Soul Search

In post-apartheid South Africa, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela is asking, when is forgiveness possible, and where does that leave the search for justice?

What does it mean to be fully alive? Elizabeth Oldfield has ditched the conventional script of what life can look like — instead choosing to live in what she calls a "micro-monastery".

The nature of consciousness is a subject of enormous interest to both science and religion. Modern, secular mindfulness techniques have their foundation in ancient Buddhist thought, but it's only recently that neuroscientists have given serious attention to what actually happens in the brain when we meditate.

How do you cultivate a lifetime of curiosity? When Amy-Jill Levine was a child, her parents would ask, "Did you ask any good questions today?" That mindset has propelled AJ through a lifetime of discovery, learning about all kinds of things, but especially sacred texts and the people who read them.

The world Christians live in is changing, so Christian theology is too. David Bentley Hart — one of the world’s most prominent and influential theologians — calls elements of mainstream Western Christian thought “a psychotic fantasy”. Wow! In Australia, theological colleges grapple with environmental and postcolonial questions, and it might just change the church here going forward.

For the final episode of Soul Search in 2024, join Meredith Lake for a campfire discussion reflecting on the year that’s been. Meredith is joined by three returning guests, responding to listener questions and yearnings that have arisen from our present moment, pondering the theme of inner and outer peace.

Have you had enough? There are lots of ways you could interpret that question, and almost all of them are relevant to the end of the year! It's a time when many of us reassess our priorities and wonder, what does it look like to live "the good life"?

What does a future of freedom and justice look like? Recently-deceased Peruvian theologian Fr Gustavo Gutierrez spoke about liberation from all kinds of oppression and God's preferential option for the poor. It's a vision that began on the fringes, but has wound up influencing the very centres of power in the Christian world.

Is there a mantra that helps you meditate, or perhaps some music that helps you connect with your sense of the sacred? Music has a long and intimate relationship with spirituality, and has helped people throughout the ages and across faith traditions to access something of the divine.

The development of generative AI has opened a lot of questions about who we are as humans. What makes a human, human? What do we value? What does a flourishing future for us all even look like in this new technological age?