The Right Reverend Professor Tom Frame

Director of St Mark’s National Theological Centre
Professor of Theology at Charles Sturt University

"The New Crusade? Militant Secularism, Strident Atheism and Social Harmony in Australia"

In this lecture Professor Tom Frame will examine militant secularism and strident atheism as emerging features of post-9/11 Western popular culture. He asks whether these forces are a response to religiously-inspired terrorism, the last gasp of modernist philosophy or a renewed attempt to drive religion from the public square. He will argue that the ‘New Atheism’ championed by Professor Richard Dawkins will revive the worst elements of ‘Social Darwinism’, perpetuate economic, educational, social and spiritual inequalities, and foster intolerance and close-mindedness. Professor Frame will contend that the relegation of religious  considerations to the fringes of social policy and political discourse will damage Australia’s democratic institutions and impoverish community life.

The Right Reverend Professor Tom Frame was ordained in 1993, he has held parish appointments in Australia and England. He has been Bishop to the Australian Defence Force (2001–2007), Patron of the Armed Forces Federation of Australia (2002–2006), a member of the Council of the Australian War Memorial (2004–2007) and judged the inaugural Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History (2006–2007). Professor Frame is the author or editor of 24 books including Church and State; Australia’s Imaginary Wall (2006), and Anglicans in Australia (2007). In 2009 he will release a new book entitled Losing My Religion: Unbelief in Australia (November).