Special Days of Worship and National Religion in the Australian Colonies, 1790–c. 1914
Special Days of Worship and National Religion in the Australian Colonies, 1790–c. 1914
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澳大利亚殖民地的特殊礼拜日和民族宗教，1790 年至 1914 年
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发表时间：
2017
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通讯作者：
J. Hardwick
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作者：
J. Hardwick
从1790年到1914年，澳大利亚各殖民地政府要求其居民暂停工作和娱乐活动，参加集体祈祷活动。澳大利亚特殊的祈祷日具有重要的历史意义，值得更多的学术关注。它们经久不衰，是一个多信仰、多民族的社区为共同的事业联合起来做礼拜的难得时刻。本文以最近对英国国家祈祷的研究为基础，考虑到殖民地的特殊礼拜传统可以告诉我们19世纪澳大利亚的社区依恋。“斋戒日”和“感恩日”既有帝国特色，也有地域特色。澳大利亚日的一小部分是为帝国大事（特别是战争和皇家场合），在整个帝国范围内观察。绝大多数，例如在干旱期间要求的无数天的禁食和羞辱，是由殖民当局指定的区域性事件。文章认为，不同类型的祈祷日映射了同时代人设想的“大不列颠”和“不列颠世界”的不同方式。皇室活动的祈祷日帮助帝国的居民将自己视为帝国的不列颠人。与此同时，由殖民地政府在当地任命的日子表明了地区依恋的力量。殖民者产生了一种天意对待他们与其他地方的英国社区不同的感觉，这种“国家天意”的感觉可以支撑一种殖民差异感——甚至是殖民民族主义。祈祷日表明，大不列颠是由不同的社区和民族组成的，但他们所鼓励的地区感情仍然可以与一个由种族、宗教和利益共同定义的帝国共同体的附属关系和谐相处。
ABSTRACT Throughout the period between 1790 and 1914 the governments of the Australian colonies asked their populations to suspend work and amusements and join in collective acts of prayer. Australia’s special days of prayer have much historical significance and deserve more scholarly attention. They had an enduring popularity, and they were rare moments when a multi-faith and multi-ethnic community joined together to worship for a common cause. This article builds on recent work on state prayers in Britain by considering what the colonial tradition of special worship can tell us about community attachments in nineteenth-century Australia. ‘Fast days’ and ‘days of thanksgiving’ had both an imperial and a regional character. A small number of the Australian days were for imperial events (notably wars and royal occasions) that were observed on an empire-wide scale. The great majority, such as the numerous days of fasting and humiliation that were called during periods of drought, were for regional happenings and were appointed by colonial authorities. The article argues that the different types of prayer day map on to the various ways that contemporaries envisaged ‘Greater Britain’ and the ‘British world’. Prayer days for royal events helped the empire’s inhabitants to regard themselves as imperial Britons. Meanwhile, days appointed locally by colonial governments point to the strength of regional attachments. Colonists developed a sense that providence treated them differently from British communities elsewhere, and this sense of ‘national providence’ could underpin a sense of colonial difference—even a colonial nationalism. Days of prayer suggested that Greater Britain was a composite of separate communities and nationalities, but the regional feelings they encouraged could still sit comfortably with attachments to an imperial community defined by commonalities of race, religion and interest.