Over the last 30 odd years, Christian churches in Australia have experienced difficult times. Attendance has fallen. Congregational expectations have changed. Buildings have closed. We could be excused for thinking that Australians generally were not interested in religion any more. We would be wrong. Even though it may be a struggle to fill the pews on Sunday, studies in religion, religious history and church history are enjoying unprecedented popularity.
It may be argued that, while we are less willing to commit to religious practice, we are, on the other hand, still fascinated by spiritual life. We want to understand the religious beliefs of other cultures. We want to know about the role of religious practice in the past. We want to explore the significance of the institutional church in our local communities. This shift in our engagement with religion may be a response to a variety of social, cultural and political changes that have taken place since World War II. It is possible to point to the growth of multiculturalism, changing gender roles, the rise of the heritage industry, the establishment of the Uniting Church in 1977, changes in Catholicism after Vatican II, postmodernism and even the broad impact of the radical changes in the 1960s and 70s as reasons why religious practice currently holds a different appeal for our community. Perhaps it can be argued that, as religious practice declines or shifts, it is easier to see religious life as closely linked to the past. Certainly historians are more willing than ever before to consider the role of religion in Australia’s history. This is an important development, for they have long argued that religion played little part in the growth of the nation or the moulding of its identity. Although Australian religious experience is not as close to government as in Britain, or as close to the national identity as in the United States, it is still a significant part of the Australian story. A survey of religious history writing in Australia, published in the Journal of Religious History in 2000, confirmed that not only was religious history growing as a discipline, but it was also moving into new areas. In the last 20 years historians have become much less interested in the politics of religion and are more willing to explore the way in which the diversity of religious experience operates within Australian society. Local historians, for example, tell the stories of small communities with an eye to the spiritual environment. Historians of gender issues, Aboriginal people and ethnic groups also realise that concern for religion must inform their work. It seems that where religion was once ignored in the pursuit of other themes or approached from very narrow perspectives, now historians are looking to see how religious matters are connected to what may appear to be secular concerns. One recent example is Brian Fletcher’s 1999 study ‘Anglicanism and Nationalism in Australia, 19011962’ also published in the Journal of Religious History. In that article Fletcher demonstrates the way in which Anglicanism influenced the direction of Australian nationalism. The greater awareness of religion means that the way we interpret our past must take into account what used to be considered peripheral, marginal or even dismissed voices. This in turn means that we must be prepared to search out a whole range of new materials to provide different information about the past. Some of these materials we might call ‘religious’. Historians are finding that new and more detailed Australian stories can be told by rediscovering and reinterpreting our religious history. The National Library is well placed to help historians integrate religion into our understanding of the Australian experience. In particular, the Library holds one of the broadest and most useful collections of all, namely church newspapers. Historians regularly use the daily papers to find coverage of important events or to look for the ways in which those events may have been interpreted. The church newspapers are equally as useful. They chronicle the life of a denomination and at the same time provide an interpretation of major secular events and developments. The church newspapers provide another window through which to view Australian life. The National Library holds over 2000 religious newspapers and magazines. Almost one half of these are Australian publications, while others are related in some way to religious groups represented in Australia. Although these papers vary greatly in the number of editions produced and the type of material they cover, diversity is one of the great assets of the collection.
The major Christian denominations are represented at the national, state and local levels in, for example, papers such as the Anglican, the South Australian Presbyterian or the Moonee Ponds Baptist Record. Church materials are also available in yearbooks, conference papers and official reports. Church schools have their own papers such as the Geelong Grammar School Quarterly, Lux (the paper of SCEGGS Redlands) or the Tamworthian. Special interest groups within the church also have, over the years, produced a variety of papers such as the National Magazine of the Movement for the Ordination of Women or AngGays Bulletin or the Australian Churchman: National Council of the Church of England Men’s Society in Australia. Obviously these papers are particular sources for individual studies of church people and church practices. They outline and discuss the history of movements within the church and the changing focus of church practice. The church paper is often a Who’s Who of important people within church circles. Photographs record a bygone era of church picnics, social evenings, the opening and closing of buildings, the celebration of important dates in the history of the church and the commemoration of significant events in the life of a local congregation. The church paper records the debates and chronicles the events that have been important to the development, the growth or decline of religious observance. They trace the birth of new congregations and grieve at the loss of old ones. In many ways, the church paper is like a photo album for the church family but these snapshots can have untapped potential for historians who may not consider themselves as specifically interested in religion.
Church papers should be trawled by historians studying the wider issues of class, gender, power, morality, social mores, attitudes, political debate, intellectual movements and education. When David Hilliard reviewed John Murphy’s book Imagining the Fifties in Australian Historical Studies (April 2001), he commented on Murphy’s use of the Woman’s Day as a useful resource for uncovering ideas and attitudes prevalent during that period. Hilliard agreed but suggested that an equally useful resource was the church newspapers of the day and especially the Methodist papers. He was right. Of all the church newspapers, those of the Methodist Church are arguably the most generally and consistently reflective on wider social and political issues. Broadly speaking, the Methodists were willing to debate at length topical issues of concern as well as to record the day-to-day events of their own church life. For this reason, the Methodist papers are a much under-used gem for the Australian historian. The National Library holds over 160 Methodist newspapers and about 40 related specifically to Australia. Once again the collection is enormously diverse. There are some papers that are quite specific, such as the Methodist Messenger: The Quarterly voice of the Kadina-Wallaroo Methodist Circuit or Direction: Official Organ of the Pirie Street Methodist Church. Others are much broader based, such as the Victorian paper, the Spectator and Methodist Chronicle and the Queensland equivalent, the Methodist Times. The Methodist newspapers are particularly useful for historians on a number of counts. Methodism was a denomination with English roots and strong ties within Australian migrant communities. Any examination of early South Australian settlement, for example, must by necessity include the Methodism of its colonists. Their religion determined the nature of relationships, their contribution to the built environment, their strong association with temperance and other social issues, their influence in politics and education. Methodism informed South Australian society.
Similarly, in New South Wales in a different period, we can look at the contribution to social welfare of the Central Methodist Mission under Alan Walker, particularly with the establishment of Life Line, and his influence in the anti-apartheid movement and the anti-war movement. Discussion about these and other aspects of Australian history can all be found in the Methodist newspapers where a great interest was taken in reporting to the Methodist community on events and developments within the church and the wider society. On a more general note, historians can trace the anti-war debate during the Vietnam era, attitudes to the poor during the Depression, the changing response to Anzac Day or the emergence of liberal attitudes to sexual relationships in the 1960s. Religious historians can examine the importance of John Wesley, the Methodist social conscience and the establishment and spread of the denomination. Social historians can investigate the importance of the church as a meeting place, an outlet for women, an institution interested in the transmission of values to children. Intellectual historians can examine changing theological positions, the rise of secular humanism and the resilience of conservatism. The Methodist newspapers always discussed Christianity in the context of changing times. Methodism was only one vibrant element of the Australian story. Historians willing to read church newspapers, Methodist or otherwise, can capture the variety and depth of that story in exciting new ways. The soul of Australian history is waiting to be explored. JENNIFER CLARK is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of New England, Armidale |
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