Reading the Bible in Australia

We invite you to an evening to launch Reading the Bible in Australia, edited by Deborah R. Storie, Barbara Deutschmann and Michelle Eastwood.

Enjoy a panel discussion on the questions the book raises, with Meredith Lake, the editors, and interested local people.

Please RSVP by Friday 10 May for catering purposes, [email protected] 0431 397 771

About the book:

Reading the Bible in Australia invites reflection about how the Bible matters to Australia. Contributors probe intersections between vital debates about Australian identity (who we have been, are, and aspire to become) and the Bible, bringing a range of perspectives to critical themes--indigeneity, colonization, and migration; landscape, biodiversity, and climate; gender and marginality; economics, ideology, and rhetoric. Each chapter explores the past and present influence of a biblical text or theme. Some offer fresh contextually and ethically informed readings. All interrogate the wider outcomes of reading the Bible in different ways. Given the tragic consequences of how it has been used historically, and sometimes still is, some Australians would exclude the Bible and its interpreters from public debate. Yet, as Meredith Lake's The Bible in Australia demonstrates, "a degree of biblical literacy--along with critical skill in evaluating how the Bible has been taken up and interpreted in our history--can only help Australians grapple well with the choices Australia faces." Love it or hate it, there is no getting around the reality that the Bible, and how it is read, still matters.

“I am excited about this book. Why? As an Australian Christian who has read the Bible all his life, it never occurred to me to ask what it means to read it in Australia. I had read it devotionally. I have tried to read it internationally. I have read it as a church member. This book helps me to read it as an Australian in the light of our tragic history with Indigenous people and our response to this continent’s natural environment. I commend it.”

—Tim Costello, executive director, Micah Australia