Theological Disputes

The Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture has a significant number of scholars affiliated with the Centre, representing a depth and breadth of theological research. For the first time, these scholars will be sharing their knowledge and research with fellow academics and the general public. Public lectures planned cover a diverse range of topics, including Nietzsche, the Gospel of John, church discipline, political providentialism, demonology and post-foundational ecclesiology. One public lecture of particular interest will be ‘Australian history and the future of the Church’, given by Professor Wayne Hudson, who was recently elected to the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

There are currently 10 public lectures planned, with one every month until November and more planned for 2024. Public lectures will occur from 12.30pm-1.30pm, making it suitable for those who prefer to go out during the day or people looking for something to do in their lunch-break. The public lectures will be academic in nature, but will also appeal to the general public, particularly clergy, people interested in theology or religion, or those looking for intellectual stimulation and debate.

2023 Programme

18 April: Dr Peter Hooton, Embodying the Transcendent on the way to a Global Ethic
23 May: Professor John Painter, No-one has ever seen God: Revisiting John's Prologue
27 June: Professor Wayne Hudson, Australian History and the Future of the Church Register
18 July: Dr Nikolai David Blaskow, Nietzsche, the Religious man; Artist; Philosopher; Saint Register
15 August: Dr Peter Grundy, Wittgensteinian Grammar and Theological Limits
19 September: Dr Amy Erikson, Church Discipline
24 October: Dr Jonathan Cole, The Necessity and Danger of Political Providentialism
21 November: Canon Professor Scott Cowdell, TBC

2024 Programme

20 February: Dr Bernard Doherty, 'Disputatio Diaboli': The Removal, Survival and Revival of Demonology in post-concillar Roman Catholic Theology

Dr Nikolai Blaskow, Nietzsche the religious man: artist, philosopher

Abstract: Nietzsche spent a lifetime shaking the trees of art philosophy and religion to free them of their pretentions. In this lecture Nikolai Blaskow will contend that by looking through the lens of Artist, Philosopher and Saint as Nietzsche interprets them, we are enabled to engage deeply and intelligently with the danger and complexity of the times. He shall focus specifically on the interplay of Nietzsche’s notions of the will to power and the will to truth to investigate why it is that our Western liberal democratic understanding of ‘rules based order’ is ultimately and tragically a myth – and not just because we have used political violence in that order’s defence.

Professor Wayne Hudson, New Religious Thought

Abstract: Modern Western religious thought was immersed in historical religion. Historical religion provided identity, group solidarity, markers of division, community as well as utopian horizons such as the promise of life after death. It also inspired art, music, sculpture, dance, theatre and architecture. On the other hand, historical religion frequently functioned as a form of social binding. It was anthropocentric, exclusivist and species chauvinist. It was also frequently associated with human sacrifice and war. For most of the historical record, it tended to sacralise unjust social and economic arrangements. Our evolutionary path may now require something else.

Today we need to move past governing concepts of modern religious thought. Specifically:

1. the concept that there is religion is an essentialist sense

2. the idea that religion is about true or false beliefs

3.the concept that there is a dualism between religion and the secular

4.the concept that divinity is about a metaperson called ‘God’

5. the idea that organizational forms are purely instrumental

Questioning these concepts might be thought to lead to a vague agnosticism or some version of ‘radical theology’. Prof Wayne Hudson argues, to the contrary, that breaking with these concepts opens the way for a new religious thought with more contemporary features.

Dr Peter Hooton, Embodying the transcendent: on the way to a global ethic

Abstract: The threat posed by human beings to the future of life on Earth in its currently familiar forms demands a genuinely global response in the form of a global ethic that is more than the sum of humanity’s existing declarations of rights and freedoms, wars of intercession, and judicial systems of redress—a concrete ethic of global responsibility which normalises altruistic behaviours while at the same time greatly extending their scope. The seminar paper explores the possible shape of such an ethic from a theological perspective.