On the Way Podcast
A podcast exploring the deeper mysteries of faith, meaning, and beauty. Based at St John's Cathedral in Brisbane, it invites others into conversation who are also "on the way." The show seeks a transformative spirituality and inclusive faith that speaks to real issues today. Together, participants seek to make meaning and articulate a Christianity that expresses the liberating and life-giving message of the Gospel in our time.
Episodes
Frank Brennan: Magnifica Humanitas
What does it mean to be human? Pope Leo XIV addresses this question in his encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, a letter addressed not only to all the Catholic faithful but to "all men and women of goodwill". In addressing the challenges, threats and possibilities of AI, how do we ensure we do not lose what matters most about human life?Human limitations, suggests the letter, are not weaknesses to be
Sarah Bachelard: Pools Of Grace
There has been interest and renewal of contemplative practice amongst the Christian church in recent decades. Rather than just a comfortable solace in a busy world, there is an urgency in such practices that seek transformed and transforming ways to be and to live in a time of such complexity and rapid change. What habits and practices might enable us to relate truthfully to ourselves and to the w
Alikki Vernon and David Moore: Setting Relations Right
How does faith show up in the everyday? How might we bring intention and focus to living out our faith in the everyday micro-moments of our lives and relationships? It is easy to remain in relational habits that are encultured or habituated by social patterns that are so often 'win-lose' and resistant to change. Restorative Practices are broadly a set of processes that enable people to work togeth
Anne Pattel-Gray: Raising our Prophetic Voice
Where is the Church calling Australian society to accountability in the face of experiences of escalating racism and hatred against First Nations people? This is a question Professor Anne Pattel-Gray asks as she recalls the times of church support for land rights and justice for the Stolen Generations, leaning into a Gospel message that proclaims equality and the dignity of all. Anne joins the pod
Kwok Pui-Lan: The Colonial Mind
Often we hear colonialism spoken of as something that happened in the past. At other times in public discourse the term attracts heated resistance and the voices of the colonised are frequently not heard. If colonialism is not just the past but remains in the air we breathe, we can miss the ongoing effects in areas of diverse as class, economy, gender relationships and race. Dr Kwok Pui-lan joins
On the Way: The Weight of Everything
There are plenty of reasons right now that we may feel inclined to despair. The news brings to us all the violence of the world and a sense that the all we have known is fundamentally changing. Dom, Sue and Peter gather for this 'check in' conversation on how we are adjusting to the shifting of the powers in the world and the unmasking of systems that have been for some time working against life a
Jeff Chu: Good Soil
What soil did you come from? There is no self-made person and perhaps this is a lesson that emerges with greater clarity in the garden than in many of the other spaces and ways we live and work. Our sacred texts are rooted in agrarian cultures and the Gospels are full of Jesus' stories of green and growing things, yet we often hear a Christianity preached that seems more comfortable with the
John Na'em Snobar: Peace with Justice
What if reconciliation is resistance? John Na'em Snobar, a Palestinian Christian and former Australian Diplomat, joins the podcast to speak from his lived experience both in diplomatic circles and on the ground in Israel/ Palestine of how speaking the truth is, in itself, a nonviolent response. John speaks of the whole truth as that which names antisemitism as a centuries-old vile and violen
Peter Kline: The Double Bind of Being Human
To be human is to find oneself bound to multiple things that are conflictual yet at the same time compelling. The interplay of desire and morality creates one such 'double bind'. It is possible to follow desire and disregard the claims of morality in such a way that you can ruin your life. Equally it is possible to devote oneself to morality and disregard the voice of desire and ruin your life. De
Jim Schirmer: Integrating wellbeing, therapy and the soul
While society has advanced in its understanding of mental health, with advances in treatment, wider awareness and a reduction in stigma, there seems to be no abating of the mental health crisis. Tracing the history of modern psychotherapy, and the systematic approach taken by the medical sciences, Jim Schirmer returns to the podcast to reflect on the academic heritage of psychotherapy and the ther
Iain McGilchrist: The Sense Of The Sacred
Anyone who describes an experience with the sacred will find themselves often struggling for words because they find the sacred is not a 'thing', nor a set of beliefs, but rather an encounter in open and vulnerable relationship which requires a far more humble and receptive form of knowing. Dr Iain McGilchrist, neuroscientist, philosopher and author, joins the podcast for a second conversation, th
Donna Ladkin : The Leadership Moment
So often we think of leaders as born rather than made, or at least as having some kind of specialist predisposition such as charisma or perhaps an extraverted, more dominant personality. Dr Donna Ladkin joins Dom, Peter and Sue to explore the idea that maybe leadership is much more complex and may be better understood as a lived experience rather than a checklist of traits or behaviours. Whil
Beth-Sarah Wright: the Dignity Lens
What if dignity is a way of seeing that changes the kind of attention we pay to each other and to our world? Authenticity, human dignity and the courage to confront difficult truths are a common thread in the writing of Dr Beth-Sarah Wright who joins the podcast for this conversation during her recent visit to Brisbane. The Latin root of the word 'respect' is to look again. Everyone is worth
Spiritual Misfits, On the Way (LIVE at 'Words for Those Who Wander')
A special cross-over podcast episode between Spiritual Misfits and On the Way, recorded at 'Words For Those Who Wander' at West End Uniting Church in Brisbane. In this conversation, Will Small, Dom Fay, Sue Grimmett, and Peter Catt explore what happens when the old spiritual maps stop working and we need to become cartographers for our time. Together they wrestle with profound questions: Wha
Wil Gafney: Reading and Seeing from the Margins
We do everything we do in this world through our embodiment. There remains a pervasive myth that we move through this world working and creating without leaving any trace of our own lived experience upon our moving and interacting, commenting and creating. With such a mythology the dominant voices become normative, and can be associated with objective truth, obscuring the understanding and experie
Meg Wheatley: Restoring Sanity
After 50 years of working with leaders globally, Margaret Wheatley, argues that leadership has never been more difficult. In the face of a multicrisis of climate and human created catastrophes, Meg points to the compelling need to awaken the human spirit and create “islands of sanity”: spaces of possibility and refuge created by people's commitment to forming healthy communities to do
Lamorna Ash: A New Generation's Search for Religion
Exploring a curious story that she thought might be “knotty and weird”, of two comedians from her student days who converted to Christianity and decided to become Anglican priests, journalist Lamorna Ash unearths a recurring phenomenon of a new generation discovering religion for themselves. Lamorna sets out on a journey that takes her across Britain to talk with Gen Z-ers wrestling wi
Parker J. Palmer: Everything Falls Away
"Sooner or later, everything falls away."With these words, author Parker J. Palmer begins his much-loved poem exploring the landscape of loss, grief and letting go. In this conversation, Parker reads the poem and reflects on the transient nature of reality and the great tapestry that holds all things together. Dom joins Parker in his living room in Madison, Wisconsin. See omnystudio.com/
Pádraig Ó Tuama: The Room Next To Belief
Alongside being the title of Pádraig Ó Tuama's recently released collection of poetry, Kitchen Hymns is also an informal term referring to the hymns sung in Irish homes that weren't allowed in formal church contexts, due to their being in the Irish language rather than Latin. It is this rebellious and honest flavour of sacred expression that has been at the heart of P&aacut
Barbara Brown Taylor: Rediscovering Reverence
In the midst of our busy lives, we can so easily miss the sacred shining through every moment. Children are instinctively drawn to bewilderment and astonishment at the wonder of life, and yet it is a way of seeing that often fades as the rigours and responsibilities of adult life take over. Barbara Brown Taylor has been exploring the idea of reverence in her work for decades through her belov
Rob Bell: Grief, Guilt & Growth
What do we do with the weight of the past? We so often find ourselves clinging and grasping to that which has ended, getting stuck in self-loathing and judgement over that which we regret, or becoming too cautious and comfortable to step boldly beyond that which we have outgrown, leaving us struggling to live fully in the present moment and all that is emerging. In this episode, Rob Bell expl
Rowan Williams: Holy Longing
While we may struggle to agree on the answers to life's biggest questions, we are all united in asking them. It is this shared questioning that binds us as humans, with each of us carrying a deep ache for something greater, something sacred and something real. Drawing on the wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has explored this so
Iain McGilchrist: A Distorted Reality
What if the way our brains have evolved is inhibiting us from seeing reality as it actually is?This is the groundbreaking theory of renowned neuroscientist, psychiatrist and philosopher Dr Iain McGilchrist, whose research on the two hemispheres of the brain and the different ways in which they operate sheds a great deal of light on so many of the problems we find ourselves facing today.
Alexander John Shaia: Recovering The Mystical
Karl Rahner once remarked that 'the Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist', and it is in this spirit that friend of the podcast Alexander John Shaia joins Dom for a conversation about recovering the mystical way of seeing today. Recorded in Granada, Spain, this episode explores how we can come to see the stories of our tradition less as historical moments, and more as tim
Pete Rollins: Nothing Matters
Our culture constantly bombards us with products, ideas and approaches that promise to heal us, cure us, make us whole, and take away the pain of life entirely. We are led to believe that we are only one change away from the life we've always felt like we should be living, and that we need only to find the right book, program, or product to help us get there. But what if the truth is that not
Richard Holloway: Looking for Life's Meaning
What are the biggest questions that would stay with you across your life? is there a God? Why is there something, not nothing, and what can it possibly all mean? How can we live a good life? Richard Holloway joins the podcast once again from Edinburgh to share some of his reflections on these questions which have shaped his life. In this latest book, On Reflection, Richard recruits poets, art
Rowan Williams: Passions Of The Soul
What cost do we pay when we remain living in self-regarding reactivity? What do we do when we find ourselves stuck, trapped by the illusory pictures we have of ourselves and unable to be a channel of life for others? Former Archbishop of Canterbury and author of many books, Dr Rowan Williams, joins Dom, Sue and Peter to explore how Eastern Christian spiritual writings can be a resource to help us
John Philip Newell: The Great Search
There is a strong sense that the Church is in a time of transition- preparing to birth something new. John Philip Newell in his new book, The Great Search: Turning to earth and soul in the quest for healing and home, addresses this idea and speaks to the group he refers to as the Christian diaspora; those who, from both ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ the church, have a sense of yearning that there must be
Alexander John Shaia: The Mystical Christos
Is there an ancient path that can transform lives when we find it together, giving hope and meaning? Alexander John Shaia returns to the podcast from his home in Spain to share his deep mining of the Gospel of John which he argues offer the most important, beautiful and dangerous words in Christianity. The story of Jesus in John proposed a radical joining of all- tribes, genders, slaves and free -
Anne Van Gend: Restoring the Story
On the Way Episode 107 Anne Van Gend: Restoring the Story Are we too squeamish about atonement? Anne Van Gend, priest, author and ministry educator, joins the podcast to explore how we tell and keep telling stories about ‘atonement’ in different ways; in mythology, in fantasy novels, movies and of course, in the Christian tradition. Anne argues that the central story of Christian faith – the life,
Parker Palmer: Healing The Heart Of Democracy
How do we find a way back to one another, across shrill voices and opposing ideologies? How might we reclaim a democracy which appreciates the value of 'the other', creating community and living with tension in life-giving ways? With the recent release of the updated version of his classic book, "Healing the Heart of Democracy: the Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit", Parker P
Eleanor O'Donnell : Power & God
Australian priest, teacher and author, Eleanor O’Donnell joins the podcast to talk about the way we understand power, hierarchy and divinity. How do we talk about God when that word conjures a big other, looking down from a throne in the sky directing the traffic on earth? The language instead of a God who offers power “with” rather than power “over”, draws us into sacred relationship with one ano
Domestic and Family Violence: changing the narrative in the church
In Australia this year, one woman has been violently killed every four days. Increasingly we are aware of the way abusive behaviours form patterns over time to create and maintain power and dominance over another, whether emotionally, sexually, spiritually, or financially. This is not an isolated issue affecting a few but an issue that impacts everyone, across every social divide. Our culture and
Brian McLaren: Life After Doom
We live in turbulent times. Amidst the ecological, political, and economic crises dominating news headlines, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed by a sense of doom about where this whole thing is going. Is it possible to face these very difficult realities with honesty and insight, while resisting both the fantasy of naive hope and the paralysis of complete despair? Brian McLaren is an author, acti
Paul Young: Known and Loved
Amidst all our wrestling with the big questions of life, faith, and meaning, how do we move beyond our minds to a deeper, embodied experience of what it is to simply be loved? As Dom continues the podcast's Northern Hemisphere excursion, he joins Wm Paul Young (author of The Shack, Crossroads & Eve) in his home of Washington State for a conversation about the transformative power of being know
On the Way : 100th Episode!
Peter, Sue and Dom sit down to share how these many conversations across 7 years with wise and thoughtful people from around the world and closer to home have shaped their thinking and their lives. What shifts have happened in the world and the church across this time and how did the conversations reflect such change? How does sharing our wonderings, both amongst friends and in the public square,
Rob Bell: Finding The Way Forward
Amidst the endlessly complex and varying longings, fears, passions, and possibilities that animate our lives, how do we find the courage and clarity to step into the path that’s truly calling to us? Rob Bell knows this journey well. After many years as an author and speaker in the emergent faith space, Rob has followed the lure of life into a new path of fiction writing with the publication of hi
James Hollis: The Summons of the Soul
Carl Jung once remarked that "life is a short pause between two great mysteries", and it is in the midst of this pause that each of us are given the task of creating a life of depth and meaning. But with the psychological baggage of our personal histories and the many ways we've learned to adapt to the world around us in order to fit in and succeed, how can we find the courage to step fully into o
Pete Rollins: Loving The Loss
Dom Fay is travelling and here once again from Pete Rollins' apartment in Belfast comes a special New Year podcast release to explore how the real object of our New Year's hopes may be found in our failure to achieve them. This is an existential crisis within an hour's listening enjoyment, teaching us that being human means that at the heart of our desires is the desire for desire itself. Instead
Wild Landscapes and Soul Work: Belden Lane
Are we drawn to landscapes that echo the symptoms of our soul? Desert spirituality knows that the God of the vast spaces is an experience of the sacred where we can find ourselves completely undone, stripped of our usual protective identities and driven to awe-filled silence. Safer images and experiences of God are disrupted by the God of wild imagination we find in the wilderness. Author and theo
Understanding desire: James Alison
Understanding human desire, the way it is caught and the way it can lead us to scapegoating and violence is foundational to understanding what it is to be human. Drawing on the work of René Girard, James Alison joins the podcast once again to explore the essential goodness of desire while reinterpreting the doctrine of original sin in ways that help us understand our human condition with gentlenes
Telling the Truth - Henry Reynolds
The Uluru Statement from the Heart urges Australia to come to terms with its history. This year the slogan, “History is calling” reminds us that the past is never the past- particularly when it has been forgotten or wilfully misunderstood or ignored. How might we better know our own story and so mature as a nation? Professor Henry Reynolds joins the podcast to share how so many of our legal and hi
Indigenous spirituality and a grounded faith: Garry Deverell
How does an Indigenous person express spirituality grounded in country in the wake of colonisation and the continued colonial nature of our institutions and systems? Dr Garry Worete Deverell, a Trawloolway man from northern Tasmania, joins the podcast to explore country and kin as the building blocks of life and spirituality and the web of past, present and future which is expressed as 'the dreami
The Science of Worship
There have been many conversations about the interface between science and theology and the rich understandings that can result. There have been few explorations, however, of the way science can inform and lend insight to our understanding of the public worship experience. Dr Kenneth Miles, specialist in radiology and nuclear medicine, joins the podcast to help us see how individual acts of worshi
Mess, grace and glory: The Anglican Church in fiction as in life
It is said that stories make us what we are. If that is true, then perhaps creating stories about ourselves may help us to see more clearly who we are and who we want to become. Fictional author of the Lindchester Chronicles, Catherine Fox (Wilcox) joins the podcast to talk about the power of story and the way characters can become real and help us embrace even the messiness of our lives with empa
Cruel optimism
Being aware of the water in which we swim is not always easy. Dr Peter Kline joins the conversation to help us to see more clearly the culture in which we are immersed that we may understand the way it has constrained our desire, providing the delusion of freedom. More than that, the promises of a neo-capitalist society ultimately can never be fulfilled as we attach our deepest longings to narrati
Live at the cathedral with Pádraig Ó Tuama
Pádraig ÓTuama joins On the Way in St John's Cathedral for a live recording of this conversation which explores the power of language to build up or destroy, open us to curiosity or shut down understanding, to wield shame or honour the beauty of human dignity and this embodied life. Pádraig tells some of his story and reads a number of his poems that reveal the power of poetry to tell the truth ab
Announcement- live event with Pádraig Ó Tuama
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Articulating the sacred: Steven Shakespeare
Human beings are a symbol-making, ritual creating, story-telling creatures, but how do you put words to mystery? Steven Shakespeare joins Dom, Peter and Sue to explore the art of creating liturgy and language around God and our experience of the sacred. While language is so often inadequate, it is also full of wonder and richness that conjures meaning and opens us to new connection and creation. L
Unashamedly gay, unashamedly Christian: Jayne Ozanne
Coming out once is challenging, but Jayne Ozanne describes coming out three times: first as gay, then coming out as Christian to her LGBTIQ+ friends, and finally as evangelical to her Christian LGBTIQ+ friends. In this boundary crossing, Jayne has listened to many stories and engaged in dialogue with faith leaders all over the world, from the Pope to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Through her advoc
The Great 100 Days Of Easter: Alexander John Shaia
How did our modern Easter come to look like it does today? Author, anthropologist, and spiritual director Alexander John Shaia returns to the podcast to explore the origins of our current understanding of Easter, as well as the call to deeper union, fellowship, and love that was at its heart. Recorded in-person with Dom in Alexander John's current home town of Muxia on the northwest coast of Spain
Spirituality, liberation and the stories that make us: Cole Arthur Riley
The way we narrate our past shapes our present and our future, but sometimes our memories are reduced by the generality of the stories we tell- stories shaped by our fears and our wounds and not faithful to the embodied particularity of our lived experience. Too often our spirituality has been dismissive of the body and our religion has conformed to dominant narratives of power that whitewash pain
Pete Rollins: Coming home
Home is a word that carries so much longing within it. Many artists have explored the foundational homesickness central to the human experience - this sense we each carry of being disconnected or separated in some way from the home we long for. In this episode, Dom returns to his ancestral home of Belfast to share a conversation with author, theologian, and philosopher Pete Rollins about where our
Original Blessing: Christmass as an Affirmation of Humanity
The lives of human beings are shaped not only by people and events but also by the narratives that we use to understand ourselves and the world. Join Dom, Sue, and Peter as they explore the implications of allowing ourselves to hold that we have been blessed, loved, and celebrated by God as ‘good’ from the beginning. The idea of ‘Original Blessing’ leads us to a very different place of self-unders
Christ & the Multiverse
The idea of the multiverse is explained by our guest, David Williams, as both simple and wildly complex: there is not just one story, nor a single universe. Instead of traditional beliefs in linear time and space, the idea of a multiverse posits that there are other realities beyond that which could potentially be seen or explored. David is a pastor, theologian and science fiction writer and joins
Damon Gameau: Regenerating the future
What if we focussed on what we should be fighting for, instead of what we should be fighting against? When all we hear is apocalyptic climate disaster, we can shut down, pour another glass of wine and find the next Netflix binge. When we only tell the story of a fearful future, the sense of being overwhelmed induces a paralysis that suppresses the creative potential of human possibility. Director
Marriage, sexuality and intimacy: A conversation with Matthew Anstey
In only our second podcast recorded with a live audience, The Rev'd Associate Professor Matthew Anstey joins Dom, Peter and Sue for a conversation about scripture and the relationships that matter most in our lived experience. What does our sacred text, in dialogue with tradition, reason and experience, have to say to sacred relationship? And how are these relationships and our interpretation of s
Religious Trauma
Religion, faith backgrounds and belief systems can be the source of mental health wounding that manifest in unexpected ways. Sometimes we can think we are talking about beliefs and yet be unaware that someone’s experience of faith is hooked into a deep pain, making some conversations and teachings an attack on their humanity. We welcome The Rev’d Andrew Cooper to the podcast to share his own story
Barbara Brown Taylor: Sharing Sorrow
We make healing connections with others through our vulnerability and shared stories. The last three years have meant that across the globe humanity has shared an experience of difficulty, doubt and change, making Barbara Brown Taylor's book, "Learning to Walk in the Dark" of great value for our time. When the only way to the new day is through the darkness, it is beautiful to be reminded that the
Karen Armstrong: Sacred Nature
What changes when we have eyes that see God everywhere? As we recognise the divinity that flows through all things, intimately present in all of creation, we experience the sacred revealed in the wonder of nature as much as in human lives. Karen Armstrong, author and global scholar of religious history, joins the podcast to explore the place of the natural world in religious traditions. While we r
Alexander John Shaia: The Fourfold Path
There may be no simple answers in life, but what if there were a map? Dr Alexander John Shaia returns to the podcast to share the pattern he sees at the heart of the sacred texts of the four Gospels; a way that can guide us on a journey of growth, transformation and love. Alexander describes through this conversation how each Gospel is written in response to one of life's four great questions. It
Brian Mclaren: Do I Stay Christian?
From the enmeshment with colonisation and patriarchy, a history of violence and abuse, corruption, greed or just simply a lack of evidence of transformation amongst those who claim to speak for the faith, there can appear to be many good reasons not to stay Christian. Brian McLaren returns to the podcast to honestly name the reasons why so many are asking themselves this question and to consider t
Crossing the line in the sand
Christianity is most commonly associated with resistance to change, but in times of great social evolution the Church is also drawn by all that would lead to a richer expression of humanity and greater integrity in relationships. In this special edition recorded ahead of the meeting of the General Synod of the Anglican Church in Australia, The Rev’d Dr Wayne Brighton joins the podcast to tal
Willie Jennings: Transforming Desire
Dr Willie Jennings: Transforming Desire What do we want? What sort of conditioning has shaped our wanting? Dr Willie Jennings joins the podcast to explore how our desire has been shaped by the idea of "whiteness"; a way of being in the world that at its heart is about the vision of the self-sufficient man; self-possessed, in control, the master of all he surveys. This identity has its roots in the
Being Contemplative in a Crisis: Barbara Holmes
What does it mean to be a contemplative? Does it bring up for you an image of a silent monk in a cell, or a solitary individual on a mountaintop or something aspirational- far removed from your everyday life? The Rev’d Dr Barbara Holmes joins the podcast to challenge our beliefs about what contemplation is, revealing the limitations of a Euro-centric view that misses the many different porta
The Inner Life: Parker J. Palmer
So often we think of our inner life as somehow separate to our outer life. Parker J. Palmer joins the podcast, talking about the importance of the integration between our inner and outer worlds and the expression of non-violent living that grows from this hidden wholeness. The lack of a nurtured inner life, he contends, leads us to violence, individualism and disconnection, and Parker brings eight
Fierce Love: Jacqui Lewis
Inspired by the Ubuntu philosophy “I am who I am because we are who we are”, Jacqui Lewis writes and teaches through stories from her own life that inspire and challenge us to not give up on love. She describes our current experience as “hot mess times” in a world divided by politics, race, intolerance, fear, and rancour, but doubles down on empathy, compassion, and forgive
Opening the gift of Christmas with Alexander John Shaia
Amidst decorations, carols and shopping, have we missed the deeper journey of Christmas in all its symbolic power? Can we reintegrate the Gospel stories of Jesus' birth with the natural cycles and rhythms of creation and our own human experience? Alexander John Shaia joins Peter and Dom to talk about Christmas traditions from evergreen trees to Santa Claus and finds a richness that brings togethe
The Land is not Empty: Sarah Augustine
Some may think that pronunciations about law made in the fifteenth century during an age of European expansion and exploration would have little impact on lives today. Yet the Doctrine of Discovery is doing just that. It is a body of law and policy, legitimated by the Church, that says land is considered “empty” and therefore free for the taking if inhabited by “heathens, pagans,
Freeing Jesus : Diana Butler Bass
Many people are drawn to spirituality and the God of creation but struggle to know what to do with Jesus. For some, Jesus has become entangled with Trump-era politics, individualistic piety or the feel good religion of prosperity gospels. For others, disillusionment with their church or leadership has meant that they don’t want to leave the Jesus of their faith behind but feel like exiles fr
Rewilding the Church
Rewilding is about letting natural processes have their way and shape the landscape. Steve Aisthorpe, mission development worker for the Church of Scotland and author of “Rewilding the Church”, joins the podcast to explore how the same principle could be a creative force for life in the ecosystem of faith and mission. Metaphors are powerful and this conversation brings this metaphor in
John Philip Newell: Celtic Wisdom
How can we give voice in our spiritual traditions to what the soul already knows? Religion can seem to be in the business of dispensing truth without giving credit to the knowledge we already have of the sacredness of the earth and of the human soul. How we rediscover these natural rhythms of life and deepen our connections with God, each other and the earth determines our ability to respond
Catherine Keller, the apocalypse and why it’s not the end of the world
We generally hear the word “apocalypse” used in histrionic or fundamentalist ways, but Dr Catherine Keller joins the podcast to affirm the hope of a theology that calls us to action. Reading the book of Revelation not as prophecy of disaster but as an “unveiling” can recall us to a sense of our responsibility in our current global crisis. In this conversation, Cather
Practice and Habit
What is it like to begin with practice as the unifying quality for a community rather than belief? The Rev’d Dr Sarah Bachelard rejoins the podcast to talk about prayer and what it takes to create life-giving habits of spiritual practice in a way that allows grace for all our mixed motivations and space for our struggles. Sue, Peter, Dom and Sarah chat about the habits that drive us, the dis
Following Jesus in unhelpful ways
George Browning, in his role as Bishop of Canberra, was told by the then Prime Minister John Howard that his contribution to public debate was “not helpful.” Bishop George joins Dom, Peter and Sue to share stories from Australian politics of where truth telling was an unwelcome intrusion, how self-interest and power are so often protected at the expense of the vulnerable and what
Barbara Brown Taylor: Religion, Curiosity and Holy Envy
What happens when we accept the invitation to investigate all the wonder around us? Certainty about what we believe can get in the way of the kind of “holy envy” that opens us to new ways of seeing as we engage with other traditions. Barbara Brown Taylor joins Peter, Sue and Dom to cultivate our curiosity about other religions and spiritual practices, renew our commitment to lov
Brian McLaren: Faith after Doubt
Brian McLaren joins Peter, Dom and Sue to talk about why sometimes our beliefs stop working and what we can do about it. While many people think of faith as unwavering certainty, Brian explores the idea of doubt as integral to the way of faith; a way which can move through stages with doubt as an adventurous and audacious companion. This conversation is perfect for anyone who has ever felt like a
Nadia Bolz-Weber: A Sexual Reformation for the Church
The inordinate obsession with sex in Christian history and the recent toxic fixation of the church on issues around gender and sexuality has led to great shame, guilt and a lack of love and respect for our embodied experience and the gifts of sexual pleasure. It is also led to a suppression of healthy sexuality and a lack of conversation around what it means to have relationships of goodness and i
Was Paul a Progressive?
St Paul has been often cast as an arch conservative. Douglas Campbell joins Dom, Peter and Sue to show how Paul has always been in the business of liberation. Douglas has devoted decades of his life to studying Paul and is determined to rescue him from his reputation as an authoritarian and recover the message of his writings as confrontingly, shockingly liberal and inclusive. In doing so, as this
Mission and Sacrifice
What would it mean if you were told from a young age that you needed to be sent away from parents, from home, from all that is familiar... because God required it? How do children understand such a sacrifice in the name of God, and how might it change their lives? The kind of thinking which led to such decisions reveals a great deal about the kind of god we worship and how we live. Dr John Chenowe
