Students are losing faith in religious higher education, so the evidence suggests. Earlier this year a prime specialist theology and philosophy institution in the UK, Heythrop College, closed its doors after 400 years of teaching. Founded in 1614 by the Society of Jesus, and part of the University of London since 1970, Heythrop had a mission Read more
Israel Folau’s now notorious declaration that queer people (“homosexuals”) are going to hell is not only harmful to our queer and takatāpui youth, it is also theologically incorrect. But it is not just Australia experiencing an overtly public wave of religiously motivated homophobia. Brian Tamaki, controversial leader of Destiny Church and co-founder of the Coalition Read more
Perceptions of Christianity in New Zealand get shaped by the most extreme voices. So who else could the media go to for comment? Quick, name the most prominent New Zealander you can think of who is a Christian. Chances are if you follow the news at all, that the first name that comes to mind Read more
An endocrinologist says New Zealand’s type 2 diabetes drugs are ‘third world’. Why won’t Pharmac fund the medicines experts want? In his early twenties Ben Tawhai was a 120kg lock, playing senior rugby for Otago. In his mid-50s he’s hooked up to a dialysis machine five hours a day, three times a week. “It’s pretty Read more
Some Catholics may be surprised to know that there are parables of Jesus in the Islamic faith. These Sufi parables of Jesus are not the parables we have in the gospels. Rather, they are stories written to illustrate Jesus’ teachings. The one I like that is simple and yet powerful in its wisdom. It goes Read more
When Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò called on Pope Francis to resign last summer for allegedly covering up the sexual crimes of the former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, it was “like an earthquake for the Church.” That’s how Monsignor Anthony Figueiredo, a former Vatican official and a longtime consultant for CBS News, described Viganò’s “testimony,” an 11-page Read more
“The signs of meanness we see around us heighten our fear of ‘the other,’ the unknown, the marginalized, the foreigner,” and thus many migrants seeking a better life end up as recipients of this meanness, said Pope Francis in his recently released 2019 World Day of Migrants and Refugees message. The Holy Father warned that Read more
I’ve loved languages since Year 9, when I started learning French and Japanese at Baradene College, in Remuera. The only other language on offer at the time was German — there was no te reo Māori, and definitely no Sāmoan on the menu. (To put that in context, it was the ‘90s and I was Read more
It has been shocking, but not surprising, to arrive in Australia in time to watch religious liberty emerge as a progressive point of attack in the nation’s federal election. Shocking, because religious liberty is a fundamental principle of liberal democracy. Not surprising, alas, because progressives throughout Western liberal democracies have turned “religious liberty” into a Read more
For many Chileans who were baptized Catholics but who may not be practicing, the unraveling clerical sexual abuse crisis has become another reason to think that Friedrich Nietzsche was right: God is dead. Yet for some 10,000 Chilean believers, God is not only alive and well, but he shows up on their phones every day Read more