The Sunburnt Soul Revisited: Australian Evangelicals negotiating the 'End' of Christendom

The Zadok Centre was established in 1976 and operated in Canberra between 1977 and 1992. In this lecture I discuss what the establishment of the Centre tells us about the response of Australian Evangelicals to the social, cultural and political changes within Australian society during the 1960s and 70s. I argue that the theological projects undertaken by the Centre during this period involved some creative attempts at contextual theology. I also discuss the difficulties of resourcing the Centre arising from both its emergence outside denominational structures and from emerging tensions within the evangelical movement.

My presentation draws on my experience in working at the Centre as a researcher, editor and then as a volunteer between 1981 and 1992 and has been facilitated by access to the Centre’s archives. The lecture draws on a recently published paper Evangelicals Negotiating the ‘End’ of Christendom: The Zadok Centre in Canberra (1976-1992) (Zadok Papers, S296, Summer, 2026)

Speaker bio

Dr Douglas Hynd is currently a Senior Adjunct Research Fellow at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture. He was a Research Officer and Editor at the Zadok Centre during its time in Canberra, worked in the Australian Public Service on public sector reform and social policy, and was a sessional lecturer in Church and Society and Christian Ethics at St Mark's National Theological Centre. His research and writing have focused on how government contracting has affected church-related welfare agencies. His most recent book is Community Engagement After Christendom (Wipf & Stock, 2022).