Professional Historian and History Consultancy Services Brisbane
Category: American Revivalist Tradition (ART)
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Choi, Matthew (2026). Senate hopeful Talarico touts his faith. Texas Republicans call it blasphemy. The Washington Post, 16 August
PLANO, Texas — Talking about Jesus is pretty routine for Texans running for office. But usually not Democrats. State Rep. James Talarico is changing the script, leaning into his background in a progressive Presbyterian seminary. It’s a playbook that has helped propel his political career. Before he was the Democrats’ hope to flip a Republican…
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Australian-American Cultural Relations: The Humanistic Ascent and Fairness- Reclaiming Agency from the Mechanized Mind
Abstract This combined essay explores the dual crises of the “mechanized mind” as it manifests in 21st-century religious systems and digital technologies. By examining the phenomenon of Evangelical a-Historicism and the rise of the American Revivalist Tradition (ART), the analysis identifies how a-historical literalism often functions as a ”theological mask” for partisan political agendas, inducing…
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Australian Take on the Scandal of the Evangelical Mind: The Scandal of the Mechanized Mind
Dr Neville Buch Abstract This essay examines Mark Noll’s retrospective judgment on the thirty-year legacy of his seminal work, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (1994), through the critical lens of Dr. Neville Buch’s research into evangelical historiography and the sociology of religion. While Noll observes a “brighter” picture in the sheer volume of Christian academic output in the twenty-first century,…
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Declining Quality and Implications for Elitism: Democratic Elitism and the Spiral Theory of Stupidity
Dr Neville Buch Abstract When I wake up in the morning and listen to the radio news broadcast, I am bewildered. Have I left the earth time zone to end up in a bizarre alien landscape? As I analyse the situation, the thoughts are there being a world of ‘news as entertainment’ without any history,…
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Summative Paper from Gary M. Jarson on Religious Studies: Thinking Religion in Place – The Sacred In Rebus
Dr Neville Buch Abstract In the contemporary intellectual landscape, Gary Jaron’s (2021/2022) definition of Religious Studies as the study of the sacred and our response to what we consider sacred serves as a vital catalyst for moving the field beyond the limited recognition of supernatural entities toward a study of human action. Dr. Neville Buch evaluates this…
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1986 Pentecostal Gathering. Faith and Power in the Queensland Deep North
Dr Neville Buch Abstract The 1986 Pentecostal Gathering at the Christian Outreach Centre in Mansfield represents a definitive moment in the intersection of Queensland’s political and religious sub-cultures, marking the peak of an alliance between the Bjelke-Petersen administration and neo-Pentecostalism. This essay explores how the state’s political culture—defined by a “Deep North” ethos of…
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The Jesus Intellectual Community
Dr Neville Buch Abstract This essay explores how Gregory C. Jenks’ book, “Jesus Then and Jesus Now: Looking for Jesus, Finding Ourselves” (2014), serves as a theological and intellectual synthesis that could bind together a “Jesus intellectual community.” Drawing on the historical trajectories of the House of Freedom (HOF), Teen Challenge (Qld) Inc., and the…
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Religion is not what it was
Dr Neville Buch Thinking Religion in Place Thinking Religion in Place: A Critique of the “Post-Religious” Lament Abstract The colloquial observation that “religion is not what it was” often masks a deeper cognitive tension between Historical Forgetfulness and the requirement for a topological understanding of existence. While populist discourse frequently mourns the decline of institutional…
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Poor Dynamic of Cognition: Historical Case – Reactionary Phenomenon (Resistance)
Abstract This essay examines the systemic cognitive pathology characterizing the Queensland Cabinet’s resistance to the heritage listing of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) under Premier Johannes Bjelke-Petersen. By applying the Dynamic of Cognition (DoC) framework, the analysis identifies the poor cognitive dynamics driven by an aggressive obsession with State sovereignty and a narrow “techné mindset”…
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What is this Protestant-Catholic Thing. The Queensland Case
What is this Protestant-Catholic Thing. The Queensland Case Dr Neville Buch Abstract The social and political landscape of Queensland has long been defined by the “Catholic-Protestant thing,” a shorthand for deep-seated sectarian divisions that influenced education, governance, and the state’s cultural identity. Dr. Neville Buch’s scholarship frames this dynamic as a transition from a…