BHA: On spirituality, the Church and Indigenous Australians

[Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I am hoping to be able to persuade some of my graduate students to make the
trip to Bradford. I think that two of them are currently doing interesting
work around the question of Aboriginality and Emancipation.  One of the
candidates is white while the other is an Aborigine.

Central to both theses is the matter of spirituality.  How though can this
be understood?  For one of the candidates his spirituality comes I think
out of his Christianity. In my own case how do I relate to this? Well I
have been a militant atheist who has grown to detest the aggressive
secularism, which so dominates our epoch and I urged him to come out as a
Christian in his thesis writing. People have a right to be religious. There
I said it!

However for Aborigines the Christian Church represents something else -
something not very good either. So I think for this candidate the task is
to find a way of formulating the spiritual turn which disassociates it from
the organised religions through an uncompromising commitment to the
eudaionistic society.   The kingdom of god must be located here on earth.

What of the other candidate?  I have mentioned him in an earlier post.  His
is a struggle from within the Aboriginal community.  He is striving to work
with progressive sectors of the state bureaucracy to bring about a rebirth
in Aboriginal education.  For him the key is the construction of an
Aboriginal identity that is empowering. Much to think about here. Not the
least this which I snipped from Mervyn's post

>"the identity of identity and non-identity"
>(Hegel) versus "the non-identity of identity and non-identity" (Adorno).

regards

Gary




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