Throughout his long life Lloyd Geering has wrestled with ‘God’, the deepest fundamental questions of human identity and making sense of living in this world in relationship with others. His great legacy is in provoking people to think about these questions for themselves, for the wellbeing of society and for the world. Allan K. Davidson, Foreword The events surrounding the ‘trial’ of Professor Lloyd Geering for ‘heresy’ in the late 1960s were unprecedented in New Zealand history. In the late 1960s Lloyd Geering became a public figure among New Zealanders when he was charged with ‘doctrinal error’ – generally referred to as ‘heresy’ – and ‘disturbing the peace and unity of the [Presbyterian] church’. Led by a group of conservative laymen, the charges were brought before the church’s General Assembly in Christchurch in 1967 but were eventually dismissed. These dramatic events and those that followed through to 1971 are described in Lloyd Geering’s own words in this BWB Text, sourced from his autobiography Wrestling With God.

I became aware of the fallibility of the real, that the splendidly detailed objective world of sound and colours, shapes and textures was not completely opaque, and that beneath it could be glimpsed the shimmer of things of great horror and ineffable joy. He is one of New Zealand’s finest regional writers and a master of the short story, but despite his many accolades Owen Marshall continues to write under an assumed name. In this BWB Text Marshall reflects at length on his writing career, on the forces that have shaped him as a writer, on his intense admiration for Janet Frame and on his decision to concentrate on the short story form.

The decline of home ownership has struck at the heart of the Kiwi dream – so perhaps it is time to fashion a new one. House prices may boom or bust but the long-term trend is clear: for more New Zealanders than ever, home ownership is out of reach. Incomes simply have not kept pace with skyrocketing property prices. Generation Rent calls into question priorities at the heart of New Zealand’s identity. In this BWB Text, Shamubeel and Selena Eaqub investigate how we ended up here, and what can be done to ensure all New Zealanders – home owners and renters alike – live in affordable and secure housing.

‘I have fought a running battle with medicine for much of my career. I have wanted to leave it for poetry. This is the story of how that has come to change for me. And how both those worlds have at last arrived at some sort of reconciliation.’ As a youth worker, doctor and award-winning poet and children’s writer, Glenn Colquhoun has led a ‘life lived in two parts’. Writing and reading has always transported him to a world ‘flickered’ by colour, warmth and connection. Meanwhile his work as a GP in the Horowhenua has confronted him daily with scenes of doubt, dislocation and disadvantage. Late Love is a meeting of these worlds, a moving attempt to show what it is, as a doctor and writer, to be alongside people.

‘Your words of “discomfort, loss, and disconnection” don’t resonate with me at all.’ Ruth Richardson to Andrew Dean, 16 December 2014. A time of major upheaval now stands between young and old in New Zealand. In Ruth, Roger and Me, Andrew Dean explores the lives of the generation of young people brought up in the shadow of the economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, those whom he calls ‘the children of the Mother of All Budgets’. Drawing together memoir, history and interviews, he explores the experiences of ‘discomfort’ and ‘disconnection’ in modern Aotearoa New Zealand.

The divide between New Zealand’s poorest and wealthiest inhabitants has widened alarmingly over faster than in most other developed countries. Max Rashbrooke’s succinct introduction to these changes in our society, drawn from the larger work Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis and updated with the latest evidence, is essential reading. The Inequality Debate was updated in July 2014 with the latest data.

Orthodox is obsolete; conventional is kaput. We thought we knew how we make economics, politics, technology and nature work for us. But increasingly, they are failing to run by the rules and systems we’ve honed over recent decades. Boom-bust economies, fractured and destructive politics and a deeply degraded ecosystem are just some of the symptoms. Pioneers around the world are seeking new values, systems and technologies. Thus equipped we might achieve the unprecedented, speed, scale and complexity of change we need to meet the immense challenges of the twenty-first century. In this BWB Text acclaimed business journalist Rod Oram travels to Beijing, London and Chicago to meet some of these pioneers and report on their setbacks and progress. Because if 10 billion people are going to live well on this planet in 2050, we’re going to have to fundamentally change the way we do things.