Advertise on podcast: Richard Johnson Lectures

In this episode, you'll hear the Q&A session following Stan Grant’s 2025 lecture, Against Bitterness: how do we live with suffering? Theologian and writer Stan Grant delivers a searing diagnosis of our times where chronic loneliness, runaway technological development, and fractious identity politics make bitterness the last real human emotion. He offers an antidote: imagination, re-enchantment, reconnecting with God, and human lives committed to doing the little things of the everyday. --- Stan is a public intellectual, writer, journalist, and, latterly, theologian. He has over 30 years of experience in radio, television, and current affairs, including as a foreign correspondent for CNN and the ABC. As a proud Wiradjuri man, Stan has grappled, publicly, and movingly, with the ongoing legacy of dispossession in Australia and the challenges faced by Aboriginal Australians. His lectures, books, and columns reveal an astonishing array of references, all delivered with poetic insight. These days, he is a distinguished professor at Charles Sturt University, and you can catch his columns in The Saturday Paper. His latest book is Murriyang: Song of Time. --- Check out CPX’s other podcast, Life and Faith, a weekly conversation about the beauty and complexity of belief in the 21st century. If you’d like to know more about CPX, our website is publicchristianity.org

In this episode, you'll hear Stan Grant’s 2025 lecture, Against Bitterness: how do we live with suffering? Theologian and writer Stan Grant delivers a searing diagnosis of our times where chronic loneliness, runaway technological development, and fractious identity politics make bitterness the last real human emotion. He offers an antidote: imagination, re-enchantment, reconnecting with God, and human lives committed to doing the little things of the everyday. ---  Stan is a public intellectual, writer, journalist, and, latterly, theologian. He has over 30 years of experience in radio, television, and current affairs, including as a foreign correspondent for CNN and the ABC. As a proud Wiradjuri man, Stan has grappled, publicly, and movingly, with the ongoing legacy of dispossession in Australia and the challenges faced by Aboriginal Australians. His lectures, books, and columns reveal an astonishing array of references, all delivered with poetic insight. These days, he is a distinguished professor at Charles Sturt University, and you can catch his columns in The Saturday Paper. His latest book is Murriyang: Song of Time. ---  Check out CPX’s other podcast, Life and Faith, a weekly conversation about the beauty and complexity of belief in the 21st century. If you’d like to know more about CPX, our website is publicchristianity.org

In this episode, you'll hear the Q&A session follwoing Tim Winton’s 2024 lecture, Exiles at Home: what our contempt for nature is costing us. Writer and activist Tim Winton reminds us that life on earth is a gift, a miracle we often fail to honour or even recognise. As we face an ecological crisis unprecedented in human history, Tim points to the critical need for solidarity - with the earth, our home, and with each other. Tim’s literary career spans 40 years and 30 books for adults and younger readers. His books have been translated into 29 languages and won numerous awards including the Miles Franklin Literary Award four times and he has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Tim is also the writer, narrator, and executive producer of the nature documentary series Ningaloo that screened around the world in 2023. Tim lives in Western Australia. --- Check out CPX’s other podcast, Life and Faith, a weekly conversation about the beauty and complexity of belief in the 21st century. If you’d like to know more about CPX, our website is publicchristianity.org

In this episode, you'll hear Tim Winton’s 2024 lecture, Exiles at Home: what our contempt for nature is costing us. Writer and activist Tim Winton reminds us that life on earth is a gift, a miracle we often fail to honour or even recognise. As we face an ecological crisis unprecedented in human history, Tim points to the critical need for solidarity - with the earth, our home, and with each other. Tim’s literary career spans 40 years and 30 books for adults and younger readers. His books have been translated into 29 languages and won numerous awards including the Miles Franklin Literary Award four times and he has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Tim is also the writer, narrator, and executive producer of the nature documentary series Ningaloo that screened around the world in 2023. Tim lives in Western Australia. --- Check out CPX’s other podcast, Life and Faith, a weekly conversation about the beauty and complexity of belief in the 21st century. If you’d like to know more about CPX, our website is publicchristianity.org

In this episode, you'll hear the Q&A session that followed Leisa Aitken's 2023 lecture titled, Rediscovering Hope. How we lost it. How we get it back? You can hear her lecture in an earlier episode of this podcast, but here is Leisa, with Simon Smart, digging deeper into the topic. --- Leisa is a clinical psychologist who's been counselling and teaching for more than 25 years in workplaces, hospitals, and private practice. She recently completed a PhD on the shifting grounds of hope through Western history and philosophy, theology, and psychology. --- Check out CPX’s other podcast, Life and Faith, a weekly conversation about the beauty and complexity of belief in the 21st century.

In this episode, you'll hear Leisa Aitken's 2023 lecture, Rediscovering Hope. How we lost it. How we get it back? The future feels tenuous these days, uncertain … overwhelming, even. Hope might be scarce, but it's not lost. At least not with Leisa Aitken is our guide. Leisa is a clinical psychologist with 25 years’ experience in her field and she's just completed a PhD on Hope. For those feeling hopeful, and perhaps especially for those who are not, this is a great talk to hear – hope from the perspective of psychology, philosophy, and theology. --- Leisa is a clinical psychologist who's been counselling and teaching for more than 25 years in workplaces, hospitals, and private practice. She recently completed a PhD on the shifting grounds of hope through Western history and philosophy, theology, and psychology. --- Check out CPX’s other podcast, Life and Faith, a weekly conversation about the beauty and complexity of belief in the 21st century.

In this episode you’ll hear the Q&A session that followed Scott Stephen’s 2021 lecture titled…  Out Of Sight: Attentiveness in a Dismissive Age  You can hear his lecture in an earlier episode of this podcast, but here is Scott, with Simon Smart, digging deeper into the topic.  ---  Scott is the ABC’s Religion and Ethics online editor, and the co-host, with Waleed Aly, of The Minefield on ABC Radio National. His book On Contempt is published by Melbourne University Press.  Read Scott Stephens’ Uncivil Wars, written with Waleed Aly for the Quarterly Essay    Check out CPX's other podcast Life & Faith, a weekly conversation about the beauty and complexity of belief in the 21st century.

In this episode you’ll hear the Q&A session that followed Sarah Irving-Stonebraker’s 2020 lecture titled…  Free To Be Me? The Forgotten Story of Religious Liberty  You can hear her lecture in an earlier episode of this podcast, but here is Sarah, with Simon Smart, digging deeper into the topic.  ---  Sarah is Senior Lecturer in History at Western Sydney University. She was awarded her PhD from the University of Cambridge, after which she was a Junior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford then Assistant Professor at Florida State University. Her book Natural Science and the Origins of the British Empire, published in 2008, was awarded The Royal Society of Literature and Jerwood Foundation Award for Non-Fiction.  Sarah Irving-Stonebraker’s book, Natural Science and the Origins of the British Empire    Check out CPX's other podcast Life & Faith, a weekly conversation about the beauty and complexity of belief in the 21st century.

You can hear his lecture in an earlier episode of this podcast, but here is Tim, with Simon Smart, digging deeper into the topic.  ---  Tim is co-founder of More in Common, an international initiative which has published some of the world's leading research on the drivers of polarisation and social division. He has worked as chief speechwriter and economic adviser for two Australian Prime Ministers and has helped start and grow social movement organisations around the world that have worked to protect civilians in Syria, address modern day slavery, promote gun control in the U.S., and engage faith communities in social justice.  Tim Dixon’s organisation, More in Common    Check out CPX's other podcast Life & Faith, a weekly conversation about the beauty and complexity of belief in the 21st century.

In this episode you’ll hear the Q&A session that followed Nick Spencer’s 2018 lecture titled…  Where Did I Come From? Christianity, Secularism, and the Individual  You can hear his lecture in an earlier episode of this podcast, but here is Nick Spencer, with Simon Smart, digging deeper into the topic.  ---  Nick is Research Director of Theos Think Tank in London. He has written for The Guardian and The Telegraph and has been described by The Economist as “like a prophet crying in the post-modern wilderness”. Nick is the author of several books including Atheists: The Origin of the Species, and The Evolution of the West: How Christianity Has Shaped Our Values.   Some of Nick Spencer’s books:  Atheists: The Origin of the Species  Darwin and God  The Political Samaritan  Check out CPX's other podcast Life & Faith, a weekly conversation about the beauty and complexity of belief in the 21st century.

In this episode you’ll hear the Q&A session that followed Amy Orr-Ewing’s 2017 lecture titled…  Is Christianity Bad News for Women?  You can hear her lecture in an earlier episode of this podcast, but here is Amy, with Simon Smart, digging deeper into the topic.  ---  Amy is a Senior Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics and is a widely sought-after speaker who has addressed audiences at the White House and the UK Parliament. She regularly appears on TV and radio to comment on a variety of topics relating to the Christian faith. Her doctoral studies focused on the British novelist, essayist, and “Christian humanist” Dorothy L. Sayers, and she is the author of several books, including Where is God in all the Suffering, and Why Trust the Bible?  Some of Amy Orr-Ewing’s books:  Is the Bible Intolerant?  Where is God in all the Suffering?  Why Trust the Bible?    Check out CPX's other podcast Life & Faith, a weekly conversation about the beauty and complexity of belief in the 21st century.

In this episode you’ll hear the Q&A session that followed William Cavanaugh’s 2016 lecture titled…  The Myth of Religious Violence  You can hear his lecture in an earlier episode of this podcast, but here is William, with John Dickson, digging deeper into the topic.  ---  WIlliam is Professor of Theology at DePaul University in Chicago. He holds degrees from Notre Dame, Cambridge, and Duke University, and has worked for the Center for Civil and Human Rights at the Notre Dame Law School. His areas of specialisation include political theology and economic ethics. He is the author of The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology, The Roots of Modern Conflict, and Field Hospital: The Church’s Engagement with a Wounded World.  Some of William Cavanaugh’s books:  The Myth of Religious Violence  Field Hospital: The Church’s Engagement with a Wounded World    Check out CPX's other podcast Life & Faith, a weekly conversation about the beauty and complexity of belief in the 21st century.

In this episode you’ll hear the Q&A session that followed Peter Harrison’s 2015 lecture titled…  The End of Faith: Has Science Made Religion Redundant?  You can hear his lecture in an earlier episode of this podcast, but here is Peter, with John Dickson, digging deeper into the topic.  ---  Peter is currently an Australian Laureate Fellow at the University of Queensland. Before taking up that post he was the Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford. He has published extensively in the area of intellectual history with a focus on the historical interactions between science and religion, and has authored or edited six books, including The Territories of Science and Religion.  Some of Peter Harrison’s book:  The Territories of Science and Religion  The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science    Check out CPX's other podcast Life & Faith, a weekly conversation about the beauty and complexity of belief in the 21st century.

In this episode you’ll hear the Q&A session that followed the inaugural Richard Johnson Lecture, which was delivered in 2014 by Yale University’s Miroslav Volf.  His topic was A Public Faith: Serving the Common Good, and you can hear the lecture in an earlier episode of this podcast, but here is Miroslav, with John Dickson, digging deeper into the topic.  ---  Miroslav is Founding Director of the Yale Centre for Faith and Culture, and the Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School. He has written more than 15 books, including Exclusion and Embrace, A Public Faith, and most recently For the Life of the World.  Some of Miroslav Volf’s books:  A Public Faith  Exclusion and Embrace  For the Life of the World    Check out CPX's other podcast Life & Faith, a weekly conversation about the beauty and complexity of belief in the 21st century.

In this episode you’ll hear the open Q&A session following Andy Crouch’s 2022 lecture, Disconnected: Why technology keeps disappointing us --- Andy Crouch is a partner for theology and culture at Praxis, an organisation that works as a creative engine for redemptive entrepreneurship. He is an author of many books and his latest is The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming relationship in a technological age --- Check out CPX's other podcast Life & Faith, a weekly conversation about the beauty and complexity of belief in the 21st century. Andy’s book: The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming relationship in a technological age This episode is sponsored by International Justice Mission