This is a lucid and learned overview from one of Australia’s eminent academics in the area of philosophy of religion. Max Charlesworth was professor of philosophy at Deakin University and has written extensively on bioethical issues and on Australian Aboriginal religions. In this book, a rewrite of his 1972 volume, Charlesworth provides a ‘grid’ of the various relations between reason and religion since the ancient Greeks.

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Edward Said invents some goals.

His book reexamines and reformulates humanism in 21st Century academic and political spheres. Damage was done to the study of humanism by structuralists and poststructuralists, especially the works of French theorists like Foucault and Barthes, who, continuing from Nietzsche, Freud and Marx, brought about the depersonalisation of the individual artist and author. Furthermore, over the past few decades, the humanities

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Scientists wrestle with philosophy; theologians struggle with biology. The contemporary attempt to integrate these fields still has a long way to go.

To what extent do the biological/ neurobiological sciences help us understand issues of personhood and soul? To some, the answer is obvious: entirely. It is increasingly common to find cognitive scientists claiming not only that neurology is everything and consciousness simply one property of brain

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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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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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Does the Bible get overused in educational theory? And does mainstream research get ignored by Christian practitioners? Trevor Cairney explores a book guilty of both.

Douglas Wilson’s book The Paideia of God derives its title from one word within Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. In Ephesians 6 Paul addresses the relationship and authority patterns between parents and children , particularly writing to fathers:

"Fathers, do not exasperate your

A review of Life of Pi by Yann Martel and Dirt Music by Tim Winton.

The Booker Prize for literature is not usually accompanied by theological proclamations, but 2002 was different. The Booker is given each year to what is judged as the best work of contemporary fiction by a writer from the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. In 2002, it was won by Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, a previously obscure writer who begins his novel with an

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