After a financial crisis which highlighted and unearthed corrupt management, bad business practices and selfish acts of greed, maybe it’s time to evaluate the impact of a more spiritual form of leadership…
All bets are off over what the former Archbishop thinks about religion in public life.
Stefan Rousseau/PA Archive/Press Association Images
A high-level commission has been convened to consider the place of religion in British public life. But the way this commission has been put together makes it part of the problem rather than promising…
Some memorabilia should go under a different kind of hammer.
Shutterstock gravel
The sale of Nazi memorabilia is banned or at least restricted in a number of European countries, including Germany and France, yet it continues to be a feature of British auction houses. Anti-Semites in…
Recent debate about the government’s school chaplaincy program has been informed by deficient understandings of what ‘secular’ is.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Despite recent calls for its elimination and the High Court (again) finding that it was funded unconstitutionally, the Abbott government announced this week that it would continue its school chaplaincy…
Throughout his recent royal commission appearance, Catholic cardinal George Pell focused on the ‘choices’ that victims of abuse make.
AAP/Paul Miller
Cardinal George Pell’s appearance at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will do little to rehabilitate his image in the eyes of clergy abuse victims. Via video link…
The silent majority of Muslims shouldn’t be blamed for the actions of Islam’s radical followers – they are victims of radical Islam.
EPA/Ali Abbas
Stretching from north Africa to east Asia, many Muslims are engaged in a life-and-death tussle with extremists who are bent on extinguishing the diversity of opinions within the Muslim community. Atrocities…
The recent discovery of 35 men, women and children in a shipping container at Tilbury docks in Essex is shocking for many reasons. Few had known that people were being brought into the UK in shipping containers…
The teaser trailers and articles that have been tantalising Doctor Who fans for months are now reaching a crescendo, with the first episode of the new series due to air on August 23. And they promise a…
Anti-Semitism never takes long to surface, ranging from the desecration of Jewish graves and memory to violent attacks on people.
AAP/NZN/Alastair Bull
The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has triggered a dramatic rise in global anti-Semitism. This has significantly undermined the collective well-being of the Jewish people. While the intensity of anti-Semitism…
Iraq is rapidly spiralling into a humanitarian catastrophe, with the persecuted Yazidi religious minority facing genocide.
EPA/Mohammed Jalil
US president Barack Obama has confirmed that the US military made targeted airstrikes and carried out a humanitarian operation in Iraq, marking the deepest US engagement in the country since US troops…
Islamic State militants have destroyed sites of great cultural and historical significance in Iraq, such as the tomb of the prophet Jonah in Mosul.
EPA/Stringer
Iraq previously had one of the most multicultural societies in the Middle East. A broad diversity of religions, races and cultures flourished in Iraq, united by common heritage, culture and traditions…
Pope Francis argues that the poor are at the heart of the Gospel and it’s the communists who have ‘stolen the flag’.
EPA/Nicola Lanese
A blog in The Economist recently accused Pope Francis of following the founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin, in adopting an “ultra-radical line” on capitalism. The blog, “Francis, capitalism and…
The tan-tastic trailer for Ridley Scott’s new epic Exodus: Gods and Kings was recently released, to lukewarm response. What I find most striking about the trailer is not, as you might expect, Christian…
The Anglican Church has responded to the Royal Commission by allowing priests in some circumstances to report confessions of sexual abuse.
AAP/Jeremy Piper
The Australian Anglican Church has put the interests of children and victims of crime ahead of tradition and doctrine. Priests who hear confessions about serious criminal offences, including child abuse…
Tony Abbott’s support for funding religious chaplains in schools violates the principle of government religious neutrality.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The High Court of Australia, for the second time, recently found that the National School Chaplaincy and Student Welfare Program (NSCSWP) is funded unconstitutionally, and so is invalid in its current…
Hillsong presents its congregation with a stadium-sized experience of worship. But is it dangerous for a religion to become a global corporate brand?
Aikawa Ke
Matthew Wade, Australian National University and Maria Hynes, Australian National University
The Sydney-based Hillsong Church will today wrap up its annual conference, an enormous production of spectacle and a heady mix of the sacred and the secular. In Australia, where religious expression tends…
Serving prophetic Raëlness at Seoul’s Love Hug Festival.
Kmarinas86
Each age has its visionaries, and the 21st century is no exception. Prophets do not belong to the past, but indeed to the present and invariably to the future. They are timeless because their lives and…
The probability of a frog turning into a prince is small. So small, in fact, that Richard Dawkins recently spoke out against the story and others like it, asserting that we promote supernaturalism by telling…
The idea may seem ‘old-fashioned’, says Pope Francis, ‘But look out because the devil is present! The devil is here … even in the 21st century!’
EPA/Maurizio Brambatti
Pope Francis’ discussion of the devil (or Satan) has been greeted with surprise by many. Why would a “progressive” Pope speak about an “old-school”, passé topic like the devil? Has not the Catholic Church…
What’s 1000 years between friends?
EPA/Abir Sultan
Pope Francis’s visit to the Middle East has been hugely significant, for both religious and political reasons. Francis hopes to encourage ongoing peaceful dialogue and co-operation between both Israelis…
For a biologist like me, the interesting questions about religion have always been where did it come from and why did it evolve? I taught evolutionary biology in a Catholic University in the most Catholic…
Does mankind’s religious instinct date back to prehistoric times?
iurri
Notions of gods arise in all human societies, from all powerful and all-knowing deities to simple forest spirits. A recent method of examining religious thought and behaviour links their ubiquity and the…
John XXIII and John Paul II: most recent popes to join the ranks of saints.
Mario Fornasari/Flickr
Popes John Paul II and John XXIII were declared saints by Pope Francis last Sunday. So what were the “miracles” necessary for John Paul’s sainthood, and how likely was it they really occurred? Almost 40…
Pope Francis embraces Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI during the canonisation mass of Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII.
EPA/Osservatore Romano Press Office
The week after Easter, Pope Francis presided over the canonisation ceremony which declared his two most famous contemporary predecessors, John Paul II and John XXIII, were now “saints”. This is an important…
Bible literacy’s up in this electric chapel.
Teemu Rytky
Easter is here, and while some might reflect on the resurrection of Christ, I’m wondering at another miracle of sorts that we’re witnessing – the renaissance of the Bible in popular culture. The run up…