15-Mar-07

Dear Friends,

Our apologies if you have already received this edition of 'Faith and Community'. We experienced some techincal difficulties which may have led to some duplication.

Welcome to another edition of 'Faith and Community' - EA's free digest of recent writing on public theology and issues of interest to Australian Christians.

In this edition we provide you with summaries of two significant analyses of aspects of faith at work in the Australian context. Ian Barns has written about faith in the public arena and Paul Tyson about contemporary youth spiritualities. Both of these are substantial articles and we provide in this email a summary of them, as well as the opportunity to connect to the EA website to obtain the full text (still for free).

In addition we have notes about four other useful resources.

Incidentally, EA's web-site has been updated and it contains a wealth of resources for those interested in public theology (see the links to 'Theology' and 'Public Theology'). You can obtain back editions of both 'Faith and Community' and pdf versions of the quarterly magazine 'Working Together' as well as many other articles.Welcome Text Here

Brian Edgar<http://www.nickdube.com/clients/ea/BrianEdgar.jpg> Brian Edgar Director of Public Theology Evangelical Alliance http://www.ea.org.au <http://ea.org.au/Redirect.aspx?id=9b6491e8-b8d1-41a5-9d4e-5b9606f1923b& redir=http://ea.org.au/>

_____

If this was forwarded to you by someone else and you wish to receive this occasional digest and associated articles, send an email to with 'receive email' as the subject. To stop receiving them send an email to the same address with 'stop emails' as the subject. We respect your privacy and your details will not be given to other people.

_____

CONTENTS

UNDERSTANDING FAITH IN AUSTRALIA

Representing Jesus - Public Christianity in a late modern world Ian Barns

Contemporary Youth Spiritualities and Youth Ministry Paul Tyson

SOCIAL WELLBEING

The Attitudes of Australians To Happiness and Social Well-being Clive Hamilton & Emma Rush

Choice for Whom? A discussion of WorkChoices Tim Battin

GOD AND SECULAR SOCIETY

God and Caesar: the Bible, Postmodernity and the new imperialism N.T.Wright

The Holy Cinema: Christianity, The Bible And Popular Film Anton Karl Kozlovic.

UNDERSTANDING FAITH IN AUSTRALIA

Representing Jesus - Public Christianity in a late modern world

Ian Barns - Lecturer in Science and Technology Policy, Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy, Murdoch University

Here is a comprehensive and stimulating analysis of the way that Christian faith is understood in contemporary Australian society. It contains valuable challenges for Christians constructively engaged in relating faith and society. This summary is 1,000 words and the full text can be obtained at http://www.ea.org.au <http://ea.org.au/Redirect.aspx?id=9b6491e8-b8d1-41a5-9d4e-5b9606f1923b& redir=http://ea.org.au/> .

Certain aspects of the current relationship between faith and politics in contemporary Australia have recently been criticized, but deeper reflection on the nature of the Australian 'secular consensus' is needed. I want to defend the secularity of the public sphere - but for explicitly Christian reasons. Secularists need to give greater recognition to the 'moral sources' of modernity, which includes Christianity, and politically active Christian religionists need to think more carefully about the political logic of their faith.

Most mainstream religious traditions still assume the procedural neutrality of the liberal public sphere, but the newer 'fundamentalist' forms are less willing to do so. The underlying tension is about the very terms in which public life is framed. What is needed is a sympathetic conversation about the cultural sources of the secular consensus, as has been exemplified in the Ratzinger-Habermas dialogue and between Jeffrey Stout and the so-called 'new traditionalists'.

More attention needs to be given to the way that late modern capitalist development has created a society that is more consumerist than civic; and, in the political scene, to the contradictions between values rhetoric and political realities. The challenge is to critically engage with fundamental questions of moral community and to re-visit the relationship between Christian tradition and democratic values.

In doing so, the alternatives of privatised faith or Christian nationalism are not the only options. In recent years there has been a significant and influential movement committed to recovering the 'eschatological politics' central to the Christian gospel. In this view the accommodation between church and political power has profoundly distorted the communication of the gospel of Christ. The political task of the church is simply to bear witness to the primacy of Jesus. As Yoder and Hauerwas have famously stated: the church best serves the world by being the church.

However, it is a mistake to regard their approach as sectarian and disengaged. It is rather a different kind of engagement that is subversive - in the same way that the early Christians refused to be content with being a religious sect either within Judaism or Hellenism and challenged the authority of Caesar in the name of another king Jesus. Their refusal to acknowledge the sacral kingship of Caesar brought about both persecution and the conversion of Constantine and the adoption of Christianity itself as the religion of Empire.

Oliver O'Donovan goes beyond Yoder to claim that the underlying Christian vision of the reign of Christ was a key factor in shaping the present form of secular society. O'Donovan (and Rowan Williams) also claim that without this theological rationality we experience modernity as menace, opening the way for the return of new forms of totalising politics demanding the allegiance of citizens to the larger causes of a sacred state or economy.

In contemporary Australia we have increased evangelical involvement in electoral politics and public policy but it would be a mistake to regard consumerist Pentecostalism or the politically organised Christian right as being representative of evangelical Christianity in general. If there is a danger of an anti-democratic Christian nationalism the impetus will not come from within the Christian community, but rather (as it has in America) from the co-option of Christian imagery and language by hard right political protagonists.

There are a number of key challenges for Christians constructively engaged in electoral politics and public policy issues who should also be engaged in a process of deep structural renewal of the internal life of the church:

Recovering the narrative primacy of Jesus. A gospel which is reduced to a privatised personal relationship with Jesus is a gospel abstracted from the history of Jesus.

Disavowing Constantine. This is easier said than done, since most mainline denominations still utilise symbols of power, own valuable real estate, support the theological academy and foster linkages between church leaders and secular elites.

Renewing the politics of Jesus in the life of Christian congregations. Most Christians have lost any sense of the political nature of the practices of baptism, eucharist and community. The credibility of Christian public activity depends largely on recovering the political integrity of a communal life modelled on the upside down peaceable kingdom of Jesus.

Renewing Christian participation in welfare and pastoral care. How will Christians respond to the secularisation and professionalisation of welfare which loosens the connection between welfare and the life of church community; treats welfare separately from evangelism; does not see welfare as central; and allows Christian welfare agencies to be a part of the apparatus of the state?

Defending liberal institutions in terms of a Christian secularity. This means defending the separation of church and state, the rule of law, freedom of speech, protection of civil rights and so forth, and being concerned about the accountability and transparency of secular government and the discursive conditions of an open society.

Engaging constructively in a range of policy issues. Rather than promoting behaviours that conform to Christian principles, the purpose of Christian lobbying should be to maintain the conditions and culture of civic freedoms. This differs significantly from that of (neo-)

liberal freedom, which emphasises individual autonomy and has much less of a stress on the wider community.

Participating in the reflexive debates about modernity's 'good life'. Christians should be less concerned to shore up eroding 'Judeo-Christian values' and instead aim to open up discussion on the deeper moral/metaphysical issues concerning the nature of humanity, the implications of new technological powers, our relationship to the wider non-human world, and the kind of political institutions that are needed to ensure equity as well as peace and prosperity. The challenge of Christians is to demonstrate what their eschatologically oriented faith in the primacy of Jesus means in the context of this extraordinary, risk laden world.

The full text of this article (6,500 words) can be obtained at http://www.ea.org.au <http://ea.org.au/Redirect.aspx?id=9b6491e8-b8d1-41a5-9d4e-5b9606f1923b& redir=http://ea.org.au/> .

Contemporary Youth Spiritualities and Evangelical Youth Ministry

Paul Tyson - adjunct lecturer in sociology of religion at Queensland University of Technology

The following discussion of youth spirituality is vital reading for anyone interested in the future of faith among young people in Australia. This summary is 1,200 words and the full text is 7,000 words, it can be obtained from the EA website: http://www.ea.org.au

Much of the new literature on spirituality takes as given the notion that everyone has spirituality. 'Spirituality' is seen as something all people have in common, sometimes with different generations having their own distinct 'spirituality'. This paper finds a universal notion of spirituality too vague, and generational notions of spirituality too undiscriminating. It attempts to clarify useful distinctions of spiritualities when spirituality is defined as a function of a person's basic belief assumptions and their actual practices. Using this approach the paper seeks to map the range of youth spiritualities typically found in one large Australian secondary school.

The model used to describe the way different types of belief and practice interact and differentiate in a spectral model.

At the conservative right end of the spectrum is the blue colour of modern fundamentalist spirituality. This spirituality seeks certainty, authoritative meaning and a clear moral framework. Next is a green colour which is the blending of blue fundamentalism with yellow hypermodernism. This blend is often seen where American fundamentalism combines with contemporary consumer culture. The yellow of hypermodernism has a spirituality of experience, choice and self actualisation. After yellow comes orange, the overlap of yellow and red. The red is relationalism which, to varying degrees, expresses discontent with the atomisation, fragmentation and superficiality of consumer culture, and places high value on meaning derived from relationships. With red, we are now past the half way point in the spectral sweep from conservative to radical. After red comes pink, the overlap of red and white. At the far end of the spirituality spectrum comes the white of radical post-secularism. These young people have no interest in modern certainty or postmodern irrealism, reject hypermodern consumerism and want more than relationally orientated metaphysical unbelief. These young people have a theological and religious thirst for spiritual water that reflects their sense of living in a very arid spiritual environment. They are typically highly critical of 'church'.

Of these spirituality types, only modernist fundamentalism is 'secular' in the sense that its belief world assumes 'conservative' religious Biblical supernaturalism is in conflict with 'progressive' atheistic scientific naturalism. All other spiritualities are in some manner post-secular and this has revolutionary implications.

Evangelical Youth Ministry to those with a fundamentalist spirituality

Protestant fundamentalism is a modernist island of certainty in a sea of postmodern uncertainty, at war with atheistic science and worldly hedonism. Fundamentalist Protestant churches are, as embattled ghettoes, often very close knit and this communal bondedness has a strong appeal to outsiders. But fundamentalist spirituality is not mainstream in Australian religion.

It may seem like fundamentalist youth spirituality can be easily tapped by the Evangelical church. Yet, old style evangelistic crusade ministries only hits those who grew up in fundamentalist Christianity, because the concepts of guilt, divine punishment and love expressed in redemptive sacrifice that make an 'appeal' psychologically powerful, are little comprehended by our contemporary unchurched youth.

Evangelical Youth Ministry to those with a hypermodernist spirituality

'Hypermodern' describes the marriage of postmodern beliefs (the abandonment of the need for coherent truth and universal meaning) with very modern practices of life (consumerism, technology, mass media, mobility etc). It is typically pragmatic and materialistic, and has strong lines of separation between the inner personal world of beliefs and values, and the outer public world of actions and legality. Unlike modernist fundamentalism, hypermodernism is irrealist - it simply doesn't care about whether one makes any hard distinctions between reality and illusion, or truth and fiction. It is only whether something gratifies one's desires that is important.

Successful Evangelical youth ministry is typically seen as big, attractive, relevant and as hypermodern-friendly as possible. Evangelical Christianity can be seen as the natural religion of hypermodern Western culture as Enlightenment influences have helped it adapt best to free market friendly, politically separatist, modernist, technologically minded and commodified forms of spirituality. However, since hypermodernist consumerism is the status quo, being hypermodern friendly attracts only conservative youth and often repels spiritual reactionaries.

Evangelical Youth Ministry to those with a relational spirituality

Today's youth are typically characterised by a high level of peer-connectedness. 'Love' itself is now the most tangible encounter with meaning and identity many of our young people have, but it is quite distinct from the egocentric eroticism of the 1960s sexual revolution. It is more about friendship, though it is typically morally relativistic. Absolutes of right and wrong are missing, what is right and wrong is simply worked out by mutual consent.

The emphasis on programs and entertainment, the individualism, and the doctrinal approach to meaning and identity in typical Evangelical youth ministry means that there is little for those interested in a relational spirituality. The idea that the church could deeply embody love and sustain real bonds of deeply connected interpersonal caring is fine in theory, but in practice the relationalism of our youth easily conflicts with 'the real world' time pressures of our churched people, embedded as we are in our busy career, family and personal interest priorities. Church is far more of a distinctly religious place - a place for teaching and worship - than a bonded community that expresses the love of God.

Evangelical Youth Ministry to those with a radical post-secular spirituality

There is a deepening interest in another form of spirituality, seeking a way out of the messiness of relativism, wanting more than relationalism, and searching for something transcendent. Radical post-secularists often have a very troubled sense of the global injustices that are the ground of our privileged way of life in the first world. These young people have a genuine interest in global justice and mystical light, but typically have no connection with the church on either of these. These cultural non-conformists tend to find the Evangelical church too embedded in the norms of our dominant consumer culture to readily minister to their desire for a radically different quality of life.

Overall comments on the youth spiritualities spectrum in relation to the future

The dominant hypermodern spirituality is remarkably conservative (ie supportive of the dominant consumer culture), and not naturally disposed towards the absolutism of truth or the total life commitment of conversion, discipleship and the prophetic Christian critique of wealth and power. The experience of conversion and corporate worship may speak to many but if this experience is centred in egoism, irrealism and impermanence, then mass contact may be gained at a high cost in terms of long term Christian depth. Hypermodernism is no friend of the gospel.

There is growing pressure for a spirituality of transcendently referenced love, but for the church to be a community of love that can speak to this means that much of our comfortable materialism, secularism, program fixation and individualism will need to be sacrificed. If the church is to move towards the spirituality of love, big changes will be needed. Further, if relational spirituality is a jolt to an essentially comfortable Evangelical church, radical post-secularism will be more so.

Conclusion

The apparent pluralism of youth spirituality today hides the dominant underlying irrealism of our youth's beliefs, and the egocentric experientialism common to much of their practice of life. Yet the interest in love and the possibility of a radical questioning of the very logic and practise of secularity itself does seem to provide a natural cross-over point from contemporary youth 'spirituality' to Christian life. But such a crossover will have a profoundly de-stabilizing impact on our typically secularistic, individualistic, consumeristic and conservative church cultures.

The full text of this article (7,000 words) can be obtained from http://www.ea.org.au <http://ea.org.au/Redirect.aspx?id=9b6491e8-b8d1-41a5-9d4e-5b9606f1923b& redir=http://ea.org.au/>

SOCIAL WELLBEING

The Attitudes of Australians to Happiness and Social Well-being

Clive Hamilton & Emma Rush

Australia Institute Web-paper September 2006

This paper seeks, through survey questions, to comment on aspects of the quality of life in Australia. Including -

* perceptions of changes in the quality of life in Australia * views on whether schools should emphasise a happy personal life or preparation for the world of work. * Beliefs about whether government should focus on maximising happiness or national wealth. * Attitudes expressed in response to the possibility of 'a happy pill.'

Relationships - the most important factor: Responses were tabulated in relation to sex/age, location and income. Although Australians are widely regarded as materialistic responses to the question, "What is the most important thing for your happiness?" indicate that 'Partner/spouse/relationships' are most important. This ranked higher in Australia than in a comparable poll in Britain, although it also rated top there as well.

Is life getting better? When asked, "Is life getting better?" the number of people who said that life was getting worse increased with the age of the respondent. When measured by political allegiance, Labor supporters felt strongly life was getting much worse, while for those who back the Coalition, there was a slight increase in percentage that felt life was getting better. When measured by income, those with a high income felt that life was improving, while those with a lesser income, felt that life was not. More respondents in the ACT replied in the positive, while more respondents in Tasmania replied in the negative.

Wealth or happiness? When asked 'What should schools emphasise?' all groups, by sex and age, family status, and income levels, disagreed with the idea that schools should emphasise on how students could achieve a happy personal life. In response to the question 'What should the government aim to achieve? respondents felt that a government's primary objective should be the happiness of the people, with 77% feeling that happiness was a more important objective than greater wealth.

Happiness without engagement? Responses to the question 'Would you take a happiness drug?' indicated that respondents were strongly against taking such a drug. The report concluded that instant gratification like 'happy pills' are a "cop-out'. While anti-depressant drugs (with use increasing) are used to enable people to cope Australians recognise that happiness itself is not the result of affluence or instant gratification but the result of relationships, tribulations and engagement.

In conclusion, the paper shows that Australians understand that a simplistic approach to happiness is not satisfactory, for happiness itself is not the aim, but the by-product of living a fully human life.

The full text of this paper is available on-line at The Australia Institute web-site, http://www.tai.org.au <http://ea.org.au/Redirect.aspx?id=9b6491e8-b8d1-41a5-9d4e-5b9606f1923b& redir=http://www.tai.org.au/>

Choice for Whom? A discussion of the 2005 Industrial Relations Laws

Tim Battin

Catholic Social Justice Series No.58.

In Faith and Community No 6 we produced a report of an article by Ian Harper, the Fair Pay Commissioner on the 'Christian Foundations of Australia's Economic Development' and there have been other articles on economic development and industrial relations. The latest Catholic Social Justice booklet deals with more of the issues which relate Christian faith to the principles which control Australia's economy and workplace relations.

Choice for Whom: The Catholic church does not reject secular ideas out of hand, though it has had to deal with those who question the expertise of the church to enter into the debate of industrial relation laws. The paper analyses of the shift from a time when 'markets' were seen as servants of Australia's development to the present where 'markets' are now the 'masters' of development in Australia. The tension between the false choices, equity versus efficiency and security versus productivity is not necessarily valid.

Markets, Regulation, and 'deregulation.' The first flaw is the belief that 'free markets' are superior to government systems, for in reality all markets are shaped by outside influences with no government allowing a 'true free market.' Markets are developed by the activity of 'peoples.' The concept of the basic wage, set in 1907, was based not on the 'free market' but on social and economic need, with the aim of keeping families including three children in frugal comfort. The strict application of the effects of the 'Work Choices' Act 2005 must cause the reduction of wages and conditions. The human person should be valued above the market with dignity preceding the logic of a fair exchange of goods.

Australia's tradition of industrial relations: The aim of Australia's Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration was to bring fairness and enhance cohesion by appropriate real wage levels, justice and equality. There is evidence form the 50s and 60s about the inefficiency of paying overly high wages to workers in high productivity industries and lower wages to those in low-productivity industries. But the situation has changed, for now Australia has the second longest working week of industrialised nations, behind only Korea, with workers funding their own wage increases by working longer hours. Tensions increase with the realisation that there is an almost certainty that conditions will be worse for the next generation than the present. Change has and is occurring, but for the most marginalised, it is often for the worse. Key concerns for the Catholic Bishops have become the erosion of the basic wage, the loss of fair standards of employment, job insecurity and the weakening of the unions.

Key Features of the legislation: There has been a radical shift of power to capital with regard to (a) determination of the minimum wage and conditions. Government and business have wanted to cut minimum wages through the Australian Fair Pay commission and the power of the AIRC to set minimum conditions has been severely curtailed. (b) The abolition of protection against unfair dismissal: the government has played with semantics concerning the supposed difference between 'unfair' and 'illegal' dismissal. Battin writes, 'the logic of the Government's position is that we ought to be grateful for its kindness in allowing citizens to take legal action against illegal activity.' (c) The individualisation of the workplace.

The further shift of power to capital: The framers of the 2005 legislation make no attempt to disguise the further curtailing of unions. The Act provides for employers to specify where meetings may take place and eject the representative if there is non-compliance. This legislation virtually closes off recourse to arbitration for it appears that the AIRC is to restrict union activity, but cannot bind employers to the outcome of a dispute settlement. Activism by employees and unions though not overtly banned, is virtually thwarted.

The false choices of neoliberalism: The Government promotes the idea that the legislation will be a net positive and the apparent gains to society or an individual must be highlighted. But people, always being described as individuals, are capable of being swallowed up by the amorphous entity of the 'economy.' The focus on 'the good of the economy' rather than the good of the people is evidenced in the approach that says, 'we wish we could have rising real wages in combination with greater job security, but we cannot.' The agenda is to maintain the need for increased productivity; allow the minimum wage to fall in the hope that more people will be employed; and remove working conditions, including job security. The government all too often refers to productivity when it means profitability, which can be increased through the savings in labour costs.

The minimum wage and unemployment: Australia has enjoyed a relatively high minimum wage. According to neoliberalism, this should have lead to high unemployment, but this has not been so. Society is entitled to expect that it can achieve full employment with equity.

In search of genuine reform: Reform should include: -

A programme to deal with skill shortages.

Policies to address the ever-increasing problem of work - life imbalance.

Direct policies to create more jobs.

A reversal of the trend to casualisation

A renewal of Australia's public infrastructure.

A plan to take the 'high' road to high skill and higher wages.

Conclusion: The Government legislation cannot achieve deregulation - there is no such thing. These legislative changes are unlikely to lead to a more prosperous society. A person is more precious for what he or she is, rather than for what he or she has. Similarly, all that people do to obtain greater justice, wider brotherhood, and a more humane ordering of social relationships, has greater worth than technical advances.

The booklet can be obtained from Catholic Social justice for $6.60 plus No 8 - 15-Mar-07

Dear Friends,

Our apologies if you have already received this edition of 'Faith and Community'. We experienced some techincal difficulties which may have led to some duplication.

Welcome to another edition of 'Faith and Community' - EA's free digest of recent writing on public theology and issues of interest to Australian Christians.

In this edition we provide you with summaries of two significant analyses of aspects of faith at work in the Australian context. Ian Barns has written about faith in the public arena and Paul Tyson about contemporary youth spiritualities. Both of these are substantial articles and we provide in this email a summary of them, as well as the opportunity to connect to the EA website to obtain the full text (still for free).

In addition we have notes about four other useful resources.

Incidentally, EA's web-site has been updated and it contains a wealth of resources for those interested in public theology (see the links to 'Theology' and 'Public Theology'). You can obtain back editions of both 'Faith and Community' and pdf versions of the quarterly magazine 'Working Together' as well as many other articles.Welcome Text Here

Brian Edgar<http://www.nickdube.com/clients/ea/BrianEdgar.jpg> Brian Edgar Director of Public Theology Evangelical Alliance http://www.ea.org.au <http://ea.org.au/Redirect.aspx?id=9b6491e8-b8d1-41a5-9d4e-5b9606f1923b& redir=http://ea.org.au/>

_____

If this was forwarded to you by someone else and you wish to receive this occasional digest and associated articles, send an email to with 'receive email' as the subject. To stop receiving them send an email to the same address with 'stop emails' as the subject. We respect your privacy and your details will not be given to other people.

_____

CONTENTS

UNDERSTANDING FAITH IN AUSTRALIA

Representing Jesus - Public Christianity in a late modern world Ian Barns

Contemporary Youth Spiritualities and Youth Ministry Paul Tyson

SOCIAL WELLBEING

The Attitudes of Australians To Happiness and Social Well-being Clive Hamilton & Emma Rush

Choice for Whom? A discussion of WorkChoices Tim Battin

GOD AND SECULAR SOCIETY

God and Caesar: the Bible, Postmodernity and the new imperialism N.T.Wright

The Holy Cinema: Christianity, The Bible And Popular Film Anton Karl Kozlovic.

UNDERSTANDING FAITH IN AUSTRALIA

Representing Jesus - Public Christianity in a late modern world

Ian Barns - Lecturer in Science and Technology Policy, Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy, Murdoch University

Here is a comprehensive and stimulating analysis of the way that Christian faith is understood in contemporary Australian society. It contains valuable challenges for Christians constructively engaged in relating faith and society. This summary is 1,000 words and the full text can be obtained at http://www.ea.org.au <http://ea.org.au/Redirect.aspx?id=9b6491e8-b8d1-41a5-9d4e-5b9606f1923b& redir=http://ea.org.au/> .

Certain aspects of the current relationship between faith and politics in contemporary Australia have recently been criticized, but deeper reflection on the nature of the Australian 'secular consensus' is needed. I want to defend the secularity of the public sphere - but for explicitly Christian reasons. Secularists need to give greater recognition to the 'moral sources' of modernity, which includes Christianity, and politically active Christian religionists need to think more carefully about the political logic of their faith.

Most mainstream religious traditions still assume the procedural neutrality of the liberal public sphere, but the newer 'fundamentalist' forms are less willing to do so. The underlying tension is about the very terms in which public life is framed. What is needed is a sympathetic conversation about the cultural sources of the secular consensus, as has been exemplified in the Ratzinger-Habermas dialogue and between Jeffrey Stout and the so-called 'new traditionalists'.

More attention needs to be given to the way that late modern capitalist development has created a society that is more consumerist than civic; and, in the political scene, to the contradictions between values rhetoric and political realities. The challenge is to critically engage with fundamental questions of moral community and to re-visit the relationship between Christian tradition and democratic values.

In doing so, the alternatives of privatised faith or Christian nationalism are not the only options. In recent years there has been a significant and influential movement committed to recovering the 'eschatological politics' central to the Christian gospel. In this view the accommodation between church and political power has profoundly distorted the communication of the gospel of Christ. The political task of the church is simply to bear witness to the primacy of Jesus. As Yoder and Hauerwas have famously stated: the church best serves the world by being the church.

However, it is a mistake to regard their approach as sectarian and disengaged. It is rather a different kind of engagement that is subversive - in the same way that the early Christians refused to be content with being a religious sect either within Judaism or Hellenism and challenged the authority of Caesar in the name of another king Jesus. Their refusal to acknowledge the sacral kingship of Caesar brought about both persecution and the conversion of Constantine and the adoption of Christianity itself as the religion of Empire.

Oliver O'Donovan goes beyond Yoder to claim that the underlying Christian vision of the reign of Christ was a key factor in shaping the present form of secular society. O'Donovan (and Rowan Williams) also claim that without this theological rationality we experience modernity as menace, opening the way for the return of new forms of totalising politics demanding the allegiance of citizens to the larger causes of a sacred state or economy.

In contemporary Australia we have increased evangelical involvement in electoral politics and public policy but it would be a mistake to regard consumerist Pentecostalism or the politically organised Christian right as being representative of evangelical Christianity in general. If there is a danger of an anti-democratic Christian nationalism the impetus will not come from within the Christian community, but rather (as it has in America) from the co-option of Christian imagery and language by hard right political protagonists.

There are a number of key challenges for Christians constructively engaged in electoral politics and public policy issues who should also be engaged in a process of deep structural renewal of the internal life of the church:

Recovering the narrative primacy of Jesus. A gospel which is reduced to a privatised personal relationship with Jesus is a gospel abstracted from the history of Jesus.

Disavowing Constantine. This is easier said than done, since most mainline denominations still utilise symbols of power, own valuable real estate, support the theological academy and foster linkages between church leaders and secular elites.

Renewing the politics of Jesus in the life of Christian congregations. Most Christians have lost any sense of the political nature of the practices of baptism, eucharist and community. The credibility of Christian public activity depends largely on recovering the political integrity of a communal life modelled on the upside down peaceable kingdom of Jesus.

Renewing Christian participation in welfare and pastoral care. How will Christians respond to the secularisation and professionalisation of welfare which loosens the connection between welfare and the life of church community; treats welfare separately from evangelism; does not see welfare as central; and allows Christian welfare agencies to be a part of the apparatus of the state?

Defending liberal institutions in terms of a Christian secularity. This means defending the separation of church and state, the rule of law, freedom of speech, protection of civil rights and so forth, and being concerned about the accountability and transparency of secular government and the discursive conditions of an open society.

Engaging constructively in a range of policy issues. Rather than promoting behaviours that conform to Christian principles, the purpose of Christian lobbying should be to maintain the conditions and culture of civic freedoms. This differs significantly from that of (neo-)

liberal freedom, which emphasises individual autonomy and has much less of a stress on the wider community.

Participating in the reflexive debates about modernity's 'good life'. Christians should be less concerned to shore up eroding 'Judeo-Christian values' and instead aim to open up discussion on the deeper moral/metaphysical issues concerning the nature of humanity, the implications of new technological powers, our relationship to the wider non-human world, and the kind of political institutions that are needed to ensure equity as well as peace and prosperity. The challenge of Christians is to demonstrate what their eschatologically oriented faith in the primacy of Jesus means in the context of this extraordinary, risk laden world.

The full text of this article (6,500 words) can be obtained at http://www.ea.org.au <http://ea.org.au/Redirect.aspx?id=9b6491e8-b8d1-41a5-9d4e-5b9606f1923b& redir=http://ea.org.au/> .

Contemporary Youth Spiritualities and Evangelical Youth Ministry

Paul Tyson - adjunct lecturer in sociology of religion at Queensland University of Technology

The following discussion of youth spirituality is vital reading for anyone interested in the future of faith among young people in Australia. This summary is 1,200 words and the full text is 7,000 words, it can be obtained from the EA website: http://www.ea.org.au

Much of the new literature on spirituality takes as given the notion that everyone has spirituality. 'Spirituality' is seen as something all people have in common, sometimes with different generations having their own distinct 'spirituality'. This paper finds a universal notion of spirituality too vague, and generational notions of spirituality too undiscriminating. It attempts to clarify useful distinctions of spiritualities when spirituality is defined as a function of a person's basic belief assumptions and their actual practices. Using this approach the paper seeks to map the range of youth spiritualities typically found in one large Australian secondary school.

The model used to describe the way different types of belief and practice interact and differentiate in a spectral model.

At the conservative right end of the spectrum is the blue colour of modern fundamentalist spirituality. This spirituality seeks certainty, authoritative meaning and a clear moral framework. Next is a green colour which is the blending of blue fundamentalism with yellow hypermodernism. This blend is often seen where American fundamentalism combines with contemporary consumer culture. The yellow of hypermodernism has a spirituality of experience, choice and self actualisation. After yellow comes orange, the overlap of yellow and red. The red is relationalism which, to varying degrees, expresses discontent with the atomisation, fragmentation and superficiality of consumer culture, and places high value on meaning derived from relationships. With red, we are now past the half way point in the spectral sweep from conservative to radical. After red comes pink, the overlap of red and white. At the far end of the spirituality spectrum comes the white of radical post-secularism. These young people have no interest in modern certainty or postmodern irrealism, reject hypermodern consumerism and want more than relationally orientated metaphysical unbelief. These young people have a theological and religious thirst for spiritual water that reflects their sense of living in a very arid spiritual environment. They are typically highly critical of 'church'.

Of these spirituality types, only modernist fundamentalism is 'secular' in the sense that its belief world assumes 'conservative' religious Biblical supernaturalism is in conflict with 'progressive' atheistic scientific naturalism. All other spiritualities are in some manner post-secular and this has revolutionary implications.

Evangelical Youth Ministry to those with a fundamentalist spirituality

Protestant fundamentalism is a modernist island of certainty in a sea of postmodern uncertainty, at war with atheistic science and worldly hedonism. Fundamentalist Protestant churches are, as embattled ghettoes, often very close knit and this communal bondedness has a strong appeal to outsiders. But fundamentalist spirituality is not mainstream in Australian religion.

It may seem like fundamentalist youth spirituality can be easily tapped by the Evangelical church. Yet, old style evangelistic crusade ministries only hits those who grew up in fundamentalist Christianity, because the concepts of guilt, divine punishment and love expressed in redemptive sacrifice that make an 'appeal' psychologically powerful, are little comprehended by our contemporary unchurched youth.

Evangelical Youth Ministry to those with a hypermodernist spirituality

'Hypermodern' describes the marriage of postmodern beliefs (the abandonment of the need for coherent truth and universal meaning) with very modern practices of life (consumerism, technology, mass media, mobility etc). It is typically pragmatic and materialistic, and has strong lines of separation between the inner personal world of beliefs and values, and the outer public world of actions and legality. Unlike modernist fundamentalism, hypermodernism is irrealist - it simply doesn't care about whether one makes any hard distinctions between reality and illusion, or truth and fiction. It is only whether something gratifies one's desires that is important.

Successful Evangelical youth ministry is typically seen as big, attractive, relevant and as hypermodern-friendly as possible. Evangelical Christianity can be seen as the natural religion of hypermodern Western culture as Enlightenment influences have helped it adapt best to free market friendly, politically separatist, modernist, technologically minded and commodified forms of spirituality. However, since hypermodernist consumerism is the status quo, being hypermodern friendly attracts only conservative youth and often repels spiritual reactionaries.

Evangelical Youth Ministry to those with a relational spirituality

Today's youth are typically characterised by a high level of peer-connectedness. 'Love' itself is now the most tangible encounter with meaning and identity many of our young people have, but it is quite distinct from the egocentric eroticism of the 1960s sexual revolution. It is more about friendship, though it is typically morally relativistic. Absolutes of right and wrong are missing, what is right and wrong is simply worked out by mutual consent.

The emphasis on programs and entertainment, the individualism, and the doctrinal approach to meaning and identity in typical Evangelical youth ministry means that there is little for those interested in a relational spirituality. The idea that the church could deeply embody love and sustain real bonds of deeply connected interpersonal caring is fine in theory, but in practice the relationalism of our youth easily conflicts with 'the real world' time pressures of our churched people, embedded as we are in our busy career, family and personal interest priorities. Church is far more of a distinctly religious place - a place for teaching and worship - than a bonded community that expresses the love of God.

Evangelical Youth Ministry to those with a radical post-secular spirituality

There is a deepening interest in another form of spirituality, seeking a way out of the messiness of relativism, wanting more than relationalism, and searching for something transcendent. Radical post-secularists often have a very troubled sense of the global injustices that are the ground of our privileged way of life in the first world. These young people have a genuine interest in global justice and mystical light, but typically have no connection with the church on either of these. These cultural non-conformists tend to find the Evangelical church too embedded in the norms of our dominant consumer culture to readily minister to their desire for a radically different quality of life.

Overall comments on the youth spiritualities spectrum in relation to the future

The dominant hypermodern spirituality is remarkably conservative (ie supportive of the dominant consumer culture), and not naturally disposed towards the absolutism of truth or the total life commitment of conversion, discipleship and the prophetic Christian critique of wealth and power. The experience of conversion and corporate worship may speak to many but if this experience is centred in egoism, irrealism and impermanence, then mass contact may be gained at a high cost in terms of long term Christian depth. Hypermodernism is no friend of the gospel.

There is growing pressure for a spirituality of transcendently referenced love, but for the church to be a community of love that can speak to this means that much of our comfortable materialism, secularism, program fixation and individualism will need to be sacrificed. If the church is to move towards the spirituality of love, big changes will be needed. Further, if relational spirituality is a jolt to an essentially comfortable Evangelical church, radical post-secularism will be more so.

Conclusion

The apparent pluralism of youth spirituality today hides the dominant underlying irrealism of our youth's beliefs, and the egocentric experientialism common to much of their practice of life. Yet the interest in love and the possibility of a radical questioning of the very logic and practise of secularity itself does seem to provide a natural cross-over point from contemporary youth 'spirituality' to Christian life. But such a crossover will have a profoundly de-stabilizing impact on our typically secularistic, individualistic, consumeristic and conservative church cultures.

The full text of this article (7,000 words) can be obtained from http://www.ea.org.au <http://ea.org.au/Redirect.aspx?id=9b6491e8-b8d1-41a5-9d4e-5b9606f1923b& redir=http://ea.org.au/>

SOCIAL WELLBEING

The Attitudes of Australians to Happiness and Social Well-being

Clive Hamilton & Emma Rush

Australia Institute Web-paper September 2006

This paper seeks, through survey questions, to comment on aspects of the quality of life in Australia. Including -

* perceptions of changes in the quality of life in Australia * views on whether schools should emphasise a happy personal life or preparation for the world of work. * Beliefs about whether government should focus on maximising happiness or national wealth. * Attitudes expressed in response to the possibility of 'a happy pill.'

Relationships - the most important factor: Responses were tabulated in relation to sex/age, location and income. Although Australians are widely regarded as materialistic responses to the question, "What is the most important thing for your happiness?" indicate that 'Partner/spouse/relationships' are most important. This ranked higher in Australia than in a comparable poll in Britain, although it also rated top there as well.

Is life getting better? When asked, "Is life getting better?" the number of people who said that life was getting worse increased with the age of the respondent. When measured by political allegiance, Labor supporters felt strongly life was getting much worse, while for those who back the Coalition, there was a slight increase in percentage that felt life was getting better. When measured by income, those with a high income felt that life was improving, while those with a lesser income, felt that life was not. More respondents in the ACT replied in the positive, while more respondents in Tasmania replied in the negative.

Wealth or happiness? When asked 'What should schools emphasise?' all groups, by sex and age, family status, and income levels, disagreed with the idea that schools should emphasise on how students could achieve a happy personal life. In response to the question 'What should the government aim to achieve? respondents felt that a government's primary objective should be the happiness of the people, with 77% feeling that happiness was a more important objective than greater wealth.

Happiness without engagement? Responses to the question 'Would you take a happiness drug?' indicated that respondents were strongly against taking such a drug. The report concluded that instant gratification like 'happy pills' are a "cop-out'. While anti-depressant drugs (with use increasing) are used to enable people to cope Australians recognise that happiness itself is not the result of affluence or instant gratification but the result of relationships, tribulations and engagement.

In conclusion, the paper shows that Australians understand that a simplistic approach to happiness is not satisfactory, for happiness itself is not the aim, but the by-product of living a fully human life.

The full text of this paper is available on-line at The Australia Institute web-site, http://www.tai.org.au <http://ea.org.au/Redirect.aspx?id=9b6491e8-b8d1-41a5-9d4e-5b9606f1923b& redir=http://www.tai.org.au/>

Choice for Whom? A discussion of the 2005 Industrial Relations Laws

Tim Battin

Catholic Social Justice Series No.58.

In Faith and Community No 6 we produced a report of an article by Ian Harper, the Fair Pay Commissioner on the 'Christian Foundations of Australia's Economic Development' and there have been other articles on economic development and industrial relations. The latest Catholic Social Justice booklet deals with more of the issues which relate Christian faith to the principles which control Australia's economy and workplace relations.

Choice for Whom: The Catholic church does not reject secular ideas out of hand, though it has had to deal with those who question the expertise of the church to enter into the debate of industrial relation laws. The paper analyses of the shift from a time when 'markets' were seen as servants of Australia's development to the present where 'markets' are now the 'masters' of development in Australia. The tension between the false choices, equity versus efficiency and security versus productivity is not necessarily valid.

Markets, Regulation, and 'deregulation.' The first flaw is the belief that 'free markets' are superior to government systems, for in reality all markets are shaped by outside influences with no government allowing a 'true free market.' Markets are developed by the activity of 'peoples.' The concept of the basic wage, set in 1907, was based not on the 'free market' but on social and economic need, with the aim of keeping families including three children in frugal comfort. The strict application of the effects of the 'Work Choices' Act 2005 must cause the reduction of wages and conditions. The human person should be valued above the market with dignity preceding the logic of a fair exchange of goods.

Australia's tradition of industrial relations: The aim of Australia's Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration was to bring fairness and enhance cohesion by appropriate real wage levels, justice and equality. There is evidence form the 50s and 60s about the inefficiency of paying overly high wages to workers in high productivity industries and lower wages to those in low-productivity industries. But the situation has changed, for now Australia has the second longest working week of industrialised nations, behind only Korea, with workers funding their own wage increases by working longer hours. Tensions increase with the realisation that there is an almost certainty that conditions will be worse for the next generation than the present. Change has and is occurring, but for the most marginalised, it is often for the worse. Key concerns for the Catholic Bishops have become the erosion of the basic wage, the loss of fair standards of employment, job insecurity and the weakening of the unions.

Key Features of the legislation: There has been a radical shift of power to capital with regard to (a) determination of the minimum wage and conditions. Government and business have wanted to cut minimum wages through the Australian Fair Pay commission and the power of the AIRC to set minimum conditions has been severely curtailed. (b) The abolition of protection against unfair dismissal: the government has played with semantics concerning the supposed difference between 'unfair' and 'illegal' dismissal. Battin writes, 'the logic of the Government's position is that we ought to be grateful for its kindness in allowing citizens to take legal action against illegal activity.' (c) The individualisation of the workplace.

The further shift of power to capital: The framers of the 2005 legislation make no attempt to disguise the further curtailing of unions. The Act provides for employers to specify where meetings may take place and eject the representative if there is non-compliance. This legislation virtually closes off recourse to arbitration for it appears that the AIRC is to restrict union activity, but cannot bind employers to the outcome of a dispute settlement. Activism by employees and unions though not overtly banned, is virtually thwarted.

The false choices of neoliberalism: The Government promotes the idea that the legislation will be a net positive and the apparent gains to society or an individual must be highlighted. But people, always being described as individuals, are capable of being swallowed up by the amorphous entity of the 'economy.' The focus on 'the good of the economy' rather than the good of the people is evidenced in the approach that says, 'we wish we could have rising real wages in combination with greater job security, but we cannot.' The agenda is to maintain the need for increased productivity; allow the minimum wage to fall in the hope that more people will be employed; and remove working conditions, including job security. The government all too often refers to productivity when it means profitability, which can be increased through the savings in labour costs.

The minimum wage and unemployment: Australia has enjoyed a relatively high minimum wage. According to neoliberalism, this should have lead to high unemployment, but this has not been so. Society is entitled to expect that it can achieve full employment with equity.

In search of genuine reform: Reform should include: -

A programme to deal with skill shortages.

Policies to address the ever-increasing problem of work - life imbalance.

Direct policies to create more jobs.

A reversal of the trend to casualisation

A renewal of Australia's public infrastructure.

A plan to take the 'high' road to high skill and higher wages.

Conclusion: The Government legislation cannot achieve deregulation - there is no such thing. These legislative changes are unlikely to lead to a more prosperous society. A person is more precious for what he or she is, rather than for what he or she has. Similarly, all that people do to obtain greater justice, wider brotherhood, and a more humane ordering of social relationships, has greater worth than technical advances.

The booklet can be obtained from Catholic Social justice for $6.60 plus postage. See http://www.socialjustice.catholic.org.au/postage. See http://www.socialjustice.catholic.org.au/