ABSTRACT
The changing place of Australian evangelicalism in national public culture after the 1960s intimately, though not uniformly, reflected the broader rise of global Christianity and the declining hegemony of Western culture. The new reality of global evangelicalism, the theme of Chapter 6, is delineated through the experience of Anglican bishop Jack Dain (1912–2003) and Baptist theologian Athol Gill (1937–1992) at the momentous International Congress on World Evangelisation in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1974. Dain, the impeccably credentialed chairman of the Congress, and Gill, a radical leader of the Jesus People, had different approaches to the global identity and mission of the evangelical movement. Dain sought to hold its culturally diverse members together through a posture of conciliation; Gill aimed to subvert its Western materialist presumptions and broaden its commitment to social responsibility. Through the lens of these two contrasting figures, along with a cast of other Australian evangelical leaders, this chapter argues for the critical role Australians played at the Lausanne Congress in shaping post-imperial global Christianity. Yet it also shows their struggles to translate the lessons of faith and culture learnt at Lausanne into their post-Christendom identity and mission in Australia. Preserving cooperative unity amidst diversity of ages and cultural outlooks, contextualising the gospel in a pluralist setting, and balancing the priorities of evangelism and social action – such points were persistently debated. That these issues continue to be points of contention underscores the ongoing significance of the 1960s and 1970s in evangelicals’ understanding of their place in Australia and the wider world.
