Our 2008 New College lecturer argues for the importance of artists and artistry as witness-bearers to Christ’s redemptive engagement with us as human creatures.

We might reasonably expect artistic imagination to be counted naturally among the greatest of God’s gifts to humankind. While the precise nature of art’s effect upon us remains a subject of complexity and dispute, we hardly need a degree in aesthetics to identify the effect when it

Read more

This indepth article explores the impact of ‘New Media’ and the opportunities presented.

We have experienced rapid and radical change as the ‘New Media’ impacts the very foundation of our learning, relating and most areas of everyday life. This article examines the dimensions of this change and the opportunities it presents for the church.

Files: brave_new_online_world_case_15.pdf

Read more

Dr Megan Best reviews this volume by respected scientist Dr Francis Collins.

The interface of faith and science is often discussed by passionate Christians and scientists who have poor understandings of their opponents’ subject. It was therefore with anticipation that I began reading this volume, written by a man with a foot in each camp, intent on instructing both sides about how they could get along with the other.

Dr Francis Collins, a

Read more

Byron Smith picks up on the environmental theme that was the focus of Case 11 and offers a challenging biblical analysis of the looming crisis in oil production.

Most oil-producing nations have peaked in their production of oil. Byron Smith argues that Christians need not adopt the polar myths of infinite growth or scarcity, nor the greed that often lies behind them.

(See PDF for complete article.)

Files:

Read more

A piece on the relationship of money to happiness-a review of Ross Gittins’ book Gittinomics that considers the impact of heightened materialism on society.

Roberta says in her introduction "It’s somewhat ironic that my first contribution to Case is to review a book about a subject I’ve consciously avoided for most of my life—economics."

(See PDF for complete article.)

Files: kwan_gittinomics.pdf  

Read more

Our ability to manipulate the unborn human has created unprecedented ethical problems.

In this recent article Megan Best gives an updated assessment of stem cell research. Our recently acquired ability to manipulate the unborn human has created ethical problems which have no precedent.  Medical technologies are developing quickly, and legislation to allow an expansion of the opportunities available to our scientists is regularly before the

Andrew Errington has written a short discussion and reflection on the nature of representation.

Andrew Errington, inspired by the work of O’Donovan, and primed by the 2007 Federal elections, has written a short discussion and reflection on the nature of representation. He argues (as O’Donovan does) that a right understanding of political representation is fundamental to understanding our roles as citizens in liberal democratic society.

Files:

Read more

Larissa Johnson reviews "In Defense of Natural Theology: A Post-Humean Assessment".

David Hume was an eighteenth century philosopher whose arguments against religion are commonly believed to have sounded the death knell for natural theology, which can be defined as the attempt to find rational justification for a belief in God from reason and the natural world. In Defense of Natural Theology is offered as a direct confrontation to Hume’s legacy,

Read more

Following on from the 2006 lecture series of the same name, CASE ran a seven-week lecture series in 2007 looking at how Christian thinking can be applied to contemporary thought. The topics in the 2007 Christianity and Contemporary Thought series are:

• The Christian Worldview

• Richard Dawkins

• Galileo

• Theodicy

• The Jesus Tomb

• Revelation

• The Trinity

The presenters of the series are: Greg Clarke, Larissa Johnson, Mattheson Russell and Byron Smith.

In his third 2007 New College Lecture Prof O’Donovan considered resolving to do what is right.

When we ask about the world’s repertoire of good things, good relations, good events, good promises, we can go into much specialised detail without ceasing to speak in general terms. Each area of our experience of the world has its own tract of moral discussion: bioethics, discussing whether the human embryo is a person; political ethics, discussing