Watching the party through the window

This is the first post of my new newsletter on Substack. Please check it out here. For a long time, the story I’ve told most often to define who I am — or who I think I am — is the account of a cliff collapse in the southwest of Western Australia, back when I was a newspaper editor …

Elliptical faith: Religion in the dots and thin spaces

On Saturdays, I do a few hours of subediting work on the News Corp Australia metro newspapers, such as the Sunday Telegraph in Sydney and the Herald Sun in Melbourne. This weekend I subbed a couple of stories that contained some bad language; the conventions we follow on the newspapers to deal with such words …

Who wants normal? Not me

I’m starting to grieve the idea of going back to normal. Not that I think ‘normal’—meaning the way things were—is achievable, ever again. We won’t come out of this and return to what we had, ever. But some things will return, for sure. Some I’m happy about. Others I’m not looking forward to at all. …

“He is risen”? I’m not convinced

I just wasn't into the whole "He is risen" thing this Easter.Don't get me wrong, I still believe. At least I think I do. Maybe I don't—not in the way I'm supposed to, anyway. I saw friends posting the typical messages on Facebook on Easter Sunday and I just didn't feel it. I don't blame …

Where is God in all this anyway?

Yes, I’ve heard the question asked repeatedly over recent days and it’s one that I want to have a crack at answering. I’m aware that I can’t do that as anything other than what I am—a fairly simple man who grew up in a very conservative evangelical church in the north of England, but whose …

COVID-19: Should we be fearful of the coming dystopia?

My daughter (the second of four) asked me today whether I was afraid—of the coronavirus and the devastating implications of the current pandemic. My answer was no. I don't feel afraid—but it was only later that I was able to think about why not. Here are some of my reasons. I remember the GFC in …

Truth in a post-apocalyptic world (1/5)

Some (slightly revised) thinking from old lecture notes on epistemology in the post-9/11 world, as we approach the end of another decade. (1/5)

Making time: A poem

Once upon a time I might have written a book about space and these walls and how things look About you in your place and me in mine the clock running down crisscrossed timelines About a life in the spotlight a story, a plot me, the protagonist likely or not About vaulting my hurdles big …

I wanna know what love is: Narcissism and the crisis of our age

For the past few weeks I’ve had this image in my head, of a guy standing on the middle of a bridge, rooted to the spot but looking forward, as if contemplating his next move but being quite unable to make it. The image came out of nowhere, unbidden, but hung around, and I wondered …