A Mini Bible: Dumbing down, or a real challenge?

27 Sep

The Guardian newspaper has published a 378 word  summation of the Bible, by John Crace.The text is reproduced from the website, in the extended section below. It’s a fascinating task: to try to offer a coherent, balanced but short account … Read More »

Doing good achieving nothing

25 Sep

Last year I had a sabbatical leave; —a really great privilege. It was a time of renewal for me as a teacher, and even more so as a person.Unlike previous times of ‘study leave’, this time I really did allow … Read More »

Politics with community

20 Sep

Steve Chatelier and Simon Moyle both shared with me the conviction that the individualism of contemporary political culture is what is killing us—for some, literally so. Just today, while thinking more about these comments, I heard again a recording of … Read More »

Politics without morality?

16 Sep

There are two new features on our political horizon, which in a sense come together right now.The first is the astonishing event of a former leader of the Labor Party, in Australia, publishing diaries which dump the most remarkable vitriole … Read More »

How to read the Bible

15 Sep

How to use the Bible in doing theology—in honest thinking about faith and life. I’d like to share some ideas about how we can read the Bible responsibly, and with creative value for our own authentic faith. Let’s consider one … Read More »

Moving … again

13 Sep

The ninteenth century Danish philosopher – theologian Søren Kierkegaard once observed:     Before you can move from the spot, you have to move at the spot. There is something vital in this. We can move beyond our situation, but … Read More »

Moving on: healthy or immoral?

13 Sep

In the last few years, a new term has crept into our public discourse, seemingly innocuous but in fact enormously powerful, the term ‘moving on’. I think I first noticed it when our national leader  in Australia declared that there … Read More »

In the public sphere

12 Sep

For too long, the media and public commentators have given the impression that the only Christians with anything to say in the public sphere are conservative fundamentalists, such as the American ‘Moral Majority’. This last week in the media we … Read More »

Of difference and goodness

9 Sep

Thanks to all who have responded to my thoughts about Trinity and about ‘sin’.It has been a challenging discussion. More of that now … But I want also to reflect something further in relation to the disaster in New Orleans. … Read More »

Trinity: the divine dance

6 Sep

The Christian idea of the divine trinity is, I think, the most valuable idea in all the world. I have to give a talk about this idea next weekend. I have been reviewing some of the images of Trinity, in … Read More »