The Dying Art Of Disagreement

2017 Lowy Institute Media Lecture

Christians in Australia are facing serious ethical issues. Contentious topics, such as same-sex marriage, the assisted-dying bill, gender fluidity, and attempts to censor Jesus-talk in the schoolyard, present serious challenges and require us to think more deeply about how we are to live in a strange new world. This volume presents papers from the 2018 Paradosis Conference at Melbourne School of Theology and brings together a number of voices to explore doctrinal foundations and their practical outworkings in the fields of biblical studies, systematic and practical theology, Islamic studies, and medical ethics. Contributors examine questions of contemporary interest as they pertain to both the Christian community itself and to Christian engagement with wider society. Part 1 comprises papers examining ethics in the Old Testament wisdom books, decision-making according to an early church model, the theological history of ethics, and the pastoral implications of Jonathan Edwards’s reflections on beauty. Part 2 investigates the ramifications for Christian social ethics of the paradox of Jesus’s stringent moral commands and his inclusive lifestyle, Islam’s approach to homosexuality, virtue ethics as an alternative narrative within the “assisted-dying” debate, and the role of docility as a virtue in teaching, pastoral theology, and mission.

An incisive examination of how pundits and politicians manufactured the campus free speech crisis--and created a genuine challenge to academic freedom in the process. If we listen to the politicians and pundits, college campuses have become fiercely ideological spaces where students unthinkingly endorse a liberal orthodoxy and forcibly silence anyone who dares to disagree. These commentators lament the demise of free speech and academic freedom. But what is really happening on college campuses? Campus Misinformation shows how misinformation about colleges and universities has proliferated in recent years, with potentially dangerous results. Popular but highly misleading claims about a so-called free speech crisis and a lack of intellectual diversity on college campuses emerged in the mid-2010s and continue to shape public discourse about higher education across party lines. Such disingenuous claims impede constructive deliberation about higher learning while normalizing suspect ideas about First Amendment freedoms and democratic participation. Taking a non-partisan approach, Bradford Vivian argues that reporting on campus culture has grossly exaggerated the importance and representativeness of a small number of isolated events; misleadingly advocated for an artificial parity between liberals and conservatives as true viewpoint diversity; mischaracterized the use of trigger warnings and safe spaces; and purposefully confused critique and protest with censorship and "cancel culture." Organizations and think tanks generate pseudoscientific data to support this discourse, then advocate for free speech in highly specific ways that actually limit speech in general. In the name of free speech and viewpoint diversity, we now see restrictions on the right to protest and laws banning certain books, theories, and subjects from schools. By deconstructing the political and rhetorical development of the free speech crisis, Vivian not only provides a powerful corrective to contemporary views of higher education, but provides a blueprint for readers to identify and challenge misleading language--and to understand the true threats to our freedoms.

Have we reached a point where anxiety is so common we consider it 'normal'? In this exploration of the rising anxiety epidemic, psychotherapist and bestselling author Stella O'Malley delves into why we are feeling more anxious, stressed and overwhelmed than ever. From looking at how our increasingly perfectionist and materialistic society is causing us to value all the wrong things, to practical tips for uncovering the roots of anxiety and strategies to ease it, this book is an essential tool for building resilience to stress. Anyone can experience anxiety at any time. Fragile arms us with the skills to move forward to a place where we can experience challenges to our mental health and feel adequately empowered to address them, allowing us to live calmer, more satisfying lives.

'Presents serious issues in a way which neither patronises or mystifies the lay reader.' Paul Keating on Three Houses A blueprint for the future of our city in a radically changing world. Columnist Elizabeth Farrelly brings her unique perspective as architectural writer and former city councillor to a burning question for our times: how will we live in the future? Can our communities survive pandemic, environmental disaster, overcrowding, government greed and big business? Using her own adopted city of Sydney, she creates a roadmap for urban living and analyses the history of cities themselves to study why and how we live together, now and into the future. Killing Sydney is part-lovesong, part-warning: little by little, our politics are becoming debased and our environment degraded. The tipping point is close. Can the home we love survive? Praise for Killing Sydney 'If you believe that Elizabeth Farrelly is expressing your long held concerns about the state of our governmens, our cities and our environment in her Sydney Morning Herald Saturday articles, then I encourage you to get Killing Sydney and have a month of Saturdays in the one book. That's what I'll do because I most often strongly agree!' Councillor Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney 'This is an important book for all Aussies! Written with passion, beautiful prose, and insightful knowledge. Read and weep. More than ever we need to push pause on development and so called "progress". Go Elizabeth!' Di Morrissey AM 'Great cities need great champions. Sydney needs Elizabeth Farrelly.' Adam Spencer

With the shift towards online education, teaching and learning music has evolved to incorporate online environments. However, many music instructors, faculty, and institutions are being challenged on how to evolve their curriculum to meet these demands and successfully foster students. Pedagogy Development for Teaching Online Music is a critical scholarly resource that examines the nature of teaching and learning music in the online environment at the post-secondary level. Featuring a broad range of topics such as online and face-to-face instruction, instructional design, and learning management system, this book is geared towards educators, professionals, school administrators, academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on designing online music courses using a social constructivist framework.

A team of leading international scholars examine Middle Ages and Renaissance philosophy from the perspective of themes and lines of thought that cut across authors, disciplines and national boundaries, opening up new ways to conceptualise the history of this period within philosophy, politics, religious studies and literature.

This book charts the varieties of political moderation in modern European history from the French Revolution to the present day. It explores the attempts to find a middle way between ideological extremes, from the nineteenth-century Juste Milieu and balance of power, via the Third Ways between capitalism and socialism, to the current calls for moderation beyond populism and religious radicalism. The essays in this volume are inspired by the widely-recognized need for a more nuanced political discourse. The contributors demonstrate how the history of modern politics offers a range of experiences and examples of the search for a middle way that can help us to navigate the tensions of the current political climate. At the same time, the volume offers a diagnosis of the problems and pitfalls of Third Ways, of finding the middle between extremes, and of the weaknesses of the moderate point of view.