Renate Howe: A Century of Influence: The Australian Student Christian Movement 1896–1996. UNSW Press, 2009. ISBN: 9781921410956.
Like thousands of others, my faith was challenged at university. The challenge came from two directions. Studying women's history and feminist legal theory had me wondering why I was still part of the patriarchal church. And the popular student Christian groups on the University of Melbourne campus dismayed me with their conservatism and intolerance. There seemed to be no middle way between atheism and fundamentalism.
Then I discovered the Australian Student Christian Movement (ASCM), a small group committed to an 'intelligent faith'. It was feminist and queer-friendly, dedicated to social action, determined to relate Christianity to intellectual life. For years, it kept me Christian. So I read Renate Howe's centenary history of the ASCM eagerly, wanting to know more about the history of this movement that has been such a vital part of my life.
In 1896, when the ASCM (then known as the Australasian Student Christian Union) was established, Australia had only four universities, which were strongly opposed to any religious activity taking place on their secular campuses. Yet those who created the movement believed that Christian students could be agents of change in the university, the nation and the world.
Howe tells the fascinating story of a movement that did inspire many people to be change agents. The ASCM encouraged Christian involvement in Australian and international public life by relating Christianity to the issues of the day. It fostered an ideal of public service that influenced bodies as diverse as denominational missions, the Commonwealth Public Service, university Labor Clubs, and Australian Volunteers Abroad.
It encouraged Australians to see themselves as part of the Asia-Pacific decades before the rest of the country explored that possibility; provided the leadership of later ecumenical ventures including the Australian Council of Churches and the Uniting Church in Australia; and debated issues of war, peace and internationalism, encouraging pacifism after the First World War and subversion of the Draft during the Vietnam War.
While the ASCM initially supported the White Australia Policy as a way of maintaining living standards, and did not officially repudiate it until 1962, it did develop into a movement that challenged Australia's insularity. Initially uninterested in indigenous issues, the ASCM supported the 1967 referendum and in 1988 'celebrated' the Bicentenary with the conference 'Strangers in our own land: Racism, Christianity, Justice'.
One of the most important contributions the ASCM