Richard Johnson Lectures

In this episode, you'll hear the Q&A session following Stan Grant’s 2025 lecture,  Against Bitterness: how do we live with suffering? Theologian and writer Stan Grant delivers a searing diagnosis of our times where chronic loneliness, runaway technological development, and fractious identity politics make bitterness the last real human emotion. He offers an antidote: imagination, re-encha...

In this episode, you'll hear Stan Grant’s 2025 lecture,  Against Bitterness: how do we live with suffering? Theologian and writer Stan Grant delivers a searing diagnosis of our times where chronic loneliness, runaway technological development, and fractious identity politics make bitterness the last real human emotion. He offers an antidote: imagination, re-enchantment, reconnecting with God,...

In this episode, you'll hear Tim Winton’s 2024 lecture, Exiles at Home: what our contempt for nature is costing us. Writer and activist Tim Winton reminds us that life on earth is a gift, a miracle we often fail to honour or even recognise. As we face an ecological crisis unprecedented in human history, Tim points to the critical need for solidarity - with the earth, our home, and with each other....

In this episode, you'll hear the Q&A session follwoing Tim Winton’s 2024 lecture, Exiles at Home: what our contempt for nature is costing us. Writer and activist Tim Winton reminds us that life on earth is a gift, a miracle we often fail to honour or even recognise. As we face an ecological crisis unprecedented in human history, Tim points to the critical need for solidarity - with the earth,...

In this episode, you'll hear the Q&A session that followed Leisa Aitken's 2023 lecture titled, Rediscovering Hope. How we lost it. How we get it back? You can hear her lecture in an earlier episode of this podcast, but here is Leisa, with Simon Smart, digging deeper into the topic. --- Leisa is a clinical psychologist who's been counselling and teaching for more than 25 years in workplaces, ho...

In this episode, you'll hear Leisa Aitken's 2023 lecture, Rediscovering Hope. How we lost it. How we get it back? The future feels tenuous these days, uncertain … overwhelming, even. Hope might be scarce, but it's not lost. At least not with Leisa Aitken is our guide. Leisa is a clinical psychologist with 25 years’ experience in her field and she's just completed a PhD on Hope. For those feeling h...

In this episode you’ll hear the Q&A session that followed Scott Stephen’s 2021 lecture titled…  Out Of Sight: Attentiveness in a Dismissive Age  You can hear his lecture in an earlier episode of this podcast, but here is Scott, with Simon Smart, digging deeper into the topic.  ---  Scott is the ABC’s Religion and Ethics online editor, and the co-host, with Waleed Aly, of The Minefield on ABC Radio...

In this episode you’ll hear the Q&A session that followed Sarah Irving-Stonebraker’s 2020 lecture titled…  Free To Be Me? The Forgotten Story of Religious Liberty  You can hear her lecture in an earlier episode of this podcast, but here is Sarah, with Simon Smart, digging deeper into the topic.  ---  Sarah is Senior Lecturer in History at Western Sydney University. She was awarded her PhD from the...

You can hear his lecture in an earlier episode of this podcast, but here is Tim, with Simon Smart, digging deeper into the topic.  ---  Tim  is co-founder of  More in Common , an international initiative which has published some of the world's leading research on the drivers of polarisation and social division. He has worked as chief speechwriter and economic adviser for two Australian Prime Minis...

In this episode you’ll hear the Q&A session that followed Nick Spencer’s 2018 lecture titled…  Where Did I Come From? Christianity, Secularism, and the Individual  You can hear his lecture in an earlier episode of this podcast, but here is Nick Spencer, with Simon Smart, digging deeper into the topic.  ---  Nick is Research Director of Theos Think Tank in London. He has written for The Guardian an...

In this episode you’ll hear the Q&A session that followed Amy Orr-Ewing’s 2017 lecture titled…  Is Christianity Bad News for Women?  You can hear her lecture in an earlier episode of this podcast, but here is Amy, with Simon Smart, digging deeper into the topic.  ---  Amy  is a Senior Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics and is a widely sought-after speaker who has addressed audie...

In this episode you’ll hear the Q&A session that followed William Cavanaugh’s 2016 lecture titled…  The Myth of Religious Violence  You can hear his lecture in an earlier episode of this podcast, but here is William, with John Dickson, digging deeper into the topic.  ---  WIlliam  is Professor of Theology at DePaul University in Chicago. He holds degrees from Notre Dame, Cambridge, and Duke Univer...

In this episode you’ll hear the Q&A session that followed Peter Harrison’s 2015 lecture titled…  The End of Faith: Has Science Made Religion Redundant?  You can hear his lecture in an earlier episode of this podcast, but here is Peter, with John Dickson, digging deeper into the topic.  ---  Peter  is currently an Australian Laureate Fellow at the University of Queensland. Before taking up that pos...

In this episode you’ll hear the Q&A session that followed the inaugural Richard Johnson Lecture, which was delivered in 2014 by Yale University’s Miroslav Volf.  His topic was A Public Faith: Serving the Common Good, and you can hear the lecture in an earlier episode of this podcast, but here is Miroslav, with John Dickson, digging deeper into the topic.  ---  Miroslav  is Founding Director of the...

In this episode you’ll hear the open Q&A session following Andy Crouch’s 2022 lecture, Disconnected: Why technology keeps disappointing us --- Andy Crouch is a partner for theology and culture at Praxis, an organisation that works as a creative engine for redemptive entrepreneurship. He is an author of many books and his latest is The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming relationship in a technologi...

In this episode you’ll hear Andy Crouch’s 2022 lecture, Disconnected: Why technology keeps disappointing us Technology promises so much — and truly has transformed our lives — but somehow it never quite delivers. Drawing on an older vision of human beings as heart-soul-mind-strength complexes, designed for love, Andy Crouch makes the case for applying our scientific knowle...

In this episode you’ll hear Scott Stephen’s 2021 lecture, Out of Sight: Attentiveness in a Dismissive Age We commonly hear that the times in which we live are “unprecedented”. Not entirely without justification, when we consider the proliferation of technologies that flood our waking hours. Yet beneath the busy surface of our media-saturated age, there lurks a temptation that is in no way unpreced...

In this episode you’ll hear Sarah Irving-Stonebraker’s 2020 lecture, Free To Be Me? The Forgotten Story of Religious Liberty "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion", reads the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But how did we get here? Freedom of religion - or of no religion - is grounded on liberty of conscience, an idea with a back-story most of us are unaware...

In this episode you’ll hear Tim Dixon’s 2019 lecture, Crossing the Great Divide: Building Bridges in an Age of Tribalism The Western world is seeing a collapse in people’s faith in institutions, democracy, and even each other. Societies are fractured; political norms upended. Polarising debates centre on issues of identity, values, and belonging, and tribal voices muzzle the notion of a common goo...

In this episode you’ll hear Nick Spencer’s 2018 lecture, Where Did I Come From? Christianity, Secularism, and the Individual It's obvious, isn’t it? Life should be respected. We should obey the rule of law. Humans have inalienable dignity. People are of equal worth. Freedom is good. Science is legitimate. And - as Life of Brian reminded us - "we are all individuals" Except that it is far...

In this episode you’ll hear Amy Orr-Ewing’s 2017 lecture, Is Christianity Bad News for Women? The 2nd-century Greek philosopher Celsus famously dismissed Christianity as a religion of women, children, and slaves – that is to say, not to be taken seriously. But Christianity is much more likely to be condemned today, not for being a religion of women, but a religion against women. If...

In this episode you’ll hear William Cavanaugh’s 2016 lecture, The Myth Of Religious Violence It’s a widely held assumption in Western societies that religion has a peculiar tendency to promote violence. Indeed, much of our domestic and foreign policy assumes this – but is it a fair assumption? Are religions more inclined to promote violence than things like nationalism and access to oil? What even...

In this episode you’ll hear Peter Harrison’s 2015 lecture, The End Of Faith: Has Science Made Religion Redundant? The conflict between science and religion seems entrenched, even inevitable. But is it? Peter Harrison is one of the most important scholars working in the area of science and religion today, and he challenges our understanding of what has historically been meant by the concepts o...

The inaugural Richard Johnson Lecture was delivered in 2014 by Yale University’s Miroslav Volf. Volf’s upbringing in Croatia as the only Christian in a school of 3,500 was pivotal in the development of his faith. A victim of intense and sustained interrogation by the government of then communist Yugoslavia, much of Volf's work focuses on forgiveness and reconciliation. He maintains that the C...

Richard Johnson was the first Chaplain to the Colony of New South Wales, arriving on the First Fleet in 1788. He saw no tension between his priestly duties and his calling to serve the public good in the colony. He was perhaps Australia’s first exponent of Public Christianity! The Richard Johnson lecture, named in his honour, is an annual public event that seeks to highlight Christianity's relevan...