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 »

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 »

Bring back story!

5 Nov

It was the great Karl Barth, theologian of the ‘Word of God, who lamented that the reformers had left us nothing in our churches, no images, no symbols. no visual helps, as we try to pray, nothing except words.At least … Read More »

Will beauty save the world?

1 Nov

In many parts of the world right now, governments are introducing new laws to combat terrorism. In the name of protecting our freedoms, new laws will remove those very freedoms. People may be detained, without even the right to notify … Read More »

“The death of God”

11 Oct

In the last week, there has been a challenging interchange amongst the members of the Jürgen Moltmann discussion group about the death of God. This is not about the 1960s idea that ‘God is dead’. It’s  about whether it makes … Read More »

In love with fear

10 Oct

There is an email circulating in Australia which pretends to  be a warning from the blood transfusion service (‘the blood bank’ it is called), warning people about needle-stick injuries, infected with AIDS.Someone is said to have sat down in a … Read More »

Have a good night!

2 Oct

Night time: it’s the right time for love, so a song says.But so much of our lives are actually governed by the desire to make the night into day.Our technology seeks to banish the night altogether. But when we do, … Read More »