Tom Wright’s book God in Public explores the dynamics of power in the contemporary public sphere and where Christianity fits alongside politicians, the media and the general public. Nick Mattiske reviews. Tom Wright is fond of repeating that God “is” putting the world to rights—not just “has” or “will” but “is”. Anyone familiar with his writings will understand his concept ...

Science may not hold all the answers about the universe and ourselves but does it need metaphysics and philosophy? Roger Trigg’s Beyond Matter grapples with science, scientism and metaphysics while examining the big questions around purpose and design. Nick Mattiske reviews. Science has shaped our modern world, therefore our atheist friends tend to think it can explain everything, eliminating the ...

Grevel Lindop’s look at fantasy writer, theologian and magician Charles Williams celebrates his achievements at the same time as it reveals his darker side. Nick Mattiske evaluates how this new biography succeeds in capturing the man and his mystery. Grevel Lindop’s biography of writer Charles Williams is titled The Third Inkling, but when Williams joined the Oxford literary gatherings of ...

Stanley Hauerwas talks about himself a lot, and this may confirm for some that he has bought into the hype that has him labelled as “America’s best theologian”. Quite the opposite! Because he is a prominent theologian, he has attracted his share of criticism and comment, and therefore much of Hauerwas’s writing is defensive. He requalifies, elaborates, apologises, restates, argues ...

LP Hartley once wrote, “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” We are still unravelling the mysteries of the earth’s history and are increasingly working out through geology and other studies just how differently things were done in relation to the planet’s health. Nick Mattiske considers our history in the context of two recent books dealing with the subject.   ...