Three missing numbers: climate in the 2013 Australian federal election

"These are the three crucial numbers missing from the climate debate in Australia. Neither major party is likely to mention them. These three bipartisan agreements are fundamentally incompatible with the demands of either justice or prudence, let alone the love for neighbour at the heart of Christian ethics, a tradition from which both Rudd and Abbott claim to draw inspiration."

The ABC Religion and Ethics site has published a piece I wrote for CPX outlining some of the missing numbers in this federal election. Between writing the piece and its being posted, Abbott indicated he is not, after all, committed to even the paltry 0.5% emissions reduction target that he had previously (repeatedly) promised. Also, if I'd wanted to pick five, rather than three, numbers, I would have included these two as well.

• One twelfth: the share of global carbon reserves Australia controls.

• Eighty billion: the number of dollars in the Australian Future Fund, which ought to divest from fossil fuels, given that it is a future fund after all.

Review of Tim Flannery's Here on Earth

Hope is a key theme of this blog: how it is possible to have Christian hope amidst a world groaning all the more under novel levels of ecological degradation and what difference such hope makes in our Christian discipleship. My longest series (summarised in this recent post) was an extended reflection upon hope and last year when I tried to re-frame the purpose of this blog, hope featured prominently.

So I was very interested when asked recently by the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX) to review a book by Tim Flannery with the title Here on Earth: An Argument for Hope. Flannery is well-known in Australia as a public science communicator and has written a range of books and other pieces on biodiversity, sustainability and climate change (The Weather Makers is one of his best known books). For his work, he was named Australian of the Year in 2007. Flannery is not a Christian, so I was very interested to see what kind of account of hope he would offer in the face of our dire situation.

My review of his book is now published over on the CPX site.

Harry Potter and consumerism

Harry Potter and Consumerism from CPX on Vimeo.
H/T CPX.
The only questions are: can the dark wizard Consumerism and his nefarious crew of Planet Eaters be defeated before he takes over the world? And what kind of magic will be required to defeat his curse?

Copenhagen: so what?

My second piece reflecting on Copenhagen has just gone up at the Centre for Public Christianity (a.k.a. CPX). You can read the first one back here. My new piece was written towards the end of last week and attempts to reflect on some of the positive outcomes to this much anticipated gathering, even though at the time it was looking like little of worth was going to come out of it. And it is important to remember, that sadly (but not unexpectedly) that turned out to be largely true.

Baby permitting (we're still waiting, which is quite apt, given that it is Advent), I'll write a third piece in the days ahead that presents a more critical and reflective view on "where to from here?".

What does Christianity have to do with climate change?

And specifically, what does the Christian message have to offer to the enormous UN conference currently underway in Copenhagen?

In a number of previous posts, I've mentioned the work of the Centre of Public Christianity (a.k.a. CPX) in Sydney. The high standards of their online work might now be under threat since they just published a short piece I wrote attempting to answer that question, titled "Facing the truth in Copenhagen". I outline two common mistaken answers and their alternatives. Go and check it out. Or at least go and check out the rest of the CPX site.

The trouble with Dawkins: loving intellectual enemies

In another CPX vodcast, John Dickson talks with philosopher Michael Ruse about Dawkins' intellectual shortcuts. H/T Dave.

This discussion is not simply about Dawkins but is a reminder to all of us to treat our intellectual opponents with respect. It is quite safe to assume that not everyone is an idiot, and that most intellectual positions that have been held for some time by some number of people will have some measure of coherence and attractiveness to them. Searching for that coherence and attraction is at once a winsome conversational strategy and a basic requirement of Christian love for one's enemies.

Baby Jesus had a beard

A while ago, I posted the classic "Baby Jesus prayer" clip from Talladega Nights. Greg Clarke (director of the Centre for Public Christianity) has now used it as the basis of an opinion piece published on the ABC website. Go and have a look. His article is an invitation to go and have a look at the Jesus of history, of ethics, of politics, of theology, not just of popular culture.

And if you'd like a glimpse into many of the popular (mis)conceptions of Christianity, read a few of the comments. Dan Brown has a lot to answer for.

The Life of Jesus

The Centre for Public Christianity (CPX) are soon to release a new documentary called The Life of Jesus, a follow up to The Christ Files. Looks like it will be more quality work from Greg Clarke and John Dickson. Here is a short teaser:

H/T Matt.

New(-ish) evidence of early Jesus worship

It seems that it was unearthed back in 2003-05, but I've only just heard about the discovery of a third-century Christian prayer hall in Megiddo, a town in Israel. The remarkable thing about the site (apart from being discovered under a high-security prison still in use) is that it contains well-preserved mosaics complete with inscriptions. In one, a benefactor, Gaianus, is described as a centurion and in another a woman called Akeptous is said to have "offered this table in memorial of the God Jesus Christ".

This is remarkable physical evidence of the beliefs and social composition of early Christian communities in Palestine (more discussion here). In particular, it is yet another refutation of the ludicrous idea (made popular through The Da Vinci Code) that Jesus' divinity was a novel idea pushed on the church by Constantine at Nicea.

This find was brought to my attention by the work of John Dickson and Greg Clarke from the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX), who are putting together a documentary called The Life of Jesus, looking at evidence for the historical Jesus and early Christianity and filmed on location in the Middle East. They are posting short pieces about their experiences on the road here.
Image by N. Davidov, IAA, taken from here. H/T Moffitt for pointing out the SydAng article.

C. S. Lewis Today conference

After a successful gathering in 2006, the second C. S. Lewis Today conference will be held in Sydney on 23rd-24th May. The conference will be "two days of talks, panel discussion, film viewing and workshops designed for anyone interested in Lewis, professional or amateur."

This event has been timed just before the release of Prince Caspian, the film from the second book in the Narnia Chronicles (the films, wisely, are following the original publication order, rather than the chronology of the narrative), and has managed to secure a 40-minute preview reel, which will be screened on the Saturday afternoon.

Speakers include: Alan Jacobs (leading US Lewis scholar), Tim Gresham (Lewis's step-grandson), Tony Morphett (well-known Australian scriptwriter), Robert Banks (author, academic and founder of MCSI), Greg Clarke and John Dickson (directors of the Centre for Public Christianity) and many more (including yours truly).

Registrations close this Friday.