Over the past week, Australians have heard Scott Morrison make several explicit references to his faith. Given Morrison has placed his faith front and centre of his public persona, it is helpful to try to understand how he perceives his faith and how it might intersect with his job as prime minister. For me, Morrison’s Read more
The Catholic parishes in Palmerston North, comprising the Holy Spirit Cathedral, Palmerston North, Our Lady of Lourdes and Foxton intended to live-stream Sunday Mass from the Cathedral. Under the current law, up to 10 people are permitted to make up the church service. With such a limitation, it became abundantly clear that the parishes would Read more
The example of St Paul and his mission to Greece is a reminder to Christians to approach those of other cultures as people who know the love of God not as non-believers worthy of hostility and contempt. He is encouraging Christians to create bridges of hope rather than hostility. The comments were made by Pope Read more
A few months ago, I presented the following scenario to my junior English students: Your boyfriend or girlfriend has committed a felony, during which other people were badly harmed. Should you or should you not turn him or her into the police? The class immediately erupted with commentary. It was obvious, they said, that loyalty Read more
I saw it all in my newsfeed this week: a former roommate gave birth (to twins!), a friend raised money to rebuild his home after a fire, a grad school professor started chemotherapy for lymphoma and his digital support group, “#downwithlumpy,” went viral. I liked, donated, tweeted, commented and prayed over those updates. I witnessed Read more
There’s sound reason why one of Britain’s leading ‘cultural thinkers’ would tackle such a weighty topic. As Krznaric writes, empathy (the ‘Golden Rule’) has its foundation in major spiritual traditions including Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism and Christianity. Empathy, he adds, lies ‘at the very core of human existence’. Most of us like to see ourselves as Read more
When a newborn joins a family we become beguiled by the perfection of this wondrous new being. Any hint of difference is easily overlooked during the early years. We now understand that the onset of symptoms of autism spectrum disorders is variable during the first two years of life. Signs are evident in some children from birth, Read more
This is actually a study from the middle of last year that I never got round to covering (there was a run of studies from the same team, and this one ended up at the bottom of the pile!). But I’m glad I did. The study leads were Ara Norenzayan and Will Gervais at the Read more