A Secular State? Reason, Religion, and the Australian Polity 1788-1945

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What does it mean to say that Australia is a secular state? How did that self-conception develop and how has the meaning of 'secular' changed over the course of the nation's history? These are the fundamental questions that shape this study of the inter-relationship of the secular and religion within the Australian polity from 1788 to the end of World War II. The project will be illuminated by the increasingly sophisticated literature on secularisation and the international comparisons it aims to facilitate. The outcome is expected to be a historically informed explanation of distinctively Australian attitudes to secularity, which may provide the basis for a more informed national debate over issues of religion and citizenship.