Soul Search

Flamy Grant is a drag queen who made a splash in the Contemporary Christian Music industry, charting on Billboard and iTunes' Christian charts. Previously, powerful gatekeepers at Christian record labels and radio stations excluded queer artists from their lineups for decades. Now, digital distribution and social media are revolutionising the music industry and opening doors for LGBTI+ people to contribute their art to an industry that previously excluded them.

Flamy Grant (she/her, aka Matthew Blake, they/them) is a musician and drag queen originating from North Carolina. She is the first drag performer to reach #1 on the Christian iTunes charts, and in 2023 her debut record Bible Belt Baby was nominated for Best Pop Album at the San Diego Music Awards. Prior to adopting the Flamy Grant persona, Matthew Blake worked as a worship leader for 22 years and released folk music under their own name.

Mikali Anagnostis (they/them) is a singer/songwriter who has just released their first EP, Whole with the sacred arts collective, Marion St. They are a member of Leichhardt Uniting Church on Gadigal/Wangal land in Sydney.

Music in this episode

• 'What Did You Drag Me Into?' by Flamy Grant
• 'Good Day' by Flamy Grant
• 'Garden' by Mikali Anagnostis/Marion St
• 'God is Coming' by Mikali Anagnostis/Marion St

You might not know it, but there's a parallel Christian entertainment industry that's existed since the 1950s, and it's changed the music you listen to — and even the politicians you know about. The Contemporary Christian Music industry caters specifically to evangelical moral, cultural and political tastes, but far from being a world unto itself, it has affected the mainstream in ways that aren't always obvious to outside observers.

Dr Leah Payne is Associate Professor of American Religious History at George Fox University and Portland Seminary. She is the author of God Gave Rock and Roll to You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music and cohost of the Weird Religion and Rock That Doesn't Roll podcasts.

Even if you're not Buddhist, you might believe in karma. Taylor Swift's single 'Karma' reflects popular ideas about cosmic justice, and is just the latest Western pop hit to borrow concepts from Eastern religions.

Dr Hannah Gould is a cultural anthropologist studying death, Buddhism, and material culture in Australia and Asia. Along with Professor Anna Halafoff, she is presenting a paper at the 2024 Swiftposium titled Vibing with karma: Buddhist teachings on life and death in Western popular culture.

Dr Jeffrey W Cupchik is an ethnomusicologist specialising in Buddhist studies, ritual music and anthropology of religion. He is the author of "Buddhism and Popular Music", a chapter in The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Popular Music, first edition. His latest book is The Sound of Vultures' Wings: The Tibetan Buddhist Chöd Ritual Practice of the Female Buddha Machik Labdrön

Hundreds of people — including pastors, activists, ministry workers and theologians — have gathered from every corner of this land we now call Australia. They're on Wurundjeri country for a First Nations theology conference, to share their faith and vision for justice. Some are describing this event as a theological revolution.

It's a reckoning of sorts, addressing the role of the churches during the era of colonial missionary activity through to the recent constitutional referendum.

Professor Anne Pattel-Gray is the inaugural Head of the School of Indigenous Studies at the University of Divinity. She is a descendant of the Bidjara and Kari Kari peoples of Queensland and a celebrated Aboriginal leader.

Mikenzie Ling is a Wiradjuri woman who recently completed her Masters of Theology, with her dissertation titled: Is Land My Mother? An Australian Aboriginal Christian Theology of Custodianship and Connection to Country.

Rhanee Lester, Adnyamathanha delegate from South Australia at the First Nations theology conference. 

Sandra King OAM, Quandamooka and Bundjalung woman, and Reconciliation Action Plan Coordinator for the Anglican Church in Southern Queensland.

Also in this episode, Julie Coombs, Joshua Lane, Travis Turner, Kyle Wicker, Ben Van Geldren, Dean Chisholm.

Further conference information: 

Further listening:

• Contemplating country with Garry Deverell - ABC listen
• Theology after Mabo – Dr Anne Pattel-Gray for Reconciliation Week - ABC listen
• Heal Country: NAIDOC week with Brooke Prentis and Aunty Rev Denise Champion - ABC listen
• Sovereignty is a spiritual notion: NAIDOC special - ABC listen
• Reconciliation as a pilgrimage to justice - ABC listen
• Indigenous theologian Garry Deverell on grounded spirituality - ABC listen

How do we live with care and attention on this beautiful, but warming planet? 

We meet leading Zen teacher Susan Murphy. She's re-thinking the wisdom stories of her tradition, after having to flee her home during the 2019 bushfires.

We also hear from Dr Alda Balthrop-Lewis, who recently found herself on the front lines of a climate protest, to the point of blockading coal exports.

Guests:

Dr Alda Balthrop-Lewis is a researcher of religion and environmental ethics at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne.

Roshi Susan Murphy is a leading Australian Zen teacher, and founder of the Zen Open Circle in Sydney. She's been writing about Buddhism and climate change for years, and her latest book is A Fire Runs through All Things: Zen Koans for Facing the Climate Crisis

Further Listening:

The Chinese dragon has long been associated with the Emperor of China, and by extension China itself. The coming Year of the Dragon this Lunar New Year is a reminder of how the dragon is a significant and auspicious symbol for people all over the world — from Bendigo to Shanghai.

Doug Lougoon is President of the Bendigo Chinese Association, which owns the world's longest processional dragon. Doug's grandfather migrated to Bendigo in the 1880s.

Dr Hongyan Chen is Associate Professor at the institute of International and Comparative Education at the East China Normal University in Shanghai. In 2018 she published the paper, The Metaphor of the Dragon in Chinese Culture

Special thanks to the Bendigo Easter Fair Society for permission to use audio from the 2019 Easter Fair, when the new dragon, Dai Gum Loong, was introduced to his predecessors, Loong, Yar Loong and Sun Loong. You can watch the parade on YouTube.

Further listeningRe-enchanting China: The resurgence of popular religion, on Soul Search.

What do Aboriginal spirituality and Christian theology have to say to each other? According to Garry Deverell there's plenty, but the conversation can only really begin when there's mutual respect and listening — something that is still missing 235 years after British colonisation.

Rev Dr Garry Deverell is a Trawloolway man from north-eastern Tasmania and Academic Dean, Lecturer, and Research Fellow in the new School of Indigenous Studies at the University of Divinity, which he helped to found. His latest book is Contemplating Country: More Gondwana Theology.

On SBS’s hit show Alone Australia, contestants had to spend weeks in the wilderness without any human contact. Isolation can be hard — many people fear it — but some embrace solitude as an opportunity to learn what makes us human.

Dr Kate Grarock was a contestant on the reality TV show Alone Australia. She’s also an ecologist, hiker and YouTube creator.

Hon Dr Joseph Randolph Bowers is a psychotherapist, spiritual director and lifelong meditation practitioner based in Armidale, NSW. He is the author of Solitude Awakens: The Heart Forest Mountain Way as well as various books exploring Mi’kmaw First Nations culture and spirituality.

This episode was first broadcast 6 August 2023

Julian of Norwich, the Medieval mystic and anchoress, continues to inspire though her writing even after 650 years. Her powerful prose about her religious revelations, was written in the midst of 14th Century plague-riven Europe.

Julian was the first woman to write in Middle English in the time of Chaucer, and her writings still exist today because of groups of dedicated women who smuggled, hid, translated and nurtured them across the centuries.

Professor Daniel Anlezark is McCaughey Professor of Early English Literature and Language at the University of Sydney. He was reading excerpts from The Shewings of Julian of Norwich - Revelations of Divine Love - (1675 manuscript)

Dr Janina Ramirez is Research Fellow in History of Art at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford. She’s the author of Julia of Norwich, a very brief history, and presenter of the documentary BBC The Search for the Lost Manuscript Julian of Norwich

The Reverend Dr Sally Douglas is lecturer in biblical studies at Pilgrim Theological college in Melbourne, and a minister of the word in the Uniting Church. Her new book is Jesus Sophia: Returning to Woman Wisdom in the Bible, Practice, and Prayer.

This episode was first broadcast Sunday June 25, 2023 

Ningaloo Reef – on the remote west coast of Australia – is the playground of whales, manta rays and black-flanked rock wallabies. The world-heritage site is one of the last wild places left on Earth, and has inspired author Tim Winton for decades, both in his written work and environmental activism.

Tim Winton is one of Australia’s most popular and prolific authors. A four-time Miles Franklin winner, he is the creator of iconic novels like Breath and Cloudstreet.

Ningaloo Nyinggulu is available to watch now on ABC iview.

This episode  was 21 May 2023

Why is rest such a challenge in our culture, in our time? Tricia Hersey has made it her life’s work to advocate for rest — developing a rest practice herself, and guiding others in the same direction.

Tricia’s work isn’t about self-care or individual wellness, and there’s no neat hack for recalibrating your work/life balance. Instead, she advocates for a radical, countercultural form of rest grounded in a theology of Black liberation.

Tricia Hersey is a performance artist, community organiser and founder of The Nap Ministry — an organisation devoted to the liberating power of rest. Her book is Rest is Resistance: Free yourself from grind culture and reclaim your life.

This episode of Soul Search originally aired on 29 January 2023.

Where are you going? Journeys take many forms: Moving away from your parents’ house, being a tourist in a foreign land, or going on a pilgrimage to a site of profound spiritual significance – and all have a transformative effect on our lives.

Dr Giselle Bader has a PhD in religious studies from Sydney University. Her research looked at fourth century pilgrimage to the holy land, including the pilgrimages of women like Egeria and Paula, and how accounts of their journeys have been received over the years.

Sarah Malik is an award-winning journalist and author of Safar, a new collection of Muslim women’s travel stories.

This episode of Soul Search originally aired on 13 November 2022.

As the year draws to a close, people from many traditions reflect on generosity, hope and grace. Where do you find grace in a world with so much grief? But according to Julia Baird, it’s worth looking for, because the gift of grace — given without demand or calculation — changes everything.

Dr Julia Baird is a journalist, broadcaster and author. Her books include Phosphorescence and Victoria: The Woman who Made the Modern World. Her latest book is Bright Shining: How Grace Changes Everything.

Dr Anna Halafoff is Associate Professor in Sociology at Deakin University and president of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion. She is the author of Freedoms faiths and futures: Teenage Australians on religion, sexuality and diversity.

More info

Artists have always been engaged in social and cultural change.  But how possible is art in a time of crisis? What kind of art do crises require and inspire?

is a multidisciplinary artist and vocalist who grew up in Tripoli, Lebanon and now lives in Sydney. She works across photography, video, sound design and live performance, exploring themes of displacement and migration as a chronic injury. She is a founding member and one of the creative producers of Western Sydney-based .

Dr Rod Pattenden is an artist, art historian, and educational facilitator interested in the connection between spirituality and the arts. He is co-editor of Imagination in an Age of Crisis: Soundings from the Arts and Theology

Rev Dr Jason Goroncy is Associate Professor of systematic theology at Whitley College in Victoria. He has served as a pastor in the Baptist and Uniting Churches in Australia and is co-editor of Imagination in an Age of Crisis: Soundings from the Arts and Theology

Injury of Migration  courtesy of  Maissa Alameddine, vocalist and producer

Act III: Love (or what if this is love)  courtesy of Maissa Alameddine,  vocalist/ concept.  Sound producer: Cam Nascon

Correction: Maissa Alameddine is not based in Western Sydney, but does work there.

In a world shaped by colonialism and climate change, Pasifika theologians are on the cutting edge of Christian thought about mission, ecology and indigenous knowledges. It's part of a broader renovation of the whole idea of the church taking place as the centre of global Christianity shifts away from Europe towards the Global South.

Rev Dr Cliff Bird is a scholar of Pacific theology and minister in the United Church of the Solomon Islands. He heads the World Council of Churches’ Council for World Mission in the Pacific and is co-author of Reweaving the Ecological Mat, a major work of Pacific theology leading an effort to resolve the ecological crisis facing Pacific Islanders.

Rev Dr Seforosa (Sef) Carroll is an Australian, Fiji-born Rotuman theologian. She is Lecturer in Cross Cultural Ministry and Theology at United Theological College at Charles Sturt University and was recently Programme Executive for Mission and Mission from the Margins for the World Council of Churches. She is the author of Climate change, faith and theology in the Pacific (Oceania): the role of faith in building resilient communities.

The Bible has been held sacred by Christians for centuries, and in the process has become one of the world’s most beguiling and disputed texts. Why do people still read it, nearly 2000 years after it was compiled?

Rev Dr Robyn Whitaker is Associate Professor of New Testament at Pilgrim Theological College, at the University of Divinity. She specialises in the Book of Revelation and the Synoptic Gospels and is the author of Even the Devil Quotes Scripture, a book about hermeneutics. Robyn is also the co-host of By the Well, a podcast for preachers which unpacks the lectionary readings each week.

Dr Christopher Watkin is Senior Lecturer in French Studies at Monash University. He is the author of Biblical Critical Theory: How The Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture which won Australian Christian Book of the Year in 2023.

Despite their many similarities, the colonial governments in Australia and New Zealand have taken very different approaches to relations with Indigenous peoples. After the referendum, what can Australia learn from Māori people in Aotearoa, and what role can churches play in working towards a post-colonial world?

Rev Dr Rangi Nicholson has spent five decades working in the area of Māori language revitalisation as an educator and sociolinguist, teaching at four universities and working across government, community and church to develop language policy. He’s also a contextual theologian and an ordained Anglican priest, and a member of Anglican General Synod’s Treaty, Church and Nation Commission.

More info:

• Hear more about Maori Christianity on Soul Search: Hirini Kaa – Māori and Christian ideas of the sacred, reciprocity, and spiritual flourishing
• Mentioned in this episode: Dr Christopher Watkin on reading the Bible

Did you know there were Muslims who fought on the side of the Anzacs in World War I, some even in Gallipoli? That ill-fated campaign has become a defining story of contemporary Australia, but we’re still learning new things about who was there and what that means for us. Also, meet the first ever Muslim to serve as a chaplain in the Australian Defence Force.

Dr Dzavid Haveric is an adjunct research fellow at the Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation, Charles Sturt university. He is the author of ANZAC Muslims: An untold story, and the forthcoming book, A history of Muslims in the Australian military from 1885-1945: Loyalty, patriotism and contribution, which unearths the tales of Muslim Australians who’ve served in the defence forces.

Imam Majidih Essa is the first permanent Muslim chaplain to the Australian Defence Forces. He serves with the Royal Australian Navy.

More info:

• Hear more about Muslims from early colonial Australia on Soul Search: The Muslim Cameleers: The lives and legacies of Australia's little-known outback pioneers
• Mentioned in this episode is The Minefield: Do we know what the result of the Voice referendum means?

What would it take for a wiser and more beautiful world to emerge, even in the midst of crisis? Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee says stories are like seeds, and when they are watered with our attention, they can grow into a landscape of awe, wonder, reverence and love.

Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee is the founder and executive editor of Emergence magazine, which connects ecology, culture and spirituality. He is also a filmmaker and Naqshbandi Sufi teacher, and grew up in an ashram overseen by the Russian-British mystic, Irina Tweedie.

More information

• Watch Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee’s film, Earthrise.
• Learn more about the Naqshbandi “silent Sufis” and how their order journeyed from India to Europe and America

What does community look like in this increasingly fractured world? Iona Community Leader Ruth Harvey sounds a note of optimism that, although sometimes dispersed, intentional communities working for justice and peace can create thin places that connect us with each other and the divine.

Rev Ruth Harvey is Leader of the Iona Community, an ecumenical Christian community working for justice and peace in Glasgow, the island of Iona, and across the world. She is ordained in the Church of Scotland and is a member of the Society of Friends, the Quakers.

Ruth was on Arrernte Country in Alice Springs as part of the Caring for Creation Wellspring and Iona Listening Pilgrimage across Australia, coordinated by the Wellspring Community.

More information:

• Hear poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama on Soul Search
• Hear writer and theologian Celia Kemp on living in Central Australia on Soul Search