Soul Search

None of us are immune from the reality of a changing climate, or perhaps even from the local disasters that seem to accompany it. But what does a changing climate mean for the ways people live out their faith? How is religion tied up with the ways communities actually respond to climate shocks and challenges?

Dr Philip Jenkins is a professor of history at Baylor University in the United States, and co-director for Baylor's Program on Historical Studies of Religion in the Institute for Studies of Religion. He is the author of Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith: How Changes in Climate Drive Religious Upheaval.

Dr Sureka Goringe is National Director of UnitingWorld, the international aid and partnerships agency of the Uniting Church in Australia.

“Sovereignty is a spiritual notion”. The Uluru Statement from the Heart makes clear that Indigenous cultures and spiritualities are key to the story of the future of religion in Australia.

As Australians head to the polls to decide on the question of a Voice to Parliament, Wagadagam elder Gabriel Bani continues to work towards healing and self-determination in the Torres Strait Islands, whatever the outcome of the referendum.

Gabriel Bani is a tribal elder from the Wagadagam tribe on Mabuiag Island in the Torres Strait. He was part of the 2017 National First Nations Constitutional Convention and is a signatory of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

More info

• Read more about the Masig Statement, or “Voice from the Deep”.
• Listen to the Minefield: “When is a referendum an unethical way of resolving a political question?”
• Hear Wiradjuri man Glenn Loughrey on Soul Search: “A Voice to Parliament, a voice to the church”.

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.

David Bentley Hart is a philosopher and theologian whose works focus on Christian metaphysics, philosophy of the mind, Indian and East Asian religion. He is the author of dozens of books and over 1000 essays, including That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation. Most recently, his second edition of his translation of the New Testament is published by Yale University Press. He also writes fiction and literary criticism, including Roland in Moonlight.

Rev Dr Dorothy Lee is an Anglican priest and Professor of New Testament at Trinity College at the University of Melbourne. Her most recent book is The Enduring Impact of the Gospel of John and The Ministry of Women in the New Testament: Reclaiming the Biblical Vision for Church Leadership.

More links

• David Bentley Hart is in Australia for the Gospel Conversations conference
• Read David Bentley Hart’s essay, “The Metaphysical Meaning of Baseball”
• Read David Bentley Hart’s essay, “The obscenity of belief in an eternal hell”
• Wesley Hill’s review of David Bentley Hart’s translation of the New Testament is on ABC Religion & Ethics

The year is 2087 and Istanbul is a glittering, technological metropolis — but is this digital utopia more, or less, religious than today? Religious affiliation and the category of “religion” itself is changing along with technology, politics and the environment. So in the middle of all this upheaval, what future do religious people imagine for themselves?

Dr Anna Halafoff is Associate Professor in Sociology at Deakin University and president of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion. She is the author of Freedoms faiths and futures: Teenage Australians on religion, sexuality and diversity.

Peter Gould is founder of Gould Studio and Creative Director of Tales of Khayaal, a webcomic set in an alternative future shaped by technology and spiritual imagination.

Meet two women who’ve tried to change the world — to give shape to a certain freedom, or liberation, for their community. From Catholic Liberation Theology in the Philippines to a hijabi mountaineer standing on top of the world, encouraging other Muslim women to do the same.

Dr Estela Padilla is a community organiser and a theologian from Las Pinas in the Philippines, working to develop Liberation Theology in an Asian context. She is the Executive Secretary of the Theological Commission of the Federation of Adian Bishops’ Conference and has been selected by Pope Francis to be the first Asian woman to be a voting member of the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

Manal Rostom is an athlete and the first Egyptian woman to summit Mount Everest. She is also the first hijabi to become a Nike brand ambassador and the founder of Surviving Hijab, a Facebook community of nearly 1 million Muslim women worldwide. Manal is in Australia to climb Mount Kosciuszko as part of the Seven Summits challenge and to raise money for Penny Appeal. Her Instagram is manirostom.

Religion isn’t always serious business. While the sacred is sometimes considered off-limits for comedy, religious people actually do use humour to bond with each other and teach the tenets of their faith. And in the wake of tragedy, laughter is a defence as well as a comfort.

Tami Sussman is an author with a background in theatre, comedy, spoken word poetry and copywriting. Her latest book is So That Happened...But Maybe You Already Knew That. She’s running a writing workshop for tweens at the Sydney Jewish Writers Festival.

Shoshana Gottlieb is a writer and Jewish educator based in Sydney. She also runs JewishMemesOnly, a popular Instagram meme account. She is appearing on the Sydney Jewish Writers Festival panel, the Tragedy of Jewish Comedy.

Rabbi Ralph Genende is one of Australia’s most senior Jewish community leaders. His many roles and responsibilities include Senior Rabbi and Manager at Jewish Care Victoria, and Principal Rabbi for the Australian Defence Force. He’s also the author of Living in an Upside-Down World, an anthology of over 20 years of writing examining the many crises and challenges of our times. He is appearing on several panels at the Sydney Jewish Writers Festival, including Laughter and Grief.

More info

Sydney Jewish Writers Festival runs 23 to 27 August 2023.

Read more about Shoshana Gottlieb on ABC Everyday.

Hear Tami Sussman on God Forbid.

On SBS’s hit show Alone Australia, contestants had to spend weeks in the wilderness without any human contact. Isolation can be hard — many people fear it — but some embrace solitude as an opportunity to learn what makes us human.

Dr Kate Grarock was a contestant on the reality TV show Alone Australia. She’s also an ecologist, hiker and YouTube creator.

Hon Dr Joseph Randolph Bowers is a psychotherapist, spiritual director and lifelong meditation practitioner based in Armidale, NSW. He is the author of Solitude Awakens: The Heart Forest Mountain Way as well as various books exploring Mi’kmaw First Nations culture and spirituality.

Everyone dies, but in the last 200 years or so, our beliefs about death have changed dramatically. From pandemic meditations on mortality to the history of euthanasia, attitudes about death are part of life.

Yahia Lababidi is an Egyptian American poet, essayist and aphorist. His most recent book is Quarantine notes: aphorisms on morality and mortality

Dr Caitlin Mahar researches cultural and medical histories of dying in Britain and Australia and the history of euthanasia activism. She is an Adjunct Research Fellow at Swinburne University of Technology, and the author of The Good Death Through Time.

The 14th Dalai Lama is arguably the most prominent Buddhist in the world. He has influenced the West considerably, including religious traditions other than his own. How did this come to be, and who will succeed him as the 15th spiritual leader of Tibet?

Professor Mario Aguilar is Professor of Religion and Politics in the School of Divinity, University of St Andrews, Scotland. His many books include The Way of the Hermit: Interfaith encounters in silence and prayer.

Dr John Powers is a Lecturer in Buddhism Studies at the University of Melbourne. Read his article on the politics of the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation on The Conversation.

Is it possible to really, actually, know yourself? Descartes said the self was the only thing we can know — I think therefore I am — but other philosophical traditions say the self doesn’t even exist.

Indian religion and philosophy has explored these questions from all angles for thousands of years, and new ideas continue to develop even today. From the ancient teachings of Vasubandhu, to the relatively modern tradition of the Brahma Kumaris: What, if anything, is the soul?

Sister Jayanti is Director of the Brahma Kumaris in Europe and the Middle East, and since 1982, the Brahma Kumaris’ main representative to the UN.

Associate Professor Monima Chadha is Associate Professor of Philosophy, and a member of the Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies, at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Her latest book is Selfless Minds: A Contemporary Perspective on Vasubandhu's Metaphysics (Oxford University Press, 2023)

For more on the soul, body and the self, explore Flesh Week by ABC Religion and Ethics.