Life & Faith

Why does the Second World War continue to have such a strong appeal for us? “It’s the fudging of the truth that’s much more important than the actual lies … mythology is more difficult to get to grips with.” In summer blockbusters and bestseller lists, on internet chat forums and national debates, World War II is a cultural touchstone for us. Decades on from Basil Fawlty’s famous “don’t mention the war” bit, this is the war we just can’t stop mentioning. In this episode, Natasha tells a somewhat appalled Simon about the time she had a dream she interviewed Hitler for Life & Faith, and also has a more serious conversation with British historian Keith Lowe, author of (among other things) The Fear and the Freedom: Why the Second World War Still Matters. They discuss good and evil, a war criminal who later repented, the antagonism that many Holocaust survivors faced after the war, and the religious revival that followed in its wake.  And, of course, whether comparisons between the Second World War and Covid a

A Christian sets out to meet the Jesus of Islam – and a Muslim encounters the Christian Jesus. “The thing about Jesus is, if he was an idea or if he was a philosophy or if he was a character in a book, then yeah, we could all have opinions about him. But if Jesus is a real person, particularly if he's a real live person today that's interacting with the world, then we really don’t get to pick and choose what he's like … you just have to meet the person on their own terms, taking them as they come.” Years ago, when he was living and working with a Muslim community in Melbourne, Richard Shumack ran into a friend outside the local gym. The guy was wearing a T-shirt that read I LOVE JESUS on the front, and on the back BECAUSE I’M A MUSLIM AND SO WAS HE. Many people would be surprised to hear that in Islam, Jesus is revered as one of the prophets. Richard’s new book is called Jesus through Muslim Eyes, and in its pages he sets out to meet the Muslim Jesus. In this episode, Richard explains what the Muslim Jesus an

The working mums of lockdown have had to juggle everything. They’ve had enough. “The personal is political”, goes the feminist catchphrase. For one particular group of people—working mums—shutdown has made that very clear.  If women have been fortunate enough to keep their jobs in what’s been dubbed the “pink-collar recession”, they’ve also more likely been the ones juggling working from home while also home-schooling and parenting children. That’s also on top of any housework that needs doing—and, before COVID, Australian women already did roughly double the amount as men. Shutdown has mirrored these trends, according to a study of family life in lockdown from the University of Melbourne. In this episode of Life & Faith, we speak to Devi Abraham, a Melbourne-based writer, podcaster, and mum to two boys. She tells us what it’s like to go back into lockdown to fight COVID’s second wave, and how she is approaching it differently this time. We also hear from Natalie Ray, a mum and Christian minister in Sydne

What makes us such … apocaholics? What happened to all the utopias? It seems like the stories we tell ourselves about the future now – in blockbusters, bestselling novels, reality TV shows, and your daily news feed – are almost uniformly bleak, even dystopian. What is feeding our cultural pessimism? In this week’s episode, Simon Smart talks to Natasha Moore about her brand new book The Pleasures of Pessimism. They cover why we enjoy thinking about the end of the world, how they think they’d do in the event of civilisational collapse, and whether they consider themselves optimists or pessimists. Mark Stephens, CPX colleague and expert on the apocalyptic biblical book of Revelation, stops by to talk about uses and abuses of that influential text. And we draft in thinkers like Steven Pinker, Alain de Botton, and Nick Spencer to help us weigh the idea of progress and whether everything is getting better and better – or worse and worse. --- Buy The Pleasures of Pessimism here: https://www.koorong.com/product/the-p

Professor John Lennox weighs up the benefits and potential pitfalls of AI and the implications it has for what it means to be human. In this Episode of Life & Faith Simon Smart talks to Oxford Professor John Lennox about his new book, 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity. Lennox poses some vital questions of the AI enterprise, offering some warnings that the technology is vastly outpacing important ethical considerations. “I think any form of AI is like a knife. A really good knife can be used for surgery and it can be used for murder.” Lennox believes that the implications of AI are such that it is vital that philosophers, ethicists, theologians, cultural commentators, novelists, and artists are involved in the debate. He draws on the ancient Biblical text of Genesis in considering what is essential to human nature and what AI could mean for our futures. 

What happens when religious language reckons with racial injustice.   “The original sin of this country still stains our nation today,” said Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden in the wake of the police killing, in May, of George Floyd. The phrase “America’s original sin is slavery” is so widely used in the United States that it is practically cliché. But what does it actually mean? “When you call something sinful, you’re speaking to a transcendent moral norm. As a person of faith, I think that what America does isn’t simply wrong to other human beings. It offends God himself,” says Esau McCaulley, an Assistant Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College in Illinois, and the author of the forthcoming Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope. In this episode of Life & Faith, we explore the crossover between the metaphor of ‘original sin’ in discussions of racial injustice and the Jewish and Christian idea of human brokenness found right at the beginning o

Oncologist and writer Ranjana Srivastava believes there is such a thing.   “Having watched countless people die, I do think that there are ways that you can make the end more peaceful for yourself and for those you love. I do think that there are better ways of dying.” How often do you think about your own death?  Ranjana Srivastava is a cancer specialist and the author, most recently, of A Better Death: Conversations about the art of living and dying well. She sees a lot of death - and the ways that our tendency to avoid talking or thinking about death serves us badly. In this conversation, Natasha Moore talks to Dr Srivastava about what the process of dying is actually like, what she wishes people knew about it, and what she’s seen religion do (or fail to do) for people at the end.  Natasha also speaks with Anglican minister Andrew Katay about death at a funeral, and what it means to be “ready” to die. “I think a good death is one when you're ready to die. You can put that more strongly and say: it really i

We’ve all been learning some things about ourselves in lockdown. “There’s this other layer from my experience where there was this emotional exhaustion of video calls. I’ve never wanted to miss catching up with people, I’ve always loved it. And so the experience of having catch-ups with people and feeling really emotionally exhausted at the end of that was new. Potentially it’s the experience of an introvert more consistently! So feeling drained by catching up with people was surprising and in some ways disappointing and confusing.” Over the last decade or two there’s been a “quiet revolution” going on, in the words of Susan Cain, introvert and deliverer of one of the most watched TED talks of all time, “The power of introverts”. Where there was once a bias in favour of extroversion - in social settings, and in the workplace - now the pendulum seems to have swung the other way, and introversion seems to get a lot of the attention. In this episode, Simon and Natasha wander into the minefield that is personalit

A candid conversation with Former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, on career, politics, religion and leadership. On this episode of Life & Faith, Simon Smart and Tim Costello are joined by Malcolm Turnbull, the 29th Prime Minister of Australia. His recent autobiography, ‘A Bigger Picture’, is a riveting read following Turnbull’s life from his childhood in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, his colourful career as a journalist, lawyer for Kerry Packer and merchant banker, and his turn to politics.    This book is much more than a political memoir; it is a candid and compelling insight into Turnbull’s life and the workings of Canberra.    Simon and Tim talk to him about this book, his eventful life and politics and religion in Australia.    'I really do believe in collective leadership. And I know a lot of people say that I've got a very high opinion of my own opinions... I do have a higher opinion of my own opinions, but I've always believed my opinions can be improved and advanced by listening to others... A

We honour another class of “essential” workers during COVID: teachers.  “What I’d really love parents to know is that most of us, we’re invested in your children. This is such an important job because you’re developing human beings. We’re here to develop the most important thing in your life, your child.” Nigel was discouraged from becoming a teacher, but discovered it was the right fit for him. Sarah didn’t want to be an English teacher like her dad, but was hooked from the first time she stepped into the classroom.  When you’re a student, teachers can seem remote. But, as it turns out, they share the pain of their students. Evan says the death of a child is crushing for the whole school community. Marcel tells us the difference a kind word can make to a struggling student.  At face value, teachers instruct students. But many invest in students in ways that go far beyond the classroom - and they tremble at the impact they can have on young people’s lives.  In this Life & Faith, we pay tribute to another

A confronting - and deeply personal - look at the roots of racial division in the US. --- “We still live under the long shadow of the plantation. Indeed, freedoms have been spread to a larger group of people over time, but that spread has been at the cost of ongoing oppression of black people in ways that have become very apparent thanks to video cams and cell phones that betray the brutality of the police state that we sometimes live in as black people.” With the events of recent weeks – the Death of George Floyd, the Black lives matter protests all over the U.S. and around the world, including here in Australia, we felt this episode would be a good one to revisit. When we first posted it, we were reflecting on the death of black teenager Travon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman and the fallout from that tragedy. Sadly, it seems not much has changed. In this episode of Life & Faith, Professor Albert J. Raboteau from Princeton University, an expert in the African-American religious experience, walks

Author Tom Holland explores the revolutionary and enduring influence of Christianity.  British writer, Tom Holland, has written many books, both fiction and non-fiction, on subjects ranging from dinosaurs to medieval history to vampires!  His latest book Dominion: The making of the Western Mind is a 500-page masterpiece. It's a story of how we came to be what we are, and how we think the way that we do. It recounts the history and enduring influence of Christianity. Holland is not a believer himself but argues that our western moral and social instincts are traced inexorably to early Christianity and the writings of the Apostle Paul. “I can't think of any piece of writing that has kind of had a more seismic influence on the world, almost everything that makes the Western society what it is and certainly makes me what I am, when I trace it back, it goes back basically to Paul,” says Holland. Dominion by Tom Holland  

Renowned Australian author Christos Tsiolkas talks about the personal experiences that lead him to choose early Christianity and the Apostle Paul as the subject of his latest book Damascus. In this episode of Life & Faith Christos Tsiolkas, author of provocative and disturbing stories like ‘The Slap’ and ‘Barracuda’, speaks with Simon Smart about his latest novel, Damascus. Tsiolkas grew up in a Greek Orthodox family – his Mum a devoted believer - but as a young gay man - Tsiolkas felt he could not reconcile faith with his sexuality. He has had a life-long wrestle with the Apostle Paul. At a time of deep personal despair in his 20s he came back to reading Paul and what he found was “solace, compassion and understanding.” Tsiolkas says he no longer believes the central myths of Christianity but retains a deep interest in its influence and central concepts.  His book is confronting and controversial—extremely so in parts. But it provides a compelling and stunning imaginative life in the 1st century Graeco-R

Women excel in one of two habits of successful entrepreneurs. But they’ll need guts for the other. “As one of my mentors says, ‘“When you come to the edge of mystery and you don’t quite know what to do, there’s like a little thing in you that can jump.’” Michaela O’Donnell Long graduated from college in the middle of a recession. No jobs were available, so she and her husband founded Long Winter Media, a branding and video production company, six months into their marriage. Today, the company counts Google, YouTube, and NBC Universal among its roster of clients. But in its early years, Michaela and Daniel just kept taking the next step to grow their business, even though they didn’t fully know what they were doing.  That process led Michaela to embrace risk as a mark of the entrepreneurial life - and it’s a key finding of her doctoral research into the habits of successful entrepreneurs. Today, she also is a Senior Director at the Max De Pree Center for Leadership where she leads initiatives for entrepreneurs

In 2020 more than ever, they’re everyone’s heroes: a celebration of the highs and lows of nursing.  Vasiliki planned to be a mechanical engineer, but put down the wrong code when she filled out her uni application. Lucy, who’s been a midwife for 20 years, fell in love with the idea of nursing when she was just six years old. Jesse has just started out his nursing career - in the middle of a global pandemic. And Emma S, who works with kids, arrived in the UK to start a new job just as everything went into lockdown. Emma M, a Baptist pastor as well as a nurse, speaks of the intimacy and the privilege of being there with people right at the end. And Kelly speaks from quarantine of her concern for the patients she had to leave behind in Senegal.  200 years on from the birth of Florence Nightingale, on International Nurses Day, in the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, in the midst of coronavirus ... Life & Faith brings you a celebration of nurses and nursing, in their own words, and in five parts: T

Possibilities and dangers from corona chaos. Will we emerge from the Corona crisis with stronger bonds and more united communities? What will it take to preserve solidarity and the re-ordering of our priorities? In this episode of Life & Faith Simon Smart checks in with Tim Costello as to how he is surviving ISO. Simon and Tim then talk to Tim Dixon, enduring Covid19 lockdown in London. Tim is the co-founder of More in Common, and leads a team seeking to build civic bonds and strengthen democracies by doing research and telling the stories of what we share, as opposed to what divides us. Tim sees some fascinating possibilities in what might emerge from our experience of the virus. Observing renewed community solidarity both online and from local initiatives, as well as a concern for the most vulnerable, he wonders if we can find ways to maintain this once the crisis has passed. The conversation also considers the possibility that when faced with mortality and an inability to control our lives, more people

We might be “all in this together” but what does the Covid19 crisis mean for those on the margins of society? In this Life & Faith Simon Smart and Tim Costello discuss the impact of the Coronavirus on individuals and communities. Will it change our priorities and what will be the lasting impact? Tim considers the very real and detrimental effect of the economic downturn on the charity sector. And Simon and Tim talk to Neil Smith from Planet Shakers church in Melbourne about their “Empower” initiative that provides food and necessities for people in need and in a manner that gives them dignity and agency. Neil explains how demand for their services has spiked and how they’ve welcomed some unexpected clients in recent days. Tim's article in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/30/we-need-to-be-physically-distant-but-we-need-to-share-our-collective-pain Planetshakers Empower: https://www.empoweraustralia.com.au/

This Easter, we encounter incredible stories of forgiveness in the face of unimaginable suffering. Early in 2020, Australians everywhere were shaken by the awful news of the tragic death of four children - three siblings and one cousin - in Western Sydney, mown down by an alleged drunk driver while on their way to buy ice cream one summer evening.  But what struck everyone was the response of the parents of three of the children, Daniel and Leila Abdallah. Though devastated, Leila said that she wanted to forgive the driver. She refused to hate him. “That’s not who we are,” she said. That instinct to forgive is not quick or easy for most of us. In this episode of Life & Faith, we hear from Kylie Beach, a journalist from Christian newspaper Eternity, who reported on a prayer vigil for the Abdallah children. While there, she met Daniel and Leila, and was struck with their ability to comfort others, even in the midst of their heartbreak. We also meet Anba Angaelos, the Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London. He

A story of world records, and navigating a neurotypical world of work. “I used to think why are we so similar and yet our lives have turned out quite differently? I thought that she was just introverted at the time. Now, looking back, I can see how some of her autistic challenges were not being properly addressed, not being properly understood … I could see a missed opportunity for people like her, that are being left out of the workplace but have amazing strengths that could be deployed with a bit of appropriate structure around them.” In this episode of Life & Faith, Simon Smart speaks to Mike Tozer, founder and CEO of Xceptional. This unique company began by offering employment for people with autism, but then developed into a recruitment and placement service, finding roles for people with autism in companies that really need the skills they can provide.  Mike is also a world record-holder, although for quite an unusual record - running a half-marathon in a business suit! And his motivation to raise a

Memoir, biography, and even confession: when we tell our stories, just who do we hope is listening? “We feel this impulsion to tell our story, to share our story, to bear witness to the mystery that is us, and to give it away. And that itself is a deeply risky venture, because it makes us so vulnerable.” What are we doing when we tell the stories of our lives?  In this Life & Faith, Simon Smart and Justine Toh explore memoir, biography, and the desire to explain ourselves to others.  Simon also talks to James K. A. Smith, Professor of Philosophy at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the author of On the road with St Augustine: A real world spirituality for restless hearts. Yes, Augustine. According to Smith, regardless of what you think about God, you tread in the footsteps of the fourth-century bishop whenever you tell the story of your life. Augustine’s Confessions - part spiritual autobiography, part memoir, part prayer to God - looms over the genre of memoir today. -- Read: James K. A. S