1st Edition

Reason, Religion and the Australian Polity A Secular State?

    308 Pages
    by Routledge

    308 Pages
    by Routledge

    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.





    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

    Biography

    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