of religion, and were not in a position after the events of that day to provide
expert assistance to a public needing critical information on Islam and its major
text, the Qur’Çn. It was only in subsequent years that the largest department
of studies in religion in Australia at the University of Queensland advertised
a new position for teaching advanced units of study in Islam.
A second emerging issue concerns a more mature and critical approach to
indigenous religion. In Australia, Tony Swain (University of Sydney) produced
key studies on aboriginal religion (1985, 1993). Garry Trompf has recently
identified major challenges and issues that have emerged for studies in religion
in this area, including the attitudes of anthropologists to religious change; the
narrow focus on cargo cults to the exclusion of considering other types of new
religious movements in Melanesia (see also Trompf’s 1991 chapter ‘The
interpretation of cargo cults’, pp. 188–211); a too narrow focus on mission
history; little indigenous reflection on religion; a lack of real knowledge of
Melanesian religion within the area of comparative religion; and a sufficiently
broad approach to Melanesian religion in all its aspects by indigenous people
(2004: 165). In New Zealand, Bronwyn Elsmore (1991, 1998, 1999, 2000)
at Massey University has published research which critically engages Maori
religious traditions, though much of the work has a Christian focus. More
importantly, the views of those who were earlier missionized are now beginning
to be heard, as with the work of Michael Shirres (1997), whose book, Te
Tangata. The Human Person, provides a comprehensive study of Maori
theology rather than Maori Christian theology, although such work is made
difficult by questions about how to identify earlier levels of indigenous tradition
prior to European contact, as noted in the first section above.
There are also examples of indigenous critical work on long-held assump-
tions within studies in religion. Christine Morris, who completed postgraduate
work in Studies in Religion at the University of Queensland, has critiqued the
notion, held especially strongly among biblical scholars, that the written text
is the natural and logical end-point of the evolution of religious stories. Morris
(1996) writes from the perspective of an indigenous woman for whom tradition
continues in oral story form, linked to specific geographical areas where the
stories should be told. However, research by indigenous scholars throughout
the region continues more in the area of theology than in studies in religion.
It may be that perhaps indigenous scholars feel that theology provides a more
sympathetic context for studying their religion, or it may be that they feel the
lack of indigenous staff as teachers within studies in religion departments. In
Australia at least, staff in studies in religion departments remain, with few
exceptions, of white Australian, European, or North American background.
A third emerging issue concerns new social, cultural and environmental
contexts for both established and new religions, leading to fresh topics for
research and the investigation of appropriate methods to study them. While
many in studies in religion continue with traditional areas of enquiry, in New
1111
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1011
1
2
3111
4 5 6 7 8 9
20111
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
30111
1
2
3
4
35
6
7
8
9
40111
42222
3
411
AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND AND THE PACIFIC ISLANDS
235
