Life & Faith

In Australia in the 1901 census, 96% of people identified as Christian and half of all adults regularly attended church. Little more than a century later, 61% of the population describe themselves as Christian, but only about 8% of people regularly attend worship services. Does this make Australia a “post-Christian” nation? And if so, what are the consequences of that shift? Roy Williams’ talks to...

It’s been 7 years since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made an historic apology to members of the Stolen Generation - but how much has changed? Rudd himself has said that the apology has achieved little. Justine Toh speaks to Brooke Prentis of the Waka Waka people - an activist for indigenous rights, Christian pastor, and accountant - about the deep injustices of the past and her hopes for the future.

So many of the most obsessively followed TV series these days - Breaking Bad , House of Cards , True Detective,   Game of Thrones - hold up a truly bleak mirror to human nature. What is the appeal of the antihero? And what does this trend tell us about our attitude to ourselves, the society we live in, and our hopes for the future? 

Jesus and motorsports might seem an unlikely pairing - but one man has been openly bringing his Christian faith to the racetrack since 2007, and attracting quite a bit of attention in the process. Andrew “Fishtail” Fisher once worked in the corporate world, but is now part of the Jesus Racing team, which races in the Yokohama V8 Ute Series. He came in to talk about why his ute has the name “Jesus”...

Some aspects of being a mum are timeless: loss of sleep, for example, but also an experience of profound, self-sacrificial love. Other aspects, however, are heavily influenced by our own time and place, and the ways that our culture has decided to “do” parenthood. Life and Faith welcomes back Justine Toh from maternity leave just in time for this Mother’s Day program, which considers the contempor...

This year marks the 100th time Australians have commemorated Anzac Day. Simon Smart and Natasha Moore speak to the Rev Dr Colin Bale, Vice Principal, Academic Dean, and Head of the Department of Church History at Moore Theological College, about his interest in WWI war graves and what the inscriptions soldiers’ families chose for them tell us about the spirituality of the time. Moving from commemo...

From the Boer War and World War I right up to Afghanistan, Iraq, and beyond, the Bible Society has freely given Scriptures to all members of the Australian Defence Forces who wanted them. With the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign, the Bible Society in Australia has brought together unexpected and moving stories of servicemen and women who fought for their country - many of them sacrificing thei...

One of the most frequent objections to Christian faith – or to religion in general – has to do with violence: that the Bible is full of violence; that Christian history is full of violence; that religion causes violence, or is too often used to justify it. In this episode of Life and Faith , Simon Smart and Natasha Moore bring together some of the many discussions of this topic in CPX interviews o...

The spaces we spend time in and create for ourselves as humans have a huge impact on our quality of life. Why do these things matter so much to us? Life and Faith  considers the role of human creativity within a Christian worldview; asks an architect about faith and creativity, beauty and functionality; and explores the order of the natural and human worlds as they appear in the recent Kate Winsle...

How can anyone be sure that miracles are possible? Or ... how could we be sure that they’re not? This Easter, Life and Faith considers barriers to taking the Bible’s accounts of miraculous events seriously - and some of the many miracle stories from around the world today.

Dr Wesley Hill is Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Trinity School for Ministry in Pennsylvania. He is a committed Christian who is also gay and celibate, and has written about his experiences in his book Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality . He talks to Simon Smart about why he’s convinced that homosexual practice is not an option for Christians; h...

As flawed people in a flawed world, we face breakdowns in relationship all the time. What happens when we are wronged by someone else - or when we’ve wronged them? What are the possibilities for justice - or forgiveness - or even restoration? Dr Geoff Broughton talks to Simon Smart and Natasha Moore about his work on the streets and in inner-city churches, his new book Restorative Christ: Jesus, J...

For International Women’s Day in 2013, Justine Toh interviewed Captain Melanie-Anne Holland, who manages a Salvation Army women’s refuge, and Dr Lynne M. Baker, author of the book Counselling Christian Women on How to Deal with Domestic Violence, about the effects of domestic abuse and the relevance of this issue to faith communities in particular. Two years on, the interview is if anything even m...

We all struggle with the conflict between our desire for autonomy on the one hand, and our desire to be part of a community on the other. Social commentator Hugh Mackay’s latest book, The Art of Belonging: It’s not where you live, it’s how you live, weighs up the question "Who am I?" against the even bigger question, "Who are we?" He talks to Simon Smart about the drought of belonging in contempor...

Citizenfour, Rosewater, and The Interview are three very different movies - but they all make a strong case for the importance of free speech. Simon Smart and Natasha Moore discuss the threats to people’s right to speak freely that these films warn against, and what Christian faith has to contribute to debates about whether and when to limit freedom of speech.

From sci-fi thrillers to the final instalment of The Hobbit , it promises to be a rich summer of movie-going. Natasha Moore and Simon Smart discuss a few of the films on offer: the new Bible epic Exodus , directed by Ridley Scott; Russell Crowe’s WWI saga The Water Diviner ; and the star-studded space odyssey Interstellar .

The Bible continues to be the world's bestselling book - but it isn’t the easiest book to just dive into. John Dickson’s forthcoming book A Doubter’s Guide to the Bible: Inside History’s Bestseller for Believers and Skeptics wants to make it easier for everyone - whether Christians or curious doubters - to find their way around the Bible. Part III considers the New Testament, from the Christmas st...

The Bible continues to be the world's bestselling book - but it isn’t the easiest book to just dive into. John Dickson’s forthcoming book A Doubter’s Guide to the Bible: Inside History’s Bestseller for Believers and Skeptics wants to make it easier for everyone - whether Christians or curious doubters - to find their way around the Bible. Part II takes us on a whirlwind tour of the whole of the Ol...

The Bible continues to be the world's bestselling book - but it isn’t the easiest book to just dive into. John Dickson’s forthcoming book A Doubter’s Guide to the Bible: Inside History’s Bestseller for Believers and Skeptics wants to make it easier for everyone - whether Christians or curious doubters - to find their way around the Bible. Part I tackles the Bible's controversial opening chapters -...

There is an abundance of evidence that children do best in stable families with two biological parents, and that the casualisation of families is one of the leading factors entrenching disadvantage for kids. Bettina Arndt has been a sex therapist, author, and clinical psychologist, and after decades of talking to the Australian public about sex has become an advocate for that most old-fashioned of...

Halloween is becoming more popular in Australia every year - but not everyone is happy about it. Some complain that it’s an American tradition; others, usually on religious grounds, object to the way it makes light of evil. Are there good reasons to celebrate this once pagan festival that (like Christmas) has been Christianised - then again secularised - and now very much commercialised? Life and...

Origin stories - those accounts of beginnings that tell us who we are and where we come from - are often controversial. Debates about the Bible’s creation story and its compatibility with the theory of evolution can be especially so. Life and Faith spoke to Chris Mulherin, who lectures and tutors in the history of science, philosophy, and theology, and works with ISCAST (a group of Christians work...

Arda Aghazarian lives in the Old City of Jerusalem, a place where the stark realities of living with conflict and religious difference are impossible to avoid. She has worked in radio and film, as well as with the YWCA of Palestine and the UN seeking to empower young women in places and periods of conflict. She wants people in the West to understand more about the religious and political complexit...

Western culture tends to worship efficiency, which even creeps into our leisure time and challenges the possibility of achieving a good work/life balance.  Life and Faith explores the concept of the Sabbath and considers what the benefits of taking regular time to rest might be.

The Bible is the literary classic. Six billion copies have been sold; since records began it’s been the number one bestseller worldwide every year except 2007 (when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows topped the list at 44 million sales). In 2009 alone it sold 30 million copies. But how many people in the West actually read it today? John Dickson, Founding Director of CPX, issues a challenge to t...