In his autobiography, the Australian political intellectual explores his attitude to death, punishment and the hope of resurrection.
Brilliant writers of the last hundred years tended to spend their lives wrestling with Christianity. Samuel Beckett obsessed over the promises of Christ in plays such as Waiting For Godot. D.H. Lawrence was gripped by the Bible and attempted to re-read into it a pagan spirituality. C.S. Lewis was hunted down by the Hound of Heaven until, in his words, he eventually gave in and admitted God was God.
Barry Jones is not a brilliant writer, but a brilliant Australian intellectual of extraordinary capacity and influence on Australian public life. His autobiography, A Thinking Reed, reveals the same kind of spiritual struggles that great authors undergo. Too bright for politics and too practical for academia, Jones occupied (and to some extent still does occupy) an unchallenged position as the brains trust of the Australian Labor Party. He made his fame by starring on the black-and-white TV quiz show "Pick-A-Box" in the 1960s and has always retained the tag of "Smart Bloke Who Can Remember Things". A mind such as his can be a curse as much as a blessing—when Science Minister, people used to ask him constantly to answer trivia questions. But the more significant blessings and curses of the curious mind are revealed in his autobiography to relate to the ultimate questions.
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