1 August, 2022
Dear Reader,
All the COLLOQUIUM talks have now been uploaded to our YouTube channel:
Best wishes to all,
David Daintree
THE REAL VALUE OF THE HUMANITIES
In this beautiful defence of liberal education, Steven Schwartz focuses on the enduring power of Sophocles’ play Antigone. This is an excerpt from a talk he gave recently to the Ramsay Centre in Sydney.
W.H.O. AMENDS GENDER, ABORTION POLICIES
This article by Rebecca Oas reports a significant shift in WHO thinking in favour of ‘mainstream ideology’. We’re not familiar with the writer, but her links check out: WHO’s revised manual backs a non-binary approach, and new guidelines on abortion are said to ‘deliver lifesaving care’.
LETTER TO THE AUSTRALIAN
Neville Clark, who gave an excellent talk to the Centre on the ANZACs a couple of years ago, wrote this:
Greg Sheridan (‘Lost in the secular desert’, The Weekend Australian, 23-24 July, 2022) conveys more hope than despair, more compassion than hostility and yet more realism than today’s many enemies of the Christian faith, whose disproportionate animus against Christianity rather than, say, Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic or Aboriginal spirituality, perhaps betrays as much fear as loathing.
But Christians will cope because above all their faith is rooted in a life beyond this earthly life, which has made them historically all the more concerned to improve life on earth by abolishing slavery, treating women and children as of equal value in God’s sight, condemning violence and establishing hospitals and schools.
If contemporary wokedom could acknowledge the Christian sources of its own values of compassion, social justice, environmentalism, inclusion, diversity, anti-racism and anti-sexism, it might not only be humbler in its opposition but might have a longer history heading into the future.
FOOTBALL COACH HERO
The New Oxford Review posts this inspiring short piece on a pro-life leader with the courage of his convictions. A great role model!
SCOMO THE PREACHER
On 18 July former Australian PM Scott Morrison preached a sermon to a Pentecostal congregation in Perth. Here is a report from the online journal The Wee Flea which includes a link to the event. The media reaction has been mostly hostile but surprising in its range.
THE ANNUAL CHESTERTON CONFERENCE
This will also take place at Campion College, on 22 October. Always recommended as a happy and stimulating meeting of minds! Details here.
COMING EVENTS
SUMMER SCHOOLS JANUARY 2023
The Dawson Centre will once again offer three summer schools. A FULL DESCRIPTION OF EACH COURSE IS AVAILABLE HERE.
16 – 20 January
THE WESTERN TRADITION: AN OVERVIEW OF 2000 YEARS OF HISTORY, LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, THEOLOGY AND ART. BOOK HERE.
23 – 27 January
NEW TESTAMENT GREEK: AN INTENSIVE INTRODUCTORY COURSE FOR BEGINNERS.
9 – 13 January
MEDIEVAL AND LATER LATIN: A READING COURSE IN SACRED AND SECULAR POETRY AND PROSE FOR PEOPLE WITH SOME PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE LANGUAGE. BOOK HERE.
Each school extends from Monday to Friday inclusive. Bookings can be made directly by email, or shortly on Eventbrite.