Three Deaths: Socrates, Stephen, and Jesus
While reviewing some meditations on the cross by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I came across his summary that ‘Socrates overcame dying; Christ overcame death.’ It is one of those startling comments which […]
Paul: A Man Misunderstood
We are all prone to plead that we have been understood, but the apostle Paul was in reality a man much misunderstood. The word ‘nuanced’ can be a weasel word, […]
Remembering the Reformation
Moderator’s Comments – Posted 29 October 2019 As one who loves to read history, I have never quite shared the desire to keep anniversaries. It often seems that the louder the […]
Abraham Kuyper and the Stone Lectures
Widely recognised as historian, theologian, philosopher, politician, and professor-educator, Abraham Kuyper was born in Maassluis in the year 1837, the son of a National Church (Reformed) pastor, and was later […]
Three Things I’ve Learned from John Allen Chau
When a twenty-six-year-old missionary, John Allen Chau, was murdered by the people of North Sentinel Island on 17 November 2018, every media organisation in the world seemed to debate the […]
A Tale of Two Lives…
Moderator’s Comments – Posted 3 February 2019 Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities, is a classic. It spans two countries, bringing them together through Dickens’ engaging characters embedded in their 18th century lives […]
Heroic Missionaries: How God Wrought Marvellous Works through John and Phyllis Mercer
John and Phyllis Mercer served with CMS in the remote mission station of Numbulwar, on the Gulf of Carpentaria, during the 1950s and ’60s. Both John and Phyllis were born […]
Evangelicals Unchained: Evangelical Christians Profoundly Influenced Australia
Stuart Piggin was director of the Centre for the History of Christian Thought and Experience at Macquarie University and head of the Department of Christian Thought of the Australian College […]
The Forgotten Reformer: Oecolampadius, A Light to the Church in Dark Times
The year was 1531. As autumn darkened into winter, prospects for the Reformation in Switzerland looked grim. Within a month, two of its leaders were dead: the rugged and charismatic […]
Garbled Gospel: Faith and Eugenics: A Marriage Not Made in Heaven
According to historians of early 20th century Australia, around the time of World War I, many members of the “chattering classes” were anxious concerning the perils confronting nation-building efforts on […]