№ 5: Early onset neutral world
Newsletter: Did Australia have a positive world? | Update on my theological studies | Previously, on Psalter the Earth
I recently finished reading Stuart Piggin’s and Robert D. Linder’s two excellent books, The Fountain of Public Prosperity and Attending to the National Soul, which respectively set out the history of evangelical Christianity in Australia from the plans for settlement until 1914, and from that time until 2014. Taking the two books together, it is clear that Australia had quite a vibrant Christian identity, as British colonies and then as a nation since 1901. In the era since the 1960s, however, the Christian faith and the institutional Church have not had the same gravitational pull upon Australian society that they once did; the story of the following half century, as Piggin and Linder tell it, is in large part the story of the evangelical movement recognising and responding with various diverging strategies to the significant social changes that were arising throughout Australia.
As I read these books, and especially the second one, I found myself increasingly wondering how this retelling of Australia’s history relates to Aaron Renn’s “three worlds” framework, as described in his recent book Life in the Negative World. According to Renn, the Christian West has moved from the “positive world” from 1964 to 1994, a “neutral world” from 1994 until 2014, and a “negative world” since then, in which “society has an overall negative view of Christianity”. These dates are approximate, and he is careful to say that this represents a general decline of favour towards Christianity, though not in “a perfectly straight or smooth line” (Renn, Life in the Negative World, 6-7). It is also worth noting that in Renn’s usage the “positive world” isn’t Christendom simply; by 1964, America was already in social upheaval as the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant consensus was breaking down. Rather, the positive world was the most positive part of the decline in sentiment away from Christian faith in the public square.
Comparing Renn’s framework with Piggin and Linder’s account of Australian history, it seems to me that Australia did not even have a "positive world" era as Renn uses the term, but from about 1970 we seem to have moved very quickly into the neutral world.
Christian foundations
Piggin and Linder note that, owing to the great number of churches established throughout the nation, Australia was “one of the most highly ‘Christianised’ nations on earth in terms of values” (Fountain, 39). Australia’s settlement itself was largely driven by postmillennial confidence which saw in the establishment of a colony in Botany Bay the opportunity to found a productive Protestant society, and to be a base of operations for spreading the gospel to the distant isles and coastlands in the South Seas. At Federation, then-premier of South Australia Sir John Downer declared that “the Commonwealth will be from its first stage a Christian Commonwealth” (484). Australia’s Christian self-understanding can be seen in the domains of government, business, media, education, charitable organisations. For one surprising example, the Australian Mutual Provident Society, or AMP, was founded and directed by evangelical Christians early on, and its selling of “life assurance” to people was motivated by helping people to take responsibility for themselves; one historian notes concerning AMP: “In its origins, it was a charity wing of Protestantism” (280).
Twentieth century
While Australia did certainly keep something of a Christian identity for the first half of the twentieth century, this identity found itself needing to be renegotiated in terms of the changing relationship with the British Empire. At the turn of the twentieth century, Australian was very conscious of itself as part of the British Empire, this being not readily distinguishable from Christendom.
The initial enthusiasm amongst Australian church leaders for the First World War was driven by a support of British Empire; Piggin and Linder note that “the churches were in step with everyone else in their response to the war” (Attending, 34). The unimaginable bloodshed did dull much of this initial enthusiasm over the course of the War, and the much more muted support for the Second World War is suggestive of a certain amount of embarrassment. During the Second World War, as Australia found itself relying more upon the United States than Great Britain, the relationship began to be strained somewhat. Britain’s joining the European Economic Community in 1973 seems to have brought an end to Australia’s “British” identity.
The Billy Graham crusades in 1959 were probably the high watermark of evangelical fervour and success. In the decade leading up to the crusades, some 90% of Australians identified as some kind of Christian, though this only translated into a pretty woeful church attendance rate of about 3 in 10 (247). In any case, Australia was ready to be preached to by a Christian preacher. The crusades had a notable (if short-lived) effect on the growth of local churches, and arguably quelled rates of illegitimate births and alcohol consumption (287).
Early onset neutral world
Within about ten years, however, the influence of Christian faith and thought upon elite domains seems to have faded. There is a notable shift in the mood around the 1970s, as the evangelical movement became aware that the world that they had become accustomed to was slipping away.
The Australian Labor Party secularised quite rapidly; Prime Minister Gough Whitlam quipped in 1970 that “there won’t be any believers left by 2000 A.D.” (337), which perhaps reflected a view common enough within Australia’s elite—though of course he could only think to date the demise of the church in terms of the years of Christ’s reign. Similarly, Neville Wran, Labor Premier in New South Wales from 1976 to 1986, mocked that “the Established Church was a thing of the past” (388).
One example might be illustrative of a large dynamic at this time: in 1979, Premier Wran legalised the opening of hotels on Sunday, not due to a groundswell of anti-Christian sentiment—this had been repeatedly rejected by the public in referenda—but rather due to pressure by liquor industry lobbyists (339).
The debates about women’s ordination within the Presbyterian Church and the Anglican Church during the 1970s exposed a growing gap between the evangelical wing of the Church and society. The authors state that at this time, “the Bible was no longer accepted as foundational to societal views on sexuality by the wider public” (346). Note that we are still about twenty years out from the beginning of the neutral world in Renn’s account of the United States.
In the context of what seems to be a downward spiral towards negative world, it is perhaps surprising that the 1990s and early 2000s saw something of God's return to political discourse. Treasurer Peter Costello’s opposition to euthanasia in 1996 was expressly a religious one, though he was ostensibly resigned to the fact that some people just would not be convinced by appeals to religion (455). Prime Minister John Howard described the “Australian value” as secular in the sense of not having an established religion, but plainly influenced by the “Judaic-Christian ethic” (463). By 2004, mention of God in Hansard (transcripts of parliamentary discussions) had “reached a crescendo” (535). While this certainly doesn't prove a widespread reawakening of Christian piety in the populace, it at least suggests that politicians felt they could say these kinds of things without harming their political prospects.
While Australian (federal and state) governments have waxed and waned in their support and disdain for the Christian faith (and especially conservative evangelicalism), the Australian media seems to have moved towards a settled position of resistance to conservative evangelical faith without much to offset that movement. Piggin and Linder, unfortunately, do not cite many primary media sources, so their conclusions must be taken provisionally at best. The authors note the media’s intrigue at the Presbyterian Church of Australia rolling back their former support for the ordination of women in 1991 (466), and their glee at Anglican Archbishop Carnley’s rogue ordination of ten women presbyters in the Perth diocese in 1992.
Negative world
Renn’s framework has largely been adopted by evangelical leaders in Australia as roughly corresponding to our own recent experience. I wouldn’t dispute that by now, as Simon Kennedy has noted, the negative world has arrived in Australia. But I would bring our attention to the particular path by which we came to this point; the history as Piggin and Linder tell it does not map neatly onto Renn's three-worlds framework, at least in terms of its timetable. We had quite a sudden decline early on (around 1970), and despite some positive notes in the early 2000s, we never came close to recovering what was lost.
That history also undermines the very popular narrative that Australian evangelicals have tended to tell themselves, that Australia has always been a deeply secular nation, and that this substantially accounts for our current woes. It is quite to the contrary. As we find ourselves now needing to respond to these present challenges, we ought not to ask the Lord, "How have you loved us?", as though he has not showered the church in this nation with substantial blessings for a very long time.
Update on my theological studies
As most of you will know, I have been studying for an M.Litt with Davenant Hall on a part-time basis since last April. For the first time since beginning, I have taken a term off from any classes, which has turned out to be a very good thing for me. As much as I have enjoyed the relative repose, I am very keen to get back to study…
In the coming academic year, starting in September, I am looking to take four regular subjects, plus two terms of biblical Hebrew. (The prospect of being able to read Hebrew has been particularly exciting to me.) And, all going well, we will make the trip to South Carolina next June that we had hoped to make this year.
I am hoping to raise $6,000 to cover the costs of tuition, textbooks and some miscellanies like fees for the coming academic year. If you would like to support my theological studies, you can do so here—and I would be most grateful!
Support my theological studies
Help me raise $6,000 for my next academic year
Previously, on Psalter the Earth
Digital man, digital church
What does the phenomenon of "digital church" imply about what it means to be human?
I posted a brief reflection on a book review about the phenomenon of digital church. On her blog, Jemimah posted a more developed reflection of her own, which incited me to reply with an assortment of further reflections on the whole subject.
[…] a commonwealth could not be formed by having several persons join a WhatsApp group and declaring the group admin to be their king. It is true that nations do not always have their own territory, since a nation can be dispossessed and relocated; nonetheless, they always have some physical proximity to each other in some shared place. The people must, at some level, be together.
O Israel, hope in the Lord
Last month I posted the first of two reflections on Psalm 130. Part II is now available to read, in which I show how the psalmist relives the history of Israel;s exile and return:
Just as the psalmist’s confession is followed by waiting for the Word of the Lord to come and declare forgiveness, so also Israel found itself in a long season of waiting for the Word to come to them. Throughout the prophecy of Isaiah, the Word of God is shown to be sent forth to declare forgiveness to Jerusalem and to bring his people back from bondage (Is. 40). This Word comes to Israel through heralds and preachers whose beautiful feet ascend the mountains to preach good news (Is. 52:7). We should not miss that the Word is closely associated also with God’s Servant; the Word is a Person sent forth to perform God's will. When the Servant-Word goes forth, God promises to uphold him and ensures that he will prosper in his mission (Is. 55:11, 48:15-16). The psalmist has hoped eagerly for the Word like a watchman; so also the Servant-Word is seen approaching by watchmen, who lift up their voice in exultation as they see the Lord returning Zion from exile (Is. 52:8).
O Israel, hope in the Lord
God bless,
Sean