Tag Archives: theology

For many Australians the word “jihad” means one thing in an age of terrorism, but Dr Aaron Ghiloni explores the complexities and nuances of Islamic struggle and what lessons it offers non-Muslims. I was researching “jihad” on the day the Brussels airport and metro were attacked by ISIL. It could have been any day. Whether war is dubbed “cold”, “just”, ...

Brisbane Taiwanese Uniting Church youth mentor and Trinity College Queensland alumni, Jack Shao is encouraging the next generation of youth to undertake lay education. Ashley Thompson writes. Immigrating with his family to Australia at 14, Jack Shao has been attending the Brisbane Taiwanese congregation for 25 years. A Brisbane Boys’ College old boy, he was baptised at 17 and has ...

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 ...

Testing Tradition and Liberating Theology is a little Aussie gem from our own pre-eminent lay theologian Dr Val Webb.  Webb’s goal in this book is to unlock theological process from the rarefied academic world of the seminary and encourage everyone to do their own theological thinking, “rather than continually accepting the often dumbed-down scraps from the altar of others”. Testing ...

For a community of faith to grow, it needs to make room for people who have never been to church before. Rev David MacGregor explores a variety of ways newcomers can feel at home in a new place. In our worshipping communities we struggle to make inclusion real in our life together, especially with those who have never previously belonged ...

We often talk about God and our souls, but what about our bodies? Dr Janice McRandal explores how God’s threeness subverts our expectations of the world and frees us to be different. In the world of contemporary theology, there seems no riskier notion than that of the body—what we do with our bodies and how we identity with them. It’s ...

It’s time to talk They say the number one rule of polite society is you should never talk about religion or politics. It’s upsetting, and causes division where there should be friendship. Communities of faith don’t have that luxury. For obvious reasons we can’t avoid religion, and the expression of faith in the public sphere is a political act. And ...

If there’s one principle that religion and quantum physics agree on, it’s that the search for truth requires an open mind. Physicist Dr Joel Corney talks to Dianne Jensen. Consider this: The only thing we can be sure about is that uncertainty is fundamental to the universe. University of Queensland (UQ) Senior Lecturer in Physics Dr Joel Corney is a ...

There were plenty of passionate discussions around how the Uniting Church forms people in their faith at the 31st Synod in October last year. Mardi Lumsden explores how theological study deepens and even shakes your faith, and why that could be essential to your faith journey. The Uniting Church’s foundational document the Basis of Union outlines the importance of the ...

In pursuit of a fresh perspective The February edition of Journey is available to read and download. A new year gives you the chance to look at things a bit differently. Did you stick to your New Year’s resolution, making you experience the world through a different routine? Perhaps you made a new friend over the Christmas break, which has helped you ...