Life & Faith

The Centre for Public Christianity aims to promote the public understanding of the Christian faith. The Centre offers free comment, interviews, and other web based comment. For more information go to publicchristianity.org.

When Helen Thomas was 19 weeks pregnant she was told that her baby was 'incompatible to life' and was advised to abort, but she and her husband decided not to have an abortion. Helen joined Simon Smart and Natasha Moore on Life and Faith to share her reasons for not having an abortion and the remarkable story of her daughter Zoe.

Simon Smart and Natasha Moore reflected on what two recent films - a Hollywood blockbuster and a new Australian film - have to say about the human condition and what it is we think we need most.

Prof. Miroslav Volf, Director of the Yale Centre for Faith and Culture, delivered four lectures at the ReThinking: A Public Faith conference held in Sydney, Australia, in March 2014. The conference was a joint project of the Centre for Public Christianity, Arrow Leadership, and World Vision Australia.This is the Q and A session that followed the fourth, and final, lecture of Prof. Volf's series, in which he discusses the essential elements of reconciliation.

Prof. Miroslav Volf, Director of the Yale Centre for Faith and Culture, delivered four lectures at the ReThinking: A Public Faith conference held in Sydney, Australia, in March 2014. The conference was a joint project of the Centre for Public Christianity, Arrow Leadership, and World Vision Australia.In the fourth, and final, lecture of his series, Prof. Volf discusses the essential elements of reconciliation.

Prof. Miroslav Volf, Director of the Yale Centre for Faith and Culture, delivered four lectures at the ReThinking: A Public Faith conference held in Sydney, Australia, in March 2014. The conference was a joint project of the Centre for Public Christianity, Arrow Leadership, and World Vision AustraliaThis is the Q and A session that followed third lecture from Prof. Volf. It was a Public Lecture delivered at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and filmed by ABC TV for their program, Big Ideas.The topic was Religious Exclusivism and Political Pluralism.

Prof. Miroslav Volf, Director of the Yale Centre for Faith and Culture, delivered four lectures at the ReThinking: A Public Faith conference held in Sydney, Australia, in March 2014. The conference was a joint project of the Centre for Public Christianity, Arrow Leadership, and World Vision Australia The third lecture from Prof. Volf was a Public Lecture delivered at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. It was filmed by ABC TV for their program, Big Ideas.His topic for the lecture was Religious Exclusivism and Political Pluralism.

Prof. Miroslav Volf, Director of the Yale Centre for Faith and Culture, delivered four lectures at the ReThinking: A Public Faith conference held in Sydney, Australia, in March 2014. The conference was a joint project of the Centre for Public Christianity, Arrow Leadership, and World Vision Australia.This is the Q and A session following Prof. Volf's second lecture on how a faith with exclusive truth claims can engage a pluralistic world.

Prof. Miroslav Volf, Director of the Yale Centre for Faith and Culture, delivered four lectures at the ReThinking: A Public Faith conference held in Sydney, Australia, in March 2014. The conference was a joint project of the Centre for Public Christianity, Arrow Leadership, and World Vision Australia.This is the second lecture, in which Prof. Volf looks at how a faith with exclusive truth claims can engage a pluralistic world.

Prof. Miroslav Volf, Director of the Yale Centre for Faith and Culture, delivered four lectures at the ReThinking: A Public Faith conference held in Sydney, Australia, in March 2014. The conference was a joint project of the Centre for Public Christianity, Arrow Leadership, and World Vision Australia.This is the Q and A session following Prof. Volf's opening lecture on whether or not faith inevitably leads to violence.

Prof. Miroslav Volf, Director of the Yale Centre for Faith and Culture, delivered four lectures at the ReThinking: A Public Faith conference held in Sydney, Australia, in March 2014. The conference was a joint project of the Centre for Public Christianity, Arrow Leadership, and World Vision Australia.In this, his opening lecture, Prof. Volf addressed the issue of whether or not faith inevitably leads to violence.

British writer Francis Spufford suprised many when he outed himself as a Christian in his latest book Unapologetic: why, despite everything, Christianity makes surprising emotional sense. He joined Life and Faith to discuss his book and why he thinks that Christianity makes emotional sense.

Katherine Leary Alsdorf is the Founder & Executive Director of Redeemer's Center for Faith & Work. She came to Redeemer in 2002, after 20 years in the hi-tech industry, to establish the Center and help nurture a meaningful integration between people's faith and their professional work. She is the co-author of Every Good Endeavour: Connecting your work to God's work. She joined Life and Faith to discuss the connections between work and faith.

Pastor Ray Minniecon is a descendant of the Kabi Kabi nation and the Gurang Gurang nation of South East Queensland, the South Sea Islander people, with connections to the people of Ambrym Island, Vanuatu. Ray has worked with World Vision Australia, the Sydney Anglican Diocese, survivors of the Stolen Generations who were institutionalised at Kinchela Boys home as we as other Aboriginal ministries. He came on Life and Faith to discuss relationship between Christianity and Aboriginal people, the commonalities and differences between Aboriginal Spirituality and Christianity, and his work with former inmates of the Kinchela Boys Home.

In 1945 Lutheran pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by the Nazis. He is the subject of a play called Love, Lies and Hitler. The playwright Elizabeth Avery Scott joined Simon Smart and Natasha Moore on Life and Faith to discuss the life of Bonhoeffer and her play.