What happens when God isn’t looking? Greg Clarke looks at the connections between the death of God in modernity and the behaviour and moral universe of Modernist writers and artists.

"The fool says in his heart ‘There is no God’", according to the writer of Psalm 14. The Hebrew words translated as "fool" in the Psalms apparently refer not to someone’s intellect, but to their moral fibre. A fool is not an idiot, but a reprobate. He (or she) doesn’t

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The Re-enchantment of Nature, Alister McGrath, one of the most prolific of living evangelical theologians, turns his attention once again to the interface of science and Christian faith. As he notes in the introduction to this volume, this is a return to his roots—for McGrath was first a working scientist (in the field of molecular biophysics) before he turned to Christian theology. In this book he brings his two interests together, with a

I live in Sydney, which means I am compelled to live and breathe real estate. My interest is piqued by special newspaper supplements, home improvement television and the headlining news of adjustments in interest rates. Even social conversation is frequently hijacked by concerns of who is looking for what, and who is doing up which so that they can sell it for something else. The ‘built environment’ has so filled our horizons that we cannot see past

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In 1995, after completing my PhD on magic and the Reformation in England, I found myself being interviewed on talkback radio about witchcraft. It was a rather uneven interview: the interviewer was far more interested in one of the callers, a self-confessed witch, than she was in my academic research.

Most of the book is a collection of source material about witchcraft, including folklore, theology and legal writings; the best collection I have come

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Is genetic intervention likely to change our concepts of human nature? Professor of Anatomy, D. Gareth Jones explores the hype and the hope behind new forms of therapy, and ponders a Christian approach based on humility before the Creator.

Genetics and humility—a contradiction in terms? The world of genetics can be intensely misleading, since it lends itself to oversimplification. Images of ‘designer babies’, the rampant cloning of famous and

Dan Brown’s novel, The Da Vinci Code, has fired the imaginations of readers around the world. Its gripping story of murder, religious intrigue and ancient history has left many people reconsidering their own spiritual commitments.

In this hour-long presentation, Greg Clarke explores how the novel has tapped into common feelings about the Church and traditional religion. He also examines the novel’s various claims:

• Is there any evidence that Jesus

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Historian Paul Barnett explores the evidence for the existence of Jesus compared with other famous figures of the ancient world.

(See the PDF for complete article.)

Files: Mystery of origins

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Two papers from the 2004 CASE Federal Election Forum are reproduced (in expanded form) here, to stimulate discussion among Christians and to give others some insight into the ways Christian people approach politics (188k PDF).

Elections: why bother? (Andrew Cameron)
There are several reasons why a Christian might feel that elections are not worth bothering with.

• We sometimes feel cynicism about human shortcomings, in comparison to God’s government

A review of Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain by Antonio Damasio

Antonio Damasio’s book on the neurobiology of feelings and the pursuit of happiness is a little out of my area. I can’t comment on the discussion about the brain-stem switch, or the emotional impact of Parkinson’s Disease. I look forward to comments from qualified Christina neuroscientists. But I found these discussions fascinating, even to the lay reader, and on

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A review article of the Dan Brown novel on the alleged conflict between science and religion.

The idea of the conflict between science and religion is pervasive in our society, particularly in popular literature. This article examines the mythical origins of the conflict metaphor and its employment by the airport novelist of the moment, Dan Brown.

Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons is a page-turner mystery novel, and has proved a very successful one at

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