50 years after Time magazine’s famous ‘Is God Dead?’ cover, Church attendance numbers are tumbling. But that doesn’t mean Christianity is on the way out.
Mother Teresa will become a saint on Sunday, on the basis of two miracles of healing. But let’s not remove our thinking caps and go all medieval: we should be wary of uncritical endorsement of claims to the miraculous.
Religious conversion sometimes has the added bonus of upward social mobility. But for many in South Africa’s Indian community it had the opposite effect.
Since the 1920s Pentecostal churches have had a major impact in South Africa’s Indian community. Their converts have grown larger than all the other Christian denominations put together.
For Muslims generally, as for conservative Christians, homosexual acts are sinful. Christian gays and lesbians have had to work hard for a measure of recognition among fellow-believers; their Muslim counterparts are just beginning that struggle.
Superannuation, health and child care are among the issues that are likely to matter most to voters in the bellwether NSW seats of Eden-Monaro, Robertson and Lindsay.
Not only is the Australian Christian Lobby losing relevance, it has had to appeal to Bill Shorten to pay attention to the group in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
Escalating clashes between herders and farmers in Nigeria threaten the country’s national and food security. A response based on innovation, sustainability and political will is urgently needed.
Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity