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Keywords: Texts

  • AUSTRALIA

    Is a child terrorist a victim or perpetrator?

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 02 May 2024

    To identify children as terrorists is a distraction from considering the broader social and psychological contexts that made this violent ideology seem reasonable. The larger task in investigating how they became exposed to that violent ideology, how they were attracted to it, and how they can be drawn away from it.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Pope Francis' lesson for a polarised world: Focus on the process, not the outcome

    • Julian Butler
    • 11 October 2023

    Amidst a backdrop of polarized decisions and rising populism, at the Synod on Synodality in Rome, Pope Francis emphasises collaborative listening. As he explores decision-making in religious contexts, could prioritising process over outcome reshape our own current political landscape?

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Updating modern audiences for old texts

    • Kylie Crabbe
    • 29 March 2023
    2 Comments

    The recent decision by Puffin Books to revise new editions of Roald Dahl's corpus has sparked debates about the changing cultural mores of our times and the way we read older texts. Navigating the challenges of reading texts from another time must be accompanied by an awareness of the worldviews that shaped them.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    The empty echo chamber: A conversation with Dr Axel Bruns

    • David Halliday, Axel Bruns
    • 22 September 2022

    Despite our differing social and cultural beliefs, we can mostly agree that we live in highly polarised times. But what divides us? ARC Laureate Fellow Prof. Axel Bruns studies social polarisation, and in this discussion we explore the drivers of polarisation, examining the role that digital and social media and broader social and political contexts play in intensifying social conflicts, threatening economic prosperity, undermining public trust, and ultimately destabilising societies.

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  • RELIGION

    Valuing human life

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 09 September 2021
    24 Comments

    In recent weeks the value of human life has become a topic of public conversation in different contexts. Proposed legislation on abortion and assisted dying has continued to focus attention on it. Debate about loosening COVID restrictions has also balanced the risk of death from the disease with risks to health and economic welfare from lockdowns. In Afghanistan the victory of the Taliban has again raised questions about the morality of the war and the killing involved by both sides.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Palestine remains embroiled in the quagmire of politics and legitimacy

    • Ramona Wadi
    • 14 May 2021
    9 Comments

    Using the term ‘colonisation’ in regard to Israel and its relationship to Palestine and its settlements in the West Bank is contested, with some claiming that the situation is not a perfect parallel to other colonial contexts throughout history. 

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  • PODCAST

    Jesus as female divine

    • Podcast
    • 17 May 2018
    3 Comments

    In Hebrew traditions and in the Old Testament, the personification of wisdom was always that of a woman, known as Sophia. This carried to early Christian texts in which Jesus was held as female divine. Uniting Church minister Rev. Dr Sally Douglas talks about the qualities that made Jesus compatible with Woman Wisdom.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Solitaire and Some souls

    • Margaret Quigley and Edith Speers
    • 15 August 2017

    Were I to call Were I to stumble  Or even fall  Would you hear me?  Would the constant babble  Of texts and tweets and twitters  Silence my helpless cry

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The counter-cultural, rehumanising work of volunteers

    • Fatima Measham
    • 27 April 2017
    4 Comments

    A significant portion of the work that goes on in our economy is voluntary. It features in many contexts, such as social welfare, mentoring, animal welfare, landcare, local sport, and arts and literary activities. It can be hard to make a case for volunteering at a time when labour exploitation is rife. Students, migrants and Indigenous people, who need to establish work experience, are particularly vulnerable when it comes to unpaid work. This does not mean that volunteer work can never be meaningful.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Maintaining children's rights amid youth detention crises

    • Kate Galloway
    • 13 January 2017
    4 Comments

    The Minister has committed to improving youth detention facilities, the appointment of 100 more staff, and revision of Victoria's youth detention policy. But in doing so, she has sheeted home blame to the former government, and has accused lawyers for the children of pandering to ideology. The government's discourse continues the tough-on-crime narrative rather than acknowledging the causes and contexts of juvenile offending and the consequences of appalling facilities on the youth who are detained.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    On blaming Muslims for Paris

    • Justin Glyn
    • 19 November 2015
    12 Comments

    It is possible to find 'texts of terror' in Jewish, Christian and Muslim Scriptures. They need to be responsibly understood and explored with a close understanding of their context. We did not demand all Catholics stand up and denounce every IRA attack, nor that all Christians apologise for Anders Breivik. Similarly, why should we expect all members of a religion with over a billion adherents with multiple ancient variants to actively disown every horror claimed to have been committed in its name?

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  • RELIGION

    The peacemaker pope

    • Bruce Duncan
    • 24 April 2014
    7 Comments

    Quite striking is the similarity between the warm response to Pope John XXIII half a century ago and to Pope Francis today. Both broke through the gilded cage of outdated conventions and stereotyped expectations. Both stepped over barriers of ideology or religion to evoke bonds of a common humanity committed to promoting the wellbeing of all people, especially the poor and marginalised. The contexts were of course quite different.

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