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This book is a follow-up on The
Fountain of Public Prosperity (2018).
As with its predecessor, I
really loved this book. To be sure, because it is dealing with Australian history
and historical Australian issues, there will be some room for some disagreement.
Regardless of your church affiliation, this is an important book for all
Christians. It shows us where we’ve been, where are, and possibly where we’re
going.
I was particularly interested what
the book had to say about chaplaincy during both wars, and how much Presbyterians
added to the Christian fountain of prosperity. It was really good to see that my
old Professor F. N. Lee was deemed worthy of a mention: “Dr Nigel Lee, a
prolific writer and Professor of Theology at the Queensland Presbyterian
Theological Hall, exuberantly led the resurgence of Reformed theology, while
the venerable Calvinist, Robert Swanton, the long-serving minister of Hawthorn
Presbyterian church in Melbourne, edited the Reformed Theological Review,
and filled the Chair of Systematic Theology at the Presbyterian College of
Victoria until the late 1980s.” (p. 365). Also, the material on the Australian
view of the usually misunderstood so-called separation of church and state is
well worth taking the time read.
“The conclusion of this study
of evangelical Christianity in Australian history is that it has been a strong
a persuasive influence on the shaping, not only of the heart and soul of the
Australian nation, but also of its body. This claim seems preposterous because
it has been so little recognised by historians, but this has been a study of
the role of the Gospel in nation building. It is the story of how Jesus has
stamped his image on the character and values of the Australian people.” (p.
559).
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