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Soul Search

ABC (Australia)

Soul Search explores contemporary religion and spirituality from the inside out — what we believe, how we express it, and the difference it makes in our lives

Location:

Sydney, NSW

Description:

Soul Search explores contemporary religion and spirituality from the inside out — what we believe, how we express it, and the difference it makes in our lives

Language:

English

Contact:

Spirit of Things ABC Radio National GPO Box 9994 Sydney 2001 (02) 8333 2829


Episodes

Astronomy and the thrill of curiosity: Jennifer Wiseman and Mehmet Ozalp

2/1/2023
Looking at the stars and imagining what’s out there – and our own place in it as humans – is a theme that’s preoccupied our species across time, across cultures, and across religious traditions. Dr Mehmet Ozalp is director of the Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation at Charles Sturt University. Dr Jennifer Wiseman is an astrophysicist who studies the process of star and planet formation in our own galaxy using radio, optical and infrared telescopes. She is also past director of the...

Duration:00:53:45

Tricia Hersey on rest, resistance and liberation

1/25/2023
Why is rest such a challenge in our culture, in our time? Tricia Hersey has made it her life’s work to advocate for rest – developing a rest practice herself, and guiding others in the same direction. Tricia’s work isn’t about self-care or individual wellness, and there’s no neat hack for recalibrating your work/life balance. Instead, she advocates for a radical, countercultural form of rest grounded in a theology of Black liberation. Tricia Hersey is a performance artist, community...

Duration:00:53:44

Theology after Mabo

1/22/2023
The first interview in this episode with Anne Pattel-Gray first aired 29 May 2022. The Mabo decision was a legal and cultural milestone in Australia, but thirty years on, how has it changed theology? For decades Dr Anne Pattel-Gray has been calling for racial justice in and through Christian churches. She says Mabo “shifts our whole perspective of how we interpret the Bible, of how we do theology.” Aunty Dr Anne Pattel-Gray is a Bidjara activist and theologian who has been a key figure in...

Duration:00:51:18

What makes a building sacred?

1/15/2023
This episode originally aired 22 May 2022. Have you ever found yourself in a place where heaven and earth seem to meet? Sacred architecture and aesthetics can make a person experience the numinous, even in a building not set aside for a religious purpose. Also, Papua New Guinea’s Baha’i community, are about to open a new house of worship in Port Moresby. Watch The Architect and the Mosque on Compass. Read Ayla Lepine’s article about sacred architecture on The Architectural Review. Ayla...

Duration:00:52:48

The forest makers – Tony Rinaudo and Ruth Jerotich

1/8/2023
This episode first aired 5 June 2022. What does it take to re-green a desert? As it turns out, sometimes what you need is already in the ground right under your feet. Tony Rinaudo went to Niger as an agriculturalist and missionary and – almost by accident – began a regeneration practice now used across the world. Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration, or FMNR, cultivates the shoots of tree stumps that remain after land clearing. Tony Rinaudo is an agronomist originally from Myrtleford in...

Duration:00:50:59

Salvaging the light: Poet and aphorist Yahia Lababidi

1/1/2023
This episode originally aired 8 May 2022. an literature somehow bridge the visible and invisible realms? Meredith Lake speaks with Egyptian-American poet and aphorist Yahia Lababidi, whose work ranges across cultures, traditions and genres. Find Yahia Lababidi’s books here Listen to the Philosophy in a Nutshell series on The Philosopher’s Zone with David Rutledge Guests Yahia Lababidi is a writer, poet and aphorist. Originally from Cairo, in Egypt, he now lives in Florida, US. His latest...

Duration:00:51:24

Christmas on the liquid continent

12/21/2022
The South Pacific – the liquid continent – is one of the most religious places on earth. The overwhelming majority of people identify as Christians of one kind or another – so what does that mean at Christmas? Rev James Bhagwan is an ordained minister in the Methodist church of Fiji, and since 2018, General Secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches. The PCC is the peak ecumenical body in the Pacific - representing more than 40 different churches and national church councils, from...

Duration:00:53:40

The gospel of John and the poetry of belief

12/14/2022
As people around the world prepare to celebrate Christmas, Christians turn to the Gospels to read ancient accounts of Jesus. The gospel of John is the fourth gospel contained in the New Testament – and in some ways it stands apart from the other three, Matthew, Mark and Luke. From its famous opening words, “In the beginning was the Word”, its enthralled everyone from Origen to Bach to Dostoyevsky. The Gospels continue to inspire creative expressions of faith. Rev Professor Dorothy Lee is...

Duration:00:50:19

Prayers of nomads – Valerie Browning and Mohammed Salih

12/7/2022
The Horn of Africa is one of the hottest and poorest regions on earth, and it’s home to a semi-nomadic community, the Afar. Valerie Browning is an Australian nurse who has given up her own way of life to live and work with Afar people for over 30 years. War in the horn of Africa has had a devastating impact on the Afar. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes just in the last two years – a small number of Afar now live in Australia as refugees. Valerie Browning AM is...

Duration:00:53:41

How to have an enemy: Melissa Florer-Bixler

11/30/2022
Do you have an enemy? Even if you do, you might not want to admit it, or say who! Melissa Florer-Bixler has thought a lot about enemies, especially in the political context of Donald Trump’s presidency. It gets complicated for her, because she is a pacifist Christian. How do you deal with enmity, when Jesus commands you to love your enemies? The solution isn’t always understanding and reconciliation. Melissa Florer-Bixler is pastor of Raleigh Mennonite Church in North Carolina. She is the...

Duration:00:52:01

Faith amid flood waters

11/23/2022
At the beginning of 2022, flooding in South-East Queensland and the Northern Rivers of New South Wales upended the lives of thousands, including the area’s diverse religious communities. Hear how the area’s Sikhs provide aid even though their own gurdwara was inundated, and how the Jewish community practices hospitality as best they can in the lead-up to Pesach. Watch Fire, Flood and Resilience on iView. This episode originally aired on 10 April 2022. Guests Amar Singh is founder of Turbans...

Duration:00:53:10

Finding the divine in the natural world

11/16/2022
With the latest round of UN climate talks wrapping up recently, it’s a good time to ask a fundamental question: Who are we, in relation to nature? What kinds of relationships bind us to other beings, like trees? Maybe even amid climate change we can approach nature with celebration – even veneration? Dr Mahesh White Radhakrishnan is a musician, an ethnomusicologist and anthropological linguist at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and a member of the group Hindus for Human Rights –...

Duration:00:52:01

Travel and transformation: Sarah Malik and Giselle Bader

11/9/2022
Where are you going? Journeys take many forms: Moving away from your parents’ house, being a tourist in a foreign land, or going on a pilgrimage to a site of profound spiritual significance – and all have a transformative effect on our lives. Dr Giselle Bader has a PhD in religious studies from Sydney University. Her research looked at fourth century pilgrimage to the holy land, including the pilgrimages of women like Egeria and Paula, and how accounts of their journeys have been received...

Duration:00:52:33

The music of doubt, grief and transformation

11/3/2022
How important is music to you? Does it have a sacred quality in your life? From contemporary Catholic theology to the goth icon Nick Cave, music speaks to the soul in ways other media does not. Dr Lyn McCredden is emeritus professor of literary studies at Deakin university in Melbourne. Read her essay about Nick Cave’s book Faith, Hope and Carnage in The Conversation. Dr Greg Clarke is a former CEO of the Australian Institute of Music, and before that, of the Bible Society of Australia. Dr...

Duration:00:52:39

Nobel physicist Frank Wilczek on paradox, beauty and truth

10/27/2022
Frank Wilczek is a Nobel Prize winner, and earlier this year he was named the 2022 Templeton laureate as well – a recognition of his spiritual as well as scientific curiosity. He’s a scientist, renowned for theorising the strong force in atomic nuclei, but more basically he sees beauty as perhaps our best guide to truth. Frank Wilczek is Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at MIT, the 2022 Templeton Laureate, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize and author of several popular books including A...

Duration:00:52:42

Sacred landscapes: The Flinders Ranges

10/20/2022
The Flinders Ranges in the semi-arid outback of South Australia is one of the oldest places on earth and the cradle of Adnyamathanha culture, ceremony and language. In addition to being an ancient place of cultural and spiritual significance, it’s the site of a recent archaeological discovery that rewrites Western understandings of the history of human habitation of the area. Terrence Coulthard is a senior custodian of Adnyamathanha culture and language who compiled the first Adnyamathanha...

Duration:00:53:36

Women’s voices in ancient texts and Australian churches

10/13/2022
Women, where they speak and what they say, has been a hot topic for nearly 2000 years of Christian history. Modern moves to empower women to teach and preach in churches can seem opposed to ancient Christian texts, but the early church was far from unified about “a woman’s place”. One-hundred years on from the landmark decision to licence Anglican women to preach, and 30 years on from the first ordination of Australian women as Anglican priests, how easily can women raise their voices in the...

Duration:00:51:31

Danya Ruttenberg on repentance and repair

10/6/2022
In this messy old world, we all find ourselves on the receiving end of harm. But then – sometimes it’s us, we’re the one in the wrong. How do we face it?

Duration:00:51:38

Making fictional faiths real – invented religions

9/29/2022
In the past it’s been a joke to put Jedi as your religion on the census, but there are people who practise Star Wars-inspired faiths quite seriously. It turns out, people really do take things from fiction and incorporate them into their spiritual lives, either as modern mythology, or even as full-blown religious systems.

Duration:00:52:05

Satanic Panic — Dungeons & Dragons and Harry Potter

9/22/2022
The Satanic Panic was a time of incredible anxiety in the United States – and Australia. This special feature examines how games like Dungeons and Dragons and books like Harry Potter became unlikely villains in a war over religion, politics and imagination.

Duration:00:53:45