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While there is a significant body of research concerning Catholic faith formation in a variety of educational contexts around the world, relatively little attention has been devoted to the notion of missionary discipleship as a foundation for Catholic formation. Recently, the National Catholic Education Commission, in its document Leading Formation for Mission, also elaborates a solid definition of formation and stated: 'Formation is imaginative, creative and honours adult learning principles [...] It engages the 'intellect' and is nurtured by appropriate theological content and it engages the 'Spirit' and is characterised by contemplation and action for mission' (2022). This paper seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of formation for missionary discipleship by presenting an evaluation of the efficacy of In Altum, a student-focussed ministry and leadership program developed at the University of Notre Dame Australia in response to the developing magisterial teaching concerning the notion of 'missionary discipleship'. In particular, we examine participants' personal faith development, understanding of missionary discipleship on campus, preparation for future ministry, and understanding of contemporary challenges to discipleship. The study progresses in three parts: First, it provides a brief background to In Altum, including the philosophical and sociological context, as well as the key theological principles underpinning the formation offered within the program. Second, following an overview of the mixed-methodology approach taken in the study, which details both the use of qualitative and quantitative data derived from focus groups and an online survey, the paper presents the results of the study, which sought to investigate the efficacy of the program as it pertained to the following: (a) the building of (personal subjective assessment of) faith in participants; (b) the building of participants' understanding of, and confidence in, the task of evangelisation as missionary discipleship in a secularised context; (c) building a strengthened sense of community amongst the participants. In the third and final section, the reported strengths and weaknesses of the program are examined. The paper also comments on implications for the program on the culture of the university more broadly, including precepts of the program's findings that may be applied in light of the Australian Catholic Plenary Council's findings to enhance the future directions of formation programs in the Catholic University Chaplaincy, with possible application to Catholic secondary schools and parish youth groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to deepen the understanding of religious plurality using a range of conceptual lenses and then to draw out some implications for a dialogical approach to religious education in Catholic schools. While what was, until very recent times, seen as conventional religious affiliation has certainly weakened in Australia and elsewhere, this does not necessarily lead to a multiplication of communal beliefs, practices and values. Following Smith, Inglehart and others, what has emerged is a dominant cultural hegemony which has a range of characteristics, but the most pertinent for the discussion here is the loss of the transcendent imperative and the subsequent decline in the knowledge of, and identification with, narratives associated with once-dominant religious communities. An understanding of diversity in the current cultural milieu in Australia needs to consider this hegemony as expressed in a commonality of beliefs, values and practices regardless of expressed affiliation, religious or not. Understanding diversity in this framework establishes a basis for better considering what a dialogical approach to religious education would involve. A dialogical approach to religious education is taken as a settled norm and not one that is heavily contested. A number of the implications of the proposed understanding of diversity for religious education are given. These include following a Vygotskian scaffolded approach to pedagogy and seeing an important place for the articulation of the home religious tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the significant effects of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York was the politics of the US-led war on terror encompassing secularism and calls for Islamic reformation. The political discourse of war on terror was not limited to the Americas but was witnessed in other Western nations, such as Australia. The discourse of "Islam needs reforming" by the Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, in response to the Lindt Café siege (labelled as "Islamic terrorism") tacitly associates Islam with terrorism and represents Muslims negatively to the wider Australian society. This paper with the research question of "How does 'Islam needs reforming' discourse perpetuate Islamophobia?" carried out critical discourse analysis on the selected speeches of Tony Abbott in response to the Lindt Café siege in 2014 to find out the context and implications of Abbott's discourse in relation to calls for Islamic revolution. The study found that Abbott through the example of al-Sisi's (Egypt's president) calls for Islamic reformation forwarded his stance of the need for change in Islam to counter terrorism. Therefore, the present paper argues that the calls for Islamic reformation in response to terrorism can associate Islam with terrorism, thus, perpetuating Islamophobia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colonisation, genocide, ecocide, and climate derangement are ongoing, unfurling, global tragedies. In so-called Australia, spiritual practitioners can respond to these crises by deepening their engagement with Aboriginal perspectives/practices. This paper contends that some Eurocentric habitual categorisations subtly misinterpret Aboriginal experiences of the sacred, such as identifying creation myths as beliefs comparable to post-Enlightenment representations of the sacred and identifying the performance of sacred activity with similar characteristics to separateness and priesthood. This leads to erroneous characterisations of Aboriginal ritual practices as being based on a strong hierarchy, distinctive castes, and esotericism. We argue that an embodied and practice-based sense of sacredness guides Aboriginal spirituality. As a living culture, Aboriginal ongoing care for Country provides an enfleshed, real, palpable enactment of human spirituality. We argue that Aboriginal spirituality has been fetishised to the neglect of a call to care for Country in the most 'mundane' sense of tending to food, water, air, etc., as embodied religious experiences. Delving into dadirri and death, we elucidate contemporary cases of practical care for Country that illustrate how being on, in, and with Country can be a contemplative experience. We conclude by outlining how caring for Country 'layers' the various expressions of Aboriginal religious experience socially, psychologically, interpersonally, and ritually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2015, religious freedom has become a heated and divisive political and public policy issue in Australia. While rarely defined or interrogated, 'religious freedom' does not exist as a value-neutral principle with a single meaning. Rather, its discursive constructions are varied and serve to promote certain interests at the expense of others. Offering a new perspective on the politics of religious freedom, this paper draws together four separate studies of the public discourse of religious freedom in Australia (spanning 35 years from 1984 to 2019) to chart how its framing has changed over time and to explore the implications of these changes. This analysis reveals three major discourses of religious freedom emerging over three phases: 'religious diversity'; 'balancing rights'; and 'freedom of belief'. This paper demonstrates how, once used to promote a progressive social agenda, religious freedom has become weaponised by the Christian Right and culture warriors in their battle to entrench in law the ongoing acceptability of discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the connection between intra-religious dialogue and Muslim identities in Australia. Drawing on empirical literature and analysis, this article investigates the increasing identification and interplay between Australian Muslims from different sects, sub-sects and faith-based groups of Islam. It argues intra-Muslim dialogue is gaining more noticeability among Australian Muslims working to build civic and inclusive identities. At the same time, the article points to the socio-political, organisational and sectarian issues challenging intra-religious unity between Muslim groups in Australia. To achieve genuine and long-lasting intra-faith relations, the article argues for a need to develop organic, theologically inclusive and contextually grounded articulations of intra-Muslim dialogue in Australia. The article concludes that diverse experiences of identity formation in Australia serve as an impetus for strengthening intra-Muslim relations based on previous success with inter-faith initiatives, as well as intergroup contact with non-Muslims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the meaning of home is essential for the quality of life and well-being of older people in residential aged care. 'Home' is a spiritual concept that is deeply personal and important for older people. Using a qualitative, phenomenologically-based methodology, the meaning of home for ten older people living in residential aged care in Australia was examined using in-depth interviews to draw out the depth of meaning around the home. A key finding of the study showed that 'home' means connection through meaningful relationships and meaningful connection to place. The current paper focuses on meaningful relationships required for an older person to feel 'at home' in residential aged care. Drawing on residents' personal narratives, fresh insights are provided into essential relationship qualities, and suggestions are made on how quality relationships can be facilitated and maintained, both for and by residents, to increase a sense of homeliness in residential aged care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian media invests considerable attention in asylum seekers and their children, especially those arriving by boat. In this paper, we provide an analysis of Australian newsprint media published during the term of Australia's Gillard's government (2010–2013). This period is critical as it coincides with rising numbers of boat arrivals to Australian shores, fear towards Muslims, and growing Islamophobia. At the time, there were government promises to move children from offshore immigration detention into community-based detention, that would involve living among mainstream Australian society. A data set of 46 articles from major Australian newspapers articles was subject to a discourse analysis of representations of children in both the written texts and in silences. Manipulative tactics of 'risk framing' and 'dispersed intentionality' were identified as discursive acts aimed to confuse compassion and deviancy with respect to asylum seeker children presumed to be from Islamic backgrounds. We argue that this was achieved through binary characterizations in which Muslim parents and people smugglers were constructed as deviant alongside intentional silences, that may have otherwise elicited compassion for asylum seeker children. We propose that this period of media reporting is foundational to understanding the rise of Islamophobic discourses and the implication of Muslim children in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides insight into senior secondary learners' views on Islamic Studies (IS) in three large Australian Islamic schools. This study offers a 'dialogic alternative' of 'speaking with' rather than 'speaking for' learners in Islamic educational research, planning, and renewal within K-12 Islamic schools. The study privileges learners' voice and enables an insight to their experience with one of the most important features of Islamic schools—Islamic Studies. Using phenomenology as a methodological framework, learner voice was elicited through focus groups where 75 learners (years 10, 11, and 12) provided information describing their experience with Islamic Studies. Thematic content analysis of the textual data suggests that learners' dissatisfaction far outweighs their satisfaction with Islamic Studies. The findings of this paper can benefit Islamic schools in Australia and other Western contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mainland Chinese grow up in a nation with Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism as their cultural heritage, and are educated with atheism, materialism, and scientism in contemporary China. However, the high rate of conversion to Christianity among Chinese immigrants in Anglo-Saxon countries constitutes a distinctive feature in studies of migration. This paper aims to investigate the reasons for becoming Christian and the development of spirituality of a group of first-generation Chinese Australians from mainland China. All the seven participants are highly educated women who migrated to Australia as adults and had young children at the time of conversion. Data were collected mainly through open-ended in-depth interviews, and triangulated with private conversations, observations, and WeChat messaging. This ethnographic qualitative research found that these immigrants' Christian attempts were prominently triggered by settlement crisis as new immigrants and as immigrant parents. They see Christianity and church community as a strong vehicle to resolve integration difficulties in a new society, such as economic and career insecurities, social isolation, language barriers, marital crises, and parenting dilemmas. Their Christian movement is facilitated by identified ideological congruence but hindered by cultural conflicts between their newly acquired Christian doctrines and their previously instructed values. The findings have implications for immigrant families, secular institutions, and religious organizations, as to the psychosocial well-being of new migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for a reconsideration of social cohesion as an analytical concept and a policy goal in response to increasing levels of religious diversity in contemporary Australia. In recent decades, Australian has seen a revitalization of religion, increasing numbers of those who do not identify with a religion (the "nones"), and the growth of religious minorities, including Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism. These changes are often understood as problematic for social cohesion. In this paper, we review some conceptualizations of social cohesion and religious diversity in Australia, arguing that the concept of social cohesion, despite its initial promise, is ultimately problematic, particularly when it is used to defend privilege. We survey Australian policy responses to religious diversity, noting that these are varied, often piecemeal, and that the hyperdiverse state of Victoria generally has the most sophisticated set of public policies. We conclude with a call for more nuanced and contextualized analyses of religious diversity and social cohesion in Australia. Religious diversity presents both opportunities as well as challenges to social cohesion. Both these aspects need to be considered in the formation of policy responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notions of childhood in colonial Australia were informed by a variety of social contexts that varied across time and space and were given material expression in the memorialization of children's burials. Using data drawn from two studies of nineteenth-century cemeteries in rural South Australia, in this paper, we suggest an alternative way to understand children archaeologically that avoids the trap of essentialism: the notion of 'childness'. Childness is defined as the multiple conceptions of being, and being labeled, a child. The concept of being a child may be instantiated in different ways according to particular social, cultural, chronological, and religious contexts; childness is the measure of this variation. In Western historical settings, the most likely causes for such variation are the social processes of class and status via the closely associated ideologies of gentility and respectability and their attendant expectations around labor, as well as the shifts they represent in the social ideology of the family. Exploring childness, rather than children, provides an alternative way to approach the histories of contemporary Western understandings of childhood, including when particular types of childhood began and ended, and according to what criteria in different contexts, as well as how boundaries between child and adult were continually being established and re-negotiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]