More complex stories. More experience of living with issues that remain unresolved from generation to generation. Our history is more corrugated, roughed up by the increased traffic across it. One hundred years since Federation, we are mellowing religiously. Believe it or not, we are more spiritually mature.
Religion is alive in the Australian community, in both conventional and unconventional forms.
The bestselling religious book in Australia last financial year was a collection of interviews with the Dalai Lama called The Art of Happiness . The second best was The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying . At the same time, in the tradition with which I am most familiar, every weekend you will find the best part of a million Catholics in church. Most make a conscious choice to turn up. But they often have trouble telling you why.