Life & Faith

A columnist's job is to process deeper currents in news, politics, and culture – all in 800 words.Who are we as a nation and a people, and what's going on for us beneath the daily headlines of the 24/7 media cycle?Few of us stop long enough to wonder – but if we ever wanted to find out, a good place to start would be Sean Kelly's writing in The Sydney Morning Herald. Sean Kelly is a former political staffer in the Rudd and Gillard governments, who now writes a weekly column on politics for The Sydney Morning Herald. He's also the author of the book The Game: A Portrait of Scott Morrison.Sean has a front row seat to what's going on for us as a nation and combines that perspective with an insider's view of how politics works. In this interview with Life & Faith he considers what it might mean to be considered a chronicler of the national soul. Explore Sean Kelly's column on how “kindness” won Anthony Albanese the 2025 Federal election.His column about what might be called “the Albanese effect”: the move towards the centre, and the adoption of a less divisive tone, in the new leadership of the Greens and Liberal Party.His book The Game: A Portrait of Scott Morrison

Stories and stats from the UK suggest that something has shifted, spiritually, over the past few years.-- Since 2018, two million more people in England and Wales have started regularly attending church – an increase fuelled largely by Gen Z, and by young men especially.So say the results from a new survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of the British and Foreign Bible Society, results which cut across a bunch of our assumptions: that Western societies are on a secularising trajectory; that women are more religious than men; that young people are more likely to reject “traditional” beliefs such as Christianity.In this episode of Life & Faith, we gather a few reports from abroad to get a handle on what's happening in the UK, spiritually speaking. Vicar-in-training and Oxford research student Daniel Kim, who has written extensively about spirituality and occult beliefs in contemporary culture, talks about the spiritual openness of Gen Z. Bri Walsh, an Aussie who spent a season in London recently, offers an insider/outsider perspective on UK churchgoing in the 2020s. And Rob Barward-Symmons, co-author of The Quiet Revival – the report that puts concrete numbers to the anecdotal rumblings of the last few years – talks us through the data and what might be driving the recent surge in church attendance.Explore:Check out The Quiet Revival report, by Rob Barward-Symmons and Rhiannon McAleer, from British and Foreign Bible Society https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/research/quiet-revivalRead more from Daniel Kim about contemporary spirituality https://www.seenandunseen.com/contributors/daniel-kim

Got a burning creative project? Face your finitude, says this productivity expert, by learning to number your days. Everyone is pressed for time, and in a never-ending quest to conquer their schedules. It's why productivity tips and hacks are big business these days.But underneath our productivity problem is a reality no one wants to face: the fact that we're all going to die, argues self-described “recovering” productivity expert Oliver Burkeman, and the author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. The average human life is about 80 years, or some 4000 weeks, and the sooner we come to grips with the ultimate deadline, the better off we'll be, argues Burkeman.In this interview with Life & Faith, Oliver explains how “mortality” emerged as a theme for his 2021 book, how the solace of “deep time” – as experienced during times of flow, prayer, meditation, and hiking – connects us with our humanity, how AI might change the game for human creativity, and how he, as someone more drawn to Eastern religion, makes sense of our yearning for more time, for more than one life.The shadow of Christianity – with its promise of transcendence, eternity, and being situated in an unfolding story that stretches before and after our earthly lives – looms over the conversation.Explore Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for MortalsOliver Burkeman's Meditations for Mortals: A Four Week Guide to Doing What CountsOliver Burkeman's website

Journalist, author and theologian, Stan Grant on responding to injustice with grace and love.In a decades-long career as a journalist and foreign correspondent, Stan Grant saw some of the worst that humanity is capable of. It took its toll on him. And as a Wiradjuri man he has had to wrestle with identity, belonging, and who we all are in 21st century Australia. He went through a period of angst and anger, and he would say, some bitterness, as he and his people confronted injustice, prejudice and a history of oppression, violence and dispossession.But through a serious spiritual re-awakening, Grant has found a different way to be. On Life & Faith he describes the shape of that spiritual life and the surprising ways it has impacted him and how he sees the world and his place in it. Turning his back on anger, Grant outlines his renewed motivation for meeting hate with love and grace.His latest book, Murriyang: song of time, is a poetic account of his life and that of his family and his people, and offers a vision of the healing balm of Christian faith that has inspired Grant to see himself, other people and the creation itself, in a new light. Don't miss this confronting and inspiring conversation! Explore:Stan latest book: Murriyang: Song of TimeLifeline Australia: 13 11 14Beyond Blue: 1300 22 46 36 or beyondblue.org.au

There are currently 7 living generations. That makes for plenty of crossed-wires, misunderstandings and confusion about each other, and the future.In this episode of Life & Faith, we speak to futurist, speaker and author Ashley Fell from McCrindle, a social research and advisory firm that uses cutting edge research and data analysis to decode the generations and make sense of each other and even predict the future.It turns out that there's much more to each generation than our slang, cultural references or relationship with technology. Join us as we explore how a better understanding of the generations can foster empathy, strengthen social trust and even offer us a window into the future.Explore: McCrindle Research website: https://mccrindle.com.au/ What defines a Generation? (video clip): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMB2_aNINdM Inside the mind of Generation Alpha: https://mccrindle.com.au/article/topic/generation-alpha/inside-the-mind-of-generation-alpha/ Welcome Gen Beta (Article): https://mccrindle.com.au/article/generation-beta-defined/

An Anglican priest on Ash Wednesday, a Benedictine nun on Lent, and a Lutheran minister on Bonhoeffer's last words.In this episode of Life & Faith, we go beyond the chocolates and hot cross buns to sit with the darkness of the Easter story that unfolds in three acts: dust, desert, and death.Our guests provide different snapshots of the Easter season, and the unexpected glimmers of life to be found in the time.From Anglican priest Chris Allan, from St Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney, we hear about the visceral experience of having the cross marked on your forehead in ash, and why Ash Wednesday is the ultimate reality check about who we are.Then, Sister Antonia Curtis, from Jamberoo Abbey on NSW's South Coast, allows us to briefly experience a Desert Day, a time set aside for reflection and contemplation observed by her and her community on Sundays throughout Lent.Lastly, we dwell on the last words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the pastor, theologian, and unlikely co-conspirator in the Hitler assassination plot. On the eve of his execution by the Nazis in 1945, Bonhoeffer said, “This is the end. But, for me, the beginning of life”. Rev Dr Mark Worthing, a Lutheran minister and Bonhoeffer scholar, explains how the Easter story decodes those words, and how death is transformed into life.Explore:Sr Antonia Curtis' online retreat offered through Jamberoo Abbey: “High Horses, Scapegoats, and Donkeys: A Lenten Odyssey”.The Adelaide Bonhoeffer Conference 2025, where Rev Dr Mark Worthing is giving a keynote address in late April.

In the 1940s a group of German students saw it as their duty to oppose the tyranny of Nazism. The members of The White Rose, young students and some lecturers, became convinced that they had to take action against their own government and its crimes. They began a campaign writing and disseminating thousands of pamphlets condemning the Nazis and calling on Germans to embrace passive resistance in order to bring down the regime and end the war.It was a highly risky thing to do. The Nazis were at the peak of their powers and opposition like this simply not tolerated.Brother and sister Hans and Sophie Scholl were part of the group, and, with their friend Christoph Probst, were the first to be arrested, tried and executed. The story of the White Rose continues to challenge and inspire all of us to think about courage in the face of injustice and moral bravery when it costs you a lot.---ExploreAlexandra Lloyd's book, Defying Hitler: The White Rose Pamphlets

In an age of outrage, how can we rise above cynicism and work towards a healthier and more vibrant form of political debate and engagement?With a Federal election campaign looming and cynicism about politics at an all-time high, Life & Faith interviews eminent Political Scientist Professor John Warhurst about how we can navigate an increasingly grumpy political landscape.If politics is downstream from culture and we get the politics that we deserve, how can we do better? Do we expect too much from our politicians or not enough? And do we give up too quickly when things don't go our way in elections?John Warhurst brings decades of experience to these questions. He believes there are more silver linings than we think and that self-reflection, compassion, gratitude and intelligent humility are an important part of the answer. Instead of focusing on what we think of our politicians, this interview explores how recalibrating how we approach politics as citizens, can put us on a path to a healthier democracy and a more positive public square.

Increasing interest in psychedelics, the occult, and the supernatural all point to one thing: enchantment is back.“The thing is you can't have enchantment that's only selective. You can't only have the bright side. You also need to acknowledge the dark side. That's one of the things I really wanted to do with this book and it caused some consternation with my first publisher. She didn't want the dark side in there.”The modern experience is one of disenchantment, argued sociologist Max Weber – a world from which the supernatural, and all gods and monsters, had been scrubbed.Not anymore, apparently. Increasing interest in the occult, and people's willingness to share about their ecstatic experiences, as well as their evil encounters with the supernatural, suggests a higher tolerance for talk about the spiritual realm – for good and ill.Life & Faith kicks off 2025 with an eye-opening interview with journalist Rod Dreher, author of Living in Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age. In this wide-ranging chat, Rod talks about the budding religion of technology worship, the experience of art and beauty as a gateway to enchantment, the possibly malign spiritual forces at work in our world, and his increasing conviction that the world is not what you think it is. ---Explore:Rod's book Living in Wonder Rod's Substack

What does the Christmas promise of “peace on earth” mean in the face of human suffering, natural disasters, and other heartbreaks that are part of all our lives?Twenty years ago, the Indian Ocean tsunami claimed the lives of some 225,000 people, after battering the coastlines of India, Indonesia, Malysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Seychelles, Thailand, and Somalia.Tim Costello, then CEO of World Vision, was among the first to be on the ground in Sri Lanka, which was among the countries worst affected. He recounts being confronted with the mammoth scale of devastation on the ground and the tragedy of so many lives lost. Then we hear from former CPX-er Mark Stephens, now Lecturer in New Testament at Sydney Missionary Bible College, about what the Christmas promise of “peace on earth” could possibly mean in the face of untold human suffering – and what are the grounds of hope now and into the future.This is our last episode of Life & Faith for the year but we will be back in 2025. From the whole team at CPX, we wish you a Merry Christmas.

In 1894, South Australia was the fourth place in the world to grant universal female suffrage. Christian housewives were key to the cause.History was made on Dec 18, 1894, when a bill passed in the South Australian parliament granting women the right to vote and the right to stand for public office.This made the South Australian Parliament the first in Australia, and the fourth place in the world, to extend voting rights to women.In August of that year, a petition of 11,600 signatures had been presented to parliament, supporting women's right to a voice in the political process. It was the result of long campaigning and legwork by women's groups: the Women's Suffrage League, the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the Working Women's Trades Union, which gathered signatures from all over the state.In this episode of Life & Faith, Dr Nicole Starling, historian of 19th century Australian religious and political history, explains the role of the WCTU in gaining women the vote, and also how temperance activists, often denounced as stuffy wowsers looking to curb alcohol consumption, were the first to spot connections between alcohol abuse and what we now call family and domestic violence.Explore:Nicole Starling on XMore info on Nicole Starling's book Evangelical Belief and Enlightenment Morality in the Australian Temperance Movement, 1832-1930

Journalist Michael Visontay uncovers intriguing stories from the fragments of a 1450s Gutenberg Bible, including an amazing link to his own family.In 1921 when rare book collector Gabriel Wells broke up his Gutenberg Bible and began to sell off individual pages, it caused a scandal, and a rush for collectors to get the chance to own and be a part of the Gutenberg mystique.Was Wells' action an act of vandalism, or just a smart move from an enterprising rare book dealer? Either way, these fragments became much sought-after, and Wells became a rich man. Decades on, Michael Visontay traces these “noble fragments” as they pass through various collectors' hands and carry with them fascinating stories.Michael's own family – holocaust survivors from Hungary who immigrated to Australia in the 1950s – have their own connection to Gabriel Wells and the Gutenberg Bible. Michael Visontay tells this “detective story”/intriguing family history with panache.Here he tells Life & Faith about that history and how it captured him so completely.Explore:Noble Fragments: The Maverick Who Broke Up the World's Greatest Book

International Justice Mission wants tech companies to step up efforts to protect vulnerable children.Warning: distressing content. The Philippines is the global epicentre of the online sexual exploitation of children, where children are abused by parents and other relatives in their own homes, in front of a video camera, for a fee.It's awful and sickening trade in vulnerable human lives, one that's particularly insidious since it distorts a child's relationship with their primary caregivers and that transforms a child's home – the exact place they should be safe – into a predatory environment of abuse. And Australians are the third-highest consumers of this content worldwide, paying for these crimes to be live-streamed, and often through commonly used social media platforms and video conferencing tools.International Justice Mission (IJM) works to end modern slavery, partnering with NGOs, social workers, child advocates, faith communities, and law enforcement to bring about justice for survivors of trafficking, and to strengthen justice systems to hold offenders accountable. The organisation is now advocating for greater online safety, including pressuring tech companies to be more intentional about child safety from the point of product design.Life & Faith spoke to Gigi Tupas, head of National Activation and Partnerships at IJM Philippines, and Grace Wong, Chief Advocacy Officer, IJM Australia, to hear about what's happening on the ground.Explore: Support the work of International Justice Mission by becoming a Freedom Partner. Read the Sydney Morning Herald article: “The children for sale – and the Australians who exploit them”Read the 2023 UNSW report featuring research cited by Grace in the episode: “Identifying and understanding child sexual offending behaviours and attitudes among Australian men” Read more about IJM's 2023 report that found roughly one in 100 Filipino children were trafficked to produce live-streamed child sexual exploitation material.Tell us what you think of Life & Faith in this 5-minute survey

Erinch Sahan believes that the key to building safer, healthier and stronger communities can be found in a doughnut.Doughnut Economics is a visual framework and growing movement that seeks to tackle humanity's biggest problems through a fresh new understanding of our world.Erinch shares how his experience as a senior executive at Procter & Gamble, Oxfam and head of the World Fair Trade Organisation, led him to his current role as head of the Dougnut Economics Action Lab, where he and his team works with businesses, governments and communities, to re-imagine how economics can be used to build a better future.Erinch also teaches at the University of Cambridge and is a respected global voice on global trade, business practice and bringing ethics to economics.We examine how this innovative new movement brings a fresh perspective to some of our biggest local and global challenges. And we take a closer look at how it's possible to include ideals like stewardship in our continued pursuit of profits, pleasure and happiness.Explore: Doughnut Economics Action Lab website Kate Raworth's ‘Doughnut Economics' Ted Talk Tell us what you think of Life & Faith in this 5-minute survey

Tim Winton talks to Life & Faith about his new novel Juice.Tim Winton is one of Australia's most loved writers. He is also well-known as an environmental activist and defender of landscapes and fragile ecosystems. And now, as a grandfather to 6 children, he is clearly deeply concerned about what we might be leaving behind to them and those who come after them.His lates novel, Juice, is set in the distant future, a time when climate catastrophe has wreaked havoc on the globe. Civilisation has crumbled. Huge parts of the earth, in a band emanating from the equator, are completely uninhabitable. It's all about the global unravelling that could accompany climate devastation. It's frightening and sobering. And yet somehow determinedly hopeful.Tim came into the CPX studio to talk about Juice and what inspired this challenging piece of art. Explore:Tim Winton's novel Juice Ningaloo NyingguluSimon Smart's review of Juice at ABC Religion & EthicsTell us what you think of Life & Faith in this 5-minute survey

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.--Explore:Michael Jensen's book Subjects and Citizens: The Politics of the Gospel

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.ExplorePeter Wehner's profile on X (Twitter)Peter Wehner's article in The Atlantic: This Election is DifferentSimon's interview with Michael Wear, Cultivating Better Politics.Simon's interview with Darrell Bock, The US Election and the Politicisation of Faith.

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 AgeTell us what you think of Life & Faith in this 5-minute survey

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.ExploreNick McKenzie's website https://www.nickmckenzie.com.au/The book Crossing the Line: The Inside Story of Murder, Lies and a Fallen HeroTell us what you think of Life & Faith in this 5-minute survey

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. ---Explore: Shankari's website

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!

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.---Explore: Brightlight website CPX Podcast Episode: The Ethics of What We Eat Adam Smith's ‘Theory of Moral Sentiments'

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.

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 directlyCure internationalDr Venter's WebsiteOperation Smile

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.

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”. ---Get the Book: The End of Men?

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. ---Explore:The Devil's Best Trick: How the Face of Evil DisappearedThe Miracle Detective: An Investigation into Holy VisionsRandall 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

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 children's 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.comGeorge Macdonald's, ‘The Fantastic Imagination'Joe Pompeo's Vanity Fair article on utopia, dystopia and the modern imagination

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

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

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. ---Explore:Elizabeth Oldfield's book Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent TimesHer letter about leaving her job that hit a nerve with peopleHer Substack newsletter Fully AliveThe Sacred Podcast

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 AustraliaCPX's new podcast The Week @ CPX

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 TankCentre for Public Christianity

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. ---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

This dreaded disease seems to strip away everything that makes us, well, us. A chaplain and a psychiatrist remind us of the human at the centre of the diagnosis.---The ‘d' word – dementia – is one that everyone fears. It seems to strip away everything that made that person with the disease the person we once knew. It's easy to lose sight of the person, the human at the centre of the diagnosis.Today, 420,000 Australians live with dementia, a number projected to double in the next 30 years, which makes it a significant and growing health challenge for Australia's ageing population.This episode of Life & Faith brings you two conversations that bring the human at the centre of the dementia diagnosis back into focus. We're featuring two interviews Natasha Moore did before going on maternity leave: with Neil Jeyasingam, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Sydney. Neil is also a CPX Associate. Natasha also spoke to Ben Boland, a chaplain with 15 years' experience in residential aged care – and whose father lives with dementia. Explore:Dementia Australia, the national peak body representing people with dementia, their families, and carers. Check out CPX's new podcast, The Week At CPX, to keep up-to-date with everything that's happening at CPX, plus a bit of commentary on the side.

Mercy Aiken tells Life & Faith of the joy-filled, yet painful life of Palestinian Christian, Bishara Awad.Bishara was a child in Jerusalem when his father was shot and killed during the Israeli-Arab war of 1948. The story of his life and that of his family provides a sobering portrait of life in Israel/Palestine during decades of war, violence, tension and dashed dreams for those seeking a peaceful resolution to conflict.Somehow, Bishara, a Palestinian Christian and community leader, remains unbowed, but also forgiving and empathetic towards his opponents. His story is told in the book, Yet in the Dark Streets Shining – a Palestinian Story of Hope and Resilience in Bethlehem. The coauthor of the book is Mercy Aiken – who came into the CPX studio. Mercy was in Australia with the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Network.The book: Yet in the Dark Streets Shining – a Palestinian Story of Hope and Resilience in BethlehemPalestine Israel Ecumenical Network

Asuntha Charles has lived in some toughest places in the world. And she's loved it.     Long    As a young woman, Asuntha Charles stubbornly defied her culture to advocate for vulnerable women and girls. That determination never left her as she dedicated her life to voiceless people in not only her native India, but places like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sudan and Iraq. Here she tells Life & Faith about her extraordinary life of service and care for people who needed that care most. And we also get an insight into the early influences that shaped her life and contributed to her holding a faith that sustains her even in the face of risk, and heartbreaking losses. Try listening to this and not be challenged and inspired! --- Sign up for the CPX newsletter here 

War correspondent Janine di Giovanni has covered the near-extinction of the ancient Christian communities of the Middle East.   ---  “They've survived plagues, they've survived pillages, they've survived raids, they've survived purges – and they most recently survived ISIS.”   The Christian communities of the Middle East – in places like Iraq and Syria, Egypt and Palestine – are ancient, and over recent decades have been facing various kinds of existential threat. Janine di Giovanni's book The Vanishing: The Twilight of Christianity in the Middle East is a work of “pre-archaeology”, recording the stories and courage of these communities even as they disappear.   Di Giovanni is a war correspondent and human rights investigator who has covered 18 wars and 3 genocides across her career, bearing witness to the terrible things that happen in our world. In this episode, she talks about visiting churches in war zones, why people stay, and whether faith – including her own belief in God – is strong enough to survive war. She also shares a bit about her current work with The Reckoning Project, a war crimes unit working within Ukraine.   “It's been an honour to work for 35 years in all these war zones with these extraordinary people. I feel very privileged and lucky every day of my life that I do this work, because … I have a purposeful life.”  ---  EXPLORE:  The Vanishing: The Twilight of Christianity in the Middle East, by Janine di Giovanni  The Reckoning Project  Sign up for the CPX newsletter here 

CPX writers talk about how they're hoping to breathe new life into a very old story.   ---  Get a glimpse into the CPX writers' room as Simon, Natasha, Justine and Max talk about what they're writing about Easter, or how they go about working out how to write about Easter.   Natasha talks about American novelist Marilynne Robinson's new book Reading Genesis and how Robinson's courteous and unapologetic way of doing “public Christianity” messes with how public conversations about God usually happen.   Max discusses how we may admire heroes for their greatness – like Homer's Achilles, for example – but we really long for goodness, expressed by saviours who willingly sacrifice themselves for others.  Simon discusses how a quirk of the calendar can put Anzac Day and Easter in proximity to each other, bringing those two events and their focus on sacrifice into conversation.   Justine talks about death denial among the tech titans of Silicon Valley who hope to solve the problem of death. She argues that they express what life feels like if Easter Saturday – the day Jesus lay dead in the grave – is never followed by Easter Sunday – the day that changed everything, according to the Christian faith, because it is the day that Jesus rose to new life.   --- Explore:  Natasha's piece on Marilynne Robinson's Reading Genesis  An article Simon wrote linking Anzac Day with Easter  Sign up for the CPX newsletter here 

We explore the spiritual needs of people in intensive care in hospital, or behind bars.  ---  “I went to see this lady and as soon as I walked in, she actually said, ‘f*** off, I don't want to have anything to do with you people'.”  Chaplaincy in Australia is contested. If people have had a bad experience with the church or concerned that someone might be trying to manipulate them, a chaplain walking up to say hi might get that response. Not least because people can be very vulnerable if they're dealing with a shocking medical episode in hospital or grappling with life in prison.  This Life & Faith episode takes you behind the scenes of two very different environments: the intensive care unit of a major Sydney hospital, and Kirkconnell Correctional Centre in regional NSW. Two chaplains from Jericho Road, a social service organisation linked with the Presbyterian Church in NSW, tell us about what it's like to care spiritually for people during very difficult times in their lives.   Content warning: there are some challenging stories told in these interviews. This episode is not suitable for children.  --- Explore:  Jericho Road's Love Your Neighbour course on chaplaincy Sign up for CPX's regular email newsletter to find out more about our work.

For decades now in the West, religion has been on the retreat. In places where, 50 years ago, going to church on a Sunday was just what you did, we've had generations now for whom that would be a very foreign concept.   Justin Brierley is an author and very popular podcaster. For 17 years he hosted a podcast called Unbelievable where he would bring together atheist and Christian thinkers for civil and robust discussion. He presided over conversations with some of the world's great minds for these dialogues and modelled a brilliant way to disagree civilly.   Justin has just published a book called The Surprising Re-birth of Belief in God: Why New Atheism Grew Old and Secular Thinkers Are Considering Christianity Again. He detects a shift in the air and the possibility that the thoroughly secular vision of the world might not be cutting it for people today. Is that his imagination or might there be something to this?  --- Explore:  Justin's latest book: https://justinbrierley.com/the-surprising-rebirth-of-belief-in-god/  And the podcast at:  The Surprising Rebirth podcast: https://justinbrierley.com/surprisingrebirth/ 

Sarah Williams explains how the mother of modern feminism fell off the pages of history. --- After her death in 1906, Josephine Butler was described as one of the “few great people who have moulded the course of things”. (For the record, she was also described by peers as “the most beautiful woman in the world”.) Yet how many of us have heard of her? A bit too feminist for later Christians, a bit too Christian for later feminists, this pioneer of the movement against sex trafficking is only now being remembered. Sarah Williams is an historian at Regent College and a research associate at St Benet's Hall, Oxford. And over the last few years, she has gotten to know Josephine Butler well – she would even go so far as to call her a friend. When Natasha Moore asked what she finds so remarkable about Butler, Sarah speaks first about her persistence – the sixteen years she spent working to overturn one law that unjustly discriminated against women. “I don't think that we lack vision in our culture, but we definitely lack stamina … I think she did it by recognising that she couldn't do it. Does that sound strange?” For International Women's Day this year, meet the woman who's been called the mother of modern feminism – and join an ongoing conversation our culture is having about power, justice, gender, and what it means to “change the world”. “We might imagine that the real centres of power are where powerful people change culture through influencing spheres of culture – media, politics, the law, and so on … And yet what's extraordinary about somebody like Josephine Butler or Mahatma Gandhi or any other of the great social reformers that we can think of in history, is that they somehow manage to see that really the margins matter a lot. And that what goes on at the centre, if it fails to understand what's going on at the margins, does so at its peril.” — Pre-order Sarah Williams' biography of Josephine Butler, When Courage Calls.

Reflections on a human experience that's at once routine and exceptional; both very costly and very good.  ---  Life & Faith has covered many stories relating to birth over the years – incredible stories of courage and heartbreak, difficult decisions, life and death – but we've never done an episode on birth itself: what's amazing about this process, what's so hard about it, what makes it so meaningful for so many people.   This year Simon Smart is celebrating a once-every-four-years occasion (yes, he was born on 29 February!) and Natasha Moore is due to head off on maternity leave soon, so Justine Toh joins them for a conversation about birthdays – that is, birth ... days. And midwife Jodie McIver, author of Bringing Forth Life: God's Purposes in Pregnancy and Birth, offers some insights on the journey to becoming a parent, including how surprisingly frequently pregnancy and birth – in story and as metaphor – feature in the Bible.  “I think the fact that God chooses birth to help us understand deep spiritual realities about his character and work in the world really gives honour to women's bodies, and to these human experiences as well, as we kind of share in the cost of bringing forth life in our own little way.”  ---  EXPLORE  Jodie McIver, Bringing Forth Life: God's Purposes in Pregnancy and Birth  A few other Life & Faith episodes related to birth, touching on disability, loss, infertility, and fostering:  Speak Up, Show Up  Intensive Care  When Life Doesn't Go to Plan  Home Extension 

…of which CPX's Justine Toh is first and foremost.  --- In the lead up to Easter, Justine is giving up not only sugar, but her ignorance about all things Lent. She speaks to Catholic theologian Matt Tan, who goes by Awkward Asian Theologian on socials, about Lent and its three-fold focus: giving up, alms-giving, and prayer. They discuss the difficulty of self-sacrifice and the way that, strangely enough, it often proves the easier option over alms-giving, which needn't only include giving to charity, but also intentional, active investment in the lives of others.  Matt also alludes to the way church seasons induct the believer into an entirely different order of time. He cites the work of Neil Postman, who said the clock was originally invented to help monks keep to their daily prayer schedule. In time, however, the clock, went beyond the monastery and conquered the rest of the world. Time is now subdivided into increasingly minute moments that all need to be filled. So, what does it mean to live according to the rhythms of sacred time?  --- Explore  Simon Smart's Ash Wednesday article   Life & Faith episode with Matt Tan on the metaphysics of pornography  Follow Awkward Asian Theologian on Instagram 

20 years on from the founding of Facebook, what role do these platforms play in our lives?  ---  February 4 marked 20 years since Mark Zuckerburg launched the site that was initially known as The Facebook from his Harvard dorm room, so this seems like a good time to take stock of what social media now looks like, and what our lives look like as a result.  Whether you're an avid user of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, TikTok, and more, or a social media sceptic, join Simon Smart, Justine Toh, and Natasha Moore for a frank chat about the better and worse of these platforms in 2024. With cameos from Andy Crouch, CPX brand manager (and socials pro) Clare Potts, and recent social media quitter Jess Forsyth, the discussion ranges from whether group chats count as social media to whether the internet is “made of demons” - as well as the advantages (and disciplines) of being an iceberg vs an ocean liner.   ---  EXPLORE:  New York Times article How Group Chats Rule the World   Philippa Moore's article about quitting social media   Paul Kingsnorth's Substack essays The Universal and The Neon God  Alan Jacobs' New Atlantis piece  Andy Crouch's Spiritual Practices for Public Leadership 

Anglican Priest David Pileggi talks about what Christmas means in his town of Jerusalem in the midst of war.    --- Anglican priest David Pileggi has lived in Jerusalem for over 40 years. In that time he has seen a lot, but recent events in Israel and Gaza have been as shocking and disturbing as any he has encountered. He talks to Life & Faith about his life in the “Holy City” - what he loves about it and the things he weeps over. Despite all that has transpired in recent days David Pileggi refuses to despair. As he prepares his Christmas 2023 message for the gathered locals and pilgrims, he remains convinced the story of the baby born down the road in Bethlehem 2000 years ago, remains the best hope for not only that troubled part of the world, but for all of us.   --- Christ church Jerusalem is the oldest protestant church in the Middle East 

British journalist David Goodhart on the Anywhere-Somewhere divide challenging national unity abroad and at home. --- Is Australia polarised?   The country is no UK roiled by Brexit, or US torn apart by the election of Donald Trump to the American presidency in 2016. But we've had our own brushes with polarisation – most recently on the question of an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.  On this episode of Life & Faith, we look at the issue of national division from a sideways angle: could the Anywhere-Somewhere divide explain contemporary polarisation and the gulf in people's instincts?  The terms belong to David Goodhart, author of The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics and Head, Hand, Heart: The Struggle for Dignity and Status in the 21st Century.   People in the Anywhere class, Goodhart says, tend to be well-educated, mobile, and cosmopolitan, making up about 20-25% of the national population. Their Somewhere counterparts, on the other hand, tend to be more rooted in their local communities, perhaps more conservative and communitarian, and make up 50% of the population.  Neither worldview is better or worse, he argues, but Anywheres tend to run the country, and don't reliably read the national room. For Goodhart, this explains the cry for recognition of recent populist movements – and raises the question of where someone might seek what Goodhart calls “unconditional recognition”.  “The institutions that gave people unconditional recognition like the family, like the church or indeed the nation, all of these things are weaker and the weakening of that unconditional recognition bears most heavily on the people who are the lowest achievers, as it were, in modern liberal democracies.”  --  Explore  David's book The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics  David's book Head, Hand, Heart: The Struggle for Dignity and Status in the 21st Century  David's “Too Diverse?” essay for Prospect   Brigid Delaney's piece in The Guardian after the 2019 federal election  The LSE blog post on British Parliament's “class problem”  The SMH report on the backgrounds of Australia's federal MPs 

Our cultural narrative says there is no supernatural or transcendent realm. The CPX team wants to break that spell.  --- Seen & Heard is back – and this time, the team have disenchantment in their sights, or the belief that there is no more supernatural or transcendent realm to life, that science is the only verifiable path to truth, and that all things religious are debunked, once and for all.  But is this true? The books and films we've been reading and watching might disagree.   Natasha highlights beloved Australian author Helen Garner's encounter with an angel and our flirtation with the supernatural through occasions like Halloween, before taking us through the supernatural stylings of the latest Poirot film A Haunting in Venice, based (extremely loosely) on Agatha Christie's 1969 novel Hallowe'en Party.   Simon has been reading the biography of tennis icon and former World No. 1 Andre Agassi who, it turns out, hated tennis and wrestled with fame, but discovered that helping people is the “only perfection there is”.   A world that has cast off religion and the transcendent also leaves behind any account of the good life that goes along with those claims. Yet Agassi discovered that being the best tennis player in the world didn't fulfil him. Only serving others did, which resonates with the Christian claim that the good life is a life lived for others.   And Justine raves about Susannah Clarke's novel Piranesi and its vivid portrayal of what the disenchanted view of the world lacks: wonder, deep communion with the world, joy, and hope. Plus, Justine makes a bold claim:  Susannah Clarke is the 21st-century successor to C.S. Lewis.  --  Explore  Helen Garner describing her angelic encounter at the 2018 Sydney Writers' Festival (from 30 mins)  Sean Kelly's column mentioning Hilary Mantel's possibly demonic encounter  Trailer for A Haunting in Venice  Natasha's article on Halloween, published in the Sydney Morning Herald  Andre Agassi's Open: An Autobiography  The Guardian's interview with Susannah Clarke  Piranesi by Susannah Clarke  Wikipedia entry on the real-life Piranesi, the 18th-century architect and artist 

A new book tells the stories of people whose encounters with New Atheism set them on the path to Christianity.   ---  “He said, I've been a scientist all my life and I was an atheist – quite a happy atheist, you know, I wasn't particularly looking for other worldviews. Until I read The God Delusion in 2006. And that really shook my faith in atheism.”  It's around 15 years ago that the so-called New Atheism – represented most prominently by the “Four Horsemen” Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett and of course Richard Dawkins – had its heyday. The conversation they instigated gave many people permission to fully and publicly embrace disbelief in God; perhaps even a strong belief that religion was harmful and should be done away with.   For others, encountering the work of the New Atheists had quite the opposite effect. A new book, Coming to Faith Through Dawkins: 12 Essays on the Pathway from New Atheism to Christianity, edited by Alister McGrath and Denis Alexander, tells the stories of people for whom, paradoxically, New Atheism became a doorway to Christian faith.   In this episode of Life & Faith, co-editor Denis Alexander explains how the book “wrote itself” and why it's not meant to be a triumphalist read. And contributors Johan Erasmus and Anikó Albert explain why the New Atheism had such a significant – and contrary – impact on their lives.  ---  Buy Coming to Faith Through Dawkins: 12 Essays on the Pathway from New Atheism to Christianity 

This week marks 60 years since the death of CS Lewis and that seems like an appropriate moment to return to a very popular episode from a couple of years back. --- A lot of people know the date 22nd of November 1963 because that's the date that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. That dramatic event overshadowed another death that same day on the other side of the Atlantic – the death of the beloved writer and public Christian CS Lewis, best known still today for his Narnia stories. It's 60 years this week since Lewis's death and that seems like an appropriate moment to return to a very popular episode from a couple of years back. In 2021 we marked 80 years since the origins of Lewis's book, Mere Christianity, which in an unlikely turn of events became one of the most influential books of the past century. Mere Christianity and Lewis's other writings have only grown in popularity since his death in 1963, and this episode goes some way to explaining why.