Life & Faith

In light of the chaos surrounding the U.S. presidential election we ask John Stackhouse and Nathan Campbell to reflect on the place of Religion in Public Life ----------- The story of the politicising of faith in the U.S. has a long backstory. Some would say the storming the Capitol building in Washington was the culmination of a complex narrative that has roots in the backlash against 1960s libertarianism and the subsequent alliance between conservative religion and conservative politics. That is a fascinating story in itself. But what is the place of faith in politics and public life? Do national flags and Christian faith go well together? What legitimacy do Christian believers have when engaging in politics? Theologian John Stackhouse Jnr sheds some light on the North American context and CPX Associate and Australian Pastor and blogger, Nathan Campbell, offers his perspective on this complex and fraught discussion.       

The CPX team debrief on their latest reads, TV binges, and podcast discoveries. --- It may not surprise you to know that the nerds at CPX spend a lot of time inhaling the books, movies, podcasts, and binge-worthy TV series that shape and reflect our particular cultural moment - and debriefing on them around the proverbial office water cooler.  This week on Life & Faith, Simon, Natasha, and Justine hit record on that conversation.  Covered in this episode:  Priestdaddy: the 2017 memoir by Patricia Lockwood, “poet laureate of Twitter”, whose father - a Catholic priest, via a loophole in the usual rules about celibacy - is a larger-than-life figure … like everyone else in her family, it seems. Hilarious and also disturbing, on growing up religious and continuing to love complicated people whose faith you no longer share. The Stand: a new 9-episode miniseries based on the 1978 Stephen King novel, available to watch on Amazon Prime, this dark fantasy/post-apocalyptic tale rejects the greys in favour of good ol’ black-and-white moral absolutes. Mother Abagail vs The Dark Man represents a traditional battle of good and evil, but sits oddly in the current atmosphere. Renegades: Born in the USA: the new podcast on Spotify brings together two American icons, Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama, to talk about life parallels, race, and the ongoing promise and peril of the “American dream”.

The most famous witch hunt in history – and how it speaks to our moment. ---  “There were always personal issues at stake in Salem and, I think, in all witchcraft trials. We can talk about larger-scale issues like economic change or political conflicts, but witchcraft accusations always started out of conflicts between individuals.” Donald Trump may declare his impeachment(s) “the greatest witch hunt in American history”, but that dubious honour has long been accorded to the panic that took hold of the New England community of Salem, Massachusetts, back in 1692. Catherine Brekus, who is Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America at Harvard Divinity School, takes us back to that iconic episode to help us understand the perfect storm of historical factors that caused it. She talks about what leads a close-knit community to turn against each other - and draws some uncomfortable parallels with our own moment, from conspiracy theories to the demonisation of opponents, especially women. "I really can’t think of any woman in modern history who has been more demonised than Clinton. If you do a search on the internet, you will see all kinds of horrible pictures, you can buy T-shirts of her riding a broom. And this might seem funny - but if you recall, back in 2016 there were rumours that Hillary Clinton was running a child trafficking sex ring from a pizza parlour in Washington DC, and there was a man who literally showed up there with an assault rifle to rescue these children." --- Most of this material from Catherine Brekus is drawn from an interview for CPX's For the Love of God documentary.  It is available (with much, much more) for free in a series of short videos, for easy use in the classroom or sharing on social media, at www.publicchristianity.org/interviews/  

British writer Francis Spufford talks about heartbreak and loss, hope and eternity, in his latest novel, Light Perpetual. --------- In November 1944, a German V2 missile obliterated a Woolworths store in South London, killing 168 people. Fifteen of that number were children under 11 years old. For 13 years Francis Spufford has, on his way to work each day, walked past a plaque commemorating the event. He says he has been increasingly haunted by the lives those children didn’t get to live.   In Light Perpetual Spufford summons five lives out of the dust and ruin of that 1944 calamity and breathes life into them, giving Jo and Valerie and Alec and Ben and Vernon a future they didn’t get to live. This is a story of paths chosen or not taken, the joys and wounds that time gifts and inflicts. The story is a complex weaving of divergent time periods and characters who live unspectacular but always intriguing lives. There is murder and mental illness, heartbreak and loss of various kinds, as well as a meditation and honouring of the mundane aspects of our lives that Spufford clearly sees as essential and, perhaps, sacred.   All the way along, he leaves open the tantalising possibility of eternity.  

Acclaimed author Susannah McFarlane on meeting her birth mother and then, to her great dismay, God.  — The EJ12 Girl Hero series, the EJ Spy School Series, D-Bot Squad, Boy vs Beast, Go Girl!, and Zac Power. For decades, Susannah McFarlane has been the author, publisher, and driving force behind some of Australia’s most popular children’s books. In her 50s, Susannah met her birth mother for the first time but discovered - to her shock - that she was a Pentecostal Christian. A staunch atheist, Susannah tried to argue her mother out of belief, but in researching the historical claims of Christianity, found herself converted - reluctantly - to the faith instead. In this episode of Life & Faith, we hear about Susannah’s reunion with her mother, the fallout - and also the joys - of coming to faith, and how this spinner of remarkable tales makes sense of the way her own story fits into the Christian story. — EXPLORE Heartlines: The year I met my other mother, co-authored with Robin Leuba The story of your life, an episode of Life & Faith that also deals with the way people’s lives are story-shaped

Do you have a soul? What is soul/a soul/the soul? We talk as though it’s a real thing: you can sell your soul, search your soul, keep body and soul together, not tell a soul, be the life and soul of the party, find something good for the soul or else soul-destroying. But do people still believe in the soul? And why? In this episode of Life & Faith, Simon Smart, Natasha Moore, and Justine Toh debrief about the new Pixar movie Soul. A school chaplain describes what happened when she asked her students if they believe in the soul, God, miracles, ghosts, or angels. And J. Richard Middleton, Professor of Biblical Worldview and Exegesis at Northeastern Seminary, argues that the Bible doesn’t say what most people (including Christians) think it says about what it means to have - or be - a soul.

Dom Knight's 2020 Dictionary provides a light-hearted (and at points serious) look back at the most extraordinary of years.

As we come to the end of the year that seemed like it might never end, the CPX team gets together for one last episode. We talk about the year that was - including Megxit, impeachment, Netflix, and zombie minks - as well as the “one story” that Christians keep coming back to, and why we think it’s the right story for this year (and every year!) Simon Smart, Justine Toh, Natasha Moore, Mark Stephens, and Tim Costello each pick a line from a beloved carol, and join the dots to life in 2020. We reflect on cynicism and division, light and life, hopes and fears, and what joy there might be for a weary world. 

What do neuroscience, philosophy, and theology have to say about the mystery of human consciousness?   “Even if we come up with a beautiful elegant neuroscience of consciousness - which I hope we do - that will still leave the question, why are we conscious at all? Why does consciousness exist in the first place?”   Despite everything we know about the universe we live in, the content of our own heads remains a mystery in many ways. Does everything that matter - everything that makes you you - reside in your brain chemistry? What is the relationship between the brain and the “mind”, or even the “soul”? Is there such a thing? And if not, are we simply at the mercy of our neurons? Can we be said to have any kind of free will?   Dr Sharon Dirckx has been wrestling with existential questions like these since childhood, through her PhD in brain imaging at the University of Cambridge, and now as a senior tutor at OCCA The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. In this episode, she speaks with Simon Smart about her book Am I Just My Brain? and our quest to comprehend ourselves.

Three stories of ordinary people, and the extraordinary care they take of people in their lives. For 11 years, Diana Aitken has been part of the soup kitchen at St Matthew’s Anglican Church in Manly, where a community of care has sprung up that goes far beyond the lavish meals served every Monday night. Issam Khoury cared for his wife Irene during her long struggle with polycystic liver and kidney disease, and throughout her transplant journey.  Carolyn Stedman, 74, has fostered 74 children over 45 years. While she has no intention of stopping, saying goodbye to these children can be gut-wrenching.  The work of care doesn’t tend to grab the headlines, but in this episode of Life & Faith, we shine the spotlight on three ordinary people who take extraordinary care of the people in their lives. --  READ: C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce