pathways, July 09
Religion in Australia is changing.
What has been personal, peripheral, undemanding and part of the background is becoming more diverse, revitalised and differently located, according to Gary Bouma, sociologist, Anglican priest and a leading exponent of interfaith dialogue in Australia. (pictured)
It was critical, he told the CRA 2009 National Assembly, that these changes were understood as they challenged Christian communities by creating a different social and cultural context for ministry and different opportunities for building community.
Professor Bouma concluded that Christianity was no longer the normal - but neither was the secular. Rather, people lived in a marketplace where choice prevailed and identities change. In this marketplace, choosing was not permanent, choice was often partial and there was no stock standard Islam, Christianity or other belief.
He said that being faithful today meant
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Being a person of faith alongside others - making and sharing space for others
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Being a person of a particular faith - knowing it, enjoying it, being articulate and with a capacity to listen
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Being faithful in your own way - taking responsibility for self and being able to negotiate creatively.
Prof Bouma who holds Melbourne's Monash University UNESCO Chair in Inter-religious and Inter-cultural Relations and is the chairman of the Australian Board of Management of the Parliament of the World's Religions (Melbourne, December 2009) was the guest speaker at the Assembly which gathered under the theme, Australian Religious in a multi-faith society: reality, gift, challenge.
He gave two presentations, Australian Soul: 21st century religious and spiritual challenges to Catholic Religious in Australia and Being faithful Religious in diversity.
According to Prof Bouma, religion is back on the agenda in policy - although he said that Catholics had never left the policy arena - politics and in values debates. People were searching, but as consumers. The resurgence ass happening worldwide except in mainstream Protestant churches.
He attributed this to an historical cyclical pattern, the impact of diversity and the failure of secular humanism to produce happiness, end oppression and generally deliver on its promises.
Prof. Bouma said that diversity and revitalisation would bring increased
competition - in seeking converts, shaping policy and internal rivalries over theology, worship and ethics; and
conflict - challenges to the right to exist and practice will emerge as will vilification.
He presented a 21st century social context in which religion was free of religious organisation and control and spiritualities were thriving. No one view or group was dominant or privileged and religion was open to the widest diversity of voices, views and experiences.
In this social context, a new religious context was emerging in which recent changes had made for
- a more religious/spiritual context
- a more contested and conflictual context with shared values, ideas and orientations; with greater diversity of groups and cultures and where ethnicity/religion/spirituality was less connected
- religions were more of an independent force.
However, he pointed to the emergence of new alliances, such as between Cardinal Pell and Archbishop Jensen in Sydney.
This presented the challenges of religious diversity and the decline of old supports as well as old enemies. It posed the question: Is this a Christian society? If the answer were yes, he said, one then needed to ask: What does it mean? and What kind of hospitality should be offered?
He suggested that religious difference was real and okay, saying that it would not go away; was not a disease to be healed nor a threat to be repressed. He described it as "a rich cultural resource" and suggested that internal differences - for example within the Anglican communion - were greater than between different religious groups.
He proposed that for dialogue to work, people must respect each other - including another's process for change, scholarship and spirituality - listen and be open.
He said Christians need to be fully "self", prepared to state their own position.
"Too often, Christians are inarticulate, offensively obsequious and ashamed of or shy about who they are," he said.
He proposed that the forthcoming Parliament of the World's Religions, to be held in Melbourne, December 3-9, this year, would provide a positive approach to diversity where participants would have an opportunity to meet and to learn.
According to Presentation Sister Maureen Watson (Wagg Wagga) Gary Bouma's two sessions were presented from the heart.
"He has lived, breathed and lectured the contents of his talks all his life, and he knew how to get our attention from the beginning," she said.
"The reality is that there are many faiths practised in Australia. While this is a challenge it is also a great gift.
"Gary's suggestion of dialogue is such a simple approach - listening with respect, accepting difference, sharing one's own faith.
"Being oneself can so easily achieve so much, while knowing 'the other' provides the opportunity to remove fear and prejudice."
more from
The Australian Soul including statistics and the questions Prof Bouma posed to the gathering
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