Life & Faith

Christians face harassment and oppression in 139 nations and four out of five acts of religious discrimination in the world today are directed against Christians. Barney Zwartz, the former religion editor at The Age, and Elizabeth Kendal, a religious liberty analyst at the Canberra based Christian Faith and Freedom centre, joined Life and Faith to discuss the severity of this persecution and why we are not hearing about it in the media.

The first Life and Faith for 2014 is an examination of forgiveness. Justine Toh and Simon Smart discuss the recent film The Railway Man and a remarkable story from Malcolm Gladwell's most recent book.

Greg Clarke's new book The Great Bible Swindle, argues that you cannot claim to be educated without a knowledge of the Bible. He came into Life and Faith to explain how the Bible has shaped our culture in profound ways and why it is therefore critical to understand the Bible to understand our literature, music, history, art and more.

Tim Winton is the best selling author of a number books including Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and The Turning. He spoke to Simon Smart about a number of topics including his new novel Eyrie and matters of faith. 

The second part of Simon Smart's interview with Peter Hitchens in which he discusses his turn from atheism to Christianity.

Peter Hitchens is a conservative coloumnist and occasional foreign correspondent in the UK. He is the author of The Rage against God: How atheism led me to faith. CPX caught up with Peter at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas to discuss belief, morality and the way things are heading in the West

John F. Kennedy and C.S. Lewis both died on the same day an hour apart yet the legacies of both men live on. Justine Toh and Simon Smart discuss the two and the legacy that they have left.

There was a time when belief in God was assured and arguments for God's existence were about confirming what everyone knew to be true. However in the post-Christian West belief in God is increasingly considered to be an irrational belief. Michael Jensen joined Simon Smart and John Dickson on Life and Faith to discuss whether it is reasonable to believe in God in the modern world.

Life and Faith examines the way that whenever we eat, we are eating with other people. Ruth Dearnley, World Vision Australia's campaign leader for child protection and trafficking, discusses how the food we but in the supermarket can be the result of child trafficking and exploitation and what we can do to to combat this. Ruth Padilla DeBorst, World Vision International's director of Christian Formation and Leadership Development, shares her thoughts about what it means to eat in community and why Christians should seek to eat with those who are different.

The Turning is a unique cinema event. Seventeen Australian directors from diverse artistic disciplines each create one of the stories from Tim Winton's collection. The linking and overlapping stories explore the extraordinary turning points in ordinary people’s lives in a stunning portrait of a small coastal community. Simon Smart, who is a big fan of Winton's writing, watched the film and he joined Justine Toh to discuss it with a focus on one story in particular: a brutal, unsentimental but life-affirming account of a woman coming to faith.

Ruth Padilla DeBorst has been involved in leadership development and theological education in her native Latin America as a missionary with Christian Reformed World Missions for many years: first in student ministry with the Comunidad Internacional de Estudiantes Evangélicos (IFES), then with Seeds of New Creation, a ministry that trains for and promotes holistic mission in El Salvador. Ruth currently serves as Director of Christian Formation and Leadership Development with World Vision International. She came on Life and Faith to discuss the reasons behind church growth in Latin America in contrast to the decline found in the West.

William Cooper, of Yorta Yorta descent, spent most of his life in the Cummeragunja community where he was a spokesman for the Yorta Yorta in their ongoing battles for land justice against the New South Wales government. Just weeks after Kristallnacht he led a delegation to the German consulate in Melbourne to deliver a petition condemning the Nazis treatment of the Jews, which was the only private protest against the Germans following Kristallnacht. Matt Andrews joined Life and Faith to discuss what drove William Cooper to take action.

We often hear the term 'The Christian Vote' talked about at election time but is there such a thing? John Dickson, Simon Smart and Justine Toh discuss Christianity and politics, the issues that affect how believers vote and the principles that should drive the way Christians vote.

Byron Smith joins Justine Toh and Simon Smart on Life and Faith to discuss climate change, sustainable living, how his Christian faith led him to become increasingly concerned with these issues and the consequences our treatment of the environment.

Simon Smart talks to Justine Toh about the new book he co-authored, For God's Sake: An Atheist, a Christian, a Muslim and a Jew debate religion. He explains why he got involved in writing the book  and what he hopes it achieves. 

Roy Williams' new book In God They Trust? examines the spiritual life of each of our Prime Ministers from Edmund Barton to Julia Gillard. He explores the ways in which - for good and ill - their beliefs (or agnosticism) shaped the history and development of the nation. He joined Simon Smart on Life and Faith to discuss his book and the interplay of religion and politics in Australia.

David Wilikinson works in the Theology and Religion department at Durham University. His background is research in theoretical astrophysics, where his PhD was in the study of star formation, the chemical evolution of galaxies and terrestrial mass extinctions such as the event which wiped out the dinosaurs. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and has published a wide range of papers on these subjects. His latest book is called Science, Religion and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. He also has a PhD in theology and on Life and Faith he discusses the place of faith in a scientific, technological age.

Justine Toh and Simon Smart discuss Only God Forgives, Winner of the Sydney Film Festival Official Competition, and the chilling documentary The Act of Killing - focusing on the way the two films navigate questions of justice, mercy, and forgiveness.

Justine Toh speaks to Mick Martin about the way that names connect with identity. They discuss the process of choosing a name and how we want them to express the uniqueness of a person. 

Life and Faith tackles the controversial topic of Hell. Simon Smart and Justine Toh speak to Kevin Miller, director of the documentary Hellbound, and John Dickson, Ancient Historian and CPX Director.