Post-Secular Nation; or how “Australian spirituality” privileges a secular, white, Judaeo-Christian culture
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Nov 22, 2007
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Abstract
There is no doubt that Australia is a secular nation, but there is a tendency to argue it is becoming post-secular. This raises the question of on what premises might a national spirituality be founded in a multicultural, multifaith society? One person who has attempted to answer this theory is the writer David Tacey. I endeavour to show that Tacey’s spiritual realm is in fact unmistakably coded Christian, and by extension ‘Judaeo-Christian’. Furthermore, this constructed realm cites a white, Anglo-Celtic subject associated with settler history as most in need of spiritual salvation. I argue that in effect, and instead of offering new alternatives for social change, Tacey’s version of spirituality functions to reinforce and reproduce a transcendent narrative of the dominance of Judaeo-Christianity and white Anglo-Celtic subjectivity in Australian culture.
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References
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Tacey, David (2000) ReEnchantment: The New Australian Spirituality. Pymble: HarperCollins.
Tacey, David (2001a) Jung and the New Age. East Sussex: Brunner-Routledge.
Tacey, David (2001b) "Jung and the New Age", Interview, 14 October, The Spirit of Things, Radio National, Australia, viewed 15th April 2007, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/relig/spirit/stories/s389645.htm
Tacey, David (2003) The Spirituality Revolution: The Emergence of Contemporary Spirituality. Sydney: HarperCollins.
Tacey, David (2004) "Mysticism and Rationalism", Transcript, 11 January, Compass ABCTV, Australia, viewed 15 April 2007, http://www.abc.net.au/compass/s1027718.htm
Wallace, Tom (2005) "Is There a Separation of Church and State in Australia and New Zealand?", Australian Humanist, Autumn, 32 paras.
Asad, Talal (2002) Q&A AsiaSource Interview, Interview by Nermeen Shaikh, 16 December, AsiaSource, viewed 20 May 2007, http://www.asiasource.org/news/special_reports/asad.cfm
Bouma, Gary (2006) Australian Soul: Religion and Spirituality in the Twenty-first Century. Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139168526
Clemens, Justin and Dominic Pettman (2004) Avoiding the Subject: Media, Culture and the Object. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.5117/9789053567166
Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, Chapter V, The States, s. 116.
Connolly, William E (1999) Why I Am Not a Secularist. Minneapolis: University Minnesota Press.
Finn, Geraldine. (1992) "The politics of spirituality: the spirituality of politics", in Phillipa Berry & Andrew Wernick (eds.), Shadow of Spirit: Postmodernism and Religion. London: Routledge.
Frame, Tom (2006) Church and State: Australia's Imaginary Wall. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.
Gelder, Ken & Jane Jacobs (1998) Uncanny Australia: Sacredness and Identity in a Postcolonial Nation. Carlton South: Melbourne University Press.
Hage, Ghassan (2003) Against Paranoid Nationalism: Searching for hope in a shrinking society. Annandale: Pluto.
Heelas, Paul (1996) The New Age Movement: The Celebration of the Self and the Sacralization of Modernity. Oxford: Blackwell.
Howard, John (2004) "What Our Leaders Believe", Transcript, 3 October, Compass ABCTV, Australia, viewed 15 April 2007, http://www.abc.net.au/compass/s1201238.htm>
Howard, John (2006a) Interview with Neil Mitchell, 24 February, Radio 3AW Melbourne, Australia, viewed 24 October 2006, http://www.pm.gov.au/News/interviews/Interview1788.html
Howard, John (22nd September 2006b) "Interview with Prime Minister John Howard", Interview, 22 September, The Australian Jewish News, Australia, viewed 24th October 2006, http://www.ajn.com.au/news/news.asp?pgID=1679
Imtoual, Alia (2004) "Whiteness Studies, Christianity and Religious Racism in 'Secular' Australia", Placing Race and Localising Whiteness. Susan Schech & Ben Wadham (eds.), Adelaide: Flinders.
Jakobsen, Janet R & Ann Pellegrini (2000) "World Secularisms at the Millennium: Introduction", Social Text, vol. 18, no. 3, pp.1-27. https://doi.org/10.1215/01642472-18-3_64-1
Larbalestier, Jan (1999) "What is this Thing called White? Reflections on 'Whiteness' and Multiculturalism", in Ghassan Hage & Rowanne Couch (eds.), The Future of Australian Multiculturalism: Reflections on the Twentieth Anniversary of Jean Martin's The Migrant Presence. Sydney: Research Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Sydney University.
Lattas, Andrew (1992) "Primitivism, Nationalism and Individualism in Australian Popular Culture", in Bain Attwood & John Arnold (eds.), Power, Knowledge and Aborigines: Journal of Australian Studies Vol.35, pp. 45-58. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443059209387117
Maddox, Marion (2005) God Under Howard: The rise of the religious right in Australian politics. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Mares, Peter (2002) Borderline: Australia's response to refugees and asylum seekers in the wake of the Tampa. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.
Mason, Victoria (2004) "Strangers Within in the 'Lucky Country': Arab-Australians after September 11", Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, vol. 24, no. 1, pp.233-43. https://doi.org/10.1215/1089201X-24-1-235
Perera, Suvendrini (ed.) (2007) Our Patch: Enacting Australian Sovereignty Post-2001. Perth: Network.
Randell-Moon, Holly (2006) "Creating Pope John Paul II: Religion, the 'War on Terror' and the Politics of Discourses of Howardage", borderlands, vol. 5, no. 3, 40 paras.
Rolls, Mitchell (1998) "The Jungian Quest for the Aborigine Within: A Close Reading of David Tacey's Edge of the Sacred: Transformation in Australia", Melbourne Journal of Politics, vol. 25, pp.171-87.
Sinclair, Jennifer (2004) "Spirituality and the (Secular) Ordinary Australian Imaginary", Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, vol. 18, no. 2, pp.279-93. https://doi.org/10.1080/1030431042000215059
Stratton, Jon (1998a) Coming Out Jewish: Constructing ambivalent identities. London: Routledge.
Stratton, Jon (1998b) Race Daze: Australian in identity crisis. Annandale: Pluto.
Stratton, Jon (1999) "Multiculturalism and the Whitening Machine, or How Australians Become White", in Ghassan Hage & Rowanne Couch, (eds.) The Future of Australian Multiculturalism: Reflections on the Twentieth Anniversary of Jean Martin's The Migrant Presence. Sydney: Research Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Sydney University.
Tacey, David (1995) Edge of the Sacred: Transformation in Australia. Blackburn North: HarperCollins.
Tacey, David (1998) "What Are We Afraid Of?: Intellectualism, Aboriginality, and the Sacred", Melbourne Journal of Politics, vol. 25, pp.189-94.
Tacey, David (1999) "ReEnchantment", Transcript, 11 August, The Religion Report, Radio National, Australia, viewed 15 April 2007, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/relrpt/stories/s42985.htm
Tacey, David (2000) ReEnchantment: The New Australian Spirituality. Pymble: HarperCollins.
Tacey, David (2001a) Jung and the New Age. East Sussex: Brunner-Routledge.
Tacey, David (2001b) "Jung and the New Age", Interview, 14 October, The Spirit of Things, Radio National, Australia, viewed 15th April 2007, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/relig/spirit/stories/s389645.htm
Tacey, David (2003) The Spirituality Revolution: The Emergence of Contemporary Spirituality. Sydney: HarperCollins.
Tacey, David (2004) "Mysticism and Rationalism", Transcript, 11 January, Compass ABCTV, Australia, viewed 15 April 2007, http://www.abc.net.au/compass/s1027718.htm
Wallace, Tom (2005) "Is There a Separation of Church and State in Australia and New Zealand?", Australian Humanist, Autumn, 32 paras.