of others. In this podcast she talks about what narcissism is, its negative effects, and what role religion and politics might have to play in produ...

Awarding winning journalist Michael Ware talks to CPX about his film “Only the Dead.” This documentary recounts Ware’s many years reporting on the very front lines of the war in Iraq and describes being confronted not only with human darkness in those he filmed but that within himself as well. Ware saw some of the best and also the worst that human beings are capable of. Despite coming very close...

In Captains of the Soul: A history of Australia’s army chaplains , Michael Gladwin tracks the role of chaplains as they’ve served and supported countless troops in every campaign where Australia has served abroad. He provides a fascinating insight into how chaplains went about their work providing spiritual and pastoral care to the soldiers in their charge. Michael’s book recently won the 2015 Aus...