Projects and Programs

Faith’s Place: Democracy in a Religious World

Over the next fifty years, Australia is predicted to become a less religious country, while the world at large will become more religious. This raises questions about what kind of society Australia will be as the positive and negative influences of religion fade, and liberalism and democracy struggle to adapt to a changing world.

It also raises challenges for Australia’s democratic leaders, who might struggle to comprehend the needs of the minority of religious Australians, and to balance these with the demands of the non-religious majority.

In Faith’s Place, eight essayists, including the Liberal Party’s Dean Smith and the Labor Party’s Luke Gosling, respond to Bryan Turner and Damien Freeman’s critical assessments of the challenges for democracy and religion in Australia. The collection also offers Australian and international perspectives on what it means for democracy and religion to flourish in Australian society and politics today.

Faith’s Place will be launched in December 2020 by Professor Slatko Skrbis, Professor Brian Turner and Professor Jocelyne Cesari (Harvard Divinity School) on Andrew West’s Religion and Ethics Report on Radio National.

Purchase Faith's Place: Democracy in a Religious World