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Living out one’s commitments and beliefs is the most political thing we can do, says theologian and public commentator Michael Jensen.
Politics, both here in Australia and around the world, feels increasingly existential as we angst over whether our political tribe, or the other side, will gain office.
In this episode of Life & Faith, we get public commentator Michael Jensen to set us straight: how do we solve a problem like the ultimacy of our politics – the fact that it feels as though the fate of the country rests on whoever gets elected to lead it?
We cover the way Christianity is often identified with one side of politics and why “sin”, though an unpopular idea, acts as a helpful check on anyone who wields political power. Michael also offers us “a litmus test for whether a political position is Christian” and challenges everyone to be more realistic, and less idealistic, about what earthly politics can achieve.
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Explore:
Michael Jensen’s book Subjects and Citizens: The Politics of the Gospel
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The US will soon choose its 47th president. Peter Wehner, former Republican insider, explains the national mood.
In the week before the 2024 US presidential election, perhaps the most consequential election in this year of elections, we hear from former Republican speechwriter and evangelical Peter Wehner on what has happened to the party he used to call his own.
Wehner served in three Republican administrations. He explains how President Ronald Reagan’s vision of America as a “shining city on a hill” drew him to conservatism in the first place and contrasts that aspirational national myth with the current mood in the Republican party.
Now a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum based in Washington D.C., Wehner’s public commentary on politics, faith, and the politicisation of faith regularly appears in The New York Times and The Atlantic.
We delve into the role of self-described evangelicals in American politics, and Wehner’s grave concerns for the future of not only the Republican party, but his country.
Explore
Peter Wehner’s profile on X (Twitter)
Peter Wehner’s article in The Atlantic: This Election is Different
Simon’s interview with Michael Wear, Cultivating Better Politics.
Simon’s interview with Darrell Bock, The US Election and the Politicisation of Faith.
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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Sarah Irving-Stonebraker makes a case for history as a key part of understanding who we are and where our lives find meaning.
Sarah Irving-Stonebraker says we are living in an ahistoric age – where we are increasingly ignorant of the past and therefore less equipped to understand ourselves and those around us. In her latest book Priests of History: Stewarding the past in an ahistoric age, Sarah urges her readers to attend to history; to seek to understand the past – it's people and events. She promises that if we do, we’ll find out “that it's far stranger and far more fascinating than you realise.”
In an age underpinned by the idea that life is about self-invention and fulfilment, Sarah believes that paying careful attention to history we will find ourselves more connected, more embedded in stories larger than ourselves. This is something deeply needed in our rootless and disconnected age.
Explore:
Sarah's book: Priests Of History: Stewarding The Past In An Ahistoric Age
Tell us what you think of Life & Faith in this 5-minute survey
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Investigative journalist Nick McKenzie explains what drives him to risk huge amounts to expose injustice and corruption.
Nick Mackenzie is a 14 x Walkley Award-winning investigative journalist who has uncovered some of the highest profile cases of corruption in recent Australian history. Nick has exposed the local mafia, Crown Casino’s links to criminal figures, political donations by Chinese interests, national security issues, foreign bribery by the Reserve Bank and other companies. Most recently he uncovered corruption in the CFMEU - Australia's main trade union in building and construction.
When he and veteran journalist Chris Masters together revealed shocking war crimes committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, they opened a wound in the Australian psyche. Huge and powerful forces tried to shut them down, but they wouldn’t keep quiet. When the “defamation case of the century” was launched against them, they relied on SAS soldiers themselves telling inconvenient truths about their war experience.
Nick’s book on the war crimes saga and the unsuccessful defamation case against him and Chris Masters is Crossing the Line: The Inside Story of Murder, Lies and a Fallen Hero.
Explore
Nick McKenzie’s website https://www.nickmckenzie.com.au/
The book Crossing the Line: The Inside Story of Murder, Lies and a Fallen Hero
Tell us what you think of Life & Faith in this 5-minute survey
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Author Shankari Chandran believes storytelling may be our most powerful weapon in the search for hope, truth, empathy and justice.
Shankari is a Sri Lankan Thamil Australian author. Her third novel Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens won Australia’s most prestigious literary award, the Miles Franklin, last year. In this interview with Life & Faith, Shankari shares her story, her inspirations and the power of storytelling as a carrier of hope, an antidote to injustice and a catalyst for empathy.
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Explore:
Shankari’s website
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Research uncovers the secrets to thriving as individuals and communities.
What are the ingredients of a life that will help us to thrive as people? How do we go about cultivating those ingredients? What does it mean to truly flourish as a person?
Policy makers are interested in these questions. So are educationalists. And as individuals it’s a topic that we increasingly seek answers to. People these days are very focused on wellbeing and what will aid or hinder that.
Tyler VanderWeele’s research in this area engages huge data sets and deep analysis. He is Professor of Epidemiology in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Director of the Human Flourishing Program.
Professor VanderWeele’s many insights into what makes for human flourishing are worth hearing. Some might come as a surprise!
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In a money-hungry world that's focused on profits, ethical impact investing seeks to re-introduce compassion and benevolence to our system of buying, selling and money-making.
Sam Richards is the Managing Director of Brightlight, an investment firm that seeks to do more than simply make money. Brightlight - along with a growing number of family offices and individual investors - seeks to use financial markets to improve social and environmental outcomes for real people in real communities. In this interview with Life & Faith, Sam offers us a glimpse into the world of ethical investing - its motivations, its challenges, its inner workings and its growing impact.
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Explore:
Brightlight website CPX Podcast Episode: The Ethics of What We Eat Adam Smith’s ‘Theory of Moral Sentiments’
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Life & Faith producer, Allan Dowthwaite, takes over the studio to mark 500 episodes of amazing conversations.
Allan Dowthwaite, CPX’s media director, normally runs the recording studio for the team. But in this special episode, marking twelve-and-a-half years of the podcast, he’s commandeered the mic as your personal guide to Life & Faith’s greatest conversations, organised into the following categories for your listening pleasure.
Links are included to any episode you want to listen to in full.
The cultural waters in which we swim, featuring Sydney Morning Herald Economics Editor Ross Gittins, political scientist Dale Kuehne, New York Times film writer Alissa Wilkinson, cultural critic Andy Crouch, and author Tim Winton.How Christianity explains our world, featuring cold case detective Jim Warner Wallace, author Marilynne Robinson, author Francis Spufford, and historian Tom Holland.Surprising stories, featuring Oxford mathematician John Lennox, Alex Gaffikin, who wintered on Antarctica for two years, Johnnie Walker, beloved authority on the Camino de Santiago, and the late scholar of African-American religion, Albert J. Raboteau.Indigenous Australians, featuring Yorta Yorta man William Cooper, Torres Strait Islander leader and pastor Gabriel Bani, and Aunty Maureen Atkinson, member of the Stolen Generation.Changing one’s mind about faith, featuring ABC Religion & Ethics editor Scott Stephens and author Susannah McFarlane.Ordinary people, extraordinary acts, featuring Australian nurse Valerie... -
On the 24th anniversary of the Sydney Olympic Games, we look back at what made those games so special. Simon Smart and Mark Stephens ask what these kinds of events can tell us about who we are as human beings.
Former Olympics Minister Bruce Baird talks us through the hair-raising bid process and the joy of seeing the whole thing come together so well. Veteran sportswriter Greg Baum outlines what he found so special about Sydney 2000. And seven-time Paralympian Liesl Tesch recalls the buzz of playing in front of packed houses cheering the home team on, and what this event did for Paralympians generally. And Simon Smart gets all nostalgic remembering his experiences going to anything he could get tickets for.
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Reconstructive surgeon Tertius Venter tells Life & Faith how his life changed forever when he saw how much he could impact the lives of desperate people.
Dr Venter is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who spends 8 months of every year volunteering his time to two charities helping the poorest people on the planet get surgery they’d have no hope of getting were it not for people like him.
Over 20 years ago Tertius went on a mission to The Gambia in West Africa where a hospital ship was providing medical care to extremely poor people. His surgical skills were needed and completely altered the prospects of those coming for help.
He returned home a different person, so animated by both the incredible need that he saw, but also the difference he was able to make in people’s lives.
Since then his life has been dedicated to providing relief to suffering and poor people whose lives are very often completely changed by what Tertius and his team are able to offer them.
Tertius’s Christian faith drives him on through challenging and sometimes heartbreaking situations, and he says he never feels closer to God than when he is doing this work.
His is a challenging and immensely inspiring story.
Explore:
Mercy Ships where you can support the organisation or even Tertius directly
Cure international
Dr Venter’s Website
Operation Smile
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Trevor Cooling explains how educating the whole person lays foundations for the ‘life worth living’.
Professor Trevor Cooling has spent a life time in education, in universities and also public and independent schools. Here he talks to Life & Faith about why teaching worldview is a crucial skill students need to learn as they engage in a pluralistic society.
We discuss the true purpose of education, the lessons that are life-long and where religious education fits, even in a culture that has been moving away from institutionalised faith. Trevor also explains why vocation and a sense of calling can be such a gift for a student finding their way in the world.
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What vision of a full and flourishing life can we offer the young men in our lives?
Justine Toh interviews Simon Smart about his new book The End of Men? Simon wrote this book after observing that boys and men are struggling in many ways—socially, emotionally, and at school. Boys are finding it difficult to understand their place, and wondering if there is something inherently toxic about their masculinity. Simon explores a more holistic understanding of what it means to be a man, and the importance of harnessing a tender masculinity for the common good. Boys need good examples of men to lead them into a healthy expression of their masculinity, to encourage them to use their strengths to benefit others and to protect the vulnerable: to operate with a “lens of love”.
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Get the Book: The End of Men?
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The ex-Rolling Stones journalist throws open the door the devil hides behind. Warning: not for kids.
The devil’s best trick, according to French poet Charles Baudelaire and/or criminal mastermind Keyser Soze in The Usual Suspects (1995) was convincing the world that he didn’t exist.
Randall Sullivan’s new book, The Devil’s Best Trick: How the Face of Evil Disappeared, argues that despite our sceptical age that dismisses the existence of the supernatural, evil is at work in the world, and can’t be dismissed as the product of a bad upbringing or warped psychology.
In this interview with Life & Faith, Sullivan, the author and former investigative reporter for Rolling Stone magazine, tells us about his miraculous conversion experience, recounted in his earlier book The Miracle Detective: An Investigation of Holy Visions.
He also spills on his new book, which took him 20 years to write, and his experience of coming up, close, and personal with the divine... and what felt like a malevolent presence in the Piazza Navona in Rome.
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Explore:
The Devil’s Best Trick: How the Face of Evil Disappeared
The Miracle Detective: An Investigation into Holy Visions
Randall Sullivan’s Wired article on Michelle Gomez, the world’s best bounty hunter (paywalled)
A short Thinking out Loud column quoting Randall Sullivan in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in 2024
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With despair on the rise and hope in short supply, children’s literature offers people of all ages a treasure trove of wisdom.
Dr Amanda B Vernon is a literature expert who believes that children's stories are not just for children. In this interview with Life & Faith, Amanda talks about how stories written with children in mind often shed light on deep human needs, including our longing for justice, agency, truth, wonder and redemption through suffering. From Alice in Wonderland to Harry Potter to Winnie the Pooh, Amanda explores the joy, the wonder and the enduring wisdom of children’s literature.
Explore:
Amanda B Vernon’s website: www.amandabvernon.com
George Macdonald’s, ‘The Fantastic Imagination’
Neda Ulaby's NPR article on "protopias"
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Darrell Bock fears the church in the U.S. is in danger of losing its distinctiveness. How might it recover?
The United States is a divided country, and this year’s presidential election will bring that into sharp focus. Darrell Bock is a New Testament Scholar at Dallas Theological Seminary and the Executive Director of Cultural Engagement at the Hendricks Center.
Life & Faith interviews Darrell about the divisions in the U.S. and how tribal and ideological they have become. Darrell is concerned that the church has increased this polarisation with its misplaced loyalties, and by creating a social atmosphere that does not deal well with difference. Darrell believes it has been a mistake for the church to become an extension of a political arm, and that younger people have left the church in droves as a result.
Darrell sees a great need to return to a sense of welcome and care for the marginalised, as a distinctive marker of the love of God.
Explore:
The Hendricks Center
Darrell Bock books (there are many)
Breaking the Da Vinci Code: Answers to the Questions Everyone’s Asking Dethroning Jesus: Exposing Popular Culture’s Quest to Unseat the Biblical Christ Gospel of Luke Commentary
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The spirit of our politics feels negative and harmful. Michael Wear believes the improved spiritual health and civic character of individuals can change that.
“We belong to a political party because we believe things, we should not believe things because we belong to a political party”.
Michael Wear is the author of The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life. In this episode he talks to Life & Faith about his desire to cultivate a more healthy and vibrant political and civic life in his country that is wracked with polarisation and enmity across the political spectrum.
Wear is under no illusions as to how large a challenge that is but remains committed to making a contribution towards a healthy pluralism.
He also has huge reservations about the way in which faith has been captured to further political, rather than religious, outcomes. Wear think there is huge danger in Christianity being instrumentalised as a means of advancing one set of political ideas. Instead, faith should be about the flourishing of all society.
Explore:
Michael Wear’s latest book The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life.
Michael’s previous book Reclaiming Hope: Lessons Learned in the Obama Whitehouse About the Future of Faith in America.
The Centre for Christianity and Public Life
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The headlines are grim, and the world feels apocalyptic. It’s time to become the people the world needs right now.
“I don't know how to fix climate change or geopolitics, but I know what I'm called to do, which is put my roots down deep into love and be growing up, be becoming the kind of person that the world needs.”
Elizabeth Oldfield is the author of the book Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times – and turbulent our times are. Climate anxiety, political polarisation, social unrest, and diminishing attention spans haunt our days. Also present, but perhaps less obviously so: our gnawing spiritual hunger and desire for connection with ourselves, each other, and maybe even what Elizabeth calls “the G bomb”: God.
In this interview with Life & Faith, Elizabeth talks about “steadiness of soul” in an increasingly chaotic world and what it means to live in a small, intentional community or “micro monastery” that can fit 18 people around the dinner table. The conversation also covers how Elizabeth has managed to cultivate a space for profound chats across social divides in the podcast The Sacred, and what it meant for Elizabeth to flout careerist dogma and quit her stable, secure job to rest and lean into a different way of life.
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Explore:
Elizabeth Oldfield’s book Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times
Her letter about leaving her job that hit a nerve with people
Her Substack newsletter Fully Alive
The Sacred Podcast
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A philosopher and a butcher dig into what we should and shouldn’t eat, and why.
“As society has shifted away from being in close proximity to farms and food production, people are increasingly concerned about where their food’s coming from – the condition under which animals are raised and reared, and certain farming practices, [such as] pesticide use and the effects that that may have on the environment as well as on human health.”
Philosopher and sociologist Chris Mayes has thought about eating a lot more than most of us (which if we’re honest, is already quite a bit). The ethics of food involves a whole raft of factors: not only the treatment of animals and the environmental impact of production, but also the treatment of workers and the impact of the growth of pastoral land on indigenous peoples.
“In Australia it seems natural that we would have sheep, and natural that wheat would be here, but in thinking of the obviousness of those practices and products here, we forget their role in dispossessing indigenous Australians – the way that the expansion of sheep, particularly throughout NSW and Victoria in the early to mid-nineteenth century, was coinciding with a lot of these most brutal massacres.”
Chris considers what it means for lamb to be Australia’s national cuisine – and how you make Scriptures that rely on the language of sheep and shepherds meaningful within a non-pastoralist culture.
Then: Tom Kaiser is Simon Smart’s local butcher. Perhaps unusually for a butcher, he thinks people should eat less meat. He sells meat products that many would consider to be expensive in what he calls the “Masterchef era”.
“Affluence definitely plays a big part. They can afford to have the product that they see on TV. We know for a fact that we wouldn’t be able to charge the price, nor have the same model we have in different parts of Australia. … Ethics is obviously multi-layered. It comes to personal beliefs. It comes down to knowledge.”
Explore:
Chris Mayes’ book Unsettling Food Politics: Agriculture, Dispossession and Sovereignty in Australia
CPX’s new podcast The Week @ CPX
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The astonishing technological progress humans have made sometimes raises the warning that we shouldn’t be “playing God”. Nick Spencer from Theos think tank disagrees.
In their book Playing God: science, religion, and the future of humanity, Nick Spencer and Hannah Waite insist that contrary to the warnings to avoid “playing God”, human beings are in fact a God-playing species and have a responsibility to ‘play God’ well.
They examine remarkable advancements we have made in technological capability—AI, pharmacology and genetic engineering, knowledge of outer space, genetic editing, healing in the womb—and note that the world that science is creating raises exactly the kind of questions that science can’t answer. Their book is a plea to maintain an open and multi-voiced language to address these questions drawing on ethical, humanistic and spiritual layers.
On Life & Faith this week Nick Spencer joined Simon Smart to delve into some urgent contemporary questions that all coalesce around the notion of who we are as humans.
Explore
Nick Spencer and Hannah Waite, Playing God: Science, Religion and the Future of Humanity
Theos Think Tank
Centre for Public Christianity
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Bill Bennett, director of the film The Way, My Way and Camino legend Johnnie Walker Santiago reflect on the spiritual riches of going on pilgrimage.
“I see this walk as an 800km long cathedral”. So says Australian filmmaker Bill Bennett in the film The Way, My Way, which depicts Bill’s experiences walking the Camino de Santiago.
The Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St James, is a network of pilgrimage roads and paths running through Spain, France, and Portugal, leading to the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in north-western Spain, long believed to be the burial place of the Apostle James.
The Camino has been an oft-travelled pilgrimage route since medieval times. These days, plenty of spiritual seekers like Bill, and others looking for connection and adventure, become modern-day pilgrims, driven to discover deeper truths about life along the way.
This episode of Life & Faith interviews Bill Bennett, the director of The Way, My Way as well as Johnnie Walker Santiago, a beloved expert and authority on the Camino de Santiago.
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Explore:
Trailer for The Way, My Way
The book Bill Bennett wrote, upon which the film is based: The Way, My Way: A Camino memoir
Johnnie Walker Santiago’s guidebooks: Camino to Santiago: A spiritual companion and It’s About Time: A call to the Camino de Santiago
Check out CPX's new podcast, The Week @ CPX
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