Books by Leonie Westenberg
This book is ideal for teachers looking to optimise STEM in the classroom. In recent times there ... more This book is ideal for teachers looking to optimise STEM in the classroom. In recent times there has been a strong call to increase the focus on STEM activities in Australian schools. By offering STEM in primary schools, it is hoped that students will operate more effectively in the science and technology based society in which they live. This book is one of a two-set series which connects students with Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.
This book is ideal for teachers looking to optimise STEM in the classroom. In recent times there ... more This book is ideal for teachers looking to optimise STEM in the classroom. In recent times there has been a strong call to increase the focus on STEM activities in Australian schools. By offering STEM in primary schools, it is hoped that students will operate more effectively in the science and technology based society in which they live. This book is one of a two-set series which uses roller-coaste
Marian Devotion in Literature- An Overview
Introduction
The writer Franz Kafka once noted that go... more Marian Devotion in Literature- An Overview
Introduction
The writer Franz Kafka once noted that good literature is 'an axe to grind the frozen sea inside us'. We enter the world of the narrative, we escape the quotidian demands of life, we explore the existential questions of humanity while engaged in good literature. Indeed, this description of literature as a story that prises open imagination in the connectedness of meaning defines the term 'good literature' itself, so that an understanding of what it is that constitutes good literature implies an understanding of truth. We come to know what is one, true and good through literature.
Modern literature provides glimpses of such truth. Certainly, Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' shapes the reader's apprehension of racism in attitude and in societal concerns, while simultaneously representing the truth of love and virtue. On the other hand, Marcus Zusak's 'The Book Thief' writes of redemption through love and, indeed, through the power of story. Redemption and hope are offered, too, in the pages of 'The Secret Life of Bees' with its emphasis on the power of motherly love and the hope offered through such love in connection with the spiritual, that is to say, the soul or essence of that which it means to be human.
The stress on the power of maternal love answers the need within each person to 'find himself' for, as Gaudium et Spes notes, humanity 'cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of self' and it is often through maternal love that such a gift of self is first understood. Humanity seeks such maternal love; once this love is received individuals grow to understand their vocation as being created in the image of God; they come to give themselves in this vocation of love. Such a process begins, however, through the experience of maternal love, that which St. John Paul II named the 'maternal reign of Mary' so that she awakens 'profound trust in those who seek her guidance' on their way to 'transcendent destiny'. Ultimately, the path through Our Lady to the Heavenly Father is one that comes through motherly love and is experienced in a myriad of ways – undeniably through the love of a mother, but also through the care of the Church, through the self-gift of another, and through the threads of maternal self-gift in the pages of literature.
For many, the cords that pull them towards Our Lady's maternal love are words, the words of novels that highlight the strength, love and piety of a mother who echoes these qualities of Our Lady. It was a novel ('An Episode of Sparrows') that drew me, first, into understanding the Catholic faith and the intercessionary love of Our Lady, as a young teen growing up in a home without religious belief or practice. It is, indeed, novels that can draw others to a comprehension of Mary, inciting their hearts and minds to search further for the solace that Mary provides through her Son. A few popular novels that do just this will be examined below, to highlight the role of literature in shaping an understanding of Mary that leads to St. Louis de Montfort’s idea of ‘true devotion’ to Mary.
Teaching Critical Reading is linked to the v8.1 Australian curriculum and is based around 5 diffe... more Teaching Critical Reading is linked to the v8.1 Australian curriculum and is based around 5 different text types: biographies, narratives, Greek myths, news reports and opinion pieces.
Students will learn to differentiate between these text types and use different language devices to achieve different purposes and target specific audiences.
To be able to read and think critically is essential for students in our contemporary society. Teaching Critical Reading will facilitate students’s growth of critical reading and thinking skills and prepare them to reason, imagine, debate, analyse, summarise and discuss.
Teaching With Movies is a unique resource for any classroom teacher who wants to explore relevant... more Teaching With Movies is a unique resource for any classroom teacher who wants to explore relevant themes through movies, using a multiple intelligences approach. The activities provide an insight and context to each movie and are designed to integrate skills across all areas of the curriculum. Many of the activities lend themselves to group work. The two movies explored in this book were chosen for their relevance and popularity among students. Each unit contains pre- and post-viewing tasks, extension ideas, research activities and opportunities to develop creative processes. Many of the activities, particularly those in the general section, can be used as homework activities or for independent study.
Using the movies: Star Wars and The Incredibles
Measurement in Mathematics Book 4 contains a range of activities which will enhance students’ und... more Measurement in Mathematics Book 4 contains a range of activities which will enhance students’ understanding of concepts in the measurement strand of mathematics. Specific tasks involve measuring with arbitrary units and rulers, examining area by manipulating 2D shapes and using geoboards, using clocks and calendars to measure time, measuring perimeters and areas, investigating mass and balancing and investigating volume.
Conference Presentations by Leonie Westenberg
‘The many good things?’ - Christian churches’ response to domestic violence in Australia.
ABS... more ‘The many good things?’ - Christian churches’ response to domestic violence in Australia.
ABSTRACT: The fact that domestic violence is an issue in Christian families, for the families, victims and the general church community, has been made increasingly obvious. Indeed, VicHealth has identified that one of the contributing factors towards violence against women is their environment with faith-based institutions such as churches as one such environment for many women. For example, a recent series of articles on the ABC not only highlighted the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Christian families in Australia but also demonstrated the topical nature of the issue (Baird & Gleeson, 2017). Indeed, the journalists’ criticism of the response of Christian churches to IPV created somewhat of a backlash with church leaders, for example, decrying what was termed a “misuse” of statistics that failed to “report on the good things the church is doing” (Baird & Gleeson, 2017).
Discussion of domestic violence against women in Christian families highlights issues of prevalence and endurance. Prevalence denotes the statistical frequency of abuse in Christian families. Recent research supports the findings of a 2006 study by the UK Anglican Bishops Council that the incidence of domestic abuse within church congregations is similar to the rate within the general population. Endurance, on the other hand, denotes much of the response of Christian women to abusive marriages. The women more often endure the abuse, in part due to a description of Christian marriage in terms of submission to a husband’s headship. Endurance furthermore describes an added vulnerability that Christian women express, when speaking of both abuse and marriage in spiritual overtones. Religious language and church power structures can perpetuate and encourage toleration of domestic violence.
As a means of addressing the issue of domestic violence in Christian families, churches within Australia have initiated programmes that foster awareness of domestic violence. This paper reviews the response of Christian churches to domestic violence and highlights the role that religion can play. This paper also offers suggestions on how Christian churches can change religious language and accountability to work towards primary prevention of domestic violence.
INTRODUCTION
It is true that Christian churches in Australia do many ‘good things’ to combat IPV and to help those who have suffered such violence (Baird & Gleeson, 2017). Such good things include programmes that aim to address factors in relationships that can be contributory elements to intimate partner abuse. However, many of these programmes become secondary and tertiary responses to IPV, wherein those identified as being at risk for IPV are provided with tools to prevent the violence occurring or progressing, with long-term responses promoted to help those who have already suffered IPV. While secondary and tertiary responses are advocated as part of three tiered responses to IPV, such programmes should not stand alone. In fact, targeted primary responses are required to encompass strategies that prevent violence from occurring; such primary programmes, according to the National Framework of Rights and Sources for Victims of Crime (Adams, 2015) “focus on changing attitudes, beliefs and behaviours”. That primary preventative programmes are important within the Christian church community is underscored by Zoe Morrison’s (2005) study of Anglican church communities in Adelaide, aimed at determining the attitudes of clergy and church workers to abuse. The research concluded that there exists a culture of hostility towards women, which was “deeply ingrained and ranged from bullying to sexual abuse” (Morrison, 2005).
This paper briefly explores the ‘elephant in the room’, so to speak, by describing some of the causal factors within Christian churches that contribute to abuse. It then examines three programmes from mainstream Christian churches that exemplify the Australian churches’ responses (‘the many good things’) to intimate partner violence against women, with programme focus on secondary and tertiary prevention of this violence. Finally, the paper makes some suggestions as to how causal factors in churches may be addressed in primary preventative programmes that address attitudes and beliefs. to avoid the ‘mixed messages’ often provided for Christian women who seek to leave marriages because of abuse.
ABSTRACT
Carol Winkelmann, in her book ‘The Language of Battered Women’ describes not only the fa... more ABSTRACT
Carol Winkelmann, in her book ‘The Language of Battered Women’ describes not only the fact that domestic abuse is almost a daily occurrence in the lives of many women but that the language of religion and faith is often used by women in attempts to explain, understand and cope with such abuse. While religious belief and domestic violence may seem contradictory in terms of religious values of faith, virtue and love, research demonstrates that domestic violence in religious families and amidst religious congregations is prevalent. In fact, religious beliefs and practices are often embedded in cultural contexts and thus perpetuate patriarchal notions of dominance, power and submission. Abused Christian women, for example, are more likely to seek help from (male) ministers and others in positions of authority in their local church communities and are equally more likely to remain in or return to unsafe relationships, citing their religious beliefs to support their avoidance of ‘family break-ups’ because of abuse.
What, then, is the response of ministers and church authorities to domestic abuse in their congregations? Despite recent calls for the training of pastors and other religious leaders in an understanding of domestic violence and in the recognition of appropriate, helpful responses, the language of some Christian churches can be seen to foster notions of submission so that women and pastors alike can appear confused concerning the experience of abuse. Religious congregations, while acting in love to help the poor and needy, for example, often fail to recognise domestic abuse amongst their own members and, indeed, such a topic can remain taboo in some church communities. Women, in turning to their pastors or other Christian leaders for help, can be silenced by the language of the religion itself, so that the role of wives and mothers may be seen to be submissive and the ‘keeper of the home’; to leave an abusive relationship may thus ‘break-up’ a home and imply failure of the woman to understand her role and fulfil her ‘maternal vocation’.
On the other hand, religious beliefs offer victims of domestic violence both hope and comfort. Religious practices, such as prayer, liturgies and corporal (physical) works of mercy, can provide solace and practical assistance for women who suffer abuse. Domestic violence in religious congregations can be addressed within the context of the faith itself, with an emphasis on love and respect, helping women to understand their dignity with avenues of help so that the women can remove themselves and their children from abusive relationships, and the religious congregation and its leaders can call the partners to accountability.
This paper seeks to outline a picture of domestic violence in religious congregations, specifically Christian church communities, by drawing on current research in the Western world. It then describes the language of some religious congregations that perpetuates domestic violence, with emphasis on contemporary studies in religious belief and domestic abuse. Finally, the paper makes some suggestions on how religious language can, in contrast to perpetuating abuse through norms, serve to assist women as victims of domestic violence, and how the connections between domestic violence and religious language or belief can be severed.
Thinking the Church Today: What are the implications of the Second Vatican Council fifty years on... more Thinking the Church Today: What are the implications of the Second Vatican Council fifty years on? This paper looks particularly at the figure of Mary, as discussed in the Council document Lumen Gentium, with implications for women in the Church today.
In a Western society that is becoming progressively apathetic about the Church, many within the institutionalised church are concerned with issues of relevance. Indeed, the call from Pope Benedict XVI (the Year of Faith) and Pope Francis (Evangelii Gaudium) has been to examine the fruits of the Second Vatican Council, with a view to evangelisation, emphasising the role of the Church in modern society. On the one hand, there has been discussion on the positive effect of the Council on the Church, in increasing lay involvement, for example. On the other hand, others within the Church have focused on missionary activity towards those who feel excluded by the Church, citing Vatican II as an ongoing opportunity for renewal. Both approaches, however, fail to recognise the specific needs of women in society, and in the church today. The goal of this paper is to re-visit the Council document Lumen Gentium in its discussion on the figure of Mary, with implications for women today. The roles of Mary highlighted in Lumen Gentium include those of Madonna, her part in the salvific work of Christ, and her commission in offering hope and solace to humanity. The analysis of these roles for women today gives meaning for women’s ministries in the Church - vocation, spiritual motherhood and the ‘feminine genius’ with receptivity and empathy for others including the disenfranchised and excluded. Is the Church utilising women’s gifts, women’s faith, women’s ‘care thinking’, to quote feminist Carol Gilligan, in the practical outpourings of its faith and charity ? Mary is an image of our hope in Christ, with her work on earth in caring for the Christ Child, in being faithful, in taking on the motherhood of the apostle John at the foot of the cross and thus offering motherhood for all of humanity, especially women in difficult situations and women who feel excluded by the Church. The result of such discussion, this paper suggests, is that we move from paying lip service to the role of women to honouring Mary, as suggested in Lumen Gentium, and supporting this veneration with discussion and recognition of women’s gifts and women’s needs in the Church and in the wider community. The discussion could be extended to a theology of women, a personalist approach for a true picture of womanhood, how the Church may serve her, and how she may serve the Church.
Articles by Leonie Westenberg
Journal article from the Conference on the Global Status of Women and Girls, in the Special Issue... more Journal article from the Conference on the Global Status of Women and Girls, in the Special Issue "Selected Papers from the Conference on Global Status of Women and Girls: Understanding, Defining, and Preventing Violence".
Spiritual intelligence describes self-awareness and intuition, with the development of creative t... more Spiritual intelligence describes self-awareness and intuition, with the development of creative thinking, compassion and connectedness with others. Many researchers point to an awakening and development of spiritual intelligence that is enhanced through exploration of existential questions within the genre of young adult fiction. Such literature absorbs the adolescent reader so that they become transported into the narrative, exploring a sense of self and of others This article discusses the ways in which young adult fiction, including comparison of a novel of older context (An Episode of Sparrows) with contemporary dystopian fiction (The Maze Runner), can foster young adults’ exploration of self-awareness and cultivate the continued development of notions of connectedness, justice and responsibility. It describes current research on the relationship between spiritual intelligence in young adults and the narrative transportation effect of young adult fiction.
As Western society has seemingly become apathetic about faith and religion[1], many within the Ca... more As Western society has seemingly become apathetic about faith and religion[1], many within the Catholic Church have simultaneously become concerned with issues of relevance. The call from Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis has been to examine the fruits of the Second Vatican Council, with a view to evangelisation, emphasising the role of the Church in modern society. Responses to this call on a pastoral level, however, often fail to recognise the specific needs of women in society and in the Church today. The goal of this article is to examine practical movements in the contemporary Church that are instigated by women, addressing the distinct needs of women in our communities in terms of vocation, spiritual motherhood and the ‘feminine genius’ (Edith Stein), with receptivity and empathy for others, including the disenfranchised and excluded. Is the Church on a local level utilising women’s ‘care thinking’[2] in the practical outpourings of its faith and charity? In answer to this question, this article discusses the emergence of grassroots movements that exemplify the incarnation of the feminine genius in the contemporary Catholic Church.
[1] Roy Williams, Post God Nation? How religion fell off the radar in Australia – and what might be done to get it back on, (Sydney, Australia: ABC Books, 2015) 28.
[2] Carol Gilligan, In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.1983).
Discussions over coffee with my younger colleagues often centre on work and family life. Yes, thi... more Discussions over coffee with my younger colleagues often centre on work and family life. Yes, this is still a question as well for many women in Australia in graduate school and post-graduate school...
'Yet the workers’ rights cannot be doomed to be the mere result of economic systems aimed at the ... more 'Yet the workers’ rights cannot be doomed to be the mere result of economic systems aimed at the maximisation of profits'. Pope John Paul II, On Human Work, 1981.
The Hunger Games movie franchise has ended. What can we learn from Katniss Everdeen about living ... more The Hunger Games movie franchise has ended. What can we learn from Katniss Everdeen about living a just life?
Papers by Leonie Westenberg
New Theology Review, 2016
As Western society has seemingly become apathetic about faith and religion [1] , many within the ... more As Western society has seemingly become apathetic about faith and religion [1] , many within the Catholic Church have simultaneously become concerned with issues of relevance. The call from Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis has been to examine the fruits of the Second Vatican Council, with a view to evangelisation, emphasising the role of the Church in modern society. Responses to this call on a pastoral level, however, often fail to recognise the specific needs of women in society and in the Church today. The goal of this article is to examine practical movements in the contemporary Church that are instigated by women, addressing the distinct needs of women in our communities in terms of vocation, spiritual motherhood and the ‘feminine genius’ (Edith Stein), with receptivity and empathy for others, including the disenfranchised and excluded. Is the Church on a local level utilising women’s ‘care thinking’ [2] in the practical outpourings of its faith and charity? In answer to this...
International Journal of Children's Spirituality, 2017
‘A very personal hybrid of radical politics and Catholic social justice teaching’. This describes... more ‘A very personal hybrid of radical politics and Catholic social justice teaching’. This describes the life and work of Dorothy Day (dec. 1980), social activist and Catholic, yet a woman activist who publicly discussed her on-going love-hate relationship with the church. She gave her life to social justice and peace; in return she has been both glamourized in motherhood as a possible Catholic saint and castigated by others who see her communitarian fight against hierarchy, for solidarity amongst individuals, as an attack on American society, and the institutionalised church. Indeed, Day herself, as co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, was critical of the church as an organisation, writing ‘I felt that the Church was the Church of the poor,... but at the same time, I felt that it did not set its face against a social order which made so much charity in the present sense of the word necessary. I felt that charity was a word to choke over. Who wanted charity?‘ Day worked for the poor and marginalised, lived in voluntary poverty herself, and marched for non-violence, while critiquing the role of government and religion in the shaping of a society that reinforced inequality.
Dorothy Day, as a woman activist in the Christian church in the United States, faced the hypocrisy that many women activists still face today. On one hand, society holds women activists like Day as idols for worship, with a tendency to highlight that which is considered traditionally feminine in empathy, nurturing, care for others and even motherhood. In this way women activists, Dorothy Day and others today, are made into incongruous icons of women’s voices, as though the voices of all women can be deconstructed to one homogenous view. On the other hand, women activists and undeniably Day herself, are criticised for ‘flaunting’ their ‘unfeminine’ singleness, strength, and unrelenting exposition of problems in the hierarchical structure of the social order of society and the church.
This paper explores the life of Dorothy Day as a woman and social activist in the contemporary church, and as a representative of the contradictory ways in which women activists are viewed in the Christian church, as either saintly icons or noisy harridans, in caricature of their individuality and humanity.
Literary apologetics describes a way of knowing God with a search for Truth and Beauty through li... more Literary apologetics describes a way of knowing God with a search for Truth and Beauty through literature. It highlights the role of virtue in literary style and form amid a description of theology as wonder. The novel 'A Episode of Sparrows' by Rumer
Thesis Chapters by Leonie Westenberg
Literary apologetics is considered a branch of imaginative apologetics. The concept of imaginativ... more Literary apologetics is considered a branch of imaginative apologetics. The concept of imaginative apologetics builds on the premise of theology as wonder. Wonder implies the use of imagination in coming to know truth. It is here that the appeal of imaginative apologetics lies, for in its ability to consider Christian truth and beauty through the expressions of art and narrative in contemporary society, it encourages modern culture to engage with proofs for the Christian faith. A narrative that engages the reader with the power of story, weaving a tale that awakens imagination and invokes reason, can also be a narrative that highlights theological understanding. Such a narrative is not written to instruct; rather, attention to form and style by the composer encourages audience participation. Literary apologetics, then, seeks to use both imagination and reason to understand good literature as imaging the Creator, and to comprehend theology as being lived and understood in the lives of humanity. While there is some discussion on what constitutes 'good’ literature, literary apologists often rely on C. S. Lewis' discussion of the necessary inclusion of both Author and Man or Citizen in the production of the narrative . Through such creative works, literary apologetics as a method of highlighting theological truths fuses imagination with reason, awe, and wonder, in ratiocination.
The blend of these seemingly dichotomous attributes represents literary apologetics in practice. One example of such practice is provided in the works of G. K. Chesterton, of whom it is said that Chesterton, as author, made clear the links between the romance and the reality of the Christian creed in both his prose and non-fiction works . Such connections add to the description of literary apologetics in representing the wonder that hints at questions concerning existence and purpose while pointing towards truth and to God. Truth, then, can often be understood more fully through use of imagination as an aid to intellect. However, it should be noted here that literary apologetics, while involving both reason and imagination, does not describe literary analysis or critique. It is, instead, a response to literature that challenges a materialistic worldview and, as such, has relevance to contemporary society, and the search for something beyond the material or that which is utilitarian. The search is often identified as a search for something ‘more’; a ‘more’ that transcends the material and speaks to the soul, a ‘more’ that hints at the supernatural and, that ultimately, points towards God.
That literary apologetics describes apologetics for Christianity is understood by professor and author Louis Markos. He defines apologetics as balancing reason and imagination while defending justice, virtue and order. For Markos, apologetics is a defence of Christianity that also addresses humanity’s desire for justice and virtuous behaviour in creating an ordered society, thus answering the search for truth in both material and immaterial senses so that the kingdom of God is experienced on earth. The qualities of justice, virtue and order are, Markos writes, embedded within each person as Imago Dei and he believes that this leads humanity to search for Truth, represented by the Incarnation. ‘In Christ', he writes, 'the righteous Jew and the good pagan were reconciled’, noting that apologetics for truth (and, indeed, beauty) embodies apologetics for Christianity . Philosopher Paul Ricoeur, while writing that the image of God represents a ‘wealth of meaning’ agrees with Markos that part of the understanding of humanity as Imago Dei rests in the essence of what it means to be human, the ‘essence’ or ‘interiority’ wherein humanity both thinks and chooses . Literary apologetics appeals to this essence by representing Christian truth with use of imagination and reason in narratives that entice humanity’s interiority.
This paper seeks, therefore, to draw out a definition of literary apologetics, signifying its contribution to the 'New Evangelisation'. Such an evangelisation is described by Pope Benedict XVI in discussion of the positivity of ‘the essence of Christianity’. He notes that positivity must be displayed in order to give insight to truth for contemporary society . The exploration of literary apologetics aims to ‘fill the gap’ left by reliance on reason alone in knowing truth in the field of apologetics, for it speaks to the imagination of humanity and our search for beauty. In order to represent the significance of literary apologetics, the approach itself will be used to understand the work of ‘The Hunger Games’ (Book One) by Suzanne Collins as a narrative that engages readers with attention to literary style while simultaneously providing substance for the search for a theological understanding of hope, justice, love and, thus, for Christian truth.
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Books by Leonie Westenberg
Introduction
The writer Franz Kafka once noted that good literature is 'an axe to grind the frozen sea inside us'. We enter the world of the narrative, we escape the quotidian demands of life, we explore the existential questions of humanity while engaged in good literature. Indeed, this description of literature as a story that prises open imagination in the connectedness of meaning defines the term 'good literature' itself, so that an understanding of what it is that constitutes good literature implies an understanding of truth. We come to know what is one, true and good through literature.
Modern literature provides glimpses of such truth. Certainly, Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' shapes the reader's apprehension of racism in attitude and in societal concerns, while simultaneously representing the truth of love and virtue. On the other hand, Marcus Zusak's 'The Book Thief' writes of redemption through love and, indeed, through the power of story. Redemption and hope are offered, too, in the pages of 'The Secret Life of Bees' with its emphasis on the power of motherly love and the hope offered through such love in connection with the spiritual, that is to say, the soul or essence of that which it means to be human.
The stress on the power of maternal love answers the need within each person to 'find himself' for, as Gaudium et Spes notes, humanity 'cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of self' and it is often through maternal love that such a gift of self is first understood. Humanity seeks such maternal love; once this love is received individuals grow to understand their vocation as being created in the image of God; they come to give themselves in this vocation of love. Such a process begins, however, through the experience of maternal love, that which St. John Paul II named the 'maternal reign of Mary' so that she awakens 'profound trust in those who seek her guidance' on their way to 'transcendent destiny'. Ultimately, the path through Our Lady to the Heavenly Father is one that comes through motherly love and is experienced in a myriad of ways – undeniably through the love of a mother, but also through the care of the Church, through the self-gift of another, and through the threads of maternal self-gift in the pages of literature.
For many, the cords that pull them towards Our Lady's maternal love are words, the words of novels that highlight the strength, love and piety of a mother who echoes these qualities of Our Lady. It was a novel ('An Episode of Sparrows') that drew me, first, into understanding the Catholic faith and the intercessionary love of Our Lady, as a young teen growing up in a home without religious belief or practice. It is, indeed, novels that can draw others to a comprehension of Mary, inciting their hearts and minds to search further for the solace that Mary provides through her Son. A few popular novels that do just this will be examined below, to highlight the role of literature in shaping an understanding of Mary that leads to St. Louis de Montfort’s idea of ‘true devotion’ to Mary.
Students will learn to differentiate between these text types and use different language devices to achieve different purposes and target specific audiences.
To be able to read and think critically is essential for students in our contemporary society. Teaching Critical Reading will facilitate students’s growth of critical reading and thinking skills and prepare them to reason, imagine, debate, analyse, summarise and discuss.
Using the movies: Star Wars and The Incredibles
Conference Presentations by Leonie Westenberg
ABSTRACT: The fact that domestic violence is an issue in Christian families, for the families, victims and the general church community, has been made increasingly obvious. Indeed, VicHealth has identified that one of the contributing factors towards violence against women is their environment with faith-based institutions such as churches as one such environment for many women. For example, a recent series of articles on the ABC not only highlighted the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Christian families in Australia but also demonstrated the topical nature of the issue (Baird & Gleeson, 2017). Indeed, the journalists’ criticism of the response of Christian churches to IPV created somewhat of a backlash with church leaders, for example, decrying what was termed a “misuse” of statistics that failed to “report on the good things the church is doing” (Baird & Gleeson, 2017).
Discussion of domestic violence against women in Christian families highlights issues of prevalence and endurance. Prevalence denotes the statistical frequency of abuse in Christian families. Recent research supports the findings of a 2006 study by the UK Anglican Bishops Council that the incidence of domestic abuse within church congregations is similar to the rate within the general population. Endurance, on the other hand, denotes much of the response of Christian women to abusive marriages. The women more often endure the abuse, in part due to a description of Christian marriage in terms of submission to a husband’s headship. Endurance furthermore describes an added vulnerability that Christian women express, when speaking of both abuse and marriage in spiritual overtones. Religious language and church power structures can perpetuate and encourage toleration of domestic violence.
As a means of addressing the issue of domestic violence in Christian families, churches within Australia have initiated programmes that foster awareness of domestic violence. This paper reviews the response of Christian churches to domestic violence and highlights the role that religion can play. This paper also offers suggestions on how Christian churches can change religious language and accountability to work towards primary prevention of domestic violence.
INTRODUCTION
It is true that Christian churches in Australia do many ‘good things’ to combat IPV and to help those who have suffered such violence (Baird & Gleeson, 2017). Such good things include programmes that aim to address factors in relationships that can be contributory elements to intimate partner abuse. However, many of these programmes become secondary and tertiary responses to IPV, wherein those identified as being at risk for IPV are provided with tools to prevent the violence occurring or progressing, with long-term responses promoted to help those who have already suffered IPV. While secondary and tertiary responses are advocated as part of three tiered responses to IPV, such programmes should not stand alone. In fact, targeted primary responses are required to encompass strategies that prevent violence from occurring; such primary programmes, according to the National Framework of Rights and Sources for Victims of Crime (Adams, 2015) “focus on changing attitudes, beliefs and behaviours”. That primary preventative programmes are important within the Christian church community is underscored by Zoe Morrison’s (2005) study of Anglican church communities in Adelaide, aimed at determining the attitudes of clergy and church workers to abuse. The research concluded that there exists a culture of hostility towards women, which was “deeply ingrained and ranged from bullying to sexual abuse” (Morrison, 2005).
This paper briefly explores the ‘elephant in the room’, so to speak, by describing some of the causal factors within Christian churches that contribute to abuse. It then examines three programmes from mainstream Christian churches that exemplify the Australian churches’ responses (‘the many good things’) to intimate partner violence against women, with programme focus on secondary and tertiary prevention of this violence. Finally, the paper makes some suggestions as to how causal factors in churches may be addressed in primary preventative programmes that address attitudes and beliefs. to avoid the ‘mixed messages’ often provided for Christian women who seek to leave marriages because of abuse.
Carol Winkelmann, in her book ‘The Language of Battered Women’ describes not only the fact that domestic abuse is almost a daily occurrence in the lives of many women but that the language of religion and faith is often used by women in attempts to explain, understand and cope with such abuse. While religious belief and domestic violence may seem contradictory in terms of religious values of faith, virtue and love, research demonstrates that domestic violence in religious families and amidst religious congregations is prevalent. In fact, religious beliefs and practices are often embedded in cultural contexts and thus perpetuate patriarchal notions of dominance, power and submission. Abused Christian women, for example, are more likely to seek help from (male) ministers and others in positions of authority in their local church communities and are equally more likely to remain in or return to unsafe relationships, citing their religious beliefs to support their avoidance of ‘family break-ups’ because of abuse.
What, then, is the response of ministers and church authorities to domestic abuse in their congregations? Despite recent calls for the training of pastors and other religious leaders in an understanding of domestic violence and in the recognition of appropriate, helpful responses, the language of some Christian churches can be seen to foster notions of submission so that women and pastors alike can appear confused concerning the experience of abuse. Religious congregations, while acting in love to help the poor and needy, for example, often fail to recognise domestic abuse amongst their own members and, indeed, such a topic can remain taboo in some church communities. Women, in turning to their pastors or other Christian leaders for help, can be silenced by the language of the religion itself, so that the role of wives and mothers may be seen to be submissive and the ‘keeper of the home’; to leave an abusive relationship may thus ‘break-up’ a home and imply failure of the woman to understand her role and fulfil her ‘maternal vocation’.
On the other hand, religious beliefs offer victims of domestic violence both hope and comfort. Religious practices, such as prayer, liturgies and corporal (physical) works of mercy, can provide solace and practical assistance for women who suffer abuse. Domestic violence in religious congregations can be addressed within the context of the faith itself, with an emphasis on love and respect, helping women to understand their dignity with avenues of help so that the women can remove themselves and their children from abusive relationships, and the religious congregation and its leaders can call the partners to accountability.
This paper seeks to outline a picture of domestic violence in religious congregations, specifically Christian church communities, by drawing on current research in the Western world. It then describes the language of some religious congregations that perpetuates domestic violence, with emphasis on contemporary studies in religious belief and domestic abuse. Finally, the paper makes some suggestions on how religious language can, in contrast to perpetuating abuse through norms, serve to assist women as victims of domestic violence, and how the connections between domestic violence and religious language or belief can be severed.
In a Western society that is becoming progressively apathetic about the Church, many within the institutionalised church are concerned with issues of relevance. Indeed, the call from Pope Benedict XVI (the Year of Faith) and Pope Francis (Evangelii Gaudium) has been to examine the fruits of the Second Vatican Council, with a view to evangelisation, emphasising the role of the Church in modern society. On the one hand, there has been discussion on the positive effect of the Council on the Church, in increasing lay involvement, for example. On the other hand, others within the Church have focused on missionary activity towards those who feel excluded by the Church, citing Vatican II as an ongoing opportunity for renewal. Both approaches, however, fail to recognise the specific needs of women in society, and in the church today. The goal of this paper is to re-visit the Council document Lumen Gentium in its discussion on the figure of Mary, with implications for women today. The roles of Mary highlighted in Lumen Gentium include those of Madonna, her part in the salvific work of Christ, and her commission in offering hope and solace to humanity. The analysis of these roles for women today gives meaning for women’s ministries in the Church - vocation, spiritual motherhood and the ‘feminine genius’ with receptivity and empathy for others including the disenfranchised and excluded. Is the Church utilising women’s gifts, women’s faith, women’s ‘care thinking’, to quote feminist Carol Gilligan, in the practical outpourings of its faith and charity ? Mary is an image of our hope in Christ, with her work on earth in caring for the Christ Child, in being faithful, in taking on the motherhood of the apostle John at the foot of the cross and thus offering motherhood for all of humanity, especially women in difficult situations and women who feel excluded by the Church. The result of such discussion, this paper suggests, is that we move from paying lip service to the role of women to honouring Mary, as suggested in Lumen Gentium, and supporting this veneration with discussion and recognition of women’s gifts and women’s needs in the Church and in the wider community. The discussion could be extended to a theology of women, a personalist approach for a true picture of womanhood, how the Church may serve her, and how she may serve the Church.
Articles by Leonie Westenberg
[1] Roy Williams, Post God Nation? How religion fell off the radar in Australia – and what might be done to get it back on, (Sydney, Australia: ABC Books, 2015) 28.
[2] Carol Gilligan, In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.1983).
Papers by Leonie Westenberg
Dorothy Day, as a woman activist in the Christian church in the United States, faced the hypocrisy that many women activists still face today. On one hand, society holds women activists like Day as idols for worship, with a tendency to highlight that which is considered traditionally feminine in empathy, nurturing, care for others and even motherhood. In this way women activists, Dorothy Day and others today, are made into incongruous icons of women’s voices, as though the voices of all women can be deconstructed to one homogenous view. On the other hand, women activists and undeniably Day herself, are criticised for ‘flaunting’ their ‘unfeminine’ singleness, strength, and unrelenting exposition of problems in the hierarchical structure of the social order of society and the church.
This paper explores the life of Dorothy Day as a woman and social activist in the contemporary church, and as a representative of the contradictory ways in which women activists are viewed in the Christian church, as either saintly icons or noisy harridans, in caricature of their individuality and humanity.
Thesis Chapters by Leonie Westenberg
The blend of these seemingly dichotomous attributes represents literary apologetics in practice. One example of such practice is provided in the works of G. K. Chesterton, of whom it is said that Chesterton, as author, made clear the links between the romance and the reality of the Christian creed in both his prose and non-fiction works . Such connections add to the description of literary apologetics in representing the wonder that hints at questions concerning existence and purpose while pointing towards truth and to God. Truth, then, can often be understood more fully through use of imagination as an aid to intellect. However, it should be noted here that literary apologetics, while involving both reason and imagination, does not describe literary analysis or critique. It is, instead, a response to literature that challenges a materialistic worldview and, as such, has relevance to contemporary society, and the search for something beyond the material or that which is utilitarian. The search is often identified as a search for something ‘more’; a ‘more’ that transcends the material and speaks to the soul, a ‘more’ that hints at the supernatural and, that ultimately, points towards God.
That literary apologetics describes apologetics for Christianity is understood by professor and author Louis Markos. He defines apologetics as balancing reason and imagination while defending justice, virtue and order. For Markos, apologetics is a defence of Christianity that also addresses humanity’s desire for justice and virtuous behaviour in creating an ordered society, thus answering the search for truth in both material and immaterial senses so that the kingdom of God is experienced on earth. The qualities of justice, virtue and order are, Markos writes, embedded within each person as Imago Dei and he believes that this leads humanity to search for Truth, represented by the Incarnation. ‘In Christ', he writes, 'the righteous Jew and the good pagan were reconciled’, noting that apologetics for truth (and, indeed, beauty) embodies apologetics for Christianity . Philosopher Paul Ricoeur, while writing that the image of God represents a ‘wealth of meaning’ agrees with Markos that part of the understanding of humanity as Imago Dei rests in the essence of what it means to be human, the ‘essence’ or ‘interiority’ wherein humanity both thinks and chooses . Literary apologetics appeals to this essence by representing Christian truth with use of imagination and reason in narratives that entice humanity’s interiority.
This paper seeks, therefore, to draw out a definition of literary apologetics, signifying its contribution to the 'New Evangelisation'. Such an evangelisation is described by Pope Benedict XVI in discussion of the positivity of ‘the essence of Christianity’. He notes that positivity must be displayed in order to give insight to truth for contemporary society . The exploration of literary apologetics aims to ‘fill the gap’ left by reliance on reason alone in knowing truth in the field of apologetics, for it speaks to the imagination of humanity and our search for beauty. In order to represent the significance of literary apologetics, the approach itself will be used to understand the work of ‘The Hunger Games’ (Book One) by Suzanne Collins as a narrative that engages readers with attention to literary style while simultaneously providing substance for the search for a theological understanding of hope, justice, love and, thus, for Christian truth.
Introduction
The writer Franz Kafka once noted that good literature is 'an axe to grind the frozen sea inside us'. We enter the world of the narrative, we escape the quotidian demands of life, we explore the existential questions of humanity while engaged in good literature. Indeed, this description of literature as a story that prises open imagination in the connectedness of meaning defines the term 'good literature' itself, so that an understanding of what it is that constitutes good literature implies an understanding of truth. We come to know what is one, true and good through literature.
Modern literature provides glimpses of such truth. Certainly, Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' shapes the reader's apprehension of racism in attitude and in societal concerns, while simultaneously representing the truth of love and virtue. On the other hand, Marcus Zusak's 'The Book Thief' writes of redemption through love and, indeed, through the power of story. Redemption and hope are offered, too, in the pages of 'The Secret Life of Bees' with its emphasis on the power of motherly love and the hope offered through such love in connection with the spiritual, that is to say, the soul or essence of that which it means to be human.
The stress on the power of maternal love answers the need within each person to 'find himself' for, as Gaudium et Spes notes, humanity 'cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of self' and it is often through maternal love that such a gift of self is first understood. Humanity seeks such maternal love; once this love is received individuals grow to understand their vocation as being created in the image of God; they come to give themselves in this vocation of love. Such a process begins, however, through the experience of maternal love, that which St. John Paul II named the 'maternal reign of Mary' so that she awakens 'profound trust in those who seek her guidance' on their way to 'transcendent destiny'. Ultimately, the path through Our Lady to the Heavenly Father is one that comes through motherly love and is experienced in a myriad of ways – undeniably through the love of a mother, but also through the care of the Church, through the self-gift of another, and through the threads of maternal self-gift in the pages of literature.
For many, the cords that pull them towards Our Lady's maternal love are words, the words of novels that highlight the strength, love and piety of a mother who echoes these qualities of Our Lady. It was a novel ('An Episode of Sparrows') that drew me, first, into understanding the Catholic faith and the intercessionary love of Our Lady, as a young teen growing up in a home without religious belief or practice. It is, indeed, novels that can draw others to a comprehension of Mary, inciting their hearts and minds to search further for the solace that Mary provides through her Son. A few popular novels that do just this will be examined below, to highlight the role of literature in shaping an understanding of Mary that leads to St. Louis de Montfort’s idea of ‘true devotion’ to Mary.
Students will learn to differentiate between these text types and use different language devices to achieve different purposes and target specific audiences.
To be able to read and think critically is essential for students in our contemporary society. Teaching Critical Reading will facilitate students’s growth of critical reading and thinking skills and prepare them to reason, imagine, debate, analyse, summarise and discuss.
Using the movies: Star Wars and The Incredibles
ABSTRACT: The fact that domestic violence is an issue in Christian families, for the families, victims and the general church community, has been made increasingly obvious. Indeed, VicHealth has identified that one of the contributing factors towards violence against women is their environment with faith-based institutions such as churches as one such environment for many women. For example, a recent series of articles on the ABC not only highlighted the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Christian families in Australia but also demonstrated the topical nature of the issue (Baird & Gleeson, 2017). Indeed, the journalists’ criticism of the response of Christian churches to IPV created somewhat of a backlash with church leaders, for example, decrying what was termed a “misuse” of statistics that failed to “report on the good things the church is doing” (Baird & Gleeson, 2017).
Discussion of domestic violence against women in Christian families highlights issues of prevalence and endurance. Prevalence denotes the statistical frequency of abuse in Christian families. Recent research supports the findings of a 2006 study by the UK Anglican Bishops Council that the incidence of domestic abuse within church congregations is similar to the rate within the general population. Endurance, on the other hand, denotes much of the response of Christian women to abusive marriages. The women more often endure the abuse, in part due to a description of Christian marriage in terms of submission to a husband’s headship. Endurance furthermore describes an added vulnerability that Christian women express, when speaking of both abuse and marriage in spiritual overtones. Religious language and church power structures can perpetuate and encourage toleration of domestic violence.
As a means of addressing the issue of domestic violence in Christian families, churches within Australia have initiated programmes that foster awareness of domestic violence. This paper reviews the response of Christian churches to domestic violence and highlights the role that religion can play. This paper also offers suggestions on how Christian churches can change religious language and accountability to work towards primary prevention of domestic violence.
INTRODUCTION
It is true that Christian churches in Australia do many ‘good things’ to combat IPV and to help those who have suffered such violence (Baird & Gleeson, 2017). Such good things include programmes that aim to address factors in relationships that can be contributory elements to intimate partner abuse. However, many of these programmes become secondary and tertiary responses to IPV, wherein those identified as being at risk for IPV are provided with tools to prevent the violence occurring or progressing, with long-term responses promoted to help those who have already suffered IPV. While secondary and tertiary responses are advocated as part of three tiered responses to IPV, such programmes should not stand alone. In fact, targeted primary responses are required to encompass strategies that prevent violence from occurring; such primary programmes, according to the National Framework of Rights and Sources for Victims of Crime (Adams, 2015) “focus on changing attitudes, beliefs and behaviours”. That primary preventative programmes are important within the Christian church community is underscored by Zoe Morrison’s (2005) study of Anglican church communities in Adelaide, aimed at determining the attitudes of clergy and church workers to abuse. The research concluded that there exists a culture of hostility towards women, which was “deeply ingrained and ranged from bullying to sexual abuse” (Morrison, 2005).
This paper briefly explores the ‘elephant in the room’, so to speak, by describing some of the causal factors within Christian churches that contribute to abuse. It then examines three programmes from mainstream Christian churches that exemplify the Australian churches’ responses (‘the many good things’) to intimate partner violence against women, with programme focus on secondary and tertiary prevention of this violence. Finally, the paper makes some suggestions as to how causal factors in churches may be addressed in primary preventative programmes that address attitudes and beliefs. to avoid the ‘mixed messages’ often provided for Christian women who seek to leave marriages because of abuse.
Carol Winkelmann, in her book ‘The Language of Battered Women’ describes not only the fact that domestic abuse is almost a daily occurrence in the lives of many women but that the language of religion and faith is often used by women in attempts to explain, understand and cope with such abuse. While religious belief and domestic violence may seem contradictory in terms of religious values of faith, virtue and love, research demonstrates that domestic violence in religious families and amidst religious congregations is prevalent. In fact, religious beliefs and practices are often embedded in cultural contexts and thus perpetuate patriarchal notions of dominance, power and submission. Abused Christian women, for example, are more likely to seek help from (male) ministers and others in positions of authority in their local church communities and are equally more likely to remain in or return to unsafe relationships, citing their religious beliefs to support their avoidance of ‘family break-ups’ because of abuse.
What, then, is the response of ministers and church authorities to domestic abuse in their congregations? Despite recent calls for the training of pastors and other religious leaders in an understanding of domestic violence and in the recognition of appropriate, helpful responses, the language of some Christian churches can be seen to foster notions of submission so that women and pastors alike can appear confused concerning the experience of abuse. Religious congregations, while acting in love to help the poor and needy, for example, often fail to recognise domestic abuse amongst their own members and, indeed, such a topic can remain taboo in some church communities. Women, in turning to their pastors or other Christian leaders for help, can be silenced by the language of the religion itself, so that the role of wives and mothers may be seen to be submissive and the ‘keeper of the home’; to leave an abusive relationship may thus ‘break-up’ a home and imply failure of the woman to understand her role and fulfil her ‘maternal vocation’.
On the other hand, religious beliefs offer victims of domestic violence both hope and comfort. Religious practices, such as prayer, liturgies and corporal (physical) works of mercy, can provide solace and practical assistance for women who suffer abuse. Domestic violence in religious congregations can be addressed within the context of the faith itself, with an emphasis on love and respect, helping women to understand their dignity with avenues of help so that the women can remove themselves and their children from abusive relationships, and the religious congregation and its leaders can call the partners to accountability.
This paper seeks to outline a picture of domestic violence in religious congregations, specifically Christian church communities, by drawing on current research in the Western world. It then describes the language of some religious congregations that perpetuates domestic violence, with emphasis on contemporary studies in religious belief and domestic abuse. Finally, the paper makes some suggestions on how religious language can, in contrast to perpetuating abuse through norms, serve to assist women as victims of domestic violence, and how the connections between domestic violence and religious language or belief can be severed.
In a Western society that is becoming progressively apathetic about the Church, many within the institutionalised church are concerned with issues of relevance. Indeed, the call from Pope Benedict XVI (the Year of Faith) and Pope Francis (Evangelii Gaudium) has been to examine the fruits of the Second Vatican Council, with a view to evangelisation, emphasising the role of the Church in modern society. On the one hand, there has been discussion on the positive effect of the Council on the Church, in increasing lay involvement, for example. On the other hand, others within the Church have focused on missionary activity towards those who feel excluded by the Church, citing Vatican II as an ongoing opportunity for renewal. Both approaches, however, fail to recognise the specific needs of women in society, and in the church today. The goal of this paper is to re-visit the Council document Lumen Gentium in its discussion on the figure of Mary, with implications for women today. The roles of Mary highlighted in Lumen Gentium include those of Madonna, her part in the salvific work of Christ, and her commission in offering hope and solace to humanity. The analysis of these roles for women today gives meaning for women’s ministries in the Church - vocation, spiritual motherhood and the ‘feminine genius’ with receptivity and empathy for others including the disenfranchised and excluded. Is the Church utilising women’s gifts, women’s faith, women’s ‘care thinking’, to quote feminist Carol Gilligan, in the practical outpourings of its faith and charity ? Mary is an image of our hope in Christ, with her work on earth in caring for the Christ Child, in being faithful, in taking on the motherhood of the apostle John at the foot of the cross and thus offering motherhood for all of humanity, especially women in difficult situations and women who feel excluded by the Church. The result of such discussion, this paper suggests, is that we move from paying lip service to the role of women to honouring Mary, as suggested in Lumen Gentium, and supporting this veneration with discussion and recognition of women’s gifts and women’s needs in the Church and in the wider community. The discussion could be extended to a theology of women, a personalist approach for a true picture of womanhood, how the Church may serve her, and how she may serve the Church.
[1] Roy Williams, Post God Nation? How religion fell off the radar in Australia – and what might be done to get it back on, (Sydney, Australia: ABC Books, 2015) 28.
[2] Carol Gilligan, In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.1983).
Dorothy Day, as a woman activist in the Christian church in the United States, faced the hypocrisy that many women activists still face today. On one hand, society holds women activists like Day as idols for worship, with a tendency to highlight that which is considered traditionally feminine in empathy, nurturing, care for others and even motherhood. In this way women activists, Dorothy Day and others today, are made into incongruous icons of women’s voices, as though the voices of all women can be deconstructed to one homogenous view. On the other hand, women activists and undeniably Day herself, are criticised for ‘flaunting’ their ‘unfeminine’ singleness, strength, and unrelenting exposition of problems in the hierarchical structure of the social order of society and the church.
This paper explores the life of Dorothy Day as a woman and social activist in the contemporary church, and as a representative of the contradictory ways in which women activists are viewed in the Christian church, as either saintly icons or noisy harridans, in caricature of their individuality and humanity.
The blend of these seemingly dichotomous attributes represents literary apologetics in practice. One example of such practice is provided in the works of G. K. Chesterton, of whom it is said that Chesterton, as author, made clear the links between the romance and the reality of the Christian creed in both his prose and non-fiction works . Such connections add to the description of literary apologetics in representing the wonder that hints at questions concerning existence and purpose while pointing towards truth and to God. Truth, then, can often be understood more fully through use of imagination as an aid to intellect. However, it should be noted here that literary apologetics, while involving both reason and imagination, does not describe literary analysis or critique. It is, instead, a response to literature that challenges a materialistic worldview and, as such, has relevance to contemporary society, and the search for something beyond the material or that which is utilitarian. The search is often identified as a search for something ‘more’; a ‘more’ that transcends the material and speaks to the soul, a ‘more’ that hints at the supernatural and, that ultimately, points towards God.
That literary apologetics describes apologetics for Christianity is understood by professor and author Louis Markos. He defines apologetics as balancing reason and imagination while defending justice, virtue and order. For Markos, apologetics is a defence of Christianity that also addresses humanity’s desire for justice and virtuous behaviour in creating an ordered society, thus answering the search for truth in both material and immaterial senses so that the kingdom of God is experienced on earth. The qualities of justice, virtue and order are, Markos writes, embedded within each person as Imago Dei and he believes that this leads humanity to search for Truth, represented by the Incarnation. ‘In Christ', he writes, 'the righteous Jew and the good pagan were reconciled’, noting that apologetics for truth (and, indeed, beauty) embodies apologetics for Christianity . Philosopher Paul Ricoeur, while writing that the image of God represents a ‘wealth of meaning’ agrees with Markos that part of the understanding of humanity as Imago Dei rests in the essence of what it means to be human, the ‘essence’ or ‘interiority’ wherein humanity both thinks and chooses . Literary apologetics appeals to this essence by representing Christian truth with use of imagination and reason in narratives that entice humanity’s interiority.
This paper seeks, therefore, to draw out a definition of literary apologetics, signifying its contribution to the 'New Evangelisation'. Such an evangelisation is described by Pope Benedict XVI in discussion of the positivity of ‘the essence of Christianity’. He notes that positivity must be displayed in order to give insight to truth for contemporary society . The exploration of literary apologetics aims to ‘fill the gap’ left by reliance on reason alone in knowing truth in the field of apologetics, for it speaks to the imagination of humanity and our search for beauty. In order to represent the significance of literary apologetics, the approach itself will be used to understand the work of ‘The Hunger Games’ (Book One) by Suzanne Collins as a narrative that engages readers with attention to literary style while simultaneously providing substance for the search for a theological understanding of hope, justice, love and, thus, for Christian truth.