Centre for Public Christianity

CPX was established in 2007. John Dickson and Greg Clarke[2] were its first directors, with Richard Grellman Chairman. Initial funding from Mission Australia helped get the venture started. After support from Hammond Care, CPX signed a Memorandum of understanding with Bible Society Australia.[3] Simon Smart has Executive Director since 2018.[4][5]

Writers from CPX have contributed articles to The Sydney Morning Herald,[6] The Age,[7] and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).[8]

CPX has an online resource library featuring interviews with writers, scholars and commentators. CPX releases a weekly 'Life & Faith' podcast.[9]

CPX runs the annual Richard Johnson Lecture, a series that aims to "highlight Christianity’s relevance to society and positively contribute to public discourse on key aspects of civil life." 2018’s speaker was Nick Spencer, Research Director of Theos, a think tank in London.[10]

The Centre has produced popular and academic works exploring the relevance of the Christian faith, including Public Christianity: Talking about faith in a post-Christian world,[11] 10 Tips for Atheists and other conversations in faith and culture[12] and The Wisdom of Islam and the Foolishness of Christianity.[13] In 2013, Smart co-authored a book with Jane Caro, Antony Loewenstein and Rachel Woodlock called For God's Sake: An Atheist, a Jew, a Christian, and a Muslim debate religion.[14]

In 2009 CPX released an historical documentary called The Life of Jesus[15] that was shown nationally on the Seven Network.

In late 2015 CPX began work on a documentary: For the Love of God: How the Church is Better and Worse Than You Ever Imagined.[16] The project considers the impact of Christianity on the world, both good and bad. It combines on-location filming with interviews with experts, including Marilynne Robinson, Rowan Williams, Alister McGrath and Miroslav Volf.[17] The documentary was released in May 2018.