ABSTRACT
The central aim of the chapter is to identify the lacuna that has persisted in the theological foundations of Australian religious education in the various forms that have prevailed in the century and a half since formal Australian education began. Furthermore, the chapter will aim to address what is therefore, deemed to be a fatal weakness in the subject by proposing the need for and desirability of it being founded in an orientation and directionality imbued with a Public Theology perspective. Such a Public Theology would be grounded in the work of eminent theologians, past and present, as well as strengthened through a Habermasian perspective on the academic role of theology in the public setting.
