The Spirit Of Things - Program Podcast

For National Science Week, Soul Search is joined by two scholars who have thought deeply about AI and its implications for what it means to be human. Professor John Lennox is an internationally renowned writer and speaker on the interface of science and Christianity, and Dr Nikki Mirghafori is both an AI scientist and Dharma teacher in the Theravada tradition of Buddhism.

It's been 100 years since the death of the great German intellectual, Max Weber. He was only fifty-six at the time, but left behind several landmark works and a whole new discipline — sociology — that still affects how we view religion now. In this episode, Meredith Lake chats with Sociology Professor Adam Possamai on Weber's legacy before speaking with Associate Professor of Sociology Anna Halafoff about her research into how Gen-Z relates to religion.

The medieval mystic Meister Eckhart once said, “If the only prayer you said in life was ‘thank you’, that would be enough.” It sounds simple, doesn’t it? But there’s more to gratitude than it seems.  Professor Mona Siddiqui – one of Britain's most influential public intellectuals – tells RN’s Meredith Lake about her latest project on Christian and Muslim approaches to gratitude. 

How do musicians give new expression to ancient beliefs and practices? Ivan Moody is an Orthodox priest and one of the world’s leading composers of contemporary Orthodox music, taking ancient traditions of chant into new spaces for the twenty first century. And, we meet two young Latvian-Australians who are reviving the pre-Christian folk traditions of Latvian culture and belief.

A special broadcast from New College at the University of New South Wales, where, for the first time in Australian history, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Glenn Davies, and Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Anthony Fisher, share the stage to lecture together on the theme of ‘faith’.

As some churches mark Sea Sunday this week, we turn to the ocean as place of work and ministry. And, a deep dive into stories of sea monsters, unruly oceans, and massive floods that are widespread in many of the world’s religious and mythological traditions.

How can we have hope when so much is unknown and uncertain? Reverend Dr Sarah Bachelard and Philosopher Dr David Newheiser join Meredith as part of ABC's Your Mental Health Week, to discuss hope and the role faith can play in dealing with crises.

Rumi's poetry is beloved around the world, but has his specifically Sufi Muslim insights been translated away? And we'll also head to the NSW mining town of Broken Hill, where historian Samia Khatun found a mysterious 150-year-old book of Bengali Sufi poetry at the old mosque. So how did it get there, and how did reading it change her?

How can stories help us – and help young people – navigate a sometimes lonely world? As part of RN's Big Weekend of Books, award-winning YA author Claire Zorn joins Meredith Lake to discuss writing, faith, the ethics of imagination, and her own sometimes difficult experience of learning to find her place in the world.

How can we live in proper relationships with other species? We often consider environmental questions in terms of science, or perhaps economics or even politics. But what can religious perspectives add to the conversation? What do religions like Buddhism have to offer as we face up to the ‘hot mess’ of climate change and ecological degradation?

Today on Soul Search, two Australian musicians taking their Sikh inheritance in new sonic directions. 

Its reconciliation week – another point on the long pilgrimage towards justice. Today we will introduce you to Dr Anne Pattel Gray – a globally recognized expert on Black theology, and the first Indigenous Australian to be awarded a doctorate in theology in the 1990s. We also speak to Uncle Alf 'Boydie' Turner, the grandson of the legendary Yorta Yorta leader William Cooper whose lifelong pursuit of justice remains remarkably relevant today.

An in-depth discussion about the radical, spiritual movement - theosophy. What made theosophy so compelling to an influential minority of Australian society?

In search of the soul, and a new way of thinking about our environment.

We have all heard the phrase ‘charity begins at home.’ But what kind of charity begins at the ashram? Or the church? Or the mosque?

What brings you joy, even under stress? Is there a peace that transcends even the most difficult circumstances? What can we draw on, when the world goes dark? And how can we emerge again, to live more deliberately?

Can you imagine a world free of prejudice? Where, as Martin Luther King said, people are judged by the content of their character – not by the colour of their skin. A tough ask, even at the best of times – and in the midst of a pandemic? Racism, it seems, is rearing its ugly head again.

Whole empires have risen and fallen on the backs of plagues and pandemics. But what about religions? How are the worlds faith traditions shaped and reshaped by pandemics?

We look back to 1770, and the likely first Easter observed in Australia.

What are the Psalms, and why do they they still resonate today? We meet a choir conductor breathing new life into these sacred texts.