How did the concept of the secular state emerge and evolve in Australia and how has it impacted on its institutions? This is the most comprehensive study to date on the relationship between religion and the state in Australian history, focusing on the meaning of political secularity in a society that was from the beginning marked by a high degree of religious plurality.
This book tracks the rise and fall of the established Church of England, the transition to plural establishments, the struggle for a public Christian-secular education system, and the eventual separation of church and state throughout the colonies. The study is unique in that it does not restrict its concern with religion to the churches but also examines how religious concepts and ideals infused apparently secular political and social thought and movements making the case that much Australian thought and institution building has had a sacral-secular quality. Social welfare reform, nationalism, and emerging conceptions of citizenship and civilization were heavily influenced by religious ideals, rendering problematic traditional linear narratives of secularisation as the decline of religion. Finally the book considers present day pluralist Australia and new understandings of state secularity in light of massive social changes over recent generations.
By:
Stephen Chavura,
John Gascoigne,
Ian Tregenza
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9780367661885
ISBN 10: 0367661888
Series: Routledge Studies in Modern History
Pages: 308
Publication Date: 30 September 2020
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Introduction The Secular over Time A Christian Secular State? The Structure of the Argument PART I FROM ANGLICAN ESTABLISHMENT TO LIBERAL SEPARATIONISM 1 Foundations: Church and State in Ancien Régime Britain From Toleration to Pluralism Religion, Enlightenment, and Utility 2 The Brief Rise and Fall of the Australian Colonial Established Church Governor Macquarie and Religion Bishop Broughton in Defence of the Ancien Régime The Seeds of Pluralism 3 The Coming of Plural Establishment Richard Bourke and the Church Acts The Schools Question—Education and the State Resistance to Plural Establishment—The Old Order Fights Back The Pluralist Settlement Pluralism beyond Christianity Conclusion PART II FORGING THE SECULAR 4 The Separation of Church and State The Victory for Voluntaryism in South Australia Hyper-Protestant and Broad Church Approaches to the Church-State Question in NSW: Lang and Woolley Abolition of State Aid in NSW and Tasmania A Secular State in Victoria? Conclusion 5 Education, Religion, and Citizenship Secular Architects: Lowe, Rusden, Wilkins, and Higinbotham Disbelief in the Colonies Religion and the Secular Education Acts Conclusion 6 A Secular Constitution? The Federation Debates The Recognition Clause State Debates on a Recognition Clause The Religious Freedom Clause Conclusion PART III MIGRATIONS OF THE HOLY: ON THE SACRED ELEMENTS OF NATIONAL LIFE 7 The Moral Economy of the Early Australian Commonwealth Religion, Socialism, and Factory Legislation The Critique of Contract and the Living Wage—Neo-medievalism or Advanced Liberalism? The Moral Commonwealth—Secular or Sacred? Conclusion 8 Civil Religion: From Civic Protestantism to the Anzac Tradition Civic Protestantism and the Theology of Empire Nation, Empire and the Sacred: From Empire Day to Anzac Day Conclusion 9 Citizenship, the Nation, and Religion Idealism, the Broad Church, and the Moral Foundations of Citizenship Citizenship, Gender and the Public Sphere: The Role of Protestant Women Sacral-Secular Citizenship and the Social Order between the Wars Conclusion PART IV THE SHIFTING TERRAIN OF RELIGION AND THE SECULAR: FROM THE MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT 10 Christian Australia: Resurgence and Retreat Defending ‘Christian Civilisation’: The Second World War and the 1950s Religious Renewal Secularism, Conflict and the ‘Servile State’: John Anderson and his Influence Catholics, Secularism and the ‘Free Society’ The Return of State Aid Conclusion 11 Culture, Gender, Sexuality: Dechristianising the Sec
Stephen A. Chavura is an independent scholar who lectures in history at Campion College, Sydney Ian Tregenza is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations, Macquarie University, Australia John Gascoigne is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Humanities, University of New South Wales
