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Articles on Christianity

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Some Christians interpret Biblical teachings to say that women are essentially equal to men, but should be submissive to male leaders in the church and home. Shutterstock

Explainer: why some churches teach that women are ‘separate but equal’

Complementarianism is the view – held by some Australian churches – that men and women have separate and divinely ordained roles: men are ‘spiritual leaders’ while women are ‘helpmeets’.
Why do we celebrate the birth of Jesus on 25 December? Adoration of the shepherds (1622) by Gerard van Honthorst/WIkimedia Commons

How did we come to celebrate Christmas?

Before Christmas became child-centred, Father Christmas was the personification of a mid-winter feast of merrymaking for adults – and he brought no presents.
Shin'ya Tsukamoto (right) and Andrew Garfield in Silence (2016). Cappa Defina Productions

Scorsese’s Silence and the Catholic connection to the atomic bomb

Martin Scorsese’s new film Silence will be shown to an audience of priests at the Vatican today. It tells the story of persecuted Christians in 17th century Japan - an event still remembered by Nagasaki’s Catholic community.
Was persecution a consistent imperial policy, and what types of punishments were inflicted on Christians? The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883)/Wikimedia Commons

Mythbusting Ancient Rome – throwing Christians to the lions

The image of cowering Christians being thrown to the lions by Roman emperors is a grisly staple of popular culture. But how accurate is it?
Mother Theresa in 1991. Kamal Kishore/Reuters

Questioning the ‘miracles’ of Saint Teresa

Mother Teresa will become a saint on Sunday, on the basis of two miracles of healing. But let’s not remove our thinking caps and go all medieval: we should be wary of uncritical endorsement of claims to the miraculous.

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