In praise of two great teachers

26 Apr

Thinking more about McCourt the teacher-man, I recalled two stories about great teachers in my own sphere.It begins with one I never knew, but whose legacy I did.While I was the pastor of the Hobart Baptist Church, in Tasmania, two … Read More »

Have we lost our faith? Have we lost our heads?

20 Apr

Over the Easter period, when finally I had a few days’ space to reflect on things, several things caught my attention.First, it was Easter: a time when Christians call to mind (and heart) the death and resurrection of Jesus—and all … Read More »

Martin Luther: why is he great?

20 Mar

Last Saturday, I was teaching a session in our ‘TransFormation’ program, which is a special program of leadership training for people from a non-English speaking background. Many of the students are refugees, and some have very limited English, and often … Read More »

Temptation: first Sunday of Lent

5 Mar

First Sunday of Lent: and the Gospel of Mark, for today, invites us to think of the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.Mark has no nativity story, no build-up to the Jesus career. He’s just right into it. And so Jesus … Read More »

Why not ask why?

27 Feb

In the last week, there have been two dreadful road crashes which have taken the lives of young people, in one case 6 teenagers and another 5 people, including a mother and daughter. This last week, our local news media … Read More »

Blindness and Insight

13 Feb

The Gospel reading for this morning and tomorrow morning (Mark 8. 11 – 21) tells of the Pharisees asking Jesus for ‘a sign’ and his responses to them in terms of what they should be able to see, already.’Do you … Read More »

Where we are and how we live

30 Jan

On Saturday, January 28th, Martin Flanagan wrote a brilliant piece in The Age newspaper, offering an analysis of the current situation in Australia – reflecting a little on the ‘Australia Day’ rhetoric and on some of the articles over this … Read More »

Finding the focus

17 Jan

Back on deck: a new year and (I hope) some new and fresh challenges.I have long since known the importance of making it, or allowing it to be, a new year and not just another year repeating what happened last … Read More »

Amidst the Christmas Razzle-dazzle

12 Dec

It’s difficult being a scholar of theology or Biblical studies, during Christmas.The faith community loses its critical awareness at Christmas. I’m not talking about all that commercialism. I’m talking about the music, the children’s plays and all the other traditional … Read More »

Theology against globalization

19 Nov

Marc Batko, a member of the Moltmann discussion group, has translated Jurgen Moltmann’s "The Future of Theology" (1997) and  uploaded the essay to www.portland.indymedia.Click on the link to this group and you can read Marc’s post. Here is a brief … Read More »