Life & Faith

Mark Bilton has been a CEO and director of several multinational companies, including Gloria Jeans Coffees, and has won awards for his work as a “change catalyst”. Life and Faith spoke to Mark about the relevance of faith to work, and the role his own faith has played in his career in the cutthroat corporate world.

Citizenfour, Rosewater, and The Interview are three very different movies - but they all make a strong case for the importance of free speech. Simon Smart and Natasha Moore discuss the threats to people’s right to speak freely that these films warn against, and what Christian faith has to contribute to debates about whether and when to limit freedom of speech.

Citizenfour, Rosewater, and The Interview are three very different movies - but they all make a strong case for the importance of free speech. Simon Smart and Natasha Moore discuss the threats to people’s right to speak freely that these films warn against, and what Christian faith has to contribute to debates about whether and when to limit freedom of speech.

Religious adherence is growing around the world - and so are restrictions on religion. Dr Brian Grim is President of the Religious Freedom Business Foundation, and has lived in many places where religion is heavily restricted. He talks to Simon Smart about why religious freedom is good not only for society but also for business, and why he’s optimistic that people of different faiths can live together well.

Religious adherence is growing around the world - and so are restrictions on religion. Dr Brian Grim is President of the Religious Freedom Business Foundation, and has lived in many places where religion is heavily restricted. He talks to Simon Smart about why religious freedom is good not only for society but also for business, and why he’s optimistic that people of different faiths can live together well.

We hear a lot about the Middle East from a political perspective but little about what it is like to live there. Life and Faith spoke to Dina Katanacho from the Arab-Israeli Bible Society about life in Israel for Arab-Israeli people who are culturally Palestinian but have Israeli citizenship.

From sci-fi thrillers to the final instalment of The Hobbit, it promises to be a rich summer of movie-going. Natasha Moore and Simon Smart discuss a few of the films on offer: the new Bible epic Exodus, directed by Ridley Scott; Russell Crowe’s WWI saga The Water Diviner; and the star-studded space odyssey Interstellar.

The Bible continues to be the world's bestselling book - but it isn’t the easiest book to just dive into. John Dickson’s forthcoming book A Doubter’s Guide to the Bible: Inside History’s Bestseller for Believers and Skeptics wants to make it easier for everyone - whether Christians or curious doubters - to find their way around the Bible. Part III considers the New Testament, from the Christmas story to the book of Revelation’s account of where everything is headed, and how it relates to the overarching story of the Bible.

The Bible continues to be the world's bestselling book - but it isn’t the easiest book to just dive into. John Dickson’s forthcoming book A Doubter’s Guide to the Bible: Inside History’s Bestseller for Believers and Skeptics wants to make it easier for everyone - whether Christians or curious doubters - to find their way around the Bible. Part II takes us on a whirlwind tour of the whole of the Old Testament - Abraham’s promises, Moses’ laws, Joshua’s wars - and offers a few key concepts for understanding it as a unified story.

Halloween is becoming more popular in Australia every year - but not everyone is happy about it. Some complain that it’s an American tradition; others, usually on religious grounds, object to the way it makes light of evil. Are there good reasons to celebrate this once pagan festival that (like Christmas) has been Christianised - then again secularised - and now very much commercialised? Life and Faith asked John Dickson for his thoughts on the meaning of Halloween - and the relationship of Christian believers to secular culture more generally.

Origin stories - those accounts of beginnings that tell us who we are and where we come from - are often controversial. Debates about the Bible’s creation story and its compatibility with the theory of evolution can be especially so. Life and Faith spoke to Chris Mulherin, who lectures and tutors in the history of science, philosophy, and theology, and works with ISCAST (a group of Christians working in science), about how to distinguish the different strands of Christian belief about creation: Young Earth Creationism, Intelligent Design, and theistic evolution. The program also includes part of an interview with Oxford Professor of Mathematics John Lennox about how to read the opening chapters of Genesis, and concludes that sceptics do not need to choose between science and Christian belief.

In September 2013, The Guardian declared that “Jesus is having a moment in literary fiction”. From Dickens to Norman Mailer, as well as a more recent crop of novelists, writers have been intrigued by the story of Jesus and have set out to explore its limits and possibilities in fictional form. Australian author Peter McKinnon asked himself the question: what would the character of Jesus look like in 1960s Australia instead of 1st-century Palestine? The result, The Songs of Jesse Adams, pushes the boundaries of our assumptions about Jesus with its reimagining of his life amidst the social, political, and musical tumult of the ‘60s.

Arda Aghazarian lives in the Old City of Jerusalem, a place where the stark realities of living with conflict and religious difference are impossible to avoid. She has worked in radio and film, as well as with the YWCA of Palestine and the UN seeking to empower young women in places and periods of conflict. She wants people in the West to understand more about the religious and political complexities of daily life in Palestine, and came in to speak to Life and Faith about peace, justice, identity, bitterness, and hope.

Western culture tends to worship efficiency, which even creeps into our leisure time and challenges the possibility of achieving a good work/life balance. Life and Faith explores the concept of the Sabbath and considers what the benefits of taking regular time to rest might be.

The Bible is the literary classic. Six billion copies have been sold; since records began it’s been the number one bestseller worldwide every year except 2007 (when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows topped the list at 44 million sales). In 2009 alone it sold 30 million copies. But how many people in the West actually read it today? John Dickson, Founding Director of CPX, issues a challenge to those who would never dream of opening the Bible: give it 100 pages.