John Stenhouse

Rex J. Ahdar

"Religion continues to play a significant and sometimes controversial role in the politics and culture of 'secular' New Zealand. Drawing on the expertise of scholars in law, religious and political studies, history and education, this volume explores the relationship between religion and politics in contemporary New Zealand, with a glance back to the past." "There are chapters on: religion, politics and the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s; government support of the churches; the question of whether New Zealand is a 'Christian state'; civic responsibilities of churches towards other faiths; religious education; and Christian political parties." --Book Jacket.

The New Zealand Experience

God and Government

G. A. Wood

For much of the twentieth century, New Zealand historians, like most Western scholars, largely took it for granted that as modernity waxed religion would wane. Secularization--the fading into insignificance of religion--would distinguish the modern era from previous ages. Until the 1980s, only a handful of scholars around the world raised serious empirical and theoretical questions about a Grand Theory that had become central to the self-understanding of the social sciences and of the modern world. Heated debates since then, and the unmistakable resurgence of world religions, have raised fundamental questions about the empirical and theoretical adequacy of secularization theory, and especially about how far it applies outside Europe. This volume revisits New Zealand history when secularization is no longer taken for granted as the Only Big Story that illuminates the country's social and cultural history. Contributors explore how New Zealanders' diverse religious and spiritual traditions have shaped practical, everyday concerns in politics, racial and ethnic relations, science, the environment, family life, gender relations, and other domains.

New Perspectives on New Zealand History

Christianity, Modernity and Culture

Diane B. Paul

Hamish G. Spencer

This volume explores the history of eugenics in four Dominions of the British Empire: New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and South Africa. These self-governing colonies reshaped ideas absorbed from the metropole in accord with local conditions and ideals. Compared to Britain (and the US, Germany, and Scandinavia), their orientation was generally less hereditarian and more populist and agrarian. It also reflected the view that these young and enterprising societies could potentially show Britain the way — if they were protected from internal and external threat. This volume contributes to the increasingly comparative and international literature on the history of eugenics and to several ongoing historiographic debates, especially around issues of race. As white-settler societies, questions related to racial mixing and purity were inescapable, and a notable contribution of this volume is its attention to Indigenous populations, both as targets and on occasion agents of eugenic ideology.

John Stenhouse

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