Undeceptions
Season 13 – Episode 4
First Hymn
In the 3rd century, in the Ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, a group of Christians composed a song of praise set to the pagan music of the time.
Now, 1800 years later, John Dickson is working with two of the world’s best songwriters to bring this lost song – this First Hymn – back to life.
Along the way, they make some incredible discoveries about early church music, shedding light on what the earliest Christians believed.
This is the first in a three-part podcast series on The First Hymn Project – taking its name from the forthcoming Undeceptions documentary, to be released at Easter, 2025.
Shows
Hope in Crisis
Tim Costello, Executive Director of Micah Australia, speaks to Christian voices around the world who are on the front-line of bringing hope and social change.
An Aussie Doctor on COVID-19 in the developing world – Dr Ian Marr
Ian never wanted to be a doctor. But after seeing the gaps in diagnostic testing available in the developing world, he pursued a career as an Infectious Disease Physician. Ian was working in Timor-Leste when COVID-19 struck, and explains the pandemic’s devastating impact on this small nation.
End COVID For All – Tim Costello
COVID-19 is not over for anyone, until it’s over for everyone. And while Australia has been a leader in ‘flattening the curve’, too many of our global neighbours are far worse off. In fact, they’re in crisis. Tim Costello talks exclusively about why Micah Australia have taken the lead on a nationwide campaign called #EndCOVIDForAll.
Hope on the streets of Lesotho – Josh and Belinda Groves
Eight years ago Belinda went to the African nation of Lesotho to help oversee national elections. After being confronted by hundreds of children living on the streets, she never came back to Australia. Josh and Belinda Groves share their story of leaving comfortable lives, to rehabilitate children living on the streets of Lesotho.
Life in Wartime
The COVID-19 epidemic has brought upon us all the moral challenges associated with living in a state of constant conflict. We have to choose how we’re going to respond to this global threat day by day, and David Robertson and Stephen McAlpine from Third Space are here to help you think through the implications of the messages we’re hearing, and how God would have us live in these challenging times.
Evangelism In Wartime
Since Jesus’ granting of the Great Commission, in season and out, His followers have sought to spread the good news. But what does evangelism look like in a world locked down by anxiety?
The Weapons of Wartime
In the penultimate episode of Life In Wartime, David Robertson and Stephen McAlpine discuss the weapons open to the Christian in trying times such as these.
Love Online
Welcome to Love Online, the podcast that aims to give you a practical Christian approach to the world of online dating. Join host Mel Wade as she ticks off all of the key issues, top questions, and common mistakes associated with pursuing a partner in the online world. Assisted by an international cast of experienced online daters and dedicated Christians, Mel and the Love Online crew get you ready to start looking for that person who will point you to the greatest person of all.
Am I just lonely?
Is there a point to dating – or am I just lonely? And if God wants me to date, what is it he’s looking for in a prospective partner?
Why date online?
So you’ve decided God’s got someone special for you out there. Why go looking for her or him online? What are the advantages to online dating?
Run Like A Woman
Run Like a Woman shines a light on the experiences of ordinary Australian Christian women. From stories of resilience to practical advice, women share about their lives and how their faith has guided, sustained and grown them. Hosted by Penny Mulvey and Bec Abbott, Run Like a Woman is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, which thousands of listeners tune into every week. We hope this podcast will offer you encouragement, community and inspiration. “Hearing raw, honest stories from other Christian women is a truly powerful thing. Even if their experience is different to mine, I have found it relatable and often healing. It resonates with me for a long time afterwards.” – a Run Like a Woman listener
Mother, Daughter and the Black Cloud of Depression
One in five young Australians say they are struggling with their mental health, and suicide is the leading cause of death for those aged 15-24. So how do parents cope when it’s their child who doesn’t want to live? Run Like a Woman’s co-host Penny Mulvey and her daughter Holly open up about their personal journey with anxiety and depression.
Beating Burnout
Researching and writing about spirituality may sound a bit airy-fairy, but as Robyn Wrigley-Carr discovered, it’s actually intensely practical. When Robyn hit burnout, she turned to biblical wisdom and spiritual practices to help her recover.
SALT
Jenny Salt is a Christian academic, a graduate and former lecturer at Sydney Missionary and Bible College (SMBC). Join her on a forty-minute journey into someone’s amazing and often unexpected spiritual travels. Missionaries and media makers, scientists and sportspeople, new agers and new migrants – Salt is a chance to enter into the lives of people and discover heartwarming, sometimes challenging and always extraordinary gospel stories.
Undeceptions
Every week on Undeceptions we’ll explore some aspect of life, faith, history, culture, or ethics that is either much misunderstood or mostly forgotten. With the help of people who know what they’re talking about, we’ll be trying to ‘undeceive ourselves’ and let the truth ‘out’.
First Hymn
<p>In the 3rd century, in the Ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, a group of Christians composed a song of praise set to the pagan music of the time. </p><p>Now, 1800 years later, John Dickson is working with two of the world’s best songwriters to bring this lost song – this First Hymn – back to life. </p><p>Along the way, they make some incredible discoveries about early church music, shedding light on what the earliest Christians believed. </p><p>This is the first in a three-part podcast series on The First Hymn Project – taking its name from the forthcoming Undeceptions documentary, to be released at Easter, 2025. </p>
Bible Genres
<p>With 66 different books composed across literally thousands of years, it’s fair to say the Bible is a complex read. But it doesn’t have to be. The key to understanding the Bible is understanding the different literary genres. </p>
Disenchanted Age
<p>The great project of the Enlightenment was to bring reason to the forefront. </p><p>No more would humans be held back by superstitions: the power of the mind was all that was needed for advancement. </p><p>Three centuries on though, and some people are beginning to think the pendulum has swung too far.</p><p>Celebrated journalist and public intellectual Stan Grant joined John onstage in Sydney for a live recording of <em>Undeceptions </em>to discuss this new disenchanted age.</p><p></p><ul><li>(02:19) – – Introduction: Everything we wished for is here, and that’s a problem </li> <li>(07:55) – – Stan Grant arrives </li> <li>(08:56) – – The Voice to Parliament </li> <li>(14:38) – – Stan on St Augustine </li> <li>(16:43) – – Stan’s early life </li> <li>(19:48) – – Beginning a career in journalism </li> <li>(33:45) – – What makes you ‘Australian’? </li> <li>(37:04) – – Deconstructing the Enlightenment </li> <li>(43:52) – – Truth-telling </li> <li>(45:35) – – Stan’s theological journey </li> <li>(53:58) – – Reflections of suffering </li> <li>(01:00:16) – – 5 Minute Jesus </li> <li>(01:04:17) – – Hasn’t Christianity done terrible damage to Indigenous cultures? </li> </ul>
With all due Respect
Less aggro, more conversation. Is it even possible to have a deep discussion without it descending into chaos? Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit think yes, and want to show the rest of us how to do it. There’s plenty of things they disagree on: free will, feminism, where you should send your kids to school and what type of church you should go to. But there are also plenty of other things that they have in common. They want to talk about all these things with conviction. But they also want the conversation to be constructive. Tune in to find out if that’s possible.
You Asked For It
<p>This episode is brought to you by Anglican Aid. Your gift will strengthen churches and help transform communities. You can <a href="https://anglicanaid.org.au/wadr/">donate to With All Due Respect’s featured causes here</a>.</p><br><p>In our season finale, our hosts answer questions from the audience and give their hot takes on some thorny issues.</p><p></p><ul><li>(01:36) – – Q&A Part 1 </li> <li>(22:47) – – Q&A Part 2 </li> <li>(39:32) – – Through The Wardrobe </li> </ul>
Lausanne
<p>This episode is brought to you by Anglican Aid. Your gift will strengthen churches and help transform communities. You can <a href="https://anglicanaid.org.au/wadr/">donate to With All Due Respect’s featured causes here</a>.</p><br><p>In the aftermath of the 2024 Lausanne Congress – at which Megan was a delegate – our hosts take stock of what went on, review the Seol Statement (and other illiterate faith declarations of past conferences), and mull over the insights of other attendees.</p><p>They also discuss a documentary on the first Lausanne Congress, held way back in 1974.</p><p></p><ul><li>(01:50) – – Through The Wardrobe </li> <li>(15:55) – – What’s Going On? </li> <li>(33:58) – – Be Our Guest</li> </ul>
Masculinity
<p>This episode is brought to you by Anglican Aid. Your gift will strengthen churches and help transform communities. You can <a href="https://anglicanaid.org.au/wadr/">donate to With All Due Respect’s featured causes here</a>.</p><br><p>Is there a masculinity crisis? Or have we fundamentally misunderstood what being a man in the 21st century means?</p><p>Our hosts spend some time discussing their understanding of masculinity, how they’ve seen it shift around them, and what a Christian vision of masculinity <em>really </em>looks like.</p><p><br></p><p>Executive Director of the Centre for Public Christianity Simon Smart joins the show to discuss this tricky topic. </p><p><br></p><p> Finally, Michael and Megan turn their attention to the comedy-drama series <em>Barry</em>. </p> <br><p><strong>Help internally displaced people in Africa!</strong></p><p>Disasters and conflicts have led to a record number of over <strong>75 million</strong> <strong><em>internally displaced people, </em></strong>or <strong>IDPs</strong>,<strong> </strong>around the world. IDPs are people who have been forced to flee their homes but have not crossed international borders. </p><p> </p><p><strong>Almost half of all IDPs </strong>- more than the population of Australia and New Zealand combined – are in sub-Saharan Africa.</p><p> </p><p>Most of the displaced have left everything behind: their homes, belongings, and livelihoods. They urgently need food, shelter, clothing, and trauma counselling. So Anglican Aid has launched a <strong>Forced to Flee Emergency Appeal</strong> to provide essential aid to IDPs in Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, and beyond. This aid will be distributed by local churches, who are sacrificially providing for the needs of the displaced, and pointing them to the God who is <em>our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble</em>. </p><p> </p><p>To find out more about this appeal and make a tax-deductible gift, visit <a href="https://anglicanaid.org.au/wadr/"><strong>anglicanaid.org.au/wadr</strong></a>. </p>
Latest Episodes
First Hymn
<p>In the 3rd century, in the Ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, a group of Christians composed a song of praise set to the pagan music of the time. </p><p>Now, 1800 years later, John Dickson is working with two of the world’s best songwriters to bring this lost song – this First Hymn – back to life. </p><p>Along the way, they make some incredible discoveries about early church music, shedding light on what the earliest Christians believed. </p><p>This is the first in a three-part podcast series on The First Hymn Project – taking its name from the forthcoming Undeceptions documentary, to be released at Easter, 2025. </p>
Bible Genres
<p>With 66 different books composed across literally thousands of years, it’s fair to say the Bible is a complex read. But it doesn’t have to be. The key to understanding the Bible is understanding the different literary genres. </p>
Disenchanted Age
<p>The great project of the Enlightenment was to bring reason to the forefront. </p><p>No more would humans be held back by superstitions: the power of the mind was all that was needed for advancement. </p><p>Three centuries on though, and some people are beginning to think the pendulum has swung too far.</p><p>Celebrated journalist and public intellectual Stan Grant joined John onstage in Sydney for a live recording of <em>Undeceptions </em>to discuss this new disenchanted age.</p><p></p><ul><li>(02:19) – – Introduction: Everything we wished for is here, and that’s a problem </li> <li>(07:55) – – Stan Grant arrives </li> <li>(08:56) – – The Voice to Parliament </li> <li>(14:38) – – Stan on St Augustine </li> <li>(16:43) – – Stan’s early life </li> <li>(19:48) – – Beginning a career in journalism </li> <li>(33:45) – – What makes you ‘Australian’? </li> <li>(37:04) – – Deconstructing the Enlightenment </li> <li>(43:52) – – Truth-telling </li> <li>(45:35) – – Stan’s theological journey </li> <li>(53:58) – – Reflections of suffering </li> <li>(01:00:16) – – 5 Minute Jesus </li> <li>(01:04:17) – – Hasn’t Christianity done terrible damage to Indigenous cultures? </li> </ul>
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
<p>A new movie has been released this week about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who was killed by the Nazis for his involvement in a plot to kill Hitler. </p><p>Bonhoeffer’s fame has ballooned into a kind of mythology that has seen people of all stripes "claim" him as their own. But our guest for this episode says that if we only think of him as a “hero” for our cause, we may miss important pieces of Bonhoeffer’s complex life and thinking. </p><p>So, who was Dietrich Bonhoeffer and why does he still matter?</p><p></p><ul><li>(04:47) – – Bonhoeffer’s Germany </li> <li>(13:13) – – The Nazi Church </li> <li>(22:59) – – Bonhoeffer’s career begins </li> <li>(30:36) – – Bonhoeffer begins to speak out </li> <li>(40:20) – – Bonhoeffer joins a resistence </li> <li>(46:55) – – The plot to kill Hitler </li> <li>(50:51) – – Bonhoeffer’s ethical theory: how he might have justified killing Hitler </li> <li>(58:09) – – Imprisoned by the Nazis </li> <li>(01:00:21) – – Bonhoeffer is executed </li> <li>(01:04:59) – – What we get wrong about Bonhoeffer </li> <li>(01:08:11) – – Jesus: the man for others</li> </ul>
You Asked For It
<p>This episode is brought to you by Anglican Aid. Your gift will strengthen churches and help transform communities. You can <a href="https://anglicanaid.org.au/wadr/">donate to With All Due Respect’s featured causes here</a>.</p><br><p>In our season finale, our hosts answer questions from the audience and give their hot takes on some thorny issues.</p><p></p><ul><li>(01:36) – – Q&A Part 1 </li> <li>(22:47) – – Q&A Part 2 </li> <li>(39:32) – – Through The Wardrobe </li> </ul>
SINGLE: Environmental Jesus
<p>Sam Allberry was involved in environmental activism when he became a Christian – a development that his activist friends saw as bad news. </p><p>After all, why would a follower of a religion that looks forward to the coming of a new Earth be concerned with the state of the current world? </p><p>For Sam though, becoming a Christian led him to a very different conclusion. </p>
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