Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site
Forgot your password?
Subscribe

Section: Religion

  • RELIGION

    St Patrick, a man before his time

    • Ursula Stephens
    • 26 March 2007
    2 Comments

    Even though St Patrick's Day has not yet arrived, I have already received several cards and messages. Some came the old-fashioned way, delivered by the postman, but most were like my friend Colleen's, the virtual variety, and arrived with a "ping' in my inbox.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Do freedom and spontaneity undermine liturgy?

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 08 March 2007
    4 Comments

    According to Cardinal Ratzinger, we do not shape the liturgy, but liturgy shapes us. But it is less helpful to ask whether spontaneity and creativity are appropriate, than to ask what kinds of spontaneity and creativity are appropriate.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    What’s wrong with Voting for Jesus?

    • Scott Stephens
    • 27 February 2007
    3 Comments

    I must confess to growing bored very quickly when I hear that our real problem today is the erosion of spirituality, of belief in a deeper dimension of life, and the consequent rampant materialism. From a properly Christian perspective, the problem today is not materialism, but religion itself.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Pope's speech gives rise to bigger questions about reason

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 27 February 2007
    3 Comments

    Andrew Hamilton reflects further on the furore provoked by Pope Benedict's speech at Regensburg.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Why church leaders should not shut up

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 27 February 2007
    30 Comments

    Ultimately, the business of churches is truth, not growth. Of course, a passion for truth might also lead churches to reflect on many of the unnecessary things that alienate people and prevent growth. But the great gift that churches can bring to public life is a care for truth.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Faith and Reason in Limbo

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 27 February 2007
    10 Comments

    What is missing in this theological use of reason is an imagination grounded in ordinary humanity and, in the case of Christians, in the humanity of Christ, the criterion for our knowledge of God.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Dialogue between individuals the way to inter-faith understanding

    • Greg Soetomo
    • 27 February 2007
    1 Comment

    Encounters between individuals come before discussion of ideology or religion. By engaging in a dialogue between cultures and civilisations, a clash of religions can be avoided.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Chaplains, values and Australia's providential destiny

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 27 February 2007
    9 Comments

    When Australians have spoken about national providence, they associate it with a sense of mission. Mission and providence belong together. A God who played favourites would be subdivine. So God’s blessing must be given for all.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Acting on Faith-Based Conscience in a Pluralist Democracy

    • Frank Brennan
    • 27 February 2007

    Links to the full text and audio of the speech delivered by Frank Brennan SJ at the Australian Catholic University on 29 July.  

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Muslim at the heart of an Indonesian Christian office

    • Greg Soetomo
    • 27 February 2007
    2 Comments

    When I reflect on this conversation, I am also struck by how different what I see in daily life is from what I read and watch in the media about about Muslim militants, the clash between Christians and Muslims, fundamentalism, or terrorism. Every age has its own false ideas. In our time, it is the notion that identifies Islam with hostility and aggression.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    'Hate the sin, love the sinner' more sentimental than moral?

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 27 February 2007
    19 Comments

    It sounds nice. Until we begin to name names. Adolf Hitler, Jozef Stalin, Pol Pot, Osama Bin Laden. These are monsters. To suggest that God loves them is to sentimentalise God, and to remove any firm basis for morality.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Which ideas belong in the public sphere?

    • Peter Douglas
    • 27 February 2007

    The post-Enlightenment commitment to the rational testing of claims is important if we are avoid the excesses of fundamentalism. But it could be time to accept that the range of acceptable ideas has been too narrow.

    READ MORE