Abstract

'Conventional wisdom has it that Australia can only be understood in secular terms. ‘Australia society is determinedly secular’ claimed Stephen Knight in a recent essay. Knight argued that European Australia does not possess a mythical landscape or a sense of the sacred. This denial of the sacred as a significant aspect of Australian culture has seeped into our understanding of political ideas and practice in Australia. Hugh Collins’ characterization of Australian political culture as Benthamite and utilitarian confirms this picture of Australia as a place in which to search for the sacred and the numinous is to condemn oneself to the margins of the culture…’.

Originally published 1993

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