Who are we?
Ethos is an acronym for ‘Evangelical Theology of Society’. It is the EA (Evangelical Alliance) Centre for Christianity and Society, formed in 2010 with the coming together of the Zadok Institute for Christianity and Society and the Evangelical Alliance’s Department of Public Theology.
What do we do?
The mission of Ethos is to help the scattered people of God live out their faith in their public and professional life, going beyond an ethics of dilemmas, decisions and doing, to one of character, culture and community. In a time of increasing social, cultural, political and theological diversity, we provide a space for robust and respectful dialogue between different views in response to contemporary issues.
Our aim is to enable individuals and institutions – Church, community and nation – to find their true character, centred in Jesus Christ.
How do we do this?
Print publications
Zadok Perspectives and Papers delves into deep public analysis and equips our readers to reflect, discuss and discerningly engage with society from a Christian worldview. Zadok is a 44-year premier publication – a survivor when many have fallen over. We’ve been named ARPA Australasian Best Religious Publication for 2013 and received Special Mention in 2018 as Second Best Publication. In 2020year we are applying for the Lifetime Gutenberg Award.
Seldom does each edition of a Christian publication focus on a single theme. This thoughtful quarterly magazine does so with spectacular effect. … The editorials, articles and reviews demand attentiveness but the reader is invariably rewarded with content that is well-written, well-researched, provocative, encouraging and occasionally irreverent. There are a variety of opinions and no shying away from the controversial.… It’s the inquisitive and enquiring person’s perspectives that are up for challenge or confirmation. This excellent publication would stand proud in any company, sacred or secular.
– ARPA Zadok Publication of the Year 2013 judges’ comments
Equip Magazine is published bi-annually to equip local churches, ministries and Christians to reach out to people in every part of their lives: work, play, politics and community.
Online presence
We also equip our readers to reflect, discuss and engage with society through our social media presence, Facebook and Twitter, and through Engage.Mail, our free monthly e-magazine. Engage.Mail features articles, blogs, stories and poems, providing a forum for experienced and emerging writers to comment on contemporary Australian issues in a timely manner.
Events
We run public events including lectures, panel discussions, an annual dinner and talk, and the annual Faith and Work Award dinner, featuring prominent Christians, experts, theologians and believers experienced in the everyday life of work, study and play.
Expertise
Our thinking is shaped by our network of outstanding Christian thinkers, writers and advocates who provide in-depth analysis of critical issues such as work and business (Drs Gordon Preece and Chris White), human rights and development (Dr Bill Walker), climate change (headed by meteorologist Dr Mick Pope), bio-ethics and sexual ethics (Dr Denise Cooper-Clarke (honorary researcher), and indigenous issues (Chris Marshall).
Consultancy
Ethos provides input to government inquiries, trains business and professional people, and provides ethical advice to denominations and ethical investors.
Our values
Ethos is committed to empowering Christian professionals to profess their faith publicly by word and deed. In doing so we demonstrate the relevance and distinctiveness of Christian community life, discerning and debating in a spirit of reconciliation. This points beyond the common party political spirit of church and world to the divine politics of God’s peaceable Kingdom. To paraphrase Jacques Ellul, it is in disagreeing robustly but respectfully about penultimate things that Christians point most effectively to the ultimate of Christ and the Kingdom.
Our History
Ethos was formed in 2010 to combine the endeavours and personnel of two national Christian organisations engaged with Australian society: Zadok Institute for Christianity and Society and the Evangelical Alliance’s Department of Public Theology.
Ethos combined the pedigrees of these organisations to bring together a wealth of experience and a history of commitment to exploring and promoting Christian ethical engagement with the world. It continues to take this engagement beyond Sunday’s sometimes cloistered walls into the Monday world where God’s scattered people engage everyday life: work, leisure, politics, environment, etc.
EA had established a Public Theology Department in 2004, with Brian Edgar serving as the pioneer director, succeeded by Ian Packer. Zadok Institute for Christianity and Society was an independent organisation whose mission was to promote informed theological reflection and debate, especially by lay people, on contemporary Australian issues. Founded in 1976, soon after the Whitlam-era ferment, Zadok brought an applied spirituality and world-view into personal, professional and public life.