Intellectual Authority and Its Changing Infrastructures in Australian and United States Christianity, 1960s–2010s.

This article discusses the significance of how Christians relate to issues of knowledge, expertise, and authority in the public sphere, particularly in the context of the events of 2020. The symposium explored the historical crises behind the present situation, examining themes such as racial justice, the authority of science, and decolonization in the US and Australian contexts. The symposium aimed to widen and build on previous work by including the Australian context and exploring the racialization of intellectual authority in Christianity. Keynotes and papers discussed the role of popular culture, creationism, and Indigenous religion in shaping intellectual authority. The symposium also considered the ongoing imperative to decolonize knowledge production. Two papers from the symposium, one on the history of missions and colonial theologies in Australia and one on the history of theological education, have been published in the Journal of Religious History. [Extracted from the article]