Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Marion Maddox and Rodney Smith
Key terms/names
Constitution, contracting, discrimination, religion, same-sex marriage, sectarianism,
secularism, separation of church and state, sovereignty
Modern Western political thought usually conceptualises religion as private and
personal and politics as public. This chapter demonstrates that throughout Australia’s
post-invasion history religious organisations and commitments have had many and
varied public effects, both shaping and being shaped by political, social and economic
factors. After examining theoretical questions about how religion should be understood
in relation to politics, this chapter considers how religion has contributed
to debates about nationhood, national identity and belonging. It then investigates
religious communities’ involvement in formal political processes, in relation to the
party system, as political actors and as contractors of services.
Defining religion
Political scientists have not always paid much attention to religion – and, when
they do, they often do so without definition. 1 Yet religion is an elusive concept;
Maddox, Marion, and Rodney Smith (2019). Religious communities and politics. In Peter J. Chen,
Nicholas Barry, John R. Butcher, David Clune, Ian Cook, Adele Garnier, Yvonne Haigh, Sara C. Motta
and Marija Taflaga, eds. Australian politics and policy: senior edition. Sydney: Sydney University Press.
DOI: 10.30722/sup.9781743326671
1 Maddox 2015.
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