It is a spectacular irony that in the 21st century, so far, the Australian whom in sympathy most popularised Catholic social thought is a committed atheist and Fabian socialist who youthfully flirted with joining the Communist Party. This is only one of the fascinating features of the life of Race Mathews (1935- ), explored in a well-researched biography by his wife and noted author, Iola Mathews.
This book of essays continues the work of the P.M. Glynn Institute of the Australian Catholic University (ACU), whose 12 book-length, and other, publications under the Kapunda Press imprint over the past six-years encourage espousal, renewal, and debate about Catholic traditions and ideas.
This is a collection of 24 essays on jurists, politicians, and related others, who made a mark on Australian history and whose Christian faith in and/or reaction to Christian ideas made an interesting impact.
Rodney Cavalier’s review (Newsletter 241) of the book The Write Stuff (Connor Court, 2020) comments on my Chapter, ‘Faithful and Labor: What Labor Ignores at Its Peril’ and argues that there is no problem.
The presence of members of Jewish, Orthodox Christian, and various Protestant denominations at the funeral indicated that this was no ordinary man. “Even if you cry your eyes out, don’t worry; he was worth every tear,” the Bishop of Wollongong, The Most Rev. Brian Mascord, said in his homily.
Australia’s political culture, as with western ruling elites generally, with the partial exception of the United States, is becoming more secular. Yet the world is becoming more religious. Faith still registers strongly in western societies. (Even in Australia, though the trend is clear, a clear majority still identify as Christian, though this is dropping.)
The history of the ALP at the national level is one long lesson in humility. More often defeated than victorious, glorious in government but only in retrospect. This is our party. The thirteen-year golden era of Hawke and Keating between 1983 and 1996 created Medicare and universal, compulsory superannuation; broke the back of inflation; set the economy up for a quarter century of continuous economic growth; changed Australia for the better. At the same time as those governments fought to earn credibility and support, enthusiasm waxed and waned within the wider labour movement.
This powerpoint was stimulated by an article that Josh Ridley sent to Adam Geha: Bruce Baker and Tom Parks, ‘The Book of Ruth Can Transform the Way We Do Business Today’, Christianity Today, 21 June 2019. I presented these slides to the informal “Eggs No Bacon” ‘Abrahamic faiths and beyond’ ecumenical breakfast club.
Santamaria: A Most Unusual Man, Gerard Henderson’s biography of Bartholomew Augustus Santamaria (1915-1998) is well researched, controversial, and insightful. The first book-length biography of Santamaria, the subtitle A Most Unusual Man immediately suggests that the work is no hagiography.
It might be interesting if I mention how I came to be here. It occurred because one of the members of Catalyst for Renewal read an article that I wrote last year, an obituary to the Japanese novelist Shusaku Endo, a very interesting man, who wrote concerning the encounter between Christianity and Japanese society.