The Study Trust is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Emeritus (of Sociology) Gary Bouma FAICD as the 2010 Geering Lecturer. His research has primarily focussed on the interaction between religion and society in the West. Current work includes a major study of religious plurality in multicultural Australia which makes strategic comparisons with other socierties; research into the management of religious diversity and continuing work on Post-Modernity as a context for interfaith dialogue and theological reflection.

Gary Bouma is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Monash University, associate priest of St Dunstan's Anglican Church, Camberwell, and vice-chairman of The World Conference of Religions for Peace, Australia. Professor Bouma's research has primarily focussed on the interaction between religion and society in Western societies including Canada, The United States, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Current work includes a major study of religious plurality in multicultural Australia; research into the management of religious diversity; and continuing work on Post-Modernity as a context for interfaith dialogue and theological reflection.

Speaking Events

Globalisation – the movement of people, capital and ideas – has created a level of religious diversity in most parts of the world that is both quantitatively and qualitatively different. Increased religious diversity in turn has been partly responsible for the re-emergence of religion as a vital voice in public policy, the increased potential for conflict and competition and has increased the need both to understand and manage its consequences. These issues are uniquely concatenated in the 21st century and will define its course.

The following four lectures at St Andrews on The Terrace, Wellington at 12:15pm on each day consider these issues.

• June 1: Religious Diversity as the ‘New Normal’
• June 3: Responding to Diversity: Road Rage on the Highway to Heaven
• June 8: Responding to Diversity: Snapping along the Spandex: Religious Diversity and Social Cohesion
• June 10: Being Faithful in Diversity: Criteria that go beyond relativism

Gary Bouma will preach at St Andrew's on June 6.

There will be a session of pub-based "Spirited Conversations" on Monday June 7 at the Thistle Inn, 3 Mulgrave Street. Come at 6pm for your (self-funded) meal or at 7pm for the Conversations.

Academic Background

• PhD(Sociology) Cornell, United States 1970
• MA (Social Psychology) Cornell, United States 1968
• BD (History of Dogma and Church and Society) Princeton Theological Seminary, United States 1966
• BA (Greek and Philosophy) Calvin, United States 1963
• Western Michigan University, 1960-1961

Present Appointments

• Emeritus Professor of Sociology, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University 2008
• UNESCO Chair in Interreligious and Intercultural Relations - Asia Pacific 2005

Career Highlights

• Australian Soul awarded 'first prize' by Australasian Theological Forum
• Chair of the Board of Management, Parliament of the World's Religions 2009 Melbourne.
• Honorary Fellow, Mannix College.
• Member since 1983 and Chair from 1995 of the Standing Committee on Ethics in Research Involving Humans, Monash University.
• Deputy Vice Chancellor and Vice President (Acting), Monash University 2002 - 2004
• Awarded the Australian Intercultural Society's (AIS) Peace Award for Inter-faith Relations - 2003
• Visiting Fellow, Reshaping Australian Institutions Project, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University 1994-2000
• Lecturer/Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor/Professor Monash University 1979-1995
• Assistant/Associate Professor, and Head, Sociology and Social Anthropology, Dalhousie University, Canada 1970-1979
• Associate Priest in the Anglican Parishes of St John's Toorak, St Andrews Brighton and St Martin's Hawksburn, St Dunstan's Camberwell and St John's East Malvern in the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne.
• Chair of the Christian Research Association.
• Editorial Board, Australian Social Monitor
• Editorial Board, British Journal of Sociology
• Editorial Board Australian Religious Studies Review

Research Interests

Work in Progress

• Religion, Cultural Diversity and Social Cohesion
• The Management of Religious Diversity in plural, secular, post-modern societies
• Theories of Social Cohesion in Multicultural and Multifaith Societies
• The emergence of new forms of the sacred and spirituality in religiously plural cities.

Recent Publications

• 2009 Turkish translation of Democracy in Islam
• 2009 Religion And Diversity In A Globalizing Australia Beyond Ground Zero. Canberra: DIAC. With Desmond Cahill, , Hass Dellal, and Michael Leahey (in Press).
• 2009 Religious Diversity in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands: National Case Studies. Dordrecht: Springer. With Rod Ling and Doug Pratt.
• 2007 Democracy in Islam. London: Routledge. With Sayed Khatab
• 2006 Australian Soul: Religion and Spirituality in the 21st Century. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
• 2004 Religion, Cultural Diversity and Safeguarding Australia.. Canberra: DIMIA. With Desmond Cahill, Hass Dellal, and Michael Leahey
• 2004 The Research Process, 5th revised edition Melbourne: Oxford University Press. with Rod Ling.
• 2000 The Research Process, 4th revised edition Melbourne: Oxford University Press. vi+242Pp.
• 1999 Managing Religious Diversity: From Threat to Promise. Erskineville,NSW: Australian Association for the Study of Religions. Editor. 154 Pp.
• 1999 Religion in an Age of Change. Kew: Christian Research Association. co-editor with Harry Ballis. 175 Pp.
• 1997 Many Religions All Australian: Religious Settlement, Identity and Cultural Diversity. Melbourne: Christian Research Association. Editor. xvi+220 Pp.
• 1996 The Research Process, 3rd revised edition. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. i-viii+238 Pp.
• 1996 Believe It or Not: Australian Spirituality and the Churches in the 90s. Melbourne: Christian Research Association. i-viii + 117pp. with Philip Hughes, Craig Thompson and Rohan Pryor.
• 1995 A Handbook of Social Science Research, 2nd revised edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press. xvi + 247pp. with B. Atkinson.
• 1994 Mosques and Muslim Settlement in Australia. Canberra: Bureau of Immigration, Population and Multicultural Studies xii + 112 Pp.

Earlier Years

Larry Rasmussen is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics, Union Theological Seminary, New York. Rasmussen's volume, Earth Community Earth Ethics, won the prestigious Grawerneyer Award in 1997. He served as a member of the Science, Ethics, and Religion Advisory Committee of the AAAS American Association for the Advancement of Science) and received the Joseph Sittler Award for Outstanding Leadership in Theological Education.

There were no publications.

David Tacey is Associate Professor in the School of Arts and Critical Enquiry, La Trobe University, Melbourne and teaches courses on spirituality, psychology, and literature. His main interest is the recovery of meaning in the contemporary world, an interest that takes him into numerous disciplines and areas of knowledge, including psychoanalysis and analytical psychology, spirituality studies, theology, philosophy, literature and sociology.

For more information visit this website. "The Spirituality Revolution" was the tile of David Tacey's Geering Lecture series delivered in June. You can order a 2-CD set of the series.

The fourth series carried the title "Indecent Theology" and was delivered by Dr. Marcella Althaus-Reid under these headings:

• Love and the theologian
• Graffiti at the Cathedrals of Buenos Aires
• A Theology from the Margins: Poor, Queer and Excluded
• The Return of the Queer God