Hans Küng

This thesis researches the long career of Hans Küng as a 'Catholic' theologian and as a polemicist reformer. The research demonstrates that he uses theology as a political tool in his call for Church reform and concludes that Kung is best understood as a political reformer rather than as a 'Catholic' theologian.

Photography and christian mission: George Brown`s images of the New Britain mission 1875-80

In 1875, Methodist George Brown arrived in the Bismarck Archipelago to establish the New Britain Mission. Based in the Duke of York Islands, Brown's territory covered New Ireland and the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain. The mission was one of the first to be photographed from its inception. The Australian Museum holds 96 plates from the first five years of the mission. Brown's photographs are a visual record of conditions and peoples of the time. Analysed in relation to Brown's writings they are indicative of the relationships and bonds established through photography both in the mission field and across wider scientific and church audiences. The methodology employed here also challenges the kinds of interpretations of photographs that can arise from visual analyses relying solely on the caption and the posing of the subject.

Beyond crucifixion : remaining christian after sexual abuse

Christian survivors have frequently likened their experiences of sexual abuse to crucifixion. While it is understandable that many cannot reconcile their experiences within their faith tradition, the question of how it is possible to move forward within a Christian framework which accommodates the experience of sexual abuse has tended to be overlooked. In doing so, this paper considers why identifying with the crucified Christ may be an important step in the process of moving forward, and why the terminology ‘survivor’ may be preferable to ‘victim’. The challenge to move forward may require churches and church personnel to consider whether they need to do some things differently. Above all, this requires integrity for the individuals and communities involved rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

Muslim - Christian relations and the third crusade : medievalist imaginings

This article takes as its starting-point the responsiveness of children's literature to socio-political events, considering how contemporary anxieties about relationships between Muslim and Christian individuals and cultures inform three historical novels set in the period of the Third Crusade (1189-92): Karleen Bradford's Lionheart's Scribe (1999), K. M. Grant's Blood Red Horse (2004), and Elizabeth Laird's Crusade (2008). In these novels, encounters between young Christian and Muslim protagonists are represented through language and representational modes which owe a good deal to the habits of thought and expression which typify orientalist discourses in Western fiction. In effect, the novels produce two versions of medievalism: a Muslim medieval world which is irretrievably pre-modern, locked into rigid pracices and beliefs against which individuals are powerless; and a Christian medieval world which offers individuals the possibility of progressing to an enhanced state of personal fulfilment. The article argues that the narratives of all three novels incorporate particularly telling moments when Christian protagonists return to England, regretfully leaving Muslim friends. The impossibility of  enduring friendships between Muslims and Christians is based on the novels' assumptions about the incommensurability of cultures and religions; specifically, that there exists
an unbridgeable gulf between Islam and Christianity.