Full List of Publications
Teaching is a calling. That’s no excuse to underpay teachers
Pearls and Irritations, August 16, 2026
What drives someone to be a ‘Hardcore Harry’?
Pearls and Irritations, August 8, 2026
From Astral Weeks to the “iron cage”: Van Morrison and the disenchantment of the world
Pearls and Irritations, July 18, 2026
The lost art of surrender
Eureka Street, July 17, 2026
No single story: the lives we leave behind
Faith, Hope & Fiction, July 16. 2026
The case for spiritual sociology
Pearls and Irritations, July 12, 2026
Why Frankenstein still matters in the age of AI
Pearls and Irritations, July 4, 2026
How Frankenstein, written 200 years ago, explains AI consciousness
Australian Financial Review, June 27, 2026
Babel or Jerusalem? Pope Leo XIV, the AI revolution and what it means to be human
ABC Religion & Ethics, June 19, 2026
Michael Jackson, funerals and the myth of the authentic self
Pearls and Irritations, June 7, 2026
The grandeur of humanity: Pope Leo on AI
Pearls and Irritations, May 30, 2026
Severance and the fragmentation of modern identity
Pearls and Irritations, May 24, 2026
Looking for a home in a land of empty houses
Pearls and Irritations, May 10, 2026
The gig economy promises freedom. The reality is different
Pearls and Irritations, April 30, 2026
Dostoevsky's underground man and the rise of the manosphere
Eureka Street, April 10, 2026
What Good Friday and the Book of Job reveal about a world in crisis
ABC Religion & Ethics, April 2, 2026
Louis Theroux and Dostoevsky both uncovered 'underground man'
Australian Financial Review, March 21, 2026
Summer Down Under: Sharks, Exposure, and Ritual
Faith, Hope & Fiction, March 14, 2026
In an age of safety, why do we seek danger?
Eureka Street, March 6, 2026
Our politics has a Javert problem
Eureka Street, February 13, 2026
From Les Misérables to Trump - what happens when moral certainty hardens
Pearls and Irritations, February 8, 2026
Dangerously alive: summer, sharks and a ritual encounter with danger
Pearls and Irritations, January 18, 2026
New Year’s Day and the promise that does not last
Pearls and Irritations, December 22, 2025
Trembling before the religion of AI
Pearls and Irritations, December 14, 2025
Frankie Goes to Bethlehem: myth, music and the power of love
Pearls and Irritations, December 13, 2025
Midnight Mass is where Christmas begins
The Southern Cross, December 12, 2025
A Dogeared Christmas Transformation
Faith, Hope & Fiction, December 11, 2025
When enchantment grows old: Van Morrison, Roger Waters, and the ‘fate of our times
Eureka Street, December 5, 2025
Led Zeppelin, my band that never ‘made it’, and the lost art of failure
Pearls and Irritations, November 30, 2025
Net Zero and the metaphysics of anxiety in Australia
Pearls and Irritations, November 24, 2025
When Universities lose their transformative spirit
Eureka Street, November 5, 2025
The gospel according to Cold Chisel
Eureka Street, September 1, 2025
The genius of Beach Boy Brian Wilson: spiritual masterpieces built upon pop song formula
The Australian, June 14, 2025
How ‘Dark Spirituality’ can light the way for troubled youth
The Australian, April 26, 2025
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”: Alexei Navalny's Christian witness is a spiritual beacon for the West
ABC Religion & Ethics, February 20, 2025
Can the “dark spirituality” of Wim Wender's Perfect Days provide an antidote to what ails Western culture?
ABC Religion & Ethics, December 31, 2024
“A challenge to our imagination”: could upcoming Jesus films signal a new cultural openness to Christian spirituality?
ABC Religion & Ethics, March 25, 2024
Can spirituality help assuage the youth mental health crisis?
Eureka Street, September 29, 2023
“Sometimes a little bit of faith can go a long, long way”: The dark religious vision of Nick Cave
ABC Religion & Ethics, April 21, 2023
Academic publications
The God Debates: New Atheist Identity-Making and the Religious Self in the New Millennium
Book published by Palgrave Macmillan, 2022
The “Spirit” of New Atheism and Religious Activism in the Post-9/11 God Debate
Journal article published by “Human Studies: A Journal for Philosophy and Social Sciences” on April 8, 2024
Socrates or Jesus: Forms of Humanism in the God Debate
Journal article: Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture 27(1):41-76, 2023
Send in the clowns: Joker, vigilante films, and populist revolt
Book chapter published by Routledge, 2021
Conference papers
XX ISA World Congress of Sociology, Melbourne, Australia, 25 June – 1 July 2023
“Uncovering Teleological Narratives in Contemporary Understandings of Science and Religion” (145048). Research Committee session "Religion and Science."
“Post-9/11 Religious Apologists and New Atheist Agitators” (145080). Research Committee session "Social Movements, Religions and the Public Sphere."
New Zealand Association for the Study of Religion Conference, Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington, 5–6 December 2022
“The New Millennium God Debate” (LBLT118).
Substack
I regularly publish new essays and podcasts on Substack.
Selected Substack Essays
Beyond optimisation: a ride into another dimension
Substack, April 21, 2026
Before theory, there was God - part 1
Substack, February 24, 2026
Reflections on my Easter oration for Melbourne Grammar at St Paul's Cathedral
Substack, August 7, 2025
A seasonal Spiritual Sociology manifesto
Substack, December 23, 2025
Eight-week Spiritual Sociology series
Substack, November 2-December 25, 2025