Variants of Transcendence in Central Australia

The first part of the book discusses the Aboriginal appropriation of Christianity as an active and self-determined process and tries to locate this appropriation within the world-wide conversation global Christianity has become these days. Chapter One looks in some detail at the first traceable Aboriginal version of Christianity by focussing on the figure of Moses Tjalkabota in comparison to two other indigenous leaders from Black Africa. Chapter Two revisits the beginnings of the missionary process among the Arrernte and discusses its unexpected outcome, namely the Black creolisation of the religion. The second part deals with the various attempts of Western scholarship at defining “primal man” in Central Australia. It will be shown that scholars can be as fiercely ‘missionary’ in spirit as any bible-bashing evangelist. Chapter Three gives an overview of the cognitive violence applied in the process by looking at the vexed issue of the existence or nonexistence of the concept of God among the Aborigines. Chapter Four tries to show how, on the other hand, the encounter in the semi-arid centre of the continent could change scholarship itself. The example here is Theodore Strehlow, the anthropologist who became himself a member of the Arrernte people, and developed a dual religious identity. The volume does not have a conclusion, but there is a final discussion, mostly on Aboriginal art. In total: what makes Christianity a universal religion – and a peaceful one too, is not its body of doctrine, but its ability to absorb primal religions such as the Aboriginal tradition. Provided with an ecumenical platform, Black Christianity is able to contribute significantly to a wider humanity. The transmission of faith to the South has vastly broadened Christianity’s repertoire and provided the religion with multiple launch pads for entirely new compositions of the sacred. One of these is the dual religious identity of Aboriginal Christianity.