Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home Culture Book of the Week

Religious dimension in tales of outback

byGuest Contributor
31 January 2015
Reading Time: 2 mins read
AA
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

amazing graceAMAZING GRACE
Edited by Bill “Swampy” Marsh; ABC Books; $23.95

Reviewed by Terry Oberg

THE outback is a significant part of the Australian identity. For an urbanised nation this is incongruous but, none the less, valid.

It has produced real-life characters and, for our poets, storytellers, painters and musicians, rural life has been a mine of people, incidents and legends on which they have worked their artistry.

Bill “Swampy” Marsh is one of these talents who has used this treasure.

Amazing Grace is an anthology of short stories celebrating the religious dimension of the outback.

This editor interviewed scores of priests, ministers, nurses and sundry others to capture a unique brand of Christianity, the Gospel as lived in the bush.

His approach is ecumenical, with most of the main branches of Christ’s followers being represented.

A frustrating omission is that the reader never knows whose story is being read.

For reasons best known to himself, “Swampy” presents his 65 anecdotes anonymously.

Related Stories

Plenary Council assembly prepares for crucial votes

Outback wisdom reaches the Plenary Council assembly

Spare a thought and a prayer for seafarers this Sunday

I read this collection around the time of Gough Whitlam’s death. The praise that accompanied his passing was not reflected in “A Simple Death” whose unidentified author asserted the former Australian Prime Minister’s motives in granting independence to New Guinea in 1975 were less than honourable.

An Aboriginal woman in paying tribute to a teacher bemoans the present state of her fellow indigenes beset by drugs, alcohol and crime that were not common in her youth.

Did you know that the generous land grants to discharged white members of the armed forces were not available to Aboriginal people who fought in the Second World War?

None of these interesting observations are accompanied by a name which, no doubt, would add to authenticity.

The foundation of the early Jesuit missions in Asia was the integration of Christianity and the local culture. This same idea is apparent as many of these outback St Pauls worked to unite the Dreamtime with the Gospel.

Despite the identities of the narrators being secret, the characters who enliven these stories are flesh and blood.

One such is Father Long, a Catholic priest in the Kalgoorlie gold fields.

His naivety was exploited to reveal a dishonest gold plot.

The sham was discovered and the young cleric left town in disgrace and went to an early death at 27.

The importance of school visitation is emphasised, noting that one Baptist minister visited 165 schools in 1942.

The Second World War brought extra responsibility to these gallant Christian evangelists.

Home visitation, especially to females whose children or husbands were missing in action or confirmed dead, became as necessary as they were common.

Running through these tales of outback pastors is a heightened sense of vocation.

Unanimously all felt a call not just to spread God’s word but to do it in this specific locale, the lonely, terrible beats of the Australian outback.

“Swampy” develops both central ideas, the secular and religious dimensions of our nation, by collecting these stories that capture the tone and spirituality of our outback.

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Brief history of Hawking

Next Post

Developing wisdom over the years

Guest Contributor

Related Posts

Outback wisdom reaches the Plenary Council assembly
News

Plenary Council assembly prepares for crucial votes

7 July 2022
Outback wisdom reaches the Plenary Council assembly
Australia

Outback wisdom reaches the Plenary Council assembly

7 July 2022
Spare a thought and a prayer for seafarers this Sunday
QLD

Spare a thought and a prayer for seafarers this Sunday

7 July 2022
Next Post

Developing wisdom over the years

What is commitment?

Young women

Pontifical council to consider challenges women face in society and the Church

Popular News

  • Vote over role of women disrupts Plenary Council assembly

    Vote over role of women disrupts Plenary Council assembly

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Plenary Council assembly reaches decision day about the Church role of women

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Mass with signs of Indigenous respect launch historic Plenary Council assembly

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Plans for indigenous elements, memorials to trauma, to complement Catholic liturgy

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Outback wisdom reaches the Plenary Council assembly

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Outback wisdom reaches the Plenary Council assembly
News

Plenary Council assembly prepares for crucial votes

by Mark Bowling
7 July 2022
0

STREAMLINING procedures has helped members at Australia's Plenary Council assembly discuss and vote on complex motions after...

Outback wisdom reaches the Plenary Council assembly

Outback wisdom reaches the Plenary Council assembly

7 July 2022
Spare a thought and a prayer for seafarers this Sunday

Spare a thought and a prayer for seafarers this Sunday

7 July 2022
Caritas Australia Richard Landels

‘We must act now’ – Caritas Australia chief says Ethiopian food crisis is acute

6 July 2022 - Updated on 7 July 2022
Vote over role of women disrupts Plenary Council assembly

Vote over role of women disrupts Plenary Council assembly

6 July 2022 - Updated on 7 July 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping