Spirituality in a Godless Country

This was the first Ethics Centre lecture of 2013; whose more catchy alternative title was "God Down Under". It was interesting and provocative - a bit intellectually fluffy, but overall an excellent lecture.

Tacey's main argument was that, whilst outwardly and in appearance increasingly secular, there is a spirituality that is 'beneath notice' - an unconscious spirituality that connects people to 'place'. Tacey was raised in central Australia and, despite his Catholic background has also been influenced by Aboriginal spirituality and feels a spiritual connection to the land.

Only 7% of Australians regularly attend a place of worship; a number which is continuing to decline. This contrasts with 70% of Australians who believe that there is more to life than the physical world. The hidden spirituality of Australians, Tacey argues, is hidden by brute materialism and the Australian traits of larrikinism (irreverance, mockery of authority and disregard for rigid forms of propriety) and boganism (the Australian equivalent of the chav).

The absence of the sacred in Australian public life has been compensated for by artists, writers, poets and musicians who express a spirituality: Patrick White, Les Murray, David Malouf, Tim Winton and Francis Webb (some of whom may be familiar names outside Australia) - Tacey says they are rebels against the dominant public discourse.

Tacey offers a critique of the word 'secular' that rings true. He offers up novelist Peter Carey's definition of the word, from his book Oscar and Lucinda: "Practical. It is the word they use in Sydney when they wish to do something damaging to the spirit.... It is a word dull men use when they wish to hide the poverty of their imagination."

Tacey observes that 'secular' once meant the separation of Church and State, whereas now it means the exclusion of anything spiritual from all spheres of public life. This is certainly the way the word has come to be used in my experience.

Tacey overstates his case, in my view, in arguing for "Two Australias". One, he says, is the one with its myths of "mateship"; the bush ethos, the ANZAC legend that sees Ned Kelly as its larrikin hero, celebrates the resistance to authority illustrated at the Eureka stockade; its artistic hero is Henry Lawson, its poet is Banjo Paterson and its anthem is Waltzing Matilda  - it is humanist, rational and pragmatic. This I don't disagree with.

The second Australia, says Tacey, emerges after 1945 as expressed through the artists and writers mentioned above, that is moving in the other direction and whilst not religious, is in a search of the spirit. I question Tacey's understanding; I see it more as a disillusionment with modernity and national mythmaking, than a spiritual renaissance.

Tacey argues that Australians have an inherent shyness when talking about spirituality. He argues that the sacred in Australia does not necessarily mean supernatural, but, on the contrary, is found in the 'natural'.

Tacey identifies with the theologian Paul Tillich, who says that "God has moved from a believable being up in the sky and a new world opens when we see God as 'Being' itself. The God who we cannot flee is the Ground of our Being."

Similarly, Tacey wants to ditch the word 'God' - remove the 'a' from "a Being" to simply "Being" - 'being' that is immanent and grounded in the natural world. And here is where Aboriginal spirituality has much to teach non-Indigenous spiritualities.

Of the emergence of spirituality in Australia he quotes the poet Les Murray, who says "What we have received is the ordinary mail of the otherworld, wholly common, not postmarked divine." The divine is immanent and from below/within - not above, out there and transcendent. He refers to the story of Elijah in 1 Kings (Old Testament) who expected God to speak to him in a loud booming voice - what he experienced instead was a still, small voice.

The language and symbolism that we use for God is changing, says Tacey. Judaeo-Christianity is changing with influence from Asian religions - there is more value placed on doubt and experience, with less on the absolute. A spirituality that is much more in-tune with those of the ancient sages and mystics of the main theistic faiths is developing. I very much agree with this last point - though I am not convinced that Christianity in NSW - which is overwhelmingly conservative in both Anglicanism and Catholicism - is likely to embrace this.

Tacey quotes Meister Erchardt in claiming that "In order to find God we have to lose God." He says that this is precisely why Buddhism is so popular; indeed the fastest growing religion in Australia. I challenge this - according to the most recent census data I have read, Hinduism as overtaken Buddhism as the fastest growing religion here; the main reason for this, as for the growth of Buddhism, is in fact immigration.

The word God carries too much baggage, says Tacey - it is a word that is hierarchical, authoritarian, judgmental and male. I agree that it is too closely associated with a medieval view of the divine that is cultic, 'A' being that requires certain rituals or prayers to be performed by adherents, in return for particular divine acts of benificence. To me, this is little different from the ancient religions with their gods of fertility, or the sun, or the underworld, whether in Egypt, Mesopotamia or the Americas.

"I have a feeling in my bones that there is a possibility of a creative religious explosion occurring early in the third millennium with the ancient land of Australia at the centre of it. " So wrote Max Charlesworth in 1992. 

Tacey said he was overwhelmed with student attendance at a lecture he gave entitled "Environmentalism and the Sacred". I think there is something in this - there is indeed an interest in spirituality in young Australians -  'just keep God out of it!'

I wasn't convinced that Tacey was able to elucidate what he means by 'spirituality', and I don't agree that there is such a counter-cultural growth of spirituality, but there were aspects of his analysis of Australian religions and spirituality that ring true. I certainly think that the mainstream institutional religions need to listen to men like Tacey to avoid becoming irrelevant. But, as someone who values doubt, I doubt it.