Zealand James Veitch has contributed to the debate on religion and the
environment with his 1996 edited volume, and has more recently turned his
interest to the topic of religion and terrorism (e.g. Veitch 2002a, 2002b,
2002c). Michael Carden, a former doctoral student at the University of
Queensland, has taken the lead in applying queer theory to biblical studies
(Carden 2004). He is one of a growing number of scholars who belong to the
Bible and Critical Theory group led by Roland Boer (Monash University), a
group which launched its own journal, The Bible & Critical Theory, in 2004,
taking over the niche formerly occupied by the cutting-edge journal Semeia,
which finished production in 2002. Much work has been done on feminist
issues by women of the AASR caucus over the last twenty years. Most of these
scholars do not belong to studies in religion departments, but Majella
Franzmann at the University of New England published a major work, Women
and Religion, in 2000, and Toni Tidswell (2001, 2006), also at the University
of New England, and Roxanne Marcotte (2005a, 2005b) at the University of
Queensland are publishing in the area of women and Islam. Lynn Hume, also
at the University of Queensland, published a major study of witchcraft and
paganism within Australia in 1997.
A fourth emerging issue is the current political instability in the Pacific
region. Trompf (2004: 167) notes the lack of stability and the subsequent
weakening of the indigenous academic engagement in the area of studies in
religion. There are also other implications for the study of religion in some of
the politically contested areas. We began this essay with reflection on the results
of European incursions into the three major geographical areas of Australia,
New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. The area of West Papua/Irian—an area
which would previously have counted in our study of the Pacific Islands—was
annexed in 1969 by the foreign government of Indonesia. Subsequently long
years of Indonesia’s transmigration program of importing Muslim immigrants
from Java and Sumatra to build a Muslim-majority population there have
completely overwhelmed the previously mostly Catholic, Protestant and tribal
religions, so that West Papuans now have a completely changed religious
landscape of which to make sense. As much as the changed global landscape
in the last five years, there are also such local critical and significant changes
that must challenge the methods and presentation of studies in religion
programs in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.NOTE
1 In addition to works cited in the text, readers may also usefully consult the
following for the study of religion in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific
Islands: Brown 1970; Cody 2004; Crocombe 1981; Davidson 1991; Église236
MAJELLA FRANZMANN