Progress & Purpose

The old progress narratives are looking ever more like magical thinking, especially to young people. Is there a straight and narrow way that leads onward and upward, if only we could find it? Or are we on a spiral into planetary crisis and global conflict? In this season of renewal and resurgent life, the St James’ Institute addresses the indicators of brokenness and approaching collapse and enquires into the dream of balance, the nature of human failure, and the stories we tell about where we are going, and what we are reaching for.

Facing Climate Change

6:30–8pm, Thursday 22nd October, St James’ King Street and online.

If climate change is an existential threat to the living world, what does the Word who made and still makes the world offer in the Christian Scriptures – diagnosing the root issue, describing righteous responses, encouraging the faithful?

Andrew Errington is rector of Newtown & Erskineville Anglican Church, a biblical ethicist, and member of the Sydney Diocese’s Social Issues Committee.

The Future of Welfare

6:30pm–8pm, Thursday 29th October, St James’ King Street and online.

Christian theology was built into the original concept of the welfare state by William Temple, wartime Archbishop of Canterbury. Today the welfare state is at once in crisis and ripe for radical renewal – how might theology contribute meaningfully to conversations about human struggling and human flourishing?

Science and Religion

12:30–2pm, Friday 30th October, St James’ Crypt

There are many myths to dispel about the relationship between these two great enterprises, sometimes close and sometimes fraught.Both are, in the end, deeply interested in defining and describing the human condition.

Nick Spencer is Senior Fellow at Theos Think Tank, London, host of the podcast Reading our Times, and author of books on welfare, science, and other subjects.

The End of Progress?

7:15pm–9pm, Wednesday 4th November, St James’ King Street and online.

If progress narratives now sound like magical thinking, not least to young people, and damaging magical thought at that, are there other narrative arcs that might help healing the Earth and our souls? As well as poets and artists, this is work for theologians: those who look for the cosmic drama beneath and beyond the stories we tell ourselves.

Greg Boyd is an American theologian and senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church, in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Out of Balance: A St James’ Film Society screening of Koyaanisqatsi (dir. Reggio, 1982)

6–9pm, Friday 6th November, St James’ Crypt

Our languages sometimes lack the vocabulary for what is happening in our world, but other art forms can reveal the violent ends of the violent games in play. This remarkable documentary, with its extraordinary Phillip Glass score, reveals industrial modernity anew, as striking now as when it was released, and still more harrowing. There will be time to reflect together on the film itself and the series as a whole.

This series is hosted by the St James’ Institute, at St James’ King Street, in the heart of the city: a place for intellectual, emotional, and spiritual engagement with matters of vital concern to the church and the city, and prevailing culture. People of all beliefs, backgrounds, identities and orientations are always welcome at St James’. The series is also supported by Gospel Conversations, an independent initiative providing historical, philosophical and practical tools to apply Jesus’ teaching in contemporary life.