You are warmly invited to the Melbourne launch of Reading the Bible in Australia.

Rev Associate Professor Robyn Whitaker will launch the book, facilitate a conversation about the questions it raises with Naomi Wolfe, Rev Dr Graham Cole and Dr Jonathan Cornford, and invite questions from the floor. The editors, Deborah Storie, Barbara Deutschmann and Michelle Eastwood, will respond. Copies of Reading the Bible in Australia will be available for purchase for $32 (15% below recommended retail).

WHEN: 5:30 pm Thursday 2 May

WHERE: Yuma Auditorium, Centre for Theology and Ministry, 29 College Crescent Parkville, VIC 3052

COST: Free

RSVP: Friday 26 April for catering purposes or to receive the livestream link. Register to participate in-person or via livestream through the "Get Tickets" tab on this page.

About the book.

Does the Bible still matter to Australia? How? Why? What role has the Bible, variously interpreted, played in debates about who Australians have been, are, and aspire to become? Reading the Bible in Australia invites reflection about these and related questions. The fourteen contributors bring a range of perspectives to critical themes - indigeneity, colonization and migration; politics and economics; landscape, biodiversity and climate; gender and marginality. Each chapter explores the past and present influence of a biblical text or theme. Some offer fresh contextually and ethically informed readings. All interrogate the wider outcomes of reading the Bible in different ways. As Meredith Lake's The Bible in Australia demonstrates, "a degree of biblical literacy - along with critical skill in evaluating how the bible has been taken up and interpreted in our history - can only help Australians grapple with the choices Australia faces." Love it, hate it, or have mixed feelings about it, there is no getting around the reality that the Bible and how it is read still matter.

What others are saying

"I am excited about this book. Why? As an Australian Christian who has read the Bible all his life, it never occurred to me to ask what it means to read it in Australia. I had read it devotionally. I have tried to read it internationally. I have read it as a church member. This book helps me to read it as an Australian in the light of our tragic history with Indigenous people and our response to this continent's natural environment."

— Tim Costello, Executive Director Micah Australia

"This fascinating collection of essays explores the biblical text in the context of a colonizing history of appropriation. It offers new ways of responding to the Bible from within the Australian context.

— Dorothy A Lee, Research Professor of New Testament, University of Divinity.

"This astonishingly rich collection of essays is both a compelling introduction for Australians as to how they engage with the Bible, and for the world of biblical scholarship to the exceptional context of Australia. The first three chapters by First Australians are essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the Bible in Australia."

— Peter Sherlock, Vice-Chancellor, University of Divinity

"What does it mean to read the Bible on the Country of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations occupied by the settler-colony of Australia? This question remains largely unanswered nearly 250 years after colonization. In this significant new work, a diverse group of authors respond to this question in challenging and innovative ways."

— Joanna Cruickshank, Associate Professor in History, Deakin University.

"What an exciting collection of ideas are gathered in this book! Here are readers of the Bible from Australia who pay close attention to their fascinating social, cultural and geographic contexts. Included here are insights from Indigenous scholars, critiques of politicized uses and abuses of the Bible, and frank confrontations with the challenges of history and contemporary issues.

— Daniel L. Smith Christopher, Professor of Theological Studies, Loyola Marymount University

"This book dives deeply into the defining issues of our time and reveals themes that colonization, settler theology and capitalist economic interests have suppressed. I highly recommend it to all who long for new and hopeful insights into the biblical text as they grapple with the consequences and implications of our colonial capitalist world.

— Sylvia Keesmaat. Adjunct Professor of Biblical Studies and Hermeneutics, Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto