The Spirit of Things
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From Here to Eternity
The urge to merge with Eternity has raised up saints, transformed sacred space, and inspired the faithful to resist injustice. Yet the belief in Eternity and its ante room Purgatory has also been a battleground that saw churches topple. The Romantics resurrected Eternity from its distant abode but today's secularists all but erase its traces, though science remains open. Carlos Eire, Professor of History and Religious Studies at Yale University, and a 'chronophobiac' is fascinated by the...
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Flea Market Jesus
Flea markets dot the modern West, like economic outlaws setting up shop and doing business in their own way. Individualism is part of the creed, and Arthur Farnsley II discovered that it also translates to their beliefs which he's dubbed "flea market Jesus". A sociologist of church organisations in America, Art is fascinated by the mix of religious conservatism, free thought and a particular gun culture which he shares.
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Buddhism on the Move
Buddhism is a uniquely moveable feast, says Professor Lewis Lancaster, since it did not anchor itself to a place, a people or a language. The Electronic Cultural Initiative Atlas begun by Lancaster at UC Berkeley documents the spread of Buddhism from its 5th century BCE Indian origins right around the world. A multi-media project has allowed doctoral student Ven Jue Wei to bring a 1500 year old Buddhist festival to life for the Buddha's birthday.
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AC Grayling: A Secular Inquisition
What do God and Faeries have in common? According to AC Grayling they're indistinguishable. On a recent trip to Australia, the London based philosopher and author of The God Argument, engaged Rachael in a spirited argument about his view that religion is for the mentally challenged. A staunch believer that humanity has evolved to a rational stage of culture that has no need of faith or God, Grayling is embarked on a secular inquisition of sorts to rout our society of believers.
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Practical Christianity
The Great War and The Great Depression resulted in thousands of family evictions in the 1920s and 30s, but for some lucky families the practical Christianity of one Rev. Robert Hammond provided them with the unimaginable, their own homes. He not only established Hammondville Pioneer Homes but he also transformed St Barnabas Anglican Church in Sydney into a welfare hub, where the destitute were given care, like the legendary Arthur Stace, 'Eternity man'. Historian Meredith Lake author of...
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Hearing God Speak
Do you have to be Jesus to hear God speak? Or just loony? Neither, if you're an Evangelical Christian, for whom hearing God speak is the most treasured part of your prayer life. Evangelical Christians use prayer, meditation and spiritual exercises that help develop a mind that is open to revelation and a personal relationship to God. Psychological anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann spent years with the Vineyard Christian Fellowship, and in her book When God Talks Back (2012), she explains how...
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Ben Lee: Catch my spirit
Celebrated as one of the youngest and most innovative pop music stars in the business, Ben Lee recorded his first album with Noise Addict at age 15, and went on to win his first major Aria Awards in 2005 for Catch My Disease. But as his career soared so did his ambition, and he started to question the meaning of success. He found a guru, Sri Narayani Amma, who showed him the way to peace and joy in what he describes as a miracle. Now Lee is furthering his spiritual quest with the help of the...
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The Gospel of Luke and the Broadway actor
Bruce Kuhn had a dramatic awakening. As a Broadway actor in productions like Les Miserables, Chess, and the Cotton Patch Gospel, he was moved by the drama, pathos, and the truth-telling insights of great writing. Then the Gospel of Luke came across his horizon, and his life changed forever. Bruce became a Christian and realised that the Gospel told a magnificent story that was as transforming now as it was in the first century. Now Bruce brings his exciting theatrical gifts to his one man...
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The Bishop and the Atheist, Father and Son
At Easter the Biblical story of Father and Son recounts how Jesus came to accept both the faith and the fate for which God the Father divinely ordained him. Bishop Graeme Rutherford of the Anglican Church raised his son Jonathan in the Christian faith, but at the age of 19 Jonathan started to read Russell, Chomsky and Dawkins. Jonathan became an atheist, and father and son, Christian and atheist, argued about their divergent views. Then they published their dialogue as Beloved Father,...
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The Archbishop and the Rabbi on Genesis
Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney's Anglican Cathedral interviews Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence of The Great Synagogue on the Jewish understanding of Genesis 1:11, and finds both common ground and wisdom for a secular age. In this delightful conversation, Rabbi Lawrence brings his love of science, his wealth of rabbinical stories, and his anarchic sense humour to promote a belief in the shared redemption of the world based on humanity created in God's image.
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Cardinals and Popes
The election of Pope Francis contains some ironies, but as second favourite in the last conclave eight years ago, he is ready to bring Latin American Catholics to a new prominence, according to Maria-Paz Lopez, Vatican correspondent for LaVanguardia, Barcelona, Spain. Cardinals' lives were often far from saintly, but those 'raised to the purple' were the power behind the papal throne. Catholic historian Michael Walsh gives an insight into the cardinalate past and present. Pope Benedict XVI...
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MUSLIMS IN AMERICA: MELTING POT OR TOSSED SALAD
Saeed Khan loves his Thanksgiving turkey with cranberry sauce and corn on the side. He is a member of America's oldest and largest Muslim community, but as a professor of the history and politics of the Muslim diaspora, at Wayne State University, Michigan, he's all too aware of the mixed blessing of the 'melting pot' ideal. Kahn likens today's society as more a 'tossed salad' model where difference is honoured but not considered a barrier to civility or even bonding at Thanksgiving and the...
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Panting and Chanting
Margot Anand, the Sorbonne-trained psychologist and Tantric teacher, believes sacred sex is the foundation of a fulfilling spiritual life. Trained in Hindu and Buddhist Tantra, Anand has taught Tantric Sky Dancing for 25 years, to students as diverse as married couples and Jesuit priests. The aim is to experience the luminous state of orgasm, and learn to move that energy up the solar plexus into your heart and head. Deva Premal and Miten hold healing workshops of mantra chanting where...
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AGNES OF GOD AND OTHER NUN STORIES
A true story of a novice who became pregnant and killed her child is the basis of a play that pitches a psychologist against a Mother Superior in the search for truth and the meaning of faith. Shona Benson, Director of Agnes of Godfor the Adelaide Fringe, discusses why she is personally drawn to the play, which raises current issues about the tension between scientific and spiritual realities. Richard Leonard SJ, Director of the Catholic Film Office, discusses the changing face of nuns in...
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Monastery of the Heart
America's most outspoken Catholic nun, Sr Joan Chittister, breaks down the high walls of the monastery in her extended poem, The Monastery of the Heart. She invites us to 'stop the noise within' and consider a relationship to God which opens to the self and is a bridge to the world. Based on the Rule of Benedict, Chittister's testament is full of wise counsel and spiritual direction that speaks to people of all traditions and none. Yet Sr Joan's role as a leading figure in the Roman Catholic...
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Religion in China
Religion is growing rapidly in China, despite communism's prohibition and persecution of its adherents. Yet the story is not straightforward, including communism's enthusiasm for Qui Gong, and its sanctioning of some forms of Christianity and Buddhism. Fenggang Yang is a world expert on contemporary religious change in China, and his recent book Religion in China has been hailed as a brilliant analysis of the past, present and future of belief and practice in the world's most powerful...
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Ghoulable or Just Paranormal?
Most people have at least one paranormal experience, says psychologist Tony Jinks. The dream that proved predictive, the medium who knew all about your departed mother, the vision at the foot of the bed, the creepy sense that a house was haunted are all experiences that show people are open to non-rational phenomena. Psychologists usually explain them by reducing the experiences to an emotional trauma or dysfunction. But Jinks believes they may be a positive way of living a rich and...
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Carl Jung: regaining religion
Carl Jung's exploration of the psyche took him deep into the world of religion, myth and the occult. The founder of depth psychology, Jung said that his patients suffered from a lack of what religion used to give people, but lost, and that healing would come from a direct experience of the Divine... And the Art Gallery of NSW exhibition on Australian Symbolism delves into the art of dreams.
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Buddhism East and West: Lama Surya Das and Ven. Phra...
Chant master and proponent of American Buddhism Lama Surya Das believes that Buddhism is trans-sectarian, working alongside and even including the wisdom and practice of other faiths. Founder of the Dzogchen Center in Cambridge, Mass, Lama Surya is in Australia to teach young people how to cope with the time poor, technology rich life. Venerable Phra Anil Sakya combines the Thai Forest Buddhist tradition with degrees in philosophy and anthropology, to bring a contemporary perspective to...
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Love in Lancashire
Jeanette Winterson's adopted mum loved God but found it hard to love her child. Jeanette would search for love and wrestle with it, while enduring a harsh faith and an exorcism. In this intimate conversation, Jeanette talks of her Christian upbringing, her love of reading the Bible and the tales of the Holy Grail, which gave her profound hope, grounded her spiritual life, and shaped her into one of England's most acclaimed writers, and, in her words, 'a missionary of a different kind'.
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Cool Christianity
The Church in the Graveyard in Newtown, Sydney caters to young Christians who like their coffee latte, their music contemporary, and their faith more open and expressive than the services preferred by their parents generation. Hipster or Cool Christianity has gained a lot of attention, particularly in the U.S., but Australians are ambivalent about it. Assistant Minister Rev'd Andrew Errington and a number of congregants talk about the distinctive features of the Church in the Graveyard.
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My Spiritual Diary - Ross Fitzgerald
Do you have spiritual thoughts? Or do they drift away in a fog while you're busy doing something else? My Spiritual Diary is a monthly series on The Spirit of Things where people in all walks of life keep a record of their spiritual thoughts and practice. Sharing their feelings and observations, they focus on the things that give meaning to their lives, in the day to day.
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Stained Glass Poetry
The stained glass windows of St Bartholomew's Church in Adelaide were the catalyst for Light and Glorie (2012), a collection of poetry edited by Thomas Sullivan and Aidan Coleman. Aidan and Thom invited leading South Australian poets to write in response to St Bart's windows. The result was an impressive collection of poems, and a revitalising of the St Bart community of church-goers. Reading their poems are Jude Aquilina, Maggie Emmet, Rachael Mead, Jennifer Liston Steve Evans, Martin...
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Child Theology
CHILD THEOLOGY: No its not kids writing theology, thank goodness, its theologians thinking more seriously about children than they ever have before. Given the incidence of child abuse by clerics, it is an urgent question whether a lack of serious thinking about children is partly to blame. Professor Marcia Bunge, Director of the Child in Religion and Ethics Project at Christ College, Valparaiso University, Indiana, is a leading figure in the Child Theology Movement. She addresses both the...
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Human Potential and Spiritual Privilege
Beatniks and psychotherapists, theologians and gurus all beat a trail to Esalen Institute on the Big Sur on California's north coast, to expand their human and spiritual potential. Founded by Dick Price and Michael Murphy in 1962, Esalen was a hub of experimentation where new psychotherapies, like Gestalt psychology, were invented and mind-body-spirit was launched Marion Goldman, author of The Great American Soul Rush, tracks the history of Esalen and its impact of religion and spirituality....
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My Spiritual Diary: Ven. Freeman Trebilcock
At 24, Freeman Trebilcock is a young Buddhist monk who thinks actions speak louder than words, which is why he is often very busy. Recently on the road with the visiting Nepalese singing nun, Ani Choying Drolma, organising of the tour tested his Buddhist practice to the limit. Keeping a Spiritual Diary was a grounding experience for Freeman, who after twelve years has not yet found a stable routine to his spiritual practice. Freeman's special interest in interfaith work has won him accolades...
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80 Years Exploring Spirituality
EREMOS has been exploring spirituality in Australia for 30 years, through its retreats, its magazine, and its special lectures by visiting scholars. Founded to deepen and broaden Christian spirituality and learn from indigenous spiritual connections to the land, Eremos' diverse membership are encouraged 'to experience the tension between certainty and belief, knowing and unknowing.' FINDHORN was founded 50 years ago as an experimental spiritual community in Scotland, and today it continues...
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Secular Fundamentalists and the Judeo-Christian Ethic
Secular fundamentalists are removing all traces of God and religion from the Public Square in America, says Dennis Prager, popular radio show host and author of Still the Best Hope (2012). Prager, who cites some alarming examples of 'religion cleansing' is also a Jewish defender of the Judeo-Christian ethic, which gave us the secular state but not secularism, a product of the Left. Debbie Weissman, the President of the International Council of Christians and Jews thinks the Judeo-Christian...
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Nazi Dreams and Realities
Australian filmmaker Rod Freedman's Uncle Chatzkel (1999) told the story of the Jews of Zagare, Lithuania, who were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators. In July this year, he was present with Australian author Rose Zwi (Last Walk in Naryshkin Park) at a reconciliation event when a young Lithuanian initiated a memorial in the town square of Zagare where 3,000 Jews were rounded up and shot in 1941. David Bird's Nazi Dreamtime (2012) documents the Australian enthusiasts for Hitler's...
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My Spiritual Diary: Dr Catherine Crock
The award winning doctor and mother of five, Catherine Crock is on a mission to change the hospital culture. She's introduced music in the hospital setting by producing 12 HUSH CDs, raised funds for children's hospitals across Australia and co-founded the Australian Institute for Patient and Family Centred Care. Family has been formative and sustaining, yet a potentially lethal allergy and a heart condition give this inspirational woman cause to reflect on her own mortality and the sources...
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Cheeky nun chants for children
A Buddhist nun who loves Bollywood movies, Ani Choying Drolma leads an unconventional life. Born in poverty and hardship in Nepal, a chance meeting with an American jazz guitarist who heard her chant put her on the road to worldwide fame. Ani's cheeky personality and sharp intellect together with her earnings as an international concert artist have enabled her to build a school for girls and also a medical clinic in her native Nepal. Ani's story of deprivation and family violence is tempered...
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Riddles and Revelations
Guessing riddles was a lethal game in the ancient world, but Jesus spoke in riddles and parables to challenge his listeners to think in a new way and shake them out of their complacency, says John Dominic Crossan, author of The Power of Parable. Receiving divine revelations was part of the early Christian experience, but only one Book of Revelation among many that were discovered was included in the New Testament. Why the others were excluded is explained by Elaine Pagels, author of...
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Service not Servitude: Women in the Church
Women's equality was widely accepted when the Anglican Church of Australia was still barring women from the priesthood. Twenty years later there are almost 500 Anglican women priests in Australia. Elaine Lindsay and Janet Scarfe, editors of Preachers, Prophets and Heretics: Anglican Women's Ministry (2012) give a ringside perspective on this unique struggle in Australian history. Mimi Haddad, President of Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE), argues that the early Evangelical Christians...
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I Am Claire: My Transgender Spiritual Diary
Husband, Father, and Girlfriend, 'Claire' is also someone who spent many years in the Anglican Church as a youth worker and assistant pastor. His inner girl lived in shame and was not only rejected by the Church but also, he believed, by God, until a pastor had a different message for him. Since then, 'Claire', who is also a serious surfer and a worker in child protection, has enjoyed acceptance by a loving God, his family and him/herself.
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The Himalayas to the Darling Downs: Cities of Peace and...
Lumbini, Nepal, the Buddha's birthplace is a small poor hamlet that is set to be reborn as a model city of peace and harmony. Toowoomba, Queensland has a vision to become a leading example of a multi-faith community that lives in peace and harmony.
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A Jesuit Scholar of Hinduism
Frank Clooney taught Hindu and Buddhist students in Nepal's Francis Xavier College in the 1970s, and found that he was learning from them. The young Jesuit novitiate returned to the US and became one of the most respected scholars of Sanskrit and Tamil texts. He is also a champion of inter-faith dialogue. He speaks to Rachael about the future of interfaith understanding and learning from Hinduism in a world where India is becoming increasingly important.
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Enriching Art: Mandorla Religious Art Award
The Mandorla Religious Art Award, based in Perth, is Australia's richest religious art prize. Feminine themes were dominant as artists responded to the verse in Paul's Letter to the Galatians (4:4) 'In the fullness of time, God sent his son into the world, born of a woman, born under the Law.' The winning work, John Paul's Palm Sunday, is described as sensuous yet ethereal, by former curator Jeanette Lewis Hill, while the youth award winner, 16-year-old Julian Poon, who has Asperger's...
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Coptic Christianity and September 11
Egypt was entirely Christian by the time of the 7th century Arab conquest. Coptic Christianity lays claim to the origins of monasticism and boasts some of the most important early Church Fathers, but its production of a famous library of early Christian and Gnostic writings discovered at Nag Hammadi in 1945 brought it to the forefront of Christian scholarship. Malcolm Choat and Victor Ghica of Macquarie University Coptic Studies program reveal Coptic Christianity's unique history, while...
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Dave Andrews' Ramadan Diary
Living with compassion for the stranger has epitomised the Christian life for Dave Andrews, founder of the community network The Waiter's Union in West End Brisbane. This year Dave, after profound dialogues with his Muslim friends and teachers, has kept a Ramadan Diary, in order to enter into the meaning of the Bismillah ('In the name of God, most Gracious, most compassionate'). Dave discovers in Islam there are concepts of Godastheallmercifulwhich canshowthewaytoamoreharmoniousworld.
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Apocalypse Now
Albrecht Drer's illustrated Book of Revelation became a 'best seller' in 1498 when its lurid images of the End Times seemed to reflect a Europe on the brink of collapse. The NGV's original copy is the centrepiece of a new exhibition which will reveal the apocalyptic consciousness. In turn of the century England when the Empire was crumbling, an Anglican, Freemason and spiritualist John Ward founded a groundbreaking museum of human civilisation which was popular but based on his belief that...
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A Couple of Dedicated Salvos
On the occasion of the Salvation Army's centenary of the founder William Booth (d. 20 August 1912), and the current trial of the Salvos chaplaincy program in NSW, Qld and ACT clubs, comes this repeat broadcast of two remarkable Salvos. Brendan and Sandra Nottle are the husband and wife team who head up Melbourne 614, a community organisation dedicated to the broken and forgotten people at the margins of society. They live 'the three R's: Rebuilding, Restoring and Renewing lives, all of which...
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Spong's Christian Humanism
Retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong has not softened his radical message: that the non-religious world wants a humanist message from the Bible. In the New Testament's Gospel of John, Spong finds a humanist Christianity which does not require belief in Jesus as God, but as a man with a radically inclusive message of love for humanity. But will Spong's controversial reading of the Bible, which includes his speculation that Saint Paul was homosexual, turn people away from the Bible or...
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My Spiritual Diary: Angels and Insects
WhenLisa Contiwanted to throw herself under a train,the young mother felt she had nothing to live for. But her baby boy and visions of angels came to her rescue. InMelbourne,CarolynLeach-Paholskicares for the spirit of things. She puts to rest her 'broken needles' following a Shinto tradition, and ponders the death of a grasshopper she failed to rescue. Both Lisa and Carolyn share their spiritual diaries with Rachael.
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Forced marriage
Marriage of under-aged girls is a traditional practice which has family and religious endorsement in some migrant communities. Psychotherapist and Community Relations Commissioner Dr Eman Sharobeem is an Egyptian Coptic Christian who was a victim of forced marriage, and now she helps other young women in similar circumstances. Director of Anti-Slavery Australia, Dr Jennifer Burn, discusses the legal, cultural and religious dimensions of forced marriage and the current Australian efforts to...
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Cool Christianity
The Church in the Graveyard in Newtown, Sydney caters to young Christians who like their coffee latte, their music contemporary, and their faith more open and expressive than the services preferred by their parents generation. Hipster or Cool Christianity has gained a lot of attention, particularly in the U.S., but Australians are ambivalent about it. Assistant Minister Rev'd Andrew Errington and a number of congregants talk about the distinctive features of the Church in the Graveyard.
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Haunted Houses
Are you about to renovate your house? You know, knocking down a few walls. Well be prepared. You might find something you weren't banking on—which if disturbed could change your luck. On the other hand, your house may be so spooky you've decided to cut your losses and sell a.s.a.p. Haunted Houses and their expert decoders join Rachael for an adventure into the unknown.
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Crusaders and Pacifists
Time magazine's most popular theologian in America, Stanley Hauerwas, is an 'anti-liberal' Christian who believes in pacifism, but is the first to admit that it doesn't lead to harmony, but rather to conflict. A bricklayer cum theologian, Stanley recently authored his memoir, Hannah's Child (2012). Pakistani American scholar Asma Barlas defends her criticism of 'the West' and what she calls its latent Crusader consciousness. She has published on this topic, including Islam, Muslims and the...
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Buddhism East and West: Lama Surya Das and Ven. Phra...
Chant master and proponent of American Buddhism Lama Surya Das believes that Buddhism is trans-sectarian, working alongside and even including the wisdom and practice of other faiths. Founder of the Dzogchen Center in Cambridge, Mass, Lama Surya is in Australia to teach young people how to cope with the time poor, technology rich life. Venerable Phra Anil Sakya combines the Thai Forest Buddhist tradition with degrees in philosophy and anthropology, to bring a contemporary perspective to...
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Inside story of the Second Vatican Council: Yves...
Embargoed until 2000, Yves Congar's private journal of the day-to-day deliberations of the Council reveals his frustrations with the powerful personalities who impeded his efforts during the four-year process of Vatican II. Yves Congar was a prominent theologian of Christian unity (ecumenism) who suffered exile and censorship by Rome. Yet the eminent historian of Vatican II, Fr Joseph Komonchak, in Australia to launch the first English translation of Yves Congar: My Journal of the Council,...
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Love in Lancashire
Jeanette Winterson's adopted mum loved God but found it hard to love her child. Jeanette would search for love and wrestle with it, while enduring a harsh faith and an exorcism. In this intimate conversation, Jeanette talks of her Christian upbringing, her love of reading the Bible and the tales of the Holy Grail, which gave her profound hope, grounded her spiritual life, and shaped her into one of England's most acclaimed writers, and, in her words, 'a missionary of a different kind'.
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Challenging the Church
What is at stake if the Roman Catholic Church does not move with the times?The recent US Bishops' censure of Women Religious and the dismissal of several priests from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia on charges relating to child sexual abuse provide the backdrop to a conversation with two highly accomplished Catholic thinkers and servants of the church, Brother Louis De Thomasis and Dr Phyllis Zagano.
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Archaeology and the media
Jesus' family tomb is one of the more sensational 'discoveries' of recent years, but is it true? Media interest in ancient discoveries is forcing the slow and painstaking discipline of archaeology into a swift and swashbuckling sport according to Egyptologist Dr Karin Sowada. In contrast, 25 years of digging and reconstructing a site at the Dead Sea in Jordan, under the direction of Konstantinos Politis, has yielded one of the most striking ancient churches, the Sanctuary of Lot's Cave.
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Mormon Yankees
They were basketball players and Mormon missionaries who brought the sport to Australia to spread the message of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the 50s. Historian and film maker Professor Fred Woods of Brigham Young University, Utah, tells the story of their remarkable success, leading up to the ’56 Olympics.
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Douglas Kirkland: photographing souls
Douglas Kirkland is Hollywood’s most notable photographer, and in a career that spans more than 50 years, he’s caught just about everyone in his lens.In a rare interview of his life and work, the small-town, church-attending boy who made it big talks to Rachael about seeing celebrities as people, the ethicsof nude photos of children, the indigenous belief that a photograph can 'steal' a spirit, and the only time he used his camera as a weapon.
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My Spiritual Diary: Dr Howard Goldenberg
He's never kept a diary before, and found keeping a Spiritual Diary for The Spirit of Things embarrassing, pretentious, but also very valuable. Howard Goldenberg is a physician who is used to making a prognosis of his patients' health, but now he turns his attention to himself, and probes his conscience for the true meaning of his Jewish faith.
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Carl Jung: regaining religion
Carl Jung's exploration of the psyche took him deep into the world of religion, myth and the occult. The founder of depth psychology, Jung said that his patients suffered from a lack of what religion used to give people, but lost, and that healing would come from a direct experience of the Divine... And the Art Gallery of NSW exhibition on Australian Symbolism delves into the art of dreams.
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Religion journalists
Religion journalists cover the most explosive issue, which is why most media prefer to 'bury', censor or ignore religion altogether. At a unique gathering in Bellagio, Italy, religion journalists from Indonesia, Pakistan, Tanzania, Israel and Jordan, talk to Rachael Kohn about how and why they are breaking the code of silence.
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A Secular Bible
THE SECULAR BIBLE: He bills himself as 'the maker' not the author of The Good Book, a Secular Bible, but philosopher AC Grayling is no shrinking violet when it comes to claiming that his magnum opus for atheists should take its place alongside the Bible, to read for generations to come. Still, he doesn't think it belongs in Alain de Botton's proposed Temple to Atheism
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THE MESSIAH, THE PROPHET AND DEAD SEA SOURCES
Easter and Passover are historically and religious related, but two Hebrew University scholars have separately argued for some surprising continuities and disjunctions in the Christian and Jewish beliefs that mark the respective festivals.
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My Spiritual Diary: Jo Swinney
Jo Swinney is a Christian author and mum who keeps a Spiritual Diary for Lent and finds that the spiritual task she sets herself of reading the Bible every day is more difficult than she imagined. But the diary has helped her to focus on the true meaning of 'home' as Easter approaches.
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Life After a Cult
Cults have attracted attention for their authoritarian methods of controlling followers, but when people have managed to escape, they are often unable to cope 'on the outside'. Based in New York, Lorna and Bill Goldberg specialise in providing ex-members the psychological support they need to lead normal lives. And author Maggie Groff explains why she wrote about a cult in her first rom-com novel.
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Rome's Sistine Chapel & Secret Archives
The first exhibition from the Vatican's Secret Archives is on display and BBC's Rome correspondent David Willey is our guide, and on the 500th anniversary of the Sistine Chapel art critic Laura Gascoigne explains its unusual layout and Michelangelo's faith.
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The Hilliard Ensemble's music and Bob Carr's books
The Hilliard Ensemble are the 'Fab Four of sacred chant', with their Officium CD selling more than a million copies. Combining medieval with modern composers like Arvo Prt, their music is deeply spiritual and most often performed in the great cathedrals of the world. A life of reading the great historical, philosophical and literary works has shaped Australia's new foreign minister, Bob Carr, as we learn in this excerpt from a 2008 interview.
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My Spiritual Diary, Jane Rutter
Emotional honesty and living according to a golden rule of following her inspiration is what drives Jane Rutter, one of Australia's premier flautists. Nature, Sufism, and a profound belief in music as the language of 'Divine Communion,' Jane is frank, forceful and funny about the spiritual values that infuse her life.
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Hare Krishna and Yoga
Hare Krishna and Yoga: India exported Hare Krishna and Yoga to the West in the 1960s. While Hare Krishna remained a small but loyal movement of shaven headed followers, Yoga has become popular in the West by feminising its practice.
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Old Jews, New Jews
Is it consistency or change that has led to Jewish survival for over 3,000 years? The Chief Rabbi of the UK, Lord Jonathan Sacks, urges Orthodoxy while leading social researcher of Judaism. Dr Bethamie Horowitz celebrates 'the wide tent' of mostly non-Orthodox Jewish life in America.
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Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens was not a 'religious writer' but his novels expressed his Christian beliefs, which he hoped would result in the upliftment of society. The theological debates of 19th Century England were not as important to Dickens as the example of Christ in the New Testament, which informed his writing. Grace Moore, a specialist in Dickens and the Victorian Era, reveals the complexity of Dickens' religion as portrayed in his characters and novels, from Pickwick Papers to The Tale of Two...
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MY SPIRITUAL DIARY - ROSS FITZGERALD
Do you have spiritual thoughts? Or do they drift away in a fog while you're busy doing something else? MY SPIRITUAL DIARY is a monthly series on The Spirit of Things where people in all walks of life keep a record of their spiritual thoughts and practice. Sharing their feelings and observations, they focus on the things that give meaning to their lives, in the day to day.
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EMOTIONS AND BELIEFS
Atheists and Believers have different abilities to feel and express their emotions according to a new Canadian study by Psychologists Raluca Petrican of Rotman Research Institute, Toronto and Chris Burris of St. Jerome's University, Waterloo, Ontario. Atheists are more left-brained while Believers are more right-brained, and the latter exhibit alexi-thymia more than the former. Award winning poet and former psychiatric nurse, Sally Read, found it hard to put her conversion experience into...
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Dalai Lama Direct (incl. video)
At the age of 76, the Dalai Lama isn't beating around the bush. In an exclusive interview with Rachael Kohn, he talks about the need for religious leaders to get off their high horse and meet the people, the importance of democracy, and the possibilities for a female Dalai Lama. We also hear his strong advice to 500 high school students, at the Chenrezig Institute for Buddhist Studies, in Eudlo, southern Queensland.
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The World's Sexiest Book
The Bible is rife with sex, and right from the beginning it is introduced as part of the human condition. Judges, kings and prophets enjoy sex, women use it to bring down tyrants, and King Solomon's 'Song of Songs' makes Casanova's memoirs look like kid's stuff. Michael Coogan is one of the leading Biblical scholars in the US, and in his book God and Sex: What the Bible Really Says, he reveals all, including whether David loved Jonathan in that way.
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Female Messiah
The story of the Panacea Society. In the 1920s a vicar's widow in Bedford, England began a healing ministry that reached people around the world, including Australia. She was soon declared the Daughter of God, the Female Messiah, and took the name, Octavia. This fascinating story of religious and social change (and some tragic family history) was researched by the Right Rev'd Jane Shaw, the Dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. She spoke to Rachael Kohn on a recent visit to Australia.
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Decoding Alice in Wonderland
On the 150th anniversary of Charles Dodgson taking deacon's orders at Oxford University, the mathematician and children's author (whose pen name was Lewis Carroll) is revealed to be more than a keen observer of church politics of his day as others have observed. He was also an inveterate seeker in esoteric spirituality, including Theosophy and Rosicrucianism. Canadian author and poet, David Day, tells all.
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Christmas Day Couple
In this finale of the monthly series, the Landers show us how to live an ancient faith with contemporary relevance and meaning.
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Hanukkah: Stones and Soup
The Temple at the centre of the ancient festival of Hanukkah is now destroyed, but the excavations adjacent to it, have revealed what looks to be King David's palace, according to archaeologists Eilat Mazar and Avner Goren. Doughnuts are traditional for Hanukkah, one of the foods that Pnina Jacobson and Judy Kempler include in One Egg is a Fortune: Recipes and Memories to Share, a cookbook by and about Jewish celebrities from all over the world.
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Boys to Men
Film-maker of Hoop Dreams and Road to Zanskar, Frederick Marx has a mission to help boys become men. Rites of passage and mentoring are increasingly absent from boys’ lives as fatherless families continue to increase and religious rites of passage are sidelined by popular culture. Pathways Foundation Australia runs workshops to help boys become men, and Paul Henley is the National Training Manager.
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Oh My Goddess!
Six leading women in the Goddess movement including Kathy Jones (UK), Anique Radiant Heart and Tricia Szirom, speak of their spiritual beliefs and their feminist and ecological values.
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Apology for duplicate podcasts
We have just upgraded to a new website, and the move has caused some podcast subscribers to download duplicate mp3s. We apologise for this issue and hope you continue to listen to Radio National podcasts in the future.
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2011-11-27 The Sufi Spirit
Prayer that brings a permanent awareness of the Divine Reality is the aim of Sufism first and foremost, which London based Sufi scholar, Reza Shah-Kazemi, believes is the key to its universality. Sufism's mystical universalism is what interests Hebrew University scholar, Sara Sviri, who reveals the fascinating phenomenon of 'Jewish Sufism'.
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2011-11-20 Body Mind Spirit
Forget 'no pain, no gain'. Mark Bunn, former AFL footballer and author of Ancient Wisdom for Modern Health, discovered in Yoga and Ayurveda medicine that true body fitness is a spiritual goal with positive physical results. And forget mind-numbing holidays with cocktails by the pool. Laurence Toltz, co-author (with Sandy MacGregor) of Your Peaceful Place can teach you how to visit your very own Shangri-La for mind, body and spirit every day.
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2011-11-13 Religion Under Attack
One third of the world's population is experiencing increased religious persecution according to Pew Research Center's recent study on religion in the public sphere. Brian Grim, Director of Cross National Data, talks about the implications, while Gregor Puppinck of the European Centre for Law and Justice discusses the seminal case which challenged the presence of the crucifix in Italian schools. Ilhan Yildiz from Karatekin University explains the religious outlook of present-day Turkey.
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2011-11-06 God in the 21st Century
Robyn Williams of Radio National's The Science Show shares his unmitigated disappointment in the God which totally failed his expectations. Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins, from Emanuel Synagogue, argues that the expectations are misplaced, and blame should squarely be placed on humanity not God. God in the 21st Century was an event organised by the Sydney Institute, and our edited recording includes audience questions and comments from the other panel members, Dr Shakira Hussein and Angela Shanahan.
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2011-10-30 Couples: In the Light of Love - Kim and...
Seven billion people in the world, and many of them are children whose chances for a normal life are cut short, due to unmet needs. But some couples forsake a comfortable life to help them by becoming foster parents. Kim and Perry decided they'd limit the number of their own children and foster a little girl, who has thrived under their care. Tracey and Lorraine decided they'd foster a boy who already had endured 15 placements. Both couples speak of the rewards of caring, and of the...
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2011-10-23 Religion in Malaysia
Religious pluralism marks the history of Malaysia, but riots in 1969 fostered tensions between religious groups that have had lasting effects. Recently-retired Chief Justice of Malaysia, Zaki bin Tun Azmi, says religious pluralism is very well managed in his country, which is officially Muslim. But 40% of the country is not Muslim, and the Rev'd Thomas Philips, who heads the National Committee for Promoting Religious Understanding, says the problems are many, particularly in relation to the...
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2011-10-16 Three Times Time
A Christian, a Buddhist and a Jew wrestle with the one thing that rules our lives but we never have enough of - time. Recorded at the Perth Winter Arts Festival this year, Catholic Father Oscar Aguilera, Buddhist teacher and author, David Michie, and Progressive Rabbi, Sharon Nosan-Blank engage in a lively conversation about the different ways time is measured and understood in their traditions. Each has distinctive theological, philosophical and personal views on what makes the minutes of...
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2011-10-09 Bruce Almighty
Bruce Kuhn is a Broadway actor who brings the Gospel of Luke to the stage, in a way that has you laughing and crying. Bruce talks about how performing the third Gospel has changed the way he understands what it is to be Christian. It is not about piety, he says, but about profound feeling.
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2011-10-02 Both Sides Now: The Blake Prize for Religious...
In its 60th year the Blake Prize for Religious Art has never had more contributors, says its Chair, the Rev'd Rod Pattenden, and is going from strength to strength in challenging 'stuffy' religious ideas and exploring 21st Century spirituality. But art critic John McDonald thinks it has lost its way both artistically and religiously and that it needs an overhaul. The program includes Robert Adamson reading from 'Via Negativa, The Divine Dark', winner of The Blake Poetry Prize.
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2011-09-25 Couples: In the Light of Love - Tanveer Ahmed...
Bangladesh-born Tanveer Ahmed, a well-known journalist, psychiatrist and sometime stand-up comedian, says he's a 'cultural Muslim' Aussie. This suits his wife Alina, whose English and Ukrainian heritage makes Christmas and Easter important family celebrations alongside the post-Ramadan Eid festival. Tanveer and Alina are crafting a new 'intercultural' Aussie identity for themselves and their two children with love, humour, and an inclusive outlook.
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2011-09-18 Women Against the Law - UPDATED
Religious legal traditions which do not treat women equal to men are challenged today by feminists, such as Anat Hoffman, Israeli founder of Women at the Wall, who was recently arrested for praying at the Western (Wailing) Wall in Jerusalem, Patricia Fresen, a South African Catholic nun of 45 years who was recently ordained a Catholic priest and bishop, and Maryam Namazie an Iranian woman of Muslim background whose organisation One Law For All campaigns against Sharia Law on behalf of...
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2011-09-11 God After Ground Zero
The 9/11 attacks prompted a major critique against Islamism in particular and against 'fundamentalist' religion in general, and kick-started an international atheist movement. Muslims, Christians and Jews have had the unenviable task of re-examining the antipathies amongst them, and finding ways to repair relationships. Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne, Abdullah Saeed, Associate Professor at the Centre for Research on Social Inclusion at...
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2011-09-04 Sacred and Profane Music
'Luther was in no way afraid of the idea of dancing in church' says Nicholas Bannan, which is how the preordained notions of sacred decorum were opened up to include rousing music in sacred settings. Associate Professor of Music at the University of Western Australia, Bannan is also the conductor of Winthrop singers who perform the music of Luther, Bach, Isaac, Hassler, and the 19th Century Spanish monk of New Norcia, Hilarion Eslava. In a lively interview with Rachael Kohn, Bannan discusses...
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2011-08-28 Couples: In the Light of Love - Kim Cunio and...
Two of Australia's most gifted musical talents, Kim Cunio and Heather Lee, are a professional and a personal partnership, who specialise in bringing sacred music to the stage and developing new forms for interfaith settings. Their marriage is a celebration of religious diversity including Jewish, Christian and Hindu traditions. With their adopted Indian son Babu, they are a model of interfaith marriage.
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2011-08-21 Virtues to the Rescue
The London riots prompted soul-searching and rescue remedies from politicians and priests. But for Mark Vernon who lives in South London where some of the rioting happened it is the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who has the answer. Virtues education is the perfect balance between duty-bound morality and the pursuit of happiness. Vernon, who calls himself a Christian agnostic, was an Anglican priest but now teaches others how to live The Good Life, the subject of his latest book.
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2011-08-14 What To Say To Suffering and Death
When a horrific accident left Richard Leonard's sister a quadriplegic, the words of 'consolation' by the faithful were far from comforting. As a Catholic priest and a movie critic, Richard, who wrote Where the Hell is God?, plumbs the theological and movie archive to find truly meaningful responses to suffering and death that strengthen rather than diminish faith. Deborah Masel was a a Jewish spiritual teacher in Melbourne whose gifted interpretation of the Torah gained many accolades, yet...
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2011-08-07 An Evening With John Lennox
Mathematician, philosopher of science, and Christian, John Lennox of Oxford University has made a name for himself debating Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Peter Singer on the compatibility of religion and science. Recorded in front of an audience at Sydney's Roseville College in conversation with Rachael Kohn, Lennox covers a range of topics in the religion and science debate. These include the 'evidence for faith', his experiences 'behind the Iron Curtain' in Communist Russia,...
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2011-07-31 Couples: In the Light of Love - Una and Denis...
Since their daughter, Ciara, was murdered more than 13 years ago, the Glennon's lives have changed irrevocably. From paralyzing grief to living a meaningful life again has been a long and painful journey, with profound soul searching. They are both 'in a good place' now, but getting there has been a trial of faith, trust and love, and a marriage that had to bend with each other's needs. Although each person's grief is unique, they hope their experience, which is partially told in Una's book...
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2011-07-24 Play It Again God
Imagine a class full of children who are fascinated by stories that teach them to 'think big' and deepen their spiritual response to the world. 'Godly Play' in action has just been launched in Australia, although Jeanette Acland has been using it successfully in a Melbourne independent Christian school for ten years. The originator is Jerome Berryman, an Episcopal priest, based in Colorado, who developed it along a Montessori educational model as a way of eliciting the spirituality that is...
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2011-07-17 Global Village, or Techno-Tribalism?
Is the massive religious and spiritual 'traffic' on the internet resulting in inclusivity and expansive world views? Or is it generating the opposite: self-directed interaction within narrow interests and tribal subcultures? Dr Quentin Schultze in Michigan is one of the most informed commentators on religion and technology today, from televangelism to the internet. We also hear from Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence of Sydney's Great Synagogue, who is using Facebook to counsel congregants.
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2011-07-10 A Tale of Two Women in Jerusalem
Palestinian Muslim Suheir Rasul and Jewish Zionist Sharon Rosen are deeply connected to the land they both call home, but they don't see a problem with that. Suheir and Sharon share a deep friendship and a vision of coexistence, and as co-directors of Search for Common Ground in Jerusalem, they are helping to realise it for Israelis and Palestinians in the Territories. Also meet the archeaologist and the college grad who are making one of the world's oldest pilgrimages available to all, the...
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2011-07-03 Couples: In the Light of Love - Dave and Bess...
For over thirty years, Dave, an Irish Catholic from Newcastle and Bess, a Walpiri woman from Yuendumu, have been married, raising a family, and working for the betterment of Aboriginal Australians in the Northern Territory. Bess is the Chair of the Northern Territory Indigenous Affairs Advisory Council. Their bi-cultural marriage has been a learning curve from both sides, but one they both feel proud and grateful to have taken. Their home in Alice Springs is their sanctuary, and their faith...
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2011-06-26 Dalai Lama Direct
At the age of 76, the Dalai Lama isn't beating around the bush. In an exclusive interview with Rachael Kohn, he talks about the need for religious leaders to get off their high horse and meet the people, the importance of democracy, and the possibilities for a female Dalai Lama. We also hear his strong advice to 500 high school students, at the Chenrezig Institute for Buddhist Studies, in Eudlo, southern Queensland.
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2011-06-19 Freedom and Happiness
When the world hurts, Jewish mysticism offers a route to paradise, both real and imagined, says Rachel Elior, the foremost expert on Jewish mysticism and head of Jewish Thought at Hebrew University. Mysticism, including meditation, can help us overcome the fear of death, says H. U. Professor Emeritus Mordechai Rotenberg. While sociologist Philip Wexler discovers the growing importance of mysticism in Israel and the West generally.
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2011-06-12 Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist
Buddhist author and former monk, Stephen Batchelor argues that the Buddha did not believe in reincarnation or any other metaphysical belief. From Tibetan Buddhism to Zen, Batchelor's spiritual journey is matched by a philosophical and psychological exploration into the limitations and value of Buddhism today.
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2011-06-05 'Your Majesty' or 'Their Majesty'
The Royals versus the People, and other legacies from the King James Bible. A stellar cast of scholars, including Alister McGrath, Mark Noll and Laura Knoppers share their insights from a recent conference devoted to the King James Bible, which this year celebrates its 400th anniversary.
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2011-05-29 Couples: In the Light of Love - Deva Premal...
Deva Premal and Miten met at Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's ashram and despite the controversial demise of their leader, renamed Osho, they remain devoted followers spreading his message of unity beyond religious dogma through their music and performances. Shes German, hes British and their lives, their music and their spiritual journey are completely woven into a magic carpet which flies them around the world, including Byron Bay which has the biggest hold on them.
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2011-05-24 I Was There at the Big Bang (Rpt)
John Seed is a world-renowned Australian environmental activist. He believes that the only way to stop the further degradation of the biosphere on which all living beings depend is to inculcate a spiritual consciousness that connects us to the planet, the universe, and all other life forms. Through workshops, songs and poetry John communicates his message which he shares with Rachael on Balmoral Beach in Sydney. There will be no Sunday program this week only due to a live broadcast from...
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2011-05-15 Female Messiah
The story of the Panacea Society. In the 1920s a vicar's widow in Bedford, England began a healing ministry that reached people around the world, including Australia. She was soon declared the Daughter of God, the Female Messiah, and took the name, Octavia. This fascinating story of religious and social change (and some tragic family history) was researched by the Right Rev'd Jane Shaw, the Dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. She spoke to Rachael Kohn on a recent visit to Australia.
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2011-05-08 Stories That Heal & 'Worship Curators'
All religious traditions tell stories that heal conflict, console the grieving, and encourage a radically spiritual way of living. Ashley Ramsden is the founder of the International School of Storytelling in England, and together with musician, Llew Kiek, he tells stories and explains their relevance for everyday life. Pastor Mark Pierson of New Zealand is a 'worship curator' who encourages an activist, artful, and creative approach to 'doing church'.
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2011-05-01 The Eloquence of the King James Bible
In this tour de force lecture concluding the recent Baylor University conference on the King James Bible, the leading Biblical literary scholar, Robert Alter, argues that the KJB translators combined their remarkably accurate translation of the original Bible, while achieving an unparalleled literary eloquence. Alter, who has produced his own masterful translation of the Bible, reveals some of the pitfalls of modern translation, and some 'howlers' that befell even the brilliant translators...
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2011-04-24 Couples: In the Light of Love - Sandra &...
The Nottles are Salvos in their mid 40s. Sandra and Brendan run Melbourne 614, a community care organisation dedicated to the broken and forgotten people at the margins of society. They live `the three Rs: Rebuilding, Restoring, and Renewing lives, all of which clearly express the Easter hope in the Resurrection. In this second program of our monthly series, Couples, Sandra and Brendan tell what it is like when faith, work, and marriage are utterly embedded in a mission to restore human...
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2011-04-17 Spiritual Sickness
The secular world is killing us, says David Tacey. The Jungian scholar and author of Gods and Diseases believes that living an entirely rational existence seeks its opposite in intoxicants and other forms of escape, which lead to depression and self harm. The mid-life crisis is another casualty of a life devoid of spiritual fulfillment. Aboriginal initiation rituals, he believes, offer a clue for renewal.
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2011-04-10 Shifting Ground: New Zealand Interfaith
Only 50% of New Zealanders are Christian, which is why interfaith dialogue is important to them. At the recent National Interfaith Forum, Rachael talks to a cross section of youth, and the young Buddhist founder of Interaction, Freeman Trebilcock, who explains why he's a 'Fundamentalist'. And Drs Pushpa Wood and Khalid Sandhu call for the Westernisation of 'traditional' faiths and the need to address 'the hard issues' which emerge within religions.
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2011-04-03 Candid Clerics
In the first comprehensive study of what priests in the Catholic Church of Australia think about their vocation and their church, there is considerable candor about enforced celibacy, the authority of the bishops, and the role of the laity. Former religious affairs journalist Chris McGillion and Communications lecturer, John O'Carroll, have published Our Fathers: What Australian Catholic Priests Really Think About Their Lives and Their Church. As well, the English Benedictine monk, Sebastian...
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2011-03-27 Couples: In the Light of Love - Christine &...
Chrissie and Anthony Foster of Melbourne are the first in our new monthly series on couples. What does it take to keep a couple together, when all they worked for is taken from them? Two of their three daughters were sexually abused by the parish priest, leading to one's death and the other's permanent disability. The Foster's love for each other and their children, and their pursuit of justice has been the focus of their lives, but their faith has been irrevocably changed.
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2011-03-20 The Golden Girls, No Regrets
Four women who chose to follow St Mary MacKillop's calling, 50 years ago, embarked on a life of adventure, professional training and community work that would not otherwise have been easily available to them. Foregoing the traditional route of marriage and family life, Tess Egan, Teresa Brooks, Mary Markham and Maria Casey became nuns and achieved great things, including one becoming a Canon lawyer. But it was not without challenges along the way, such as Sr Tess Egan remaining in the Order...
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2011-03-13 Ins and Outs of Happiness
How can you be happy if you don't really know who you are? Buddhist Master Behram Ghista helps unhappy people get a grip on their life, by first guiding them to the person inside and then teaching them techniques of awareness and practices of kindness that enrich daily life. People like Brendan Coutts, who was a science academic with a very unhappy life, before Behram taught him the art of happiness. In Making Australia Happy, the ABC TV series, University of Sydney academic and Coaching...
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2011-03-06 Clare and Francis of Assisi
Celebrating International Womens Day, The Spirit of Things takes a look at St Clare of Assisi, the 13th century friend of St Francis who left a life of privilege to live in poverty with other women, eventually establishing a sister order of the Franciscans. We also look at one of the National Gallery of Victoria's most precious works, by the 15th Century Franciscan artist Pietro Teutonico. Guests include art historians Hugh Hudson and Claire Renkin as well as Constant Mews, all contributors...
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2011-02-27 The World's Sexiest Book
The Bible is rife with sex, and right from the beginning it is introduced as part of the human condition. Judges, kings and prophets enjoy sex, women use it to bring down tyrants, and King Solomon's 'Song of Songs' makes Casanova's memoirs look like kid's stuff. Michael Coogan is one of the leading Biblical scholars in the US, and in his book God and Sex: What the Bible Really Says, he reveals all, including whether David loved Jonathan in that way.
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2011-02-20 Decoding Alice in Wonderland
On the 150th anniversary of Charles Dodgson taking deacon's orders at Oxford University, the mathematician and children's author (whose pen name was Lewis Carroll) is revealed to be more than a keen observer of church politics of his day. As others have observed, he was also an inveterate seeker in esoteric spirituality, including Theosophy and Rosicrucianism. Canadian author and poet, David Day, tells all.
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2011-02-13 Egypt and Islam
Egyptian-born Muslim feminist and New York-based reporter, Mona Eltahawy is an advocate of the Egyptian revolution and believes it will deliver freedom and democracy. Professor Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of the Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, is a proponent of a new Islam that is modern but conservative. They have different views but both are the new Muslim voices calling for change.
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2011-02-06 Not the Bible - UPDATED
Kahlil Gibrans The Prophet (1923) is still a spiritual best-seller, yet its author, a Maronite Christian from Lebanon, believed that Godliness was achievable outside the church. On the occasion of the State Library of NSW's first exhibition of his art, fellow countryman Jonar Nader talks about Gibrans perennial wisdom. And Pulitzer Prize-winner Jack Miles talks about religious literature and his new project as Editor of the forthcoming Norton Anthology of World Religions.
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2011-01-30 Engaging the Sacred
How are we to find unity in a world of competing religions? To Val Webb, author of Stepping out with the Sacred, it is about appreciating how humanity engages the sacred, in myriad ways, and yet never exhausts Divinity. As a Presbyterian, a scientist and a theologian, Val explores what it means to have a faith that moves and grows and changes with the times.
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2011-01-23 Music to Rouse the Spirit (Rpt)
Can music convey beliefs even when it is purely instrumental? Jeremy Begbie thinks it can, and as a musician and a theologian he teaches students at Wolfson College, Cambridge and Duke University in the US how to understand the parallels between complex musical harmonies and equally complex theological ideas such as the Trinity. Professor Begbie speaks to Rachael Kohn on the occasion of a series of lectures, Music, Modernity and God, for New College at the University of New South Wales.
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2011-01-16 Dalrymple's Indian Odyssey (Rpt)
From voluntary starvation to ecstatic dance, Indias spiritual experiences can be both cruel and joyous, but to the intrepid Indian resident and author, William Dalrymple, they are all fascinating insights into a society in the throes of modernity. Untouchables mix with Brahmins and Temple Courtesans ply their trade as prostitutes, but social outcasts and spiritual seekers still find refuge amongst Indias many traditions. After performing at Sydneys Opera House, William spoke to Rachael Kohn.
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2011-01-09 Jewish Busker in Germany (Rpt)
Internationally-renowned Alex Jacobowitz is an Orthodox Jewish marimba player who works on the streets of Munich, Milan and Krakow when he isnt playing in newly re-opened synagogues in Poland. Music is the conduit of his Jewish soul and the way he bridges the gap of understanding to the post-Holocaust generation. We also hear from Shoshanna Keller who is 87 and has been writing poetry as a spiritual practice for 70 years.
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2011-01-02 Bill Viola's Spiritual Art (Rpt)
Few video artists can boast a hallowed placed in the worlds churches and cathedrals, but Bill Violas spiritual vision has been widely recognised by both the artistic as well as the religious establishment. In a rare and profoundly spiritual conversation, Bill Viola talks to Rachael Kohn at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image for the Melbourne Festival of the Arts. View part of this interview. Video: courtesy of ACMI Australian Centre for the Moving Image. [Dur: 13'46" 31.9 MB]
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2010-12-26 The Spiritual Vision of Martin Sharp (Rpt)
An iconic artist of Sydney, Martin Sharps psychedelic colours mask a disturbing vision of the forces of darkness in conflict with the forces of light. In an intimate conversation with Rachael Kohn about his art and life, Martin talks about his religious view of what really happened in the Luna Park fire of 1979, where six children and an adult were killed on the Ghost Train. And he also explains the significance of Tiny Tim as a Christ-like figure.
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2010-12-19 The Jesus Scholar, the Priest and the Comic
John Dominic Crossan is one of the most renowned scholars of Jesus who believes the key to Jesus' thought is found in the 'The Lords Prayer' (or the `Our Father). Yet it is a prayer most often misunderstood. We also hear from priest and stand-up comedian, the Revd Howard Langmead, who prays to God at the end of a very eventful year.
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2010-12-12 Transcending Difference Together
Khashyar Darvich explains why he made the film, Dalai Lama Renaissance, about 40 spiritual seekers and thinkers who met with the Dalai Lama to find ways to change the world. And Interfaith minister Stephanie Dowrick talks about how `seeking the sacred, the title of her latest book, became her preferred way of leading a spiritually meaningful life. We also hear a reading of Swami Vivekananda's famous address to the Parliament of the Worlds Religions in Chicago, 1893.
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2010-12-05 Hearing is Believing
`Seeing is believing is wrong, says Jeremy Begbie, the pianist and Christian theologian who gave the 2010 New College lecture series, Music, Modernity and God at UNSW. In this lecture, `Can We Be Free with God in Our Space?, Begbie demonstrates with musical excerpts how sound and resonance provide the best means of understanding seemingly contradictory beliefs, and provide whole new ways of `thinking with the ear.
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2010-11-21 Sacred Activist
Andrew Harvey was once a Religious Studies Professor at Oxford University, but found that academia could not solve the worlds catastrophic conflicts and environmental problems. Now he combines the mystics passion for God with the activists pursuit of justice in `Sacred Activism which hes outlined in his book, The Hope. Harvey was the Temenos Lecturer for 2010 and held workshops around Australia when he spoke to Rachael about his vision of hope.
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2010-11-14 Aborigines Choosing Islam
Part Aborigine and part Afghan, 'Ramiz' realised he did not `fit in and spent his youth finding alternative paths, until his life hit rock bottom. That was when Islam offered a way out. Also on the program is Dr. Peta Stephenson, author of Islam Dreaming: Indigenous Muslims in Australia, who has surveyed the phenomenon of Aboriginal Australians turning to Islam.
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2010-11-07 Interfacing With Interfaith
In a special guest edition of The Spirit of Things, Rachael Kohn gives the chair to Benji Holzman, Colin Lee and Mohamad Assoum, who discuss the highs and lows of interfaith dialogue with two Jews, two Catholics and two Muslims, all young people interested in promoting understanding and overcoming some of their own misconceptions about other faiths. In a candid dialogue they show just how far dialogue can go, and whether it is the only way to build bridges between Judaism, Christianity and...
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2010-10-31 Selfless and Happy
Aspiring to be a bestselling novelist made David Michie miserable, until he realised the ego he was feeding didnt really exist. In his latest book on Buddhism, Enlightenment to Go, David draws on the medieval Indian monk, Shanti Deva, for the secret of happiness and an ethical life. Also in the program, Buddhist scholar at Cardiff University, Geoffrey Samuel, explains the importance of health in Tibetan Buddhist practice.
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2010-10-24 Bill Viola's Spiritual Art
Few video artists can boast a hallowed placed in the worlds churches and cathedrals, but Bill Violas spiritual vision has been widely recognised by both the artistic as well as the religious establishment. In a rare and profoundly spiritual conversation, Bill Viola talks to Rachael Kohn at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image for the Melbourne Festival of the Arts.
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2010-10-17 What Makes a Saint?
The canonisation of Australias first Catholic saint, Mother Mary MacKillop, re-opens a long debate within Christianity but also other traditions about what makes a saint. Merrill Kitchen (Churches of Christ), Ismail Albayrak (Fetullah Gulen, Islam), and Josephine Laffin (Catholic) discuss what constitutes saintliness in their traditions. And from Ireland, Sr Mary Cresp, the former Congregational Leader for the Sisters of St Joseph, who is on her way to Rome, speaks about the contemporary...
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2010-10-10 The Cult of Happiness and the Gospel of...
Crankiness causes cancer, or so the champions of happiness claim, but is that just callous? Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Smile or Die, should know - shes had cancer and thinks the happiness cult lacks compassion. Self-Help has a long tradition and historian Kate Williams, seen on BBC TV, reminds us that it didnt start in the U.S. but in the U.K. in the 19th Century with the bestselling author Samuel Smiles.
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2010-10-03 The Seventh Vital Virtue: Love
Its the apex and epitome of all the human virtues. Its transforming power is at the heart of the Christian faith and it is at the centre of our happiest relationships. But why is love so hard, when its the thing we want most? Yvonne Allen has been Australias leading Matchmaker for more than 35 years, and she shares her wisdom about the perennial quest for love with Anglican priest, Steven Ogden, who explains why love should turn us `upside down rather than fit our neat and orderly...
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2010-09-26 Music to Rouse the Spirit
Can music convey beliefs even when it is purely instrumental? Jeremy Begbie thinks it can, and as a musician and a theologian he teaches students at Wolfson College, Cambridge and Duke University in the US how to understand the parallels between complex musical harmonies and equally complex theological ideas such as the Trinity. Professor Begbie speaks to Rachael Kohn on the occasion of a series of lectures, Music, Modernity and God, for New College at the University of New South Wales.
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2010-09-19 John Henry Newman
Colleges around the English-speaking world are named after him; his hymn 'Lead, Kindly Light' is one of the most popular; and the great English composer Sir Edward Elgar set his poem, 'The Dream of Gerontius' to music. John Cardinal Newman (1801-1890) will be beatified on September 19th in Birmingham, England but this Church of England Divine who became a Catholic Cardinal was despised and loved in his day by Anglicans as well as Catholics. His biographer John Cornwell tells his story.
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2010-09-12 Jewish Busker in Germany
Internationally-renowned Alex Jacobowitz is an Orthodox Jewish marimba player who works on the streets of Munich, Milan and Krakow when he isnt playing in newly re-opened synagogues in Poland. Music is the conduit of his Jewish soul and the way he bridges the gap of understanding to the post-Holocaust generation. We also hear from Shoshanna Keller who is 87 and has been writing poetry as a spiritual practice for 70 years.
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2010-09-05 Seven Vital Virtues: Hope
Is hope the last refuge of the desperate, or is it the eternal light in the darkness that can turn everyday fear into joy? Sr. Yeshe Chodron is an Australian Buddhist nun who works with street children in India, Fr. Chris Riley is a Catholic priest who runs Youth Off the Streets in Sydney, and Amanda Gore is an international speaker who is an expert on joy. They all have their personal struggles with hope, while they give hope to those in need.
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2010-08-29 Meditation: Falling Awake
If the aftermath of the Federal election has made you edgy you might need a good dose of medically-prescribed meditation. Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Coming to Our Senses and Letting Everything Become Your Teacher is Professor emeritus of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he founded the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society, and the world-renowned Stress Reduction Clinic. A completely different tradition of meditation is taught by...
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2010-08-22 The Man Behind the 'Ground Zero' Mosque
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is the man behind the proposed mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, which polls indicate is rejected by 70% of Americans. But Rauf, who was in Australia late last year, defended Switzerlands ban on minarets and told Rachael Kohn that he believes Islam should conform to the countries it finds itself in. While Rauf is encouraged by Americas Christian history, Tom Frame, the winner of the 2010 Christian Book of the Year award, tells Rachael Australia is not a Christian...
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2010-08-15 Lady With The Lamp
Florence Nightingale is remembered as the pioneer of professional nursing, but it was a minor part of life compared to her passion was for a new religion. Striving to unite with the `God within, whose Laws were consistent with scientific knowledge, Florence was a radical theologian who urged religious reform. On the centenary of her death, biographer Val Webb reveals the real Florence Nightingale behind the myth.
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2010-08-08 "Shir Madness" & Hugging Jerusalem
The first Jewish Music Festival in Australia features 40 performers including Nadya Giga and Their 101 Candles Orkestra, and renowned Yiddish singer Fay Sussman - whose personal stories are as exotic as their music. The recent death of peacemaker, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari of Jerusalem is a major loss for Jewish-Muslim-Christian dialogue but in his last conversation with Rachael Kohn he talks about the huge international prayer event, "Hugging Jerusalem".
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2010-08-01 Seven Vital Virtues: Faith
Can faith move mountains and rescue lost souls? Stand-up comic and author of My Dirty Shiny Life, Lily Bragge thinks so because her life was a shambles before she converted to Christianity. Former barrister and founder of the Shanti Mission Harmony Centre in NSW, Shakti Durga, has also experienced a powerful transformation from her New Age faith in Eastern and Western mysticism. But Los Angeles-based sociologist of religion and author of Society without God, Phil Zuckerman, has no truck with...
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2010-07-25 Turning East: Mary Poppins & Master Sha
The proper nanny of the Banks children was created by Australian-born Helen Goff, aka Pamela Travers, whose unconventional personal journey led her to Gurdjieff and Krishnamurti (repeat broadcast). Today Westerners seeking alternative paths have turned to New York Times-bestselling author Master Zhi Gang Sha who believes in soul healing through soul singing.
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2010-07-18 Mega Church Future
Massive membership, popular music and an upbeat message may be the future of the church, but according to social researcher Marion Maddox at Macquarie University it comes at a price of increased materialism and male-dominated leadership. Female leadership was a mark of Pentecostal Church origins and it's regaining ground, says the Dean of Alphacrucis College, Jacquie Grey. They were both at the Future of Religion in Australia Conference held recently at Trinity College in Melbourne.
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2010-07-11 Education and 'Honour Killing'
Dr Sakeena Yacoobi's Afghan Institute of Learning has changed the lives of thousands of Afghan women and she tells Rachael Kohn how God, co-operative spirit and high principles have made her underground schools a success right under the nose of the Taliban. Carol Kaplanian at the University of Western Australia is researching the crime of 'Honour Killing' which affects middle eastern and Pakistani communities the world over.
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2010-07-04 Seven Vital Virtues: Justice
The fourth cardinal virtue, Justice, has been both championed and abused by its guardians. Social justice activist, Catholic Bishop Pat Power, joins with judicial educator and land rights consultant Joanna Kalowski and lawyer and former jihad enthusiast Irfan Yusuf in a conversation about the personal, religious and secular limits of justice.
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2010-06-27 The History Keepers
Mormons are commanded by the Lord to keep a daily journal which helps enormously when writing the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Assistant Church historian Richard Turley Jr speaks about the controversial Joseph Smith letters that resulted in murder and mayhem in Salt Lake City. Rachael Kohn speaks to Turley and to four scholars involved in translating Jewish, Christian and Muslim texts from Arabic at Brigham Young University in Utah.
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2010-06-20 Charles Wesleys Suffering Hymns
One of the founders of Methodism, Charles Wesley wrote some of the best-known hymns in the English language. More than 250 years later they are still being sung, as historian Dr. Joanna Cruickshank explains. We also hear from Prof. Michael Horsburgh who has collected Wesley memorabilia.
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2010-06-13 Dalrymple's Indian Odyssey
From voluntary starvation to ecstatic dance, Indias spiritual experiences can be both cruel and joyous, but to the intrepid Indian resident and author, William Dalrymple, they are all fascinating insights into a society in the throes of modernity. Untouchables mix with Brahmins and Temple Courtesans ply their trade as prostitutes, but social outcasts and spiritual seekers still find refuge amongst Indias many traditions. After performing at Sydneys Opera House, William spoke to Rachael Kohn.
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2010-06-06 Seven Vital Virtues: Courage
Donna Mulhearn had the courage of her convictions when she became a `human shield in Iraq in 2003, an experience she wrote about in her book, Ordinary Courage. Andrew Havas, the chairman of Courage to Care NSW, teaches students and members of the public how ordinary people can stop being `bystanders and learn to help others in distress. And Phil Eizenberg the former Vice President of the Australian Hapkido Association teaches victims how to be strong and courageous in body and mind. They all...
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2010-05-30 End Violence with a Bitachon and a Bita Love
Shimon Waronker, a Hasidic Jewish principal of one of New Yorks most violent schools, has turned his black American and Hispanic students around with novel ideas - love, and a profound trust (Bitachon) in God. His achievement is all the more astonishing since Crown Heights was the scene of a three-day race riot between Blacks and Jews in 1991 which left Australian student Yankel Rosenbaum dead. Rachael talks to Shimon during his visit to Australia.
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2010-05-23 Veil of Tears
Senator Cory Bernardis call to follow Belgium and ban the Burqa in Australia has set off a firestorm of commentary where confusion and contradiction reign. Is it a feminist issue, a freedom of religion issue, or a political issue? For Professor of Sociology, Marnia Lazreg author of Questioning the Veil, the Burqa is the tip of an iceberg of gender issues, which she first violently experienced growing up in Algeria. For Dr. Shakira Hussein of the University of Melbourne, its imperative to...
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2010-05-16 Progressive Christianity Pt 2
After a spiritual epiphany Fred Plumer wanted the experience of God to be at the centre of his Christian faith. Now the California-based Rev. Plumer is President of the Centre for Progressive Christianity, with a growing list of international church affiliates. The Rev. Margaret Mayman of Wellington in New Zealand sees Progressive Christianity as the best hope for achieving justice for lesbians, gays and transgenders in the church. Dean of the Anglican Cathedral in Darwin, The Very Rev....
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2010-05-09 Progressive Christianity
Can you take Christ out of Christianity and still remain in the Church? Critics of the Revd Gretta Vosper claim she has done just that, but the Canadian minister in the United Church of Canada says she is forging a new inclusive form of Christianity where the Bible is not `privileged. She and Australian fellow travellers are part of the Progressive Christianity movement and they speak to Rachael.
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2010-05-02 Seven Vital Virtues: Temperance
Exercising the virtue of temperance is a daily requirement, but for those who succumb to addiction a long and happy life may be unachievable without the help of experts. Writer and alcoholic, Ross Fitzgerald, found his salvation in AA, while professional counsellor Heide McConkey helps sex addicts find a way back to normal sexual relations. Buddhist scholar and friend of the Dalai Lama, and keynote speaker at the Happiness Conference in Sydney, Bob Thurman admits that hes still a little...
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2010-04-25 Anzac Dreams and Realities
The harsh conditions for the Anzac soldiers at Gallipoli made the production of The Anzac Book by the diggers themselves in the seventh month of their campaign an amazing feat. Head of the Military History Section at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Ashley Ekins, talks about the spirit of the diggers and the vision of Charles W. Bean, Australia's official war correspondent. And the Anglican Bishop to the Australian Defence Force, the Right Revd Len Eacott, discusses the challenges...
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2010-04-18 I Was There at the Big Bang
John Seed is a world-renowned Australian environmental activist. He believes that the only way to stop the further degradation of the biosphere on which all living beings depend is to inculcate a spiritual consciousness that connects us to the planet, the universe, and all other life forms. Through workshops, songs and poetry John communicates his message which he shares with Rachael on Balmoral Beach in Sydney.
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2010-04-11 Post-Easter Voices with the Australian...
Lead violin and conductor, Richard Tognetti, is taking the Australian Chamber Orchestra on a national tour with guest voices Andrew Staples (tenor), Matthew Brook (bass), Sarah Macliver (soprano) and Fiona Campbell (mezzo soprano). They speak to Rachael Kohn about the faith and innovative mind of Johann Sebastian Bach and his influence on modern composers.
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2010-04-04 Seven Vital Virtues: Prudence
With Easter�s promise of renewal and a fresh start, we begin our monthly Virtues series, designed to prompt serious thinking about what it means to live the good life. The first virtue is Prudence. While its cautious and thrifty disposition might seem out of step with our `to the max� culture, the former Premier of NSW Bob Carr weighs in on its role in government. Fairfax columnist and author Elizabeth Farrelly, who trained in architecture and philosophy, wrestles with its negative...
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2010-03-28 Muslim Women Reformers
A book by Sydney-based Dr. Ida Lichter, Muslim Women Reformers brings to light the many Muslim women around the world who are risking their lives to bring changes to the way Islam is interpreted and imposed especially on women and children. As well, we hear from the African-American Islamic scholar, Amina Wadud, who made headlines when she led Friday prayers of men and women in New York City. But her major work is through Qur'anic studies that are intended to liberate the text from a...
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2010-03-21 Coercive Religion
People in coercive religions pay a high price for their involvement, but leaving can be traumatic. Independent Senator Nick Xenophon speaks to Rachael Kohn about his efforts to get a parliamentary inquiry into Scientology, and David Ayliffe talks about his 16 year involvement in a Bible-based cult. Peter Janetzki counsels ex-cult members and Adrian Norman�s Visions of Paradise is an educational video.
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2010-03-14 Saints Alive!
The resident padre on Comedy Central�s The Colbert Report, Fr. Jim Martin loves the lives of the saints because they are both holy and flawed, and he�s particularly thrilled with the beatification of Mother Mary MacKillop, the `saint of troublemakers�. Dr. Philip Almond casts doubt on the Catholic approach to saints, while Sarah Dunant the British author of Sacred Hearts, reveals the intimate lives of Renaissance nuns in Ferrara, Italy.
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2010-03-07 The Spiritual Vision of Martin Sharp
An iconic artist of Sydney, Martin Sharp�s psychedelic colours mask a disturbing vision of the forces of darkness in conflict with the forces of light. In an intimate conversation with Rachael Kohn about his art and life, Martin talks about his religious view of what really happened in the Luna Park fire of 1979, where six children and an adult were killed on the Ghost Train. And he also explains the significance of Tiny Tim as a Christ-like figure.
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2010-02-14 iMuslim: Mona Eltahawy
An Egyptian-born Muslim journalist living in New York is one of the new wave of iMuslims who are using the internet to push reform in Islam. Like the "Men in Headscarves" campaign by Iranian men who�ve posted pictures of themselves on the internet, Mona protests the covering of women as a human rights issue. She was recently awarded the Anvil of Freedom Award from the University of Denver for outstanding contributions to the field of journalism. Rachael Kohn interviews her at home in New...
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2009-11-22 The Larger God of Nature
Charles Darwin�s publication of On the Origin of Species 150 years ago is not a barrier to belief but an invitation to see God as larger than previously imagined. So says Dr. Nancy Howell, Co-Chair of the Theology and Science Group of the American Academy of Religion. Science is hegemonic today, but it is not capable of measuring a God that is only known to us as analogy, says Dr. Martinez Hewlett, a theistic evolutionist and a cellular biologist at the University of Arizona. The idea of the...
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2009-11-15 Charles Darwin: the Body and the Soul
When Charles Darwin wrote his Origin of Species, published 150 years ago this month, some Anglicans had made peace with the evolution of the body. But as Pulitzer Prize-winning Darwin historian, Edward Larson, points out it was the soul they were concerned about. Darwin�s great, great grandson, Christopher Darwin, tells the story of his grandfather�s religious journey and his own, while Maggie Walter of the University of Tasmania speaks of the impact of social Darwinism on her great great...
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2009-11-08 Meditation: Falling Awake
Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn knows that meditation is natural but not easy to master, exotic yet essential to healthful living. He is the founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, which is celebrating its 30th year. Brother Satyananda came to yoga and meditation to sort himself out and after 35 years as a monk in the Self Realisation Fellowship, he lectures worldwide on the benefits of yoga meditation.
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- Religion & Spirituality, Public Radio
- ABC (Australia)
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Spirit of Things
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