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Keywords: Ritual

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The gospel according to Dostoevsky

    • Cassandra Golds
    • 24 April 2009
    1 Comment

    That Dostoevsky is said to have developed a 'theology of writing' does not mean he arrives forearmed with a set of dogmatic truths. Rather, he practises the narrative and spritual discipline of allowing each character to be heard.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Conway's maverick way

    • Paul Collins
    • 30 March 2009
    10 Comments

    Ronald Conway (1927–2009) was of a rare breed in Australia. He stood against the prevailing climate of thought which ignores important questions of faith, spirituality and human experience, and focuses on the conventional and politically correct.

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  • RELIGION

    Non-believer drawn by the sacred

    • James McEvoy
    • 12 March 2009
    3 Comments

    Irish poet Seamus Heaney's spiritual journey could be seen as a casualty of the so-called secularising effect of the '60s and '70s. Heaney describes a shift from faith as external and ritualistic, to something more personal.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Against the waning of bushfire grief

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 25 February 2009
    3 Comments

    My brother, who has been working with the SES, tells me of the eerie silence in the burnt-out bush: there are no birds. He also tells me of quirks of fate: some chooks had a miraculous escape, as did their owners, who later collected 40 eggs.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Standing up for students' rites

    • Brian McCoy
    • 12 November 2008
    7 Comments

    Media exposure of some students' controversial end-of-school celebrations revealed a cultural deficit. Aboriginal men experience rituals that support their transition from boyhood into adulthood. Rituals in Western society are less clear.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Unlikely (big) brothers in arms

    • Alexandra Coghlan
    • 19 September 2008
    1 Comment

    George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh occupied opposing aesthetic, philosophical and political poles. This conceptually agile book suggests they attained moral — if not spiritual — agreement from fundamentally opposing directions.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Funeral for a marriage

    • Brian Doyle
    • 06 August 2008
    20 Comments

    Divorce is an incredibly powerful and painful chapter in millions of lives every year. Maybe we should create a public ritual for the end of a marriage by which we honour their brave attempt and mourn the death of love and hope.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Tragedy walks through their doors

    • Jennifer Compton
    • 05 August 2008
    2 Comments

    He told me it was called the Grievance Room. I looked askance ... He offered me the use of their Spirituality Centre. I declined. But made sure of their Smoke Zone.

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  • RELIGION

    WYD mass crosses cultures

    • Carmel Pilcher
    • 18 July 2008
    17 Comments

    The organisers of the WYD opening mass did not attempt to integrate Australian elements into the mass, but included them as added extras. The ritual structure of the mass requires creativity to make it connect with different audiences.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Humanity trumps moralism in WYD film festival

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 17 July 2008
    1 Comment

    The Iñigo Film Festival features films that reflect spiritual experience or the link between faith and justice. The Judas Pane plays upon traditional understandings of the gospels and critiques the subjective depiction of religious icons.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Muslim and Catholic pilgrims share the wisdom of travel

    • Irfan Yusuf
    • 16 July 2008
    8 Comments

    WYD pilgrims, like Muslim pilgrims to Mecca, know that in the act of travelling, they will learn things about themselves that they could never learn from books and sermons. Pilgrims are warriors whose battles are internal and spiritual.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Pope invokes 'spirituality of the land'

    • Chris McGillion
    • 16 July 2008
    3 Comments

    Australians see themselves more as a sunburnt people than as people of a sunburnt country. The Aboriginal smoking ceremony during the Papal Mass introduced a distinctive spirituality where reflection upon the physical environment is key. (April 1995)

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