Political conservatism increasingly trades in grievance and division, while neglecting the environment, equality, democracy, intergenerational responsibility and the social bonds that genuinely deserve conserving. (more…)
Category: Religion
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Bob Dylan’s lesson for older men: life still asks something of you
Older men have some of the highest suicide rates. Bob Dylan offers a different way to think about ageing: not simply staying alive, but finding purpose, obligation and meaning in mortality. (more…)
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A childless future: what falling birth rates are really telling us
Falling birth rates are usually treated as an economic problem. But the deeper crisis may be cultural: societies losing faith that the future will contain something worth creating. (more…)
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Gandhi at 157: the multicultural vision Australia made its own
Today marks the 157th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth. His vision of religious pluralism, cultural identity and belonging without assimilation finds a striking echo in Australian multiculturalism. (more…)
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The rational fool, the cultural dope, the stranger and the voting booth
It’s easy to dismiss people who vote differently from us as selfish or brainwashed. But our own choices are shaped by self-interest, values and culture too. As Victorians prepare to vote, whose lives and interests are we willing to consider beyond our own? (more…)
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Vance and the anti-Christ
JD Vance’s increasingly apocalyptic religious rhetoric, and his relationship with billionaire Peter Thiel, raise questions about the theology shaping the US Vice-President’s politics and his growing distance from Vatican teaching. (more…)
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When religious conservatives tried to reshape the ACT Liberals
Religious conservatives have long sought influence within the ACT Liberal Party. Their efforts under Zed Seselja offer a cautionary tale about factional power, political ambition and the limits of ideology. (more…)
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A future where Australian Muslims no longer question belonging
By 2050, a new generation of Australian Muslims will be shaping the country’s institutions, communities and public life, confident in their identity, belonging and contribution to Australia’s future. (more…)
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Wrestling with faith in the face of genocide?
The suffering in Gaza and the West Bank poses an uncomfortable question for people of faith: do principles of justice, mercy and compassion apply equally when our deepest loyalties are tested? (more…)
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Why do problems with church governance persist?
The Catholic Schools NSW ICAC inquiry raises renewed questions about accountability and transparency within the Church, and whether a decade of promised governance reform has produced meaningful institutional change. (more…)
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Catholic bishops’ unfinished business
Australia’s Catholic bishops are being urged to confront the church’s legacy of clerical abuse with a public act of remorse, following examples set in France and Peru. (more…)
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Called to the Holy Land: places we don’t choose to travel to
A journey through Jerusalem, Mount Sinai and the Dead Sea becomes a meditation on pilgrimage, responsibility and the uneasy line between freedom and fate.
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What the census tells us about Australia losing its religion
From a handwritten response in 1911 to the largest single census category today, “no religion” charts a profound shift in Australian identity – shaped by secularisation, migration and changing social attitudes. (more…)
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Census 2026: Australia’s Muslim milestone is more than a number
The 2026 Census is expected to mark more than a demographic milestone, with new Islamic denomination categories offering a fuller picture of Muslim diversity, representation and belonging in Australia. (more…)
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The Catholic Church removes ‘just’ from the theory of war
The Catholic Church has not abandoned the right to self-defence, but it has increasingly rejected the idea that modern war can be morally justified.
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Multiculturalism is the middle ground Australia needs
In the first of a two-part series, Robin Brown and Nick Bogiatzis argue that the moral values claimed as Western are common human values – and deeply present in the world’s oldest continuing culture. (more…)
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The case for spiritual sociology
Modern society can measure inequality, power and behaviour in extraordinary detail, but struggles to explain despair, loneliness, hope and the human need for meaning. (more…)
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When reality catches up with satire – Message from the Editor
The Boys spent years exaggerating the Trump era. By its final season, political reality had become so grotesque that satire was struggling to stay ahead. (more…)
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One umbrella, many stories: Why a “monocultural” Australia misses the point
After Pauline Hanson’s National Press Club call for a “monocultural” Australia, Suzan Wahhab writes from her own family’s journey from occupied Palestine to Sydney to show that the fair go is strengthened, not weakened, by multicultural belonging.
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Belonging without assimilation: lessons from Prophet Muhammad’s life
Social cohesion is not built by erasing difference. As was demonstrated 1,400 years ago in the city of Medina, it is built by creating trust, justice and shared purpose across difference. (more…)
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The San Diego mosque attack was not a random attack
The attack on the Islamic Centre of San Diego was part of the normalisation of anti-Muslim sentiment in North America. (more…)
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Not in our name: Jewish Australians speak out
The first tranche of hearings of the Antisemitism Royal Commission did not hear enough from those Jewish Australians who oppose Israel’s actions in the Occupied Territories. (more…)
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Catholic Australia in the time of Pope Leo
The Trump–Leo standoff could happen in Australia, though both political and clerical leaders here are much more cautious about church–state relations. (more…)
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The grandeur of humanity: Pope Leo on AI
Pope Leo’s first encyclical offers a vision in which human dignity and relationships guide technological development rather than people becoming slaves to technology. (more…)
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The facts about the suburb of Lakemba
Pauline Hanson is wrong. Lakemba’s residents are welcoming, hard working and kind. (more…)
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Don’t forget the plight of Palestinian Christians
The brutal beating of a French Catholic nun in Jerusalem has caused revulsion. It should also remind us of the marginalisation of Christians in the Palestinian homeland. (more…)
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The destruction of cultural heritage breaches human rights
Destroying places of worship and culture is not just a heritage matter. It interrupts ways of mourning, worshipping and sustaining traditions, especially for women. (more…)
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Deep fakes, doctrine and dunces hats: can the Pope school all of us on AI?
In his new encyclical on AI, Magnificat Humanitas, Pope Leo seeks to lead a global conversation on the need to ensure that human dignity guides us in this brave new world. (more…)
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War destroys more than lives – it destroys cultural worlds
War, displacement and colonisation do not only destroy lives and communities, but also the cultural worlds, histories and shared meanings that give people a sense of continuity and belonging.
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Trump raises voice – Vatican lowers heat
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Rome visit exposes the contrast between White House fury and papal diplomacy. (more…)