Gospel, Church and Australian Culture

In post-Christian Australia, Christians must become missionaries in their own nation, but how might our culture shape the way the gospel is told?

This unit pushes students to see, perhaps for the first time, the thick cultural lenses through which we view the world. It also challenges us to see the way our understanding of the gospel is framed by our history, background and socio-cultural environment. But far from posing a threat to the gospel we know and love, this new insight allows us to appreciate the richness of the gospel like never before and the capacity to bring it with new power to the Australian sub-cultures which we engage.

In this unit, students will seek to understand how the gospel speaks into and subverts different Australian sub-cultures, including suburban, battler, urban and first-generation immigrant cultures. Students will be given the opportunity to conduct ‘cultural exegesis’ in the field, to develop their skills in contextualisation.

This unit is about rethinking assumptions, developing greater cultural sensitivity and humility when approaching another culture, and forcing oneself to stop, look and listen: skills that will stay with you for life.

Corequisites

Students enrolled in an AQF level 6 or 7 course should have completed 96cps of study before enrolling in this unit, including 36cps at level 6.

Exclusions

EM033