Australian religion

In the five-yearly census data since 1996 the fastest-growing religions in Australia are Buddhism, Islam and Paganism. The 2006 census data identified Australia as 30.6% not religious (combining categories such as Atheism, Humanism, No Religion and Religion Not Stated/ Not Adequately Defined), 63.8% Christian, and 5.6% religions other than Christianity. Australia is a generally secular country with no established church, in which approximately 14% of the population attends religious services regularly (at least once per month). When ‘religions other than Christianity’ are removed from this equation, the percentage of Christians regularly attending is 10% of the population (22.2 million in April 2010). This chapter examines Australia’s secular, multicultural nature and seeks to place Paganism, and in particular Celtic or Irish varieties, in the religious mix.

This draws attention to Australia’s convict foundation, as the comparative secularity of Australia (as opposed to America, for example) is partly due to the United States being settled by religious refugees where Australia was settled by convicts hostile to religion and authority. That one-third of those convicts were Irish is a possible factor in the attraction of Celtic types of Paganism and alternative spirituality in Australia in the twenty-first century. This chapter has four sections: first, the place of Catholicism and the Irish in eighteenth and nineteenth century Australia is examined; second, the growth of alternative spiritualities in the West and Australia specifically is traced; third, the practice of Celtic alternative spiritualities in Australia is investigated, with due caution that the ‘Celtic’ elements are often diffuse and attenuated; and finally, the data from the 2001 and 2006 Australian Censuses is discussed with a particular focus on Celtic-oriented Paganism and alternative spiritualities. It is argued that a broadly Celtic-oriented Paganism grew rapidly in Australia from 1991 to 2001, but that the 2006 Census data revealed a slowing of growth. This is best interpreted as the result of the mainstreaming of alternative spiritualities and religions, a process that robbed them of counter-cultural and rebellious appeal, and of Australia’s notorious religious indifference, which sees intense religious commitment as exceptional and even undesirable