ABSTRACT
This chapter turns to secularism under pressure, using my country, Australia, as an example of a nation that has no conscious desire to become postsecular. However, various historical and cultural forces are urging this secular nation toward the postsecular, not least being its need to find some point of equilibrium with the indigenous Aboriginal people, who are profoundly spiritual in every aspect of their lives. This sits awkwardly with majority Australia, but in its requirement to reconcile itself with the indigenous whom it has colonised and displaced, there are signs that desecularisation is an outcome of reconciliation. Political correctness is serving as a roadblock to this process, since it argues that secular Australia ought not have direct contact with the Aboriginal sacred, because such contact could only be parasitic. However, indigenous people are urging the reverse of this: it is only by a coming together of indigenous and non-indigenous that reconciliation can be achieved. In this chapter, links are made between the absence of spiritual meaning and the rise of mental health issues, especially anxiety.
