Thoughts on faith, culture, and public life.
Mosaic depicting Moses and the Burning Bush at Saint Catherine Monastery, a Greek Orthodox monastery at the base of Mount Sinai in Egypt. Rod Benson The Uniting Church does many things well. It advocates for justice, runs major community services, supports vulnerable people, promotes reconciliation, addresses ecological responsibility and contributes to public debate. Yet its breadth and …
Continue reading "Is the Uniting Church in danger of mission creep?"
Dawn mist in the Jamison Valley, Echo Point, 1935. Photo: Harry Phillips. Blue Mountains City Library. Rod Benson To arrive at Echo Point, Katoomba, for the first time is to discover that photographs have concealed the scale of the place. You approach through an ordinary mountain town, walk toward the edge of the plateau, and …
"They Said No." Acrylic on canvas by Lisle Gwynn Garrity. Inspired by Exodus 1:8-22. If Christians can support climate action on ordinary moral grounds, why do priests, pastors and ministers bring climate change into sermons, prayers, hymns and liturgies at all? Why not leave climate policy to scientists, governments, journalists and citizens, and allow public …
Continue reading "Why bring climate change into Christian worship?"
On reading one of my recent articles on reading Scripture in a climate emergency (Part 1), a friend raised a point many secular bystanders may well be asking: “I would have thought we were way past the point of needing to rely on biblical or ecological hermeneutics to help us understand the dimensions of the …
Continue reading "Why Christians don’t need proof texts for climate action"
Ecological hermeneutics in congregational life Biblical interpretation shapes Christian imagination long before it forges explicit ethical stances on public issues. How Christians understand what Scripture teaches about creation, human identity, salvation, possession, hope and responsibility influences how they inhabit the world. Ecological hermeneutics—the interpretation of texts with attention to the intrinsic value of Earth, the …
Continue reading "Reading Scripture in a Climate Emergency (Part 3)"
