Makerspace

This week we have some time with Chris Watkin, lecturer and researcher at Monash University. He is also the author of the award winning book, Biblical Critical Theory. This book explores how the bible shapes our imaginations and cuts across many of the binaries that exist in our culture today. In this conversation we talk about what we usually mean by critical theory, what it means to have a proph...

In this first episode, we jump straight into the current tensions around difference in regard to immigration with Dr Matthew Kaemingk. Matthew is a Christian ethicist and public theologian lecturing at Fuller theological seminary. We’re actually going to be hosting him at our CEN executive conference in March, and in this conversation I ask a lot of questions based on his book “Christian hospitali...

For this final episode of the season, I got to have a special conversation with a friend and colleague of mine, Julia Verdouw. Julia is a senior lecturer at the National Institute for Christian Education and has extensive experience in research and policy development. In this episode, however, we’re actually here to discuss her new book of poetry, writings collected from her journal following her...

This week is a slightly bigger one as we tackle a particularly pertinent issue right now. In the online space, masculinity has been undergoing some new constructions or reconstructions. Some of the ideas are new, others are a reintroduction of very old, even stoic ideas, but much of it is confused and even dangerous. It would seem that over the last few years, a reduction in positive talk about ma...

This week I speak to Dan Anderson, Director and CEO of the Lachlan Macquarie Institute. LMI trains men and women for wise leadership in politics and culture through internship programs and conferences. Dan is very well connected to a wide variety of thinkers and decision makers and it was the perfect opportunity for me to ask some spicy questions around some topics that often be fairly polarising....

In this episode I sit down with another ITEC presenter, Dr Roshan Allpress. Roshan is the principal of Laidlaw College in Auckland, New Zealand, the country’s largest theological tertiary institute. Roshan is an historian, earning a PHD at Oxford. His book, based on his research is called “British Philanthropy in the Globalising World” exploring how social change occurred at a pivotal time in hist...

This week I get to chat with another very special guest, Professor Nigel Tubbs. Nigel initially began as a teacher before moving into tertiary roles and specialises in the relation between philosophy and education. His publications have explored how their relationship affects the concept of 'the teacher', the concept of 'education,' the definition of what counts as 'philosophy', and the shape of t...

This week we welcome Dr Ruth McConnell on to the show. Ruth is an expert on Neuropsychotherapy, trauma and attachment and the focus of her PhD studies was the counselling of children of divorce and keeping children healthily attached to their parents. She is also a Professional Associate of the Neufeld Institute and offers training on attachment related topics. I met Ruth a number of years ago and...

This week’s guest will be well known to many of you if you’ve been thinking about christian education for a while. At CEN’s ITEC conference last month I got to sit down with one of our keynote speakers, David I Smith. David is a Professor of Education at Calvin University; Director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning, and is an internationally recognised voice on Christian...

This episode was a pretty exciting one for me because I got to chat to one of my intellectual heroes, the globally acclaimed Esther Meek. Esther is an American philosopher and a Professor of Philosophy at Geneva College in Western Pennsylvania, and one of today’s most influential thinkers around the intersection of faith and knowledge. In this conversation you’ll hear Philosophical terms like “the...

This conversation was recorded during the CEN Executive conference earlier this year and in the course of it we talked through our current cultural mood, some of the ways teachers can speak into these challenges, vocation and what helps to build resilient, lasting faith. Enjoy the conversation!

Welcome to MakerSpace! Hosted by Sam Burrows on behalf of Christian Education National, we will be looking at the intersections of theology, culture and pedagogy. In this first episode we are joined by Professor Noreen Herzfeld, a professor of theology and computer science in Minnesota. Noreen has been a leading theological voice on AI and related issues for the last 2 decades or so. In this conve...