A Secular Australia? Ideas, Politics and the Search for Moral Order in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Australia

Abstract

This article argues that the relationship between the religious and the secular in Australia is complex and that there has been no simple transition from a religious society to a secular one. It argues that the emergence of apparently secular moral orders in the second half of the nineteenth century involved what Steven D. Smith has termed the "smuggling in" of ideas and beliefs which are religious in nature. This can be seen clearly in the economic debates of the second half of the nineteenth century in Australia in which a Free Trade based on an optimistic natural theology battled with a faith in Protection which had powerful roots in a secular form of Calvinism espoused by David Syme. The article concludes with an analysis of twentieth-century historian W. K. Hancock's comparison of the medieval commonwealth and Machiavelli, concluding that Hancock found both the Free Trade and the Protectionist visions of moral order to be inadequate.

The Forgotten Menzies: Cultural Puritanism and Australian Social Thought

“…Menzies' understanding that the English were attached to a "moral order" is not that far removed from W. K. Hancock's claim made in the 1930s that the English were moral because they were a medieval people who resisted the Machiavellianism of modernity, as exemplified by the Nazism in Germany or Fascist Italy. 42 The emphasis on character is instructive. Menzies does not consider that morality and freedom derive from theoretical constructions but from habit and custom.…”

Political and Religious Contributions in Economic Development

“…Hubungan antara agama sekuler di Australia sangat kompleks dan tidak ada transisi sederhana dari masyarakat agama yang sekuler. munculnya perintah moral dari perdebatan ekonomi dimulai pada paruh kedua abad kesembilan belas, di Australia di mana perdagangan bebas didasarkan pada teologi natural optimis berjuang dengan keyakinan yang memiliki akar kuat dalam bentuk sekuler Calvinisme, (Melleuish, G., 2014). Black, Antony (2010) dalam studi nya menjelaskan bahwa Pemikir Muslim, dimulai dengan al-Mawardi (974-1058), berusaha untuk mengembalikan subsumption politik dalam agama, terutama selama revolusi Syiah abad keenam belas di Iran.…”

Bibles in State schools

“…He argues that this conception is overly simplified and presents a compelling argument for a more nuanced understanding of these changes. Ideas around morality and citizenship were, Melleuish (2014) argues, influenced by religious ideas even in the context of an apparently secular Australian society. He argues that there is an ambiguity about the meaning of the words “secular” and “religious” in relation to Australian society (Melleuish, 2014, pp.…”

“…400-401). Melleuish (2014) states that:There has never been a religious monopoly in Australia: there has never been an established church. There has always been a measure of religious pluralism combined with a measure of indifference, which means that no religious group can monopolise the public sphere.…”