Father Zossima is the wise old monk who forms the spiritual centre of gravity in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s last and greatest novel, The Brothers Karamazov, published in 1880. On his deathbed, Zossima recalls how, as a boy in church, he was deeply moved as he watched incense rising from a censer to meet a ray of sunlight high …
On the limits of forgiveness
The tragic deaths of five-year-old Katherine and one-year-old Harry in Cabramatta, Sydney, on 17 June 2026 confronted Australians with one of the most painful realities imaginable. Yet amid their grief, the children’s parents publicly expressed forgiveness towards the driver involved. Their response echoed another well-known Australian tragedy. In 2020, Danny and Leila Abdallah lost three …
What would George do? (Part 1)
The experience of suffering and grief in the life of G. H. Morling Bush fires aside, the year 2020 was supposed to be a good one. A new year, a new decade, the year number itself a virtual palindrome – what could go wrong? And then Covid-19 stepped in, no longer a far-off disease …
The consolation of Job
A sermon by Rod Benson for Seniors Week. Martin Luther called it “magnificent and sublime as no other book in Scripture.”[1] “Considered from a purely literary perspective, the book of Job is the supreme literary achievement of the Old Testament.”[2] Job is a biblical book like no other. Its themes invite philosophical speculation. Its story …
All Told 