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’.
We are a secular nation, yet we acknowledge god in our Constitution. When it comes to religion, Australians tend to be pluralist and (relatively) tolerant.
Before Christmas became child-centred, Father Christmas was the personification of a mid-winter feast of merrymaking for adults – and he brought no presents.
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.
About one-quarter of the world’s countries, both in developing and developed economies, have anti-blasphemy laws. Their implementation is always controversial and highly politicised.
50 years after Time magazine’s famous ‘Is God Dead?’ cover, Church attendance numbers are tumbling. But that doesn’t mean Christianity is on the way out.
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.
Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity