John Comenius (1592-1670) was a renowned Czech educator, and author of one of the most significant works of Czech literature, The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart (1623), republished in the series “Classics of Western Spirituality.”[1] Its themes are fellowship of the believer with Christ, and the multitude of ways in …
Jesus or the Bible
Several years ago, around the time when he was President of the Baptist Union of Australia, I recall the Revd Tim Costello writing an opinion piece in response to an article by one of the leading Sydney Anglican heavyweights published in The Sydney Morning Herald. I can’t recall the issue on which they disagreed, but …
Cooperation and cobelligerence between NSW Baptists and other faith communities
A paper presented by Rod Benson to an ICOBS/ABRF Conference on the theme "Interfaces: Baptists and others," Whitley College, Melbourne, 17 July 2009. ------------------- At the beginning of their discussion of Christian responses to other faiths in Modern Christian Thought, James C. Livingston and Francis Schüssler Fiorenza observe that [s]cholars who study modernity appear to …
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What it takes to act with justice
A sermon on Ephesians 5:1-2 I have a problem. I’d like to believe in God, and do what is right, but I’m uneasy. What if we can be good without God? And how do we know what is good and what is bad? Fortunately, I’m not the first to ask such questions. The New Atheist …
T E Ruth and The Common Weal
In 1918 the Australian Baptist Publishing House (ABPH) released a book by the Rev. Thomas Elias Ruth (1875-1956) titled The Common Weal: Eighteen Studies in Social Subjects.[1] The book included a foreword by Professor Meredith Atkinson of the University of Melbourne,[2] and was dedicated by the author to Arthur Black, “in token of friendship and …
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