Postkiwi

This last weekend I attended a Uniting Church conference featuring David Tacey in a forum on spirituality and the future of religion in Australia, held at Indooroopilly Uniting Church in Brisbane.

David Tacey is not to be confused with David Tracey, Chicago theologian. This David is Associate Professor and Reader of Arts and Critical Enquiry at La Trobe University in Melbourne.

David reminded me a bit of Zonker Harris from Doonesbury comic strip, as shown on the right.

Australia’s changing spiritual and religious landscape

The Friday night session with David included an hour-long lecture on spirituality. He helped us look at spirituality as both transcendent and immanent, including both religious and secular forms. We looked at spirituality as a journey, a life project and a ‘work in progress’. I must admit I missed part of the talk as I was over in Indooroopilly KMart looking for name tag holders to cope with the influx of people registering on the night. KMart didn’t have any! Anyway, I came back to hear David talking about the need to find alternatives to literalistic fundamentalism on the one hand and atheistic progressivism on the other. We were challenged to rediscover the power of myths without becoming captivated by the need to develop rigid belief patterns around them.

The lecture was followed by a very helpful dialogue with a panel of four respondents, Michelle Cook, David Bosch, Ann Cross and Rob Bos.

Teaching and Learning the Art of Spirituality,
or Doing Religion in a Non-Religious World

David gave us some insights from the course on spirituality he’s been running at La Trobe University. David began with quotes from Douglas Coupland, with particular reference to his book, Life After God. What happens when a whole generation of people are raised without any reference to spirituality? It’s like a beach ball held under the water. It must rise again. One of the most helpful parts of this presentation was the constant reference to the developing spirituality of students. I appreciated the reference to Derrida’s later material in which he engages with religion. “Religion is what succeeds in returning”.

We broke up into small groups. Somehow I ended up having morning tea with David. We got into talking about the impact of Star Wars on the mythology and spirituality of emerging generations. I’ll put something on that in a separate post, with reference to the connection between George Lucas and Joseph Campbell. Over lunch I asked David about the connection with David Tracey. He mentioned presenting a lecture in the United States to a packed auditorium only to discover that people thought they were going to hear the more well known Tracey.

Western Religion and Interiority: Finding Spiritual Resources

The session after lunch must be the hardest to stay awake through. I know one conference organiser who bans meat from the lunch menu in an effort to keep people from dozing off. Anyhow, whether asleep or awake, we had an opportunity to engage with the inner human. David’s connection with Carl Jung became evident as we explored the connection between spirituality and the psyche. The Evangelical tradition has long been suspicious of anything that has its source from within rather than from an objective shared resource. We were reminded that religion and spirituality can form a valuable partnership.

Questions

Once again, the most energising part of the afternoon was the dialogue in small groups and in the plenary session after. At one point someone asked how we go about developing ’safe spaces’ for engagement with the sacred. Spaces safe from the extremes of fundamentalism. I think there’s a lot to be said for developing intentional, perhaps time limited, faith communities that find neutral places to meet with others from the community. It’s the Third Place that Ray Oldenburg writes about - not the home, nor the workplace but the public space of cafe or bar where regular conversation is encouraged.

One of the fascinating questions of the day was that of socioeconomic background. We were hearing the stories of postmodernist university students. What about young adults who had no intention of engaging with university study? Was there a spirituality for them? How would it be expressed? How do we help a spirituality develop in their context? I appreciated this question and suspect we could have spent more time engaging with the issues it raised. Spirituality does not need to be an academic exercise. Indeed we too often assume that spirituality is cerebral or contemplative. What about spiritualities that engage with action and camaraderie.

I enjoyed David’s honesty and willingness to humbly think aloud. He showed a willingness to suspend judgment on the spiritual explorations of others, including people who are entering from a conventional perspective.

Books by David Tacey

We had David Tacey’s books on sale. Edge of the Sacred: Transformation in Australia, published in 1995. Re-Enchantment: The New Australian Spirituality, 2000. And The Spirituality Revolution: The Emergence of Contemporary Spirituality, 2003. All published by Harper Collins Australia. The most recent is more accessible to the overseas market. We’re treated to a healthy mixture of autobiographical insight and engagement with worldwide scholarship applied to Australian settings. I’d be interested in anyone’s comments, whether in response to the books or to the conference.