Life & Faith

You have probably mucked things up once or twice in your life. Congratulations, you’re human. There’s hope for all of us in the Easter story.

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This week, Simon Smart and Justine Toh tiptoe through the minefield of ‘guilt’, ‘sin’, and ‘morality’: three words and ideas that are offensive to the modern ear – no doubt partly due to the perception that Christians and the church have been all too judgmental of others. 

The weighty, Christian baggage of these words aside – is there not something good about acknowledging the times we’ve hurt people and gotten things wrong? Simon and Justine discuss how The Picture of Dorian Gray, directed by Kip Williams for the Sydney Theatre Company, confronts viewers with the darkness of the human heart. And in discussing parenting fails and climate inaction, they explore the mismatch between the people we want to be and the people we actually are. 

This episode of Life & Faith grapples with our human tendency to ‘muck things up’ – a sanitised version of author Francis Spufford’s working definition of ‘sin’ – and how even this seemingly fatal flaw is not the whole human story. The hope of the Easter narrative is not just one of sin confronted, but conquered.  

Also appearing in this episode: contributions from The Sacred podcast host Elizabeth Oldfield, New York Times columnist David Brooks, theologian Alister McGrath, author Marilynne Robinson, and author Francis Spufford. 

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Explore: 

Conal Hanna’s article in The Guardian on the “teal paradox” 

Elizabeth Oldfield’s full interview – with transcript – with David Brooks for The Sacred.  

Alister McGrath on why sin is such a useful idea 

Marilynne Robinson on original sin 

Life & Faith interview with Francis Spufford about Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense. 

Francis Spufford on your ruined life I

Francis Spufford on your ruined life II 

On March 25, it’s Tolkien Reading Day: a day to enjoy all things Tolkien – including what makes The Lord of the Rings so beloved. 

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“… above all shadows rides the Sun”.  

That’s a line from a song that the hobbit Samwise Gamgee sings to give him hope at a critical moment in J R R Tolkien’s epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings. Sam is stranded in the dark land of Mordor and Frodo, his master, has been captured. Their quest to destroy the one ring of power looks hopeless. But hope is not lost.  

Kaitlyn Facista, who runs the online fan community Tea with Tolkien, says that this belief is what draws people to The Lord of the Rings: the hope that helps people persist through dark times. 

On Tolkien Reading Day, observed on March 25 every year, Kaitlyn enjoys reading Tolkien’s writings along with other similarly devoted fans. The poem quoted above – “In Western Lands Beneath the Sun” – is a particular favourite. 

In this interview with Life & Faith, Kaitlyn explains the significance of March 25 within the world of Lord of the Rings: it’s the day the one ring is finally destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. The date is also significant within Tolkien’s own Christian tradition. It’s when the Feast of the Annunciation is celebrated – when the angel Gabriel told Mary she would bear Jesus, God’s son. March 25 is also regarded as the day of Jesus’ crucifixion.   

Tolkien once described The Lord of the Rings as “a fundamentally religious and Catholic work”. Kaitlyn explores these religious resonances and tells us about being invited to meet the showrunners of The Rings of Power, the Amazon Prime TV show and prequel (of sorts) to Lord of the Rings. 

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Explore: 

www.teawithtolkien.com 

To Middle-Earth and Back Again: Kaitlyn’s companion journal to The Lord of the Rings 

Tolkien’s poem: In Western Lands beneath the Sun 

Bruce Robinson knows more than most about the impact of suffering on human beings. But he also knows about resilience and joy in the face of life’s biggest challenges.  

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As a doctor, Professor Bruce Robinson has been on the front line of Tsunami-ravaged or earthquake-devastated poor regions of Indonesia. And as a lung specialist and expert in asbestos-induced cancer, he has had decades of experience breaking bad news to patients.  

His book, Behind the tears – understanding, surviving and growing from suffering, is a practical guide to dealing with suffering – either our own, or that of someone we care about – in a positive, life-affirming way.  

Here he shares hard won wisdom about what helps and what doesn’t and ways we can all prepare for the inevitability of grief and pain.   

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Explore: 

https://www.brucerobinson.com.au/suffering/ 

Cynthia Banham barely survived a brutal plane crash. She speaks about trauma, suffering, and hope. 

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It was supposed to be a routine assignment. Back in 2007, journalist Cynthia Banham was sent to Indonesia by the Sydney Morning Herald to cover a visit by then Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

But tragedy struck. The Garuda flight she was on crashed on landing at Yogyakarta International Airport. 21 people were killed. Cynthia survived but with terrible injuries, including a broken back and life-threatening burns. She wound up losing both her legs.

It’s been a very long and painful road to recovery, one Cynthia has written about in A Certain Light: A memoir of family, loss and hope.  

In the years since, Cynthia has become an academic, pursuing doctoral studies and a Masters in International Affairs. She also became a mum.  

In this raw interview with Life & Faith, Cynthia talks about rebuilding her life after trauma, her hard questions about God and suffering, and what has given her hope along the way. 

What our love affair with food reveals about us; and navigating a modern no-no: judging others.

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Life & Faith is 450 episodes and counting, and we’re about to hit a million downloads. We’re excited to mark the milestone – even we’ve forgotten all the things we’ve ever talked about. 

That’s why we’ll occasionally dip into the Life & Faith archives this year and bring you two conversations from the vault.  

This time, we’re hearing from chef Alex Woolley, Simon Smart and Justine Toh on the pleasures of eating, our love affair with food, and what feasting can tell us about the spiritual life. 

After the break, we tackle a modern taboo: do not judge others. It’s a notion that comes to us from Jesus but has taken on a new life in our times – especially online, where people condemn each other all the time. Steve Liggins joins Simon and Justine to talk about a very human dilemma – why we hate judgemental attitudes, and yet are often guilty of them ourselves. 

Christopher Watkin is an expert in cultural theory – and thinks the Bible yields the best one we've got. 

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“If all we think of when we hear the term critical theory is something like critical race theory, then we tend to think of ourselves as some sort of SWAT team parachuting down into society to deal with one particular spot fire, and then airlifting ourselves out at the end of it – without realising that there are lots of different ideas in culture that are connected with each other and that rely on each other and that sort of form an ecosystem. And in order to understand any particular part of it, you've got to see where it fits in the whole.” 

Does the term “critical theory” or “cultural theory” make you nervous – or make your eyes glaze over? Christopher Watkin, a lecturer at Monash University and author of the book Biblical Critical Theory (and a CPX Associate), argues that theory isn’t just for academics, nor merely a political hot potato. He says it's about reading the world and everything in it – which makes it an everyone thing. 

“That’s the origin of cultural critique, isn’t it? It is the ability to say not simply ‘I don’t like things as they are’, but things as they are are either unjust or not right or cruel.” 

In a conversation that touches on globalisation, the profit motive, radical justice, the nature of society, and a God of “superabundance”, Chris makes the case for why he thinks looking at our culture through the lens of the Bible makes the most sense of reality as a whole. 

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EXPLORE: 

Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory 

Pilgrim Hill is an off-grid, family-run hostel in the beautiful Huon Valley, Tasmania.  

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“We have these people coming into our community every single year, and they’re a huge part of our economy and they’re a huge part of our community, but they're not really seen by the Australian public.” 

Christina Baehr was a professional harpist, and Peirce Baehr planned to be an academic. But after they fell in love and got married, they decided instead to pursue a different dream: to create a place together where travellers could come from all over the world, be cared for, and have a place to think through the deeper questions in life.  

Pilgrim Hill is an off-grid, family-run hostel in the beautiful Huon Valley, Tasmania. The Baehrs – along with their nine (yes, nine!) children – love living close to the land, and they love showing hospitality to the fruit pickers and others who come to their valley. In this conversation, they tell Life & Faith what led them to choose this life, and why they find it so fulfilling. 

“People come here and some of them have only ever lived in cities. I remember at one point taking somebody on a walk to the veggie garden, and they clearly couldn’t recognize any of the plants … and I was like, this is a carrot, and they were looking at this green foliage thinking I had lost my mind – and then pulling it out of the ground and just the gasp of astonishment. We get people like that, but we also get people who come here specifically because they want to try out this lifestyle, and so that’s exciting.” 

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EXPLORE: 

Find out more about Pilgrim Hill 

Sheridan Voysey is very familiar with the pain of broken dreams – and the beauty of what can come next.  

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“Life is not made of straight lines. Nothing in nature has straight lines – that’s a human-created invention, the perfectly straight line. All else in creation has a curve, it has a kink, it has a twist … and here I am expecting life to go from Point A to Point B in a nice straight line.” 

After the last few years of curveballs and cancelled plans, you may well be wary about making new plans and dreaming new dreams for your life.  

Writer and broadcaster Sheridan Voysey has learned the hard way the pain of a broken dream – and where to go from there. In this conversation about the highs and lows of life, he tells a story of childlessness, giving up a cherished career, and the flourishing that can be found in a life we didn’t plan – including the remarkable twist of his wife Merryn being in the right time and place to help save six million lives.  

“There’s a wonderful proverb: Hope deferred makes the heart sick. And gosh, we now know that when that hope is deferred and deferred and deferred, and another month and another month and another month, and you don’t get what you desperately want, your heart can really become sick. You try that for ten years. But there’s a second part to that proverb that we often forget, and the second part goes: but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life. That doesn’t mean the same dream – it can actually be a different one.” 

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Explore: 

Resurrection Year: Turning Broken Dreams Into New Beginnings 

The Making of Us: Who We Can Become When Life Doesn’t Go As Planned 

What qualifies as a Christmas movie? And what version of Christmas do they offer? 

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It’s the final episode of Life & Faith for 2022! And time for Simon Smart, Justine Toh, and Natasha Moore to talk Christmas movies past and present: the films that stand the test of time and those that don’t; the borderline cases that feature Christmas but may or may not count as Christmas movies; and some new contenders for the title of Christmas classic. 

The team discuss Violent Night, a cinema release that sees Santa caught up in a Christmas Eve hostage situation – picking off mercenaries one by one in a Die Hard-type situation while also having his own faith in Christmas restored. They’ve also seen Spirited, Apple TV’s take on A Christmas Carol starring Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell, and have a … spirited discussion about the film’s preoccupation with redemption. Are people naughty or nice? Can they change? And how might Christmas come to the rescue? 

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Discussed in this episode: 

Violent Night (out in cinemas now) 

Spirited (available on Apple TV)  

Love Actually 

Ted Lasso Christmas episode 2021 

While You Were Sleeping 

Die Hard  

2022 Life & Faith episodes mentioned: 

A Good Look in the Mirror 

Ice and Isolation 

Forgiving the Unforgivable  

The story of what happened when one family decided to live simply so that others could simply live. 

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The rising cost of living is forcing hard questions upon plenty of Australians: can we afford our lives? More to the point: is our way of life sustainable – for us and the planet?  

Jonathan and Kim Cornford and their two daughters are an Australian family leading a fairly ordinary, middle-class existence in the suburbs of Bendigo, Victoria. But through a series of small changes over the past 20 years, this family of four has reined in their spending – and earning – in order to live more simply.  

These days, Jonathan and Kim both work part-time, they volunteer and donate to good causes, and they have the time to be around their kids. They also only send one bag of rubbish to landfill each week and use less than half the electricity consumed by the average Australian family. They may live on ‘less’ but according to Jonathan, they’ve gained so much ‘more’ in the process.  

The Cornfords live by a vision of ‘everyday economics’ – one informed by their Christian faith. Jonathan points out that the words ‘economy’ and ‘ecology’ both stem from oikos, the Greek word for ‘house’ – which helps us to recognise the multiple and interrelated ‘households’ we inhabit. 

This Life & Faith, we’re training our gaze on the household economy, and why it makes good spiritual and material sense to live within limits.   

Explore 

Jonathan’s book Coming Home: Discipleship, Ecology, and Everyday Economics.  

Manna Gum, the non-profit organisation Jonathan runs. 

Justine’s article on all the economies, published in Eureka St