Losing My Religion: Unbelief in Australia

In this challenging and provocative book, Tom Frame, one of Australia’s best-known writers on religion and society, examines diminishing theological belief and declining denominational affiliation. He argues that Australia has never been a very religious nation but that few Australians have deliberately rejected belief – most simply can’t see why they need to be bothered with religion at all. He contends that vehement campaigning against theistic belief is the product of growing disdain for religious fundamentalism and a vigorous commitment to personal autonomy. Losing My Religion contends that God is certainly not dead but that Australia’s religious landscape will continue to change as the battle for hearts, minds and spirits continues. Published on the sesquicentennial of the first release of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859), this book will provoke debate about what matters to Australians.

Professor Tom Frame was born at Sydney in 1962. He joined the Royal Australian Naval College in January 1979. He has completed a BA (Hons) and PhD degrees in history at the University of NSW, and a Dip.Ed. at Melbourne University. He was ordained in 1993 and held parish appointments in Australia and England where he also completed a MA (Hons) in Applied Theology at Canterbury. Consecrated in June 2001, he was appointed Anglican Bishop to the Australian Defence Force. Since January 2007 he has been Director of St Mark’s National Theological Centre and Head of the School of Theology at Charles Sturt University. Professor Frame is the author or co-author of more than twenty books on a range of topics.