TY - JOUR

T1 - The Location of Faith

T2 - Power, Gender and Spirituality in the 1883-84 Maloga Mission revival

AU - McLisky, Claire Louise

PY - 2010

Y1 - 2010

N2 - The description and analysis of religious faith, whether as embodied experience or as the subject of academic inquiry, is a troubled undertaking at the best of times. It is particularly fraught in the context of settler-colonial Christian missions to Indigenous peoples, where historical distance and positional power dynamics disrupt our understandings even further. Whether seen as a form of control, a vehicle for new froms of self-expression, or a tool of liberation, spirituality is not something that can be easily dismissed, categorised, or even described. However, given the importance of Christian missions in the history of Aboriginal peoples and the continuing resonance of Christianity in many Aboriginal communities, the importance of undrstanding how and why faith worked on Aboriginal missions cannot be overestimated. This paper takes a fresh look at questions of belief through a consideration of the complex forces, including place, power and gender, which shaped one particularly important event in the history of Christian missions to Aboriginal peoples in Australia: the 1883-84 Maloga Misison revival.

AB - The description and analysis of religious faith, whether as embodied experience or as the subject of academic inquiry, is a troubled undertaking at the best of times. It is particularly fraught in the context of settler-colonial Christian missions to Indigenous peoples, where historical distance and positional power dynamics disrupt our understandings even further. Whether seen as a form of control, a vehicle for new froms of self-expression, or a tool of liberation, spirituality is not something that can be easily dismissed, categorised, or even described. However, given the importance of Christian missions in the history of Aboriginal peoples and the continuing resonance of Christianity in many Aboriginal communities, the importance of undrstanding how and why faith worked on Aboriginal missions cannot be overestimated. This paper takes a fresh look at questions of belief through a consideration of the complex forces, including place, power and gender, which shaped one particularly important event in the history of Christian missions to Aboriginal peoples in Australia: the 1883-84 Maloga Misison revival.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - oprindelige folk

KW - Australien

KW - kristen mission

KW - evangeliske genoplivning

KW - evangelicalism

KW - indigenous people

KW - evangelicalism

KW - evangelical revival

KW - Christian mission

KW - Australia

M3 - Journal article

VL - 7

SP - 8.1-8.20

JO - History Australia

JF - History Australia

SN - 1449-0854

IS - 1

ER -