Ep32. The Bible in Australia, Meredith Lake

I sat down with Meredith Lake to talk about the Bible in Australia. We bust myths about the history of the Bible in this country, talk about where one goes looking to find the cultural history of a book so contested, the way the Bible shows up in almost every major national conversation and debate (often on both sides), the role of the Bible in colonisation, its use by immigrants, and the way Indigenous Christians – from early on through today – have reappropriated the Bible, turning it back on the worst of White Australia.

Meredith is an historian, broadcaster and award-winning writer interested in how Australians understand the big questions of faith and meaning. In 2019, she hosts Soul Search - a weekly show about the lived experience of religion and spirituality - on ABC Radio National. She is also an Honorary Associate of the Department of History, Sydney University, where she did her PhD on religious ideas about the environment in Australian colonial history. She tweets at @meredithlake1

The Bible in Australia is shortlisted for the 2019 NSW Premier's History awards, and was named 2018 Australian Christian Book of the Year. She is also the author of a major study of faith-based charity since the Great Depression, Faith in Action: HammondCare (UNSW Press, 2013).

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