'This edited work is a welcome exploration of one of the most prominent developments of late-Victorian Christian liberalism in Australia prior to the disintegration of liberalism’s optimism about human potentiality in the suffering and slaughter of World War I. Within the Protestant churches of continental Europe, Britain and the United States, theological liberalism placed an emphasis on Christianity as an ethical and social justice religion, and downplayed the importance of doctrine and creeds, in an optimism about human potential created by the discoveries of empirical science. During the period covered by the book, Melbourne had a good claim to be the intellectual centre of a burgeoning Australia, which included the advent of Protestant Liberalism in the foundation of the Australian Church in 1885 through its instigator and theologian, the Reverend Charles Strong. The name chosen for this breakaway congregation from Victorian Presbyterianism – the Australian Church – also points to the influence of a new Australian nationalism following federation of the Australian colonies in 1901. These themes – Protestant Liberalism and nationalism – are explored in various ways in contributions to the book.' (Introduction)
