This book is a reprint of key sermons by Rev. Charles Strong who founded the Australian Church in 1885 after being accused of heresy relating to the atonement. Strong was a pioneer progressive, outlining an understanding of the Christian religion that was a hundred years ahead of the current progressive Christian movement in Australia. His goal, he said, was to Re-interpret Christianity in the light of modern knowledge, the principles of development, and the spirit of religion as distinguished from the letter; to re-interpret Christianity just as Copernicus and Galileo re-interpreted astronomy. Strong's focus was on knowing the Spirit as a universal all-animating Spirit, an eternal and deep dimension of reality within humans as well as nature. The Kingdom of God is really the Kingdom of Love; love is the force of God at work in humans to change society. This volume reprints five sermons published originally in 1894, sermons which re ect his progressive approach to spirituality and faith. Norman Habel has done more than anyone else to keep the courage, honesty, and scholarship of 19th century 'progressive' Charles Strong before the public. Thanks to this important edited collection of some of Strong's sermons his task has now become much easier. May it be widely read and appreciated... Rex A E Hunt Author and Founding Director, The Centre for Progressive Religious Thought, Canberra Norman Habel is a Professorial Fellow at Flinders University. He has a Wendish Lutheran background and has long been exploring the boundaries of his faith in the context of the Lutheran Church. These boundaries relate to interpretation of the Bible, the spirituality of Aboriginal peoples, the mystery of ecology and the Book of Nature. He has published studies in all of these areas. Norman Habel is chair of the Charles Strong Memorial Trust.
