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Recent Submissions
- PublicationSalvation as Liberation: (Re)Imagining Hope in a Time of Crisis(2025-06) Douglas, SallyIt is not uncommon for people in the Uniting Church to avoid discussion of salvation and to recoil from evangelisation. In part, this occurs because ideas of salvation that focus on sin and atonement are considered questionable, or potentially harmful, by many. This is problematic. The problem is not that people are uncomfortable with a soteriology that focuses on sin and sacrifice. Rather the issue is that people have not been made aware of the diversity of New Testament and early church understandings of salvation. In this paper the soteriological understanding of Jesus’ liberation from cosmic evil will be discussed and investigated for potential resources for responding seriously to the myriad threats to flourishing that face humanity and the earth.
- PublicationThe Complex History of Baptist Engagement with Indigenous Peoples in Australia(2025-05-17) Mitchell, AndyThis article explores the complexity of Baptist engagement with Indigenous peoples in Australia and the need to be retelling history that embraces this complexity, with the goal of right-relationship between local Baptist churches and local Indigenous communities in mind.
- PublicationElsie Jessie Reid(Williamstown Literary Festival, 2025-06-21) Reid, Duncan; Elisabeth GrovePersonal recollection of the author's great aunt
- PublicationRizpah: Grieving the Ungrievable (2 Sam 21:1–14)(2025-07-17) Deutschmann, BarbaraThe brief story of Rizpah in 2 Samuel 21 has attracted little scholarly interest but carries important commentary on the exercise of David’s reign. Enlisting a conceptual framework from Judith Butler’s Precarious Life, I argue that Rizpah enacts the grieving of lives hitherto designated ungrievable and draws them to public attention. This paper compares the execution and exposure of the seven to other accounts of the handling of the dead, both enemy and ally, most notably kings’ sons, in the book of Samuel. Rizpah’s mourning tableau stops the derealization of loss, forces the return of their intact remains, gathering them into their relational place, and re-inscribing them as members of the people of Israel. The conclusion draws comparisons with traditions from Deuteronomy, supporting the conclusion of Walter Brueggemann that the Rizpah story, seen as part of an editorial appendix, provides a subversive critique of Judahite kingship.
- PublicationA History of Kissing in Ancient Israel: Evidence from the Hebrew Bible(2025) Gilmour, RachelleIn this article I investigate when sexual mouth-to-mouth kissing was introduced and rose in prevalence in ancient Israel. Anthropological research shows that the practice of kissing is not universal across cultures, and it is thought to be trans- mitted to social groups through cultural contact. The presence of kissing in a culture often correlates with social stratification and political centralization. In conversation with these broader findings, and with a focus on textual evidence, I will examine sexual kissing in ancient Israel to evaluate whether there is dia- chronic change in the absence and presence of sexual kissing in biblical texts. In light of the limited evidence, and difficulties in textual dating, I will consider a range of factors, including texts where sexual kissing is expected but not present, and linguistic phenomena related to the formulations of non-sexual kissing. I will conclude that mouth-to-mouth sexual kissing is evidenced in the postexilic period, with a further argument that the practice was introduced to ancient Israel or rose in prevalence around the sixth century BCE.