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The object of this book is to provide an opportunity for voices of other religions to be heard as Australia celebrates its first Catholic saint – Mary MacKillop of the Cross.
It is the first publication that seeks to bring together a representative collection of contributions. Here are reflections on sainthood and heroes of faith from within different religious traditions and different Christian denominations. The direction given to contributors was that they illustrate how holy persons and heroes are esteemed in their own tradition and how this might frame that tradition’s appreciation of Mary MacKillop. From this, it is hoped that the collection will provide an example of how she might contribute to the wider Australian religious landscape.
Herein, the reader will find critical yet appreciative reflections from Catholic and Seventh Day Adventist to Jewish and Muslim writers. Some have taken the brief as an opportunity to reveal more of the heroes and saints of their own tradition and how they came to be esteemed.
Others have directly described how their own tradition esteems saints and heroes in general in order to bring distinct and evocative appreciations of Mary MacKillop, now given hues from a Protestant, Orthodox or Lutheran palette. But whether Baptist or Anglican or traditions beyond Christianity, the writers have extended the capacity of Australians to appreciate Mary MacKillop as an Australian saint and hero.
Foreword by Quentin Bryce, Governor-General of Australia.
Includes an introduction by Alan Cadwallader.
REV DR ALAN CADWALLADER is an Anglican priest and senior lecturer in biblical studies in the school of Theology at the Australian Catholic University. He is author of ‘Beyond the Word of a Woman: Recovering the Bodies of the Syrophoenician Women’ which was published by ATF Press in 2008.
The contributors:
Ismail Albayrak, Islamic scholar
John Chryssavgis, Greek Orthodox
Mary Cresp RSJ, Catholic
Allie Ernst, Lutheran
Richard Ferret, Seventh Day Adventist
Robert Gribben, Uniting Church of Australia
Merrill Kitchen, Churches of Christ
Rachael Kohn, Jewish scholar
Marita Munro, Baptist
Lynlea Rodger, Anglican
John Skrzypaszek, Seventh Day Adventist
