Eremos

As Christmas approaches and the news is once again full of reports about people from devastated countries seeking asylum in Australia, we become increasingly conscious of the gifts this country offers and our responsibility to share. For the Government, it raises acute questions, and we ourselves play a part in how we vote and how we act.

Our ethics are informed by our faith, which offers a perspective on how we see ourselves as part of God’s creation. How we respond is dictated by our personal spirituality, which in its turn is honed by practice, in concert with our faith communities, our families, our friends and our land.

As Don Meadows says in the first article, the time has come for EREMOS to address the connection between theology and spirituality, and Scott Cowdell affords Don this opportunity as he reviews Scott’s new book. Drew Hanlon then responds to I Met God in Bermuda by Steven Ogden. Faith in the twenty-first century is the topic, as Drew teases out Ogden’s paradox of the absence and presence of God. In another review, Bernard Stewart tackles questions arising from Tom Frame’s book on Darwin and Australia, including the debate on evolution and Genesis I.

In a shift away from these issues, Sue Emeleus writes about a conference she recently attended, inspiring her to give a brief account of feminist theology. It goes without saying that men and women ‘do theology’ differently, for reasons that have as much to do with history as biology.

Our cover artist, Miriam Cabello was interviewed on ABC Radio National’s Encounter program recently. Miriam acknowledged that her paintings of the Stations of the Cross, displayed on the centre pages of this issue, present Christ’s death and resurrection disguised as moments in sport as a way of getting under the radar of religious scepticism in the art world.

There follows Miriam Pepper’s reflection on cycling and care of the land—linking her theology, her spirituality and her life in an activity which she finds allows her to re-imagine who she is.

In Hedley Beare’s article another carer of the land is celebrated as Thomas Berry’s life is reviewed and appreciated. Lee Andresen then replies to an article in the August EREMOS, bringing this issue back to a discussion of the absence and presence of God. I encourage more readers to write to Eremos after reading the magazine—responses in the form either of letters or articles are much appreciated.

The final three contributions are a poem by Marlene Marburg, Sue Emeleus’ regular column on books and a tribute by Jim Tulip to the life and work of Anne McPherson of the Wellspring community.

So, from theology and spirituality, through the evolution debate, the feminist contribution, care of the land, religious art in mufti to the presence and absence of God, this issue has much to offer to the formation of our ethical responses. Please contact me at magazine@eremos.org.au to let me know your thoughts on it all.

Jacquie Pryor