As we find ourselves increasingly in a twenty-first-century postmodern and secular world where spiritualities are rife and religious diversity is an accepted feature of a seriously multicultural society, it is time once again to consider the nature of Australian religion and spirituality. One piece of evidence supporting the reality of the change in religion and spirituality is that it is now possible to speak of Australian religion without facing glum stares or peals of laughter. This was not so when I arrived in Australia in 1979. Secularism was in its heyday, universities its temples, and professors of philosophy and sociology among its high priests. While to many educated in the 1960s and 1970s ‘Australian religion’ was a contradiction in terms or at best an embarrassing legacy of the forgettable past, that is not so now. The life of the spirit, the practice of the presence of the numinous, the more-than-the-ordinary, the heartfelt connection with life, the practice of divine arts, the search for more holistic healing of more than just the body, and the desire to address the social policy implications of religious belief permeate Australian culture as practised and experienced daily.

Moreover, where Australian religion and spirituality are being taken seriously, they are being taken seriously in a distinctively Australian way. These Australian characteristics include a tentatively curious exploration involving listening, attending, venturing with the whole person and being true to one's experience.