Religious Studies: A Global View

University, and there were papers from scholars from New York and Claremont

(California), Yaoundé (Cameroun), Tel Aviv and Bar-Ilan University, and

Thailand.

The concern of departments to have an international reputation often leads

to an inward-looking focus on the process of national and international peer

review that does not move beyond the realms of the academy. Another sign

entirely of the institutionalization of studies in religion can be found in the

way in which the print and electronic media recognize the discipline area when

looking for expert comment on current issues. A good example is the recent

flurry of interest and comment within New Zealand and Australian newspapers

with the appearance of Marion Maddox’s book,God under Howard(2005).

Studies in religion scholars in Australia, too, help to support the media,

especially the many national radio programs of the Australian Broadcasting

Commission: Encounter, The Ark, The Religion Report, and The Spirit of

Things.

Intraregional divisions and interregional connections

Although staff from departments of studies in religion in Australia have met

together at annual conferences of the AASR (although attendance has dropped

dramatically in recent years) and elsewhere since the development of the

discipline in the 1970s, Australian departments are currently not as cohesive

in their approach as those in New Zealand. The relatively smaller distances

in New Zealand and the concerted efforts of all departments to attend at least

the annual meetings has resulted over the years in a more cohesive and

consistent approach to some issues including the very practical concerns of

rationalizing teaching and external examination.

Australia and New Zealand have enjoyed good working relations in the

discipline area. A joint AASR and NZASR religious studies conference was

held in July 1996 at Lincoln University, hosted by the University of Canterbury.

Some New Zealanders are members of the AASR, and both countries have

members in the American Academy of Religion, the Society of Biblical Litera-

ture, and Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, as well as in the local Australian

and New Zealand Association of Theological Schools and smaller groups

such as the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies. The Auckland

Religious Studies colloquium in 1982 brought Charles Birch from Sydney as

keynote speaker, and another Sydney scholar, Eric Sharpe, gave a keynote

address to the 1983 International Religious Studies Conference at Victoria

University, hosted by the Centre for Continuing Education. The two countries

are also linked by mutual connection to several key scholars, most notably

Ninian Smart (1927–2001), whose former students Philip Almond, Paul Morris,

and James Veitch have all left their mark on the discipline. Smart also took

the position of De Carle Lecturer in the Arts Faculty at the University of Otago

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MAJELLA FRANZMANN