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annual report and prospectus 2013-2014

The Christopher Dawson Society for Philosophy and

Culture is an incorporated, not-for-profit association

founded to encourage lay Christian engagement with

contemporary philosophical and cultural issues. The

Society takes its name from Christopher Dawson,

the great English historian of the 20th century who

throughout his work saw the world of spiritual

belief “as the dynamic element in history and as a

real world-transforming power.” It is the hope of the

founders that in some small way the Dawson Society

may uphold and continue the work of its namesake.

www.dawsonsociety.com.au

“Behind this vague tendency to treat religion as a side issue in modern life, there exists a strong body of opinion that is actively hostile to Christianity and that regards the destruction of positive religion as absolutely necessary to the advance of modern culture.” C H R I S T O P H ER DAW S O N

( 1889 – 1970 )

Dawson Cover.indd 2-3 1/04/14 1:11 PM

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annual reportand

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Christopher Dawson, one of

the twentieth century’s great

historians was born in in the

village of Hay-on-Wye, Wales in

1889. Born in a Tudor building

constructed around a medieval

castle the young Christopher

Dawson imbued the mythologies

and stories of ancient worlds

from a young age. Supplementing

this early learning Dawson was

formally educated at Trinity

College, Oxford in 1908 where he

studied history.

In Easter of 1909 sitting in Rome

on the steps of the Capitol,

Dawson first conceived his life’s

work, the study and writing of

a history of culture. Four years

later Dawson converted to

Roman Catholicism. Embarking

on a career as an independent

scholar Dawson’s first work The

Age of the Gods was published

Christopher Dawson A breif Biography

B I O G R A P H Y

in 1928. This work was followed

by Progress and Religion in 1929,

which probably contains the most

succinct enunciation of Dawson’s

thought on the nature of culture

and religion.

Though Dawson was never to

hold a permanent position in any

British University his career was

undeniably influential. He was

twice a Gifford lecturer, the author

of numerous books and scholarly

articles, editor of the Dublin

Review and from 1958 to 1962

held the Chair of Roman Catholic

Studies at Harvard University. At

the core of all of his work remained

his understanding of religion as

the dynamic element of history.

Christopher Dawson died, after

almost a decade of ill health, in

1970.

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C H R I S T O P H ER DAW S O N

If man limits himself to a satisfied animal existence, and asks from life only what such an existence can give, the higher values of life at once disappear.

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At the beginning of 2014 we take stock

of the year that has passed, and look

towards the year ahead. It does not seem

that long ago that The Dawson Society for

Philosophy and Culture was a mere idea, hastily

drawn on the back of a bar coaster. Since then,

and through the dedication and hard work of

a committed group of people, The Dawson

Society has seen great successes in a variety of

areas.

Beginning in February 2013, The Dawson

Society hosted seven Speakers Forum

events with local, interstate and international

presenters detailing such a variety of

topics as the role of virtue in the media, the

vocation of the laity, and the role of beauty in

evangelisation.

This inaugural year has also seen the successful

launch of a website, lovingly put together by

graphic designer and Dawson Society board

member Elizabeth Bogoni, and Paul Bui of Monk

Media. Recently, through the help of Squire

Sanders legal team, The Dawson Society has

become an incorporated association, which will

help us immensely in the organisation of the

administrative aspects of this venture.

As of March 2014 we have seen the launch of

another successful Speakers Forum series and

have begun planning the inaugural secondary

school students Glowrey Prize for pro-life

thought and activities, and the beginning

of what we hope becomes a series of short

courses on some of the seminal works of

Western Civilisation.

In recognition of the invaluable support and

advice given to the organisers of The Dawson

Society in their first year I am pleased to

announce the formation of a board of advisors,

whose experience and wisdom will be much

appreciated in the years ahead. Present

members of the advisory board include

Professor Celia Hammond, Vice-Chancellor

of The University of Notre Dame Australia;

Professor Tracey Rowland, Dean of the John

Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family; and

Mr Peter Rosengren, Editor of the Catholic

Weekly, Sydney and former of editor of The

Record Newspaper, Perth.

Looking back over the year that has passed

and the many cultural and political events and

movements that have defined 2013, I am more

than ever convinced of the necessity of men

and women of faith and of goodwill to engage

the culture at the level of ideas. This is why

the Dawson Society was founded, and it is my

hope that your experience has and will be of an

organization that intelligently engages with and

attempts to Christianise Australian culture.

thomas gourlayPresident and Co-Founder

Dear Friends,

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generations could justifiably argue that a broad swath of

society accepted and understood basic Christian principles;

the current generation cannot.

“Every society rests in the last resort on the recognition of

common principles and common ideals, and if it makes no

moral or spiritual appeal to the loyalty of its members, it

must inevitably fall to pieces.”1 Australian society finds itself

bereft of mission, at loss for identity of any sense of the

meaning of life. The previous century witnessed, especially

amongst the nations of Europe, great attempts to redefine

the spiritual loyalties of their populations away from the

Christian tradition. These attempts, nationalism, fascism

and communism each failed in their turn; and in its turn,

the present compromise, an attempt

to unite society upon economic

progress, materialism and relativism,

faces its own failure amidst economic

recession and the pressing claims of

rival cultures.

Perhaps the result of these failures

will be a realignment of Australian

society towards a Christian way of

life; a way of life which, in the words

of G. K. Chesterton, “has not been

tried and found wanting; it has been

found difficult and left untried”.

Yet this will not be the case unless

Catholics can intelligently articulate

the Christian worldview. To be a force

for renewal amongst the society at large, Catholics must be

able to converse with the universal languages of reason and

culture to all people.

It is the task of the today’s generation of Catholics, alongside

all those committed to the primacy of truth, to ensure that

Christian principles find an articulate voice in the Australian

public square. For Christianity to evangelise the hearts and

minds of future generations it is essential that Catholics

possess a deep spirituality, founded primarily upon prayer

and the sacraments, but capable also of mature intellectual

engagement with the issues that perplex modern man.

The Christopher Dawson Society for Philosophy and

Culture is established with the aim to assist Catholics to

revitalise an Australian culture suffering from an absence

WESTERN MAN has not been faithful to his Christian

tradition. He has abandoned it not once, but again and again.

For since Christianity depends on a living faith and not

merely on social tradition, Christendom must be renewed

every fresh generation, and every generation is faced by the

responsibility of making decisions, each of which may be an

act of Christian faith or an act of apostasy.” – Christopher

Dawson (1889 – 1970)

The renewal of Christendom is a task

that confronts every Catholic. It is a

challenge at the heart of the Catholic

faith, a personal call to holiness and

a demand for cultural renewal. Each

generation faces this challenge. The

solutions and challenges of each

generation are unique, no more so

than those of the present generation

who come to their task after more

than two centuries of political, moral

and cultural turmoil, the revolt of

modernity and unprecedented

technological progress.

The present generation of Australians

cannot expect that the tools employed for the renewal

of Christian culture by previous generations will remain

effective today. The norms and mores that assisted the

acceptance of the traditions of the faith have dissolved

with the communities that fostered them. Contemporary

man has been set adrift, atomised, isolated. Divorced

from truth freedom is understood only as license. The

intellectual climate meanwhile encourages the abandoning

of traditional beliefs and behaviours and favours a cult of

novelty and aimless progressivism.

It can no longer be assumed that current and future

generations of Australians will accept the inherent

goodness of the faith, its implicit role in public life and the

desirability of belief. Australian culture is instead, generally

ignorant of and often hostile to, the claims of religion. Past

The renewal of Christendom is a task at confronts every Catholic. It is a challenge from the heart of the Catholic faith, a personal call to holiness and a demand for cultural renewal.

“

Manifesto The Renewal of Christendom

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“Behind this vague tendency to treat religion as a side issue in modern life, there exists a strong body of opinion that is actively hostile to Christianity and that regards the destruction of positive religion as absolutely necessary to the advance of modern culture.” C H R I S T O P H ER DAW S O N ( 1889 – 1970 )

C U LT U R A L

That by bringing Catholics into close contact with the

cultural fruits of previous generations we may imbue

them with a heritage of more than 2000 years of Christian

thought, art and literature. This heritage is neither dogmatic

nor complete, but a living tradition to be embraced,

and adapted for the needs of, and developed by, every

generation, through which the seeds of renewal of our own

culture may be found.

Finally, and conscious that all the Society’s efforts must be

subordinated to the will of God, we call upon the patrons of the

society that, through their intercession, God may smile upon

our efforts and, if it be his will, reward them in abundance.

M A RY H ELP O F C H R I S T I A N S, Patroness of

Australia, to whom St Pope Pius V entrusted the armada of

the Holy League and the defence of Christendom.

Pray for Us

S T B EN ED I C T, whom as the Roman Empire collapsed

about him, established the great tradition of Western

Monasticism that has always served as a bulwark for culture

and civilisation.

Pray for Us

B LES S ED K A R L O F AU S T R I A , last king of the

Hapsburgs, who as Europe tore itself apart, strove for peace

amongst men and the unity of Christendom.

Pray for Us

of higher values and purpose. The Society intends to achieve

its aims through sponsoring and encouraging a revitalisation

of lay Catholic thought and intellectual engagement within

the realms of philosophy, theology and culture. Thus, by the

will of God, the Society shall bring its members towards a

deeper understanding of that which is truth, beauty and

goodness; and shall assist the laity in their vocation to “seek

the Kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and

directing them according to God’s will.”2

The Society then is understood by its founding members

to be:

CAT H O LI C

The Society is founded firstly, and most fundamentally, upon

the tenets of the Catholic faith, defined by the Magisterium

of the Church, whose cosmology, anthropology and moral

insight must lie at the heart of all the Society’s motivations

and doings.

R AT I O N A L

An essential part of the Catholic anthropology is the

understanding of men and women as a rational beings

created in the image and likeness of God. The development

of man’s rational nature is fundamental to the Society’s

mission and to the dignity of the human person. The

rational and intellectual charisma of the Society is in no

way restricted by the Society’s Catholic identity which,

on the contrary, informs us that, “Reason and faith cannot

be separated without diminishing the capacity of men

and women to know themselves, the world and God in an

appropriate way.”3

1. Christopher Dawson, “What Had Grown Old Will Be Made New” | 2. Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 898 | 3. John Paul II, Fides et Ratio n. 16

M A N I F ES T O

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The modern dilemma is essentially a spiritual one, and every one of its main aspects, moral, political and scientific, brings us back to the need of a religious solution.

C H R I S T O P H ER DAW S O N

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C H R I S T I A N M A N I N T H E M O D ER N WO R LD

Our inaugural evening saw presentations from two local

speakers, Mr Jing-Ping Wong and Dr Andrew Kania. Given

the broad topic of Christian Man in the Modern World Mr

Wong and Dr Kania approached their subject from two very

different perspectives.

Jing-Ping Wong presented some thoughts on the destructive

contemporary phenomenon of Gender Theory. Leaning on

some remarks of Pope Benedict XVI to the Roman Curia

(Christmas 2012), Mr Wong suggested that an objective

approach to theological and philosophical anthropology

could lead us out of current confusion.

Dr Kania followed Jing-Ping’s address, speaking with fiery

eloquence on the vocation of lay men and women. Warning

against the dangers of clericalism he reminded his audience

of the importance of their unique role in the world.

J i ngP ing WongJing-Ping Wong is a Masters

Graduate from the John Paul

II Institute, Melbourne and as

of 2013, is a sessional tutor at

the University of Notre Dame,

Fremantle, in the School of

Theology and Philosophy.

D r Andre w K an i aAndrew Kania PhD is a former

visiting fellow at Oxford University.

Dr Kania has been published in

a wide variety of national and

international journals. He is

currently Director of Spirituality at

Aquinas College, Manning.

February

These evenings provided a unique opportunity for the public

of Perth to delve into a variety of topics in the convivial

atmosphere of Rosie O’Grady’s Pub and Restaurant in the

heart of Northbridge.

In 2013 we were very please to host seven such events which

saw an average attendance of over 75 people. The Dawson

Society would like to thank all those who have supported

these events, particularly our speakers.

Speakers Forum2013 Report

THE DAWSON SOCIETY for Philosophy and Culture was established

primarily as a means of encouraging an intellectual engagement with the

ideas at the root of many problems that facing us in our contemporary

culture. The flagship project of The Dawson Society in 2013 was the

regular Speakers Forum evenings.

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S P E A K ER S F O R U M

C H R I S T O P H ER DAW S O N A N D T H E M O D ER N D I LEM M A

The Dawson Society was pleased to host West Australian ex-

pat Fr Scot Armstrong of the diocese of Wagga-Wagga, NSW.

Fr Armstrong took as his topic the thought of the society’s

namesake, Christopher Dawson highlighting his almost

prophetic diagnosis of modernity. Drawing upon work in his

recently submitted PhD thesis, Fr Armstrong showed that

the legacy of Dawson’s thought can be found in the antidote

to the ills of modernity offered by the Vatican II fathers in

the Trinitarian Christocentric anthorology of Gaudium et

Spes n. 22.

Fr S co t Ar ms t rong (NSW )Fr Scot Armstrong is a priest of the

diocese of Wagga Wagga, NSW.

He completed his theological

studies at the Pontifical Urban

University in Rome and has

recently submitted his PhD thesis

to the faculty of the John Paul II

Institute for Marriage and Family,

Melbourne.

June

U N D ER S TA N D I N G A N D R ED EEM I N G T H E M ED I A

The Dawson Society was pleased to welcome our first

international speaker, Dr Ted Baehr, who was in Australia to

speak at the World Congress of Families in Sydney. Dr Baehr

presented a thoroughly interesting account of the history of

Christians in Hollywood and argued forcefully for men and

women of faith to involve themselves in this fundamental

aspect of twenty-first century culture.

D r Ted Baehr (USA)Dr Baehr writes a syndicated

column for 29 publications in the

US, is an internationally renowned

speaker, media scholar and film

critic.

May

T H E RO LE O F T H E FA M I LY I N T H E M I S S I O N O F T H E C H U RC H

Mr Anthony Coyte addressed the Speakers Forum speaking

on the role of the family in the mission of the Church, Mr

Coyte drew heavily on the thought of Cardinal Marc Ouellet

to paint in broad brush strokes a renewed theology of the

family.

Anthony Coy t eAnthony Coyte is a Masters

graduate of the John Paul II Institute

for Marriage and Family, Melbourne.

He is currently working in the

office of University Relations &

Development at the University of

Notre Dame, Fremantle.

April

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W H AT D I D D O S T O Y EV S K Y M E A N W H EN H E S A I D “ B E AU T Y W I LL S AV E T H E WO R LD ”?

FA I T H A N D P O LI T I C S

Travelling from Melbourne (VIC) to address the Dawson

Society’s October Speakers Forum, leading Australian

theologian Professor Tracey Rowland offered her audience

an historic approach to the philosophical developments and

thought which gave rise to modernity. Offering an integrated

approach to the transcendentals of truth, goodness and

beauty, Professor Rowland specifically highlighted the

essential role of beauty in evangelisation in the twenty-first

century. The Dawson Society would also like to acknowledge

the general support of the John Paul Institute for Marriage

and Family, Melbourne in making this trip possible.

Our final Speakers Forum for 2013 hosted a presentation by

Senator-elect Joseph Bullock on the topic ‘Faith and Politics’.

Offering a personal account of how his faith interacts

with his political philosophy, Joe Bullock concluded his

presentation with a stirring call to action for men and women

of faith to involve themselves in the political sphere.

Pro f e s so r Tr ace y Rowland ( VIC)Professor Tracey Rowland is

the author of many scholarly

articles and books specialising in

the thought of Joseph Ratzinger/

Pope Benedict XVI. She is

currently Professor, Dean and

Permanent Fellow of the John Paul

II Institute for Marriage and Family

Studies in Melbourne.

S ena to r - e l e c t J oe Bu l l o c kMr Joe Bullock has been the

secretary for the Western

Australian Branch of the Shop

Distributive and Allied Employees

Association. He is currently a

Senator-elect to the Federal

Parliament for Western Australia.

October

November

CAT H O LI C F EM I N I S M : A N OX Y M O RO N

Speaking on controversial relations between the Catholic

Church and twentieth-century feminist thought, The

Dawson Society was honoured to host Professor Celia

Hammond for its September Speakers Forum. Professor

Hammond traced the history of the feminist movement in

an effort to answer the question ‘can one be a Catholic and

a feminist?’

Pro f e s so r Ce l i a HammondProfessor Celia Hammond is the

Vice Chancellor of the University

of Notre Dame Australia.

Professor Hammond was a private

practitioner of law in Western

Australia and formerly Dean of the

School of Law at The University of

Notre Dame, Fremantle.

September

S P E A K ER S F O R U M

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Religion: The Key of History - Why you should read Dawsonby Tom Gourlay

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The now Blessed, soon to be Saint Pope

John Paul II spoke of three philosophers who

have been particularly influential in forming

the modern mindset – three authors whose

understanding of human nature is centred

on either power, sex or economics. These

three, the ‘masters of superstition‘ as he

named them, Nietzsche, Freud, and Marx,

have dominated the landscape of the Western

historical and cultural self-understanding

of our contemporary world. And so, the

writing of history in recent times has become

merely an analysis of the battles over power,

sexual domination or control of the means of

production.

This however was

not the starting point

for Dawson. His

writings begin with an

anthropology built on

the understanding of

the dual nature of the

person; body and soul –

man created and fallen,

and man ultimately

redeemed by the

Incarnation of Christ.

Dawson’s history tells the story not of power

hungry people driven by libido or the desire to

control the means of production, but rather of

people fallen and redeemed by Christ, caught

up in the cosmic struggle to bring the light of

Christ to the nations. A people who struggle

against sin or who revel in it.

This is why Dawson’s history is so exciting to

read – because it is a truly human history.

RELIGION is the key of history. We

cannot understand the inner form of a

society unless we understand its religion. We

cannot understand its cultural achievements

unless we understand the religious beliefs that

lie behind them. In all ages the first creative

works of a culture are due to a religious

inspiration and dedicated to a religious end.

The temples of the gods are the most enduring

works of man. Religion stands at the threshold

of all the great literatures of the world.

Philosophy is its offspring and is a child which

constantly returns to its parent.”

Christopher Dawson - Religion and Culture.

Dawson’s deep and

profound insight into

history and culture

hinge on this truth

– that religion is the

key, or the engine of

history. Profoundly

different to utilitarian

or Marxist/economic

interpretations of

history, Dawson’s

reading of history is

radically human centred.

In the deeply secular and often almost anti-

religious culture that surrounds us we often

suffer the perception that religion is extrinsic

to life – something furnishing, but not essential

to the everyday life of individuals. In Dawson’s

historical analysis however, we see that the

cultus, or religion is at the heart of every

culture.

Dawson’s deep and profound insight into history and culture hinge on this truth – that religion is the key, or the engine of history.

“

14

In 2013 we were overwhelmed by the

enthusiastic reception of the Speakers Forum,

which averaged over 75 attendees for each

event. In 2014 we hope to replicate and build

on the overwhelming success of this, our

flagship project.

Our program of speakers for 2014 is

currently being finalised but I am pleased to

announce that Archbishop Timothy Costelloe

SDB, Melinda Tankard Reist, and Anna Krohn

will all form part of an exciting schedule of

presenters.

We were particularly happy to have Professor

Matthew Ogilvie, Dean of the School of

Philosophy and Theology at The University

of Notre Dame Australia’s Fremantle campus

launch the 2014 Speakers Forum program with

a lecture titled ‘Religion and Terrorism’ on

25 February.

PA I D EI A LE C T U R E S ER I ES

We are very excited to announce a significant

new project of the Dawson Society. This project

aims to build on our Speakers Forum by allowing

participants to more deeply engage with

philosophical issues and great cultural works.

The Paideia Lecture Series will provide of 5 – 8

lectures exploring a Speakers Forum topic in

greater depth than is possible in a single evening.

We are extremely happy that the first Paideia

Lecture Series will be launched in May of 2014. It

will take as its topic a seminal work of Christian

culture, Dante’s Divine Comedy. The Divine

Comedy charts a man’s quest for sanctity in

an epic journey through Hell, Purgatory and

Paradise. Dante’s exploration of the essential

questions of human nature have immortalised

this work and make it particularly worth of study.

We are particularly grateful to Associate

Professor John Kinder of the University of

Western Australia for agreeing to present the

lectures for this first series and we are also

very grateful to the University of Notre Dame,

Fremantle for allowing us to host this short

course on their premises.

S P E A K ER S F O R U M 2014

As I have pointed out, it is the Christian tradition that is the most fundamental element in Western culture. It lies at the base not only of Western religion, but also of Western morals and Western social idealism.

C H R I S T O P H ER DAW S O N

Prospectus2014

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For more information on these events please visit www.dawsonsociety.com.au

Another new and exciting project for the

Dawson Society is the establishment of the

Glowrey Prize. The prize will be an annual

award given the Dawson Society, in conjunction

with Pregnancy Assistance Inc. The award is

open to all West Australian secondary school

students and has been established in order to

recognise and encourage the promotion of a

culture of life in Perth through ideas and social

action.

The award is named after Australian Medical

Doctor Mary Glowrey, also known as Sr Mary

of the Sacred Heart, who was named a Servant

of God in 2013. On 5 May, 1957 Dr Mary

Glowrey died in Bangalore, India after serving

for 37 years as a religious sister and doctor

to the people of India. Her work, particularly

with the women and children of that country

serves as a brilliant example of our Christian

commitment to the building of a culture of life.

G LOW R EY P R I Z E

The Inaugural Glowrey Prize will consist of

two cash prizes of $500. These prizes will be

awarded in two categories, one for a written

piece and one for pro-life activities. Topics

for the writing competition will be posted on

the Dawson Society website and will also be

made available for secondary school teachers

to use in their assessment for both the Year

11 and 12 Religious Education courses in

Catholic Secondary Schools. The Dawson

Society encourages teachers, parents and

fellow students to nominate candidates to be

recognised for their prolife activities.

The Glowrey Prize will be awarded at a

breakfast hosted by the Dawson Society in

September of 2014.

GLOWERY PRIZEBuilding a culture of life

P RO S P E C T U S 2014

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IN AN EFFORT to reach out to the public of

Perth, Western Australia and beyond, The

Dawson Society has embraced a number of

social media initiatives. The Dawson Society’s

presence on Facebook has steadily grown since

its launch in March 2013 and has a weekly

reach of over 400 views. On Twitter the society

has engaged over 180 followers. The Dawson

Society’s facebook and twitter pages allow us

to promote articles, of opinion and cultural

critique and to market coming events to a wide

audience.

The Dawson Society website was launched in

September of 2013, through the meticulous

design work of Elizabeth Bogoni and a

corporate donation from Paul Bui of Monk

Media, Mount Lawley. The website hosts

recordings of previous lectures, and promotes

coming events. An active blog shares opinion

and social commentary.

Social MediaEngagement in the Digital Age

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“You can give men food and leisure and amusements and good conditions of work, and still they will remain unsatisfied. You can deny them all these things, and they will not complain so long as they feel that they have something to die for.”

C H R I S T O P H ER DAW S O N

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The Historical Vision of Christopher DawsonBy Daniel Matthys

O NE OF THE QUESTIONS I am often asked in

relation to the Dawson Society is why we would

choose to name a society after Christopher Dawson. The

question is a fair one. What is it about the thought of a fairly

obscure, twentieth-century, British historian that could

possibly have relevance to a Society founded over 40 years

after the death of said historian, in a continent he never

visited? Dawson’s own legacy, following his death in 1970,

presents us with a mixed picture. Though Dawson was

widely known and respected in his own time the impact of

his thought has been much diminished today to the point

where, even amongst well read Catholics, it is unusual

to find someone fully conversant in his ideas. However it

must also be said that those who have read Dawson’s work

rarely disagree that he occupies an important, perhaps

even essential, position in the history of English-speaking

thought.

Christopher Dawson is often described as a historian and

while this description is technically correct to my mind it

fails to properly convey the depth and significance of his

work. Dawson, it is true, studied and wrote works of history

however it is his work on metahistorical issues which is most

significant and deserving of study. Metahistory is described

by Dawson himself as “concerned with the nature of history,

the meaning of history and the cause and significance

of historical change.”1 It a study of the philosophical,

sometimes theological, beliefs, that inevitably underpin all

historical works. Every historian incorporates into their

history metahistorical beliefs even if the author is largely

unconscious of their presence.

Dawson’s own metahistorical approach to history is

characterised by a broad approach to his discipline. Dawson

believed that history shared its object of study, the social

life of mankind, with other emerging disciplines amongst

what are termed today as the social sciences. Archaeology,

anthropology and sociology, all in Dawson’s view had their

own perspective to add to this common field of study. The

danger Dawson saw was that any one of these disciplines

might claim for itself the sole and complete right to

comprehend and explain man’s social life. The consequences

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in social life and a belief in the legitimacy of science as a

means of explaining these factors. Concurrently Dawson’s

belief in the fundamental importance of philosophical and

religious issues in human societies avoids the materialist

trap that so many of his contemporaries were to fall into.

Dawson’s history then, like his understanding of man,

was both material and spiritual, according to both their

legitimate spheres of importance in order to truly arrive

at a social understanding of mankind. In his own time

Dawson set his vision of history against the materialistic

conceptions of the like of Oswald Spengler to whom culture

was an unconscious physical process. Spengler’s history

envisaged each culture as a single, isolated whole unable

to interact with any foreign culture that does not share

its material foundations. At the

same time Dawson was to critique

rival metahistorical understandings

of the like of R. G. Collingwood,

whose thought eliminated the

physical and material from culture,

treating culture as purely the

spiritual movement of ideas. What

is important to note is that Dawson

does not discount the impact of the

physical world on culture found in

Spengler or the movement of ideas in

Collingwood. Rather Dawson admits

both elements, spiritual and material,

in a holistic explanation of mankind

and mankind’s social life. Similarly

in the present day it is possible to

see how Dawson’s metahistorical

understanding offers a path out of the deadlock of Marxist

and postmodern conceptions of history that are found in

contemporary academia. Each has it value yet each is too

narrow an understanding of humanity and the world.

Dawson’s conception of social life as encompassing

a community of thought is particularly valuable for

contemporary Australia. Though academics may

divide themselves amongst Marxist and postmodern

understandings of human life, the accepted view of the

culture at large is decidedly materialistic. This was not a

phenomenon that would be entirely strange for Dawson. In

fact much of Dawson’s work was aimed at convincing both

of such claims would inevitably be a disastrous narrowing of

the philosophical conception of man, his purpose, morals and

meaning. By the time Dawson had entered the discussion

sociology in particular was susceptible to this danger, and

indeed the subsequent role of poor sociological thought

in the disastrous ideological movements of the twentieth-

century have only served to highlight the danger Dawson

feared.

Dawson’s solution to this danger encouraged robust

communication between these disciplines that shared social

life as their object of study. Using history as a reservoir of

empirical data against which the claims of the new sciences

could be tested, Dawson drew from the work of the French

sociologist Frederick Le Play in defining social life as the

interaction of three communities;

a community of folk, a community

of place and a community of work.

To stress any single community as

the defining feature of the social

life of mankind would, for Dawson,

represent a retardation of thought.

In his own life nationalisation, an

overemphasise of place, fascism,

an overemphasis of folk and

communism, an overemphasis of

work, would all present a perverted

picture of human activity with

devastating consequences.

Yet for Dawson, the threefold

division found in Le Play also failed to

completely comprehend all spheres

of social life. To the three communities mentioned above,

Dawson added a fourth; a community of thought. It is this

community of thought, a community that for most of human

history has been grounded in religious belief, which provides

the dynamic element in human relations. It is here that the

spiritual enters history and man’s free will can affect the

communities of folk, place and work; communities that

would otherwise be entirely deterministic. Thus Dawson’s

vision of history is a profoundly Catholic understanding of

the discipline, firmly rooted in a belief in the material world

as well as spiritual realities. Dawson’s eagerness to engage

with sociological and anthropological methods and theory

was motivated from a respect for the role of material factors

The renewal of Christendom is a task that confronts every Catholic. It is a challenge from the heart of the Catholic faith, a personal call to holiness and a demand for cultural renewal.

1 Dawson Christopher, “The Problem of Metahistory” in Dynamics of World History, ISI Books, Wilington Delaware, 2002, page 303

T H E H I S T O R I CA L V I S I O N O F C H R I S T O P H ER DAW S O N

20

public and academic opinion that ideas, and particularly

religious ideas formed a fundamental component of man’s

past and indeed his present

Were one to describe the most important topic of Dawson’s

work one would probably cite his study of culture, not

only as a specific and concrete reality; but culture in the

abstract, what makes and unmakes cultures, what governs

a culture’s development and how cultures interact. Culture,

which Dawson defined as a shared moral order, governs our

understandings of our physical space. In the second, and

possibly the most important, of his early works ‘Progress

and Religion’, Dawson took great pains to challenge the idea

current in the fashionable society of his time that culture

was a product of physical forces

and religion was a superstitious

and parasitic growth on top of

primitive societies. This belief is

summed up Herbert Spencer who

in reconstructing the mentality

of an uncivilised native proposed

that, ‘he thinks of nothing except

the matters that immediately

concern his daily material needs’.

Arguing the contrary Dawson

cited, in a fashion that should

resonate with contemporary

Australians, the indigenous

Australian tribes and their deeply

spiritual and ceremonial relationship with

their material surrounds. Another, somewhat amusing,

example is of a tribe in Papua, who being shown wireless

technology completed a perfect replica for the purpose of

communicating with their dead.

Though careful never to overstate the influence of

ideas over physical conditions, Dawson was nonetheless

adamant on the defining role culture plays in human life.

The source of culture and ideas for much of human history

furthermore was to be found not merely in the physical

conditions of man’s environment but more importantly in

the religious and spiritual impulses of humanity. “Behind

every civilisation is a vision” Dawson writes, “a vision which

may be the unconscious fruit of ages of common thought

and action, or may have sprung from the sudden illumination

of a great prophet or thinker … A people which has heard

thrice a day for a thousand years the voice of the muezzin

proclaiming the unity of God cannot live the same life or see

with the same eyes as the Hindu who worships the life of

nature in its countless forms, and sees the external world

as a manifestation of the interplay of cosmic sexual forces.”2

Moreover the decline of organised religion in the west

does not in Dawson’s understanding, result in a culture that

escapes the influences of religious thinking. Rather the rise

of secularism for Dawson represented the triumph of a new

religious belief in eternal progress via humanity’s scientific

and rational facilities. Religious belief in Dawsonian thought

is the key to understanding culture. It is culture, as the

dynamic element of human societies, that will interacts with

man’s physical environment in different and extraordinary

ways.

So much then for Dawson’s

thought as it applied to the past.

The finalaspect of his thought

that I would like to explore is his

application of his understanding

of culture to the future. This was

the great task of his last public

years during which he held the

Chair for Roman Catholic Studies

at Harvard University; and during

which he published his own

understanding of education in a

work entitledCrisis of Western

Education in 1961. For Dawson as

we have seen ideas, particularly ideas that become imbued

and transmitted by a culture, are of paramount importance

to the social life of man. In the modern west Dawson saw

formal education as the new, primary vehicle by which ideas

are accepted by the culture at large. This education which

is both mandatory and with some exceptions secular, by

virtue of its secular nature fails at transmitting a religious

conception of man. The resulting culture is one in which

religious belief has not so much been definitely rejected but

repressed; treated with indifference and comprehended in

ignorance.

The solution for Dawson, was not merely preach Christian

beliefs. Separated from a worldview that comprehends

how religion fulfils a fundamental need of mankind

abstract beliefs play the part of the wireless amongst the

It is culture, as the dynamic element of human societies, that interacts with man’s physical environment in different and extraordinary ways.

T H E H I S T O R I CA L V I S I O N O F C H R I S T O P H ER DAW S O N

2 Dawson Christopher, Progress and Religion, Catholic University of America Press, Washington D.C., 2001, pages 67 - 68

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tribe in Papua. The dogma and doctrines of the faith will

be understood only in a manner that is consistent with

the dominant zeitgeist and in this manner will be devoid

of meaning. Rather Dawson suggested that Christians

must act as interpreters of the Christian tradition as it has

existed as an integrated whole. This tradition makes for

a valuable study in its own right for in many ways it is not

a dead tradition but one that still profoundly affects the

world in which we live. More importantly this tradition

offers Christian beliefs in a context by which their essential

meaning and importance may properly comprehended.

This is a task in Dawson’s view not only for institutions but

also and more importantly, for the individual Christian, a

task completed by embracing an apostolate of study to

complement the apostolates of prayer and action.

It is these elements of Dawson’s thought that were influential

for the founding of the Dawson Society. If the Society is to

be an effective transmitter of ideas the organisers must first

have their conception of man in order. Man is not merely a

glorified animal nor is he a pure spirit. This may seem like a

simple idea but if it were at once properly comprehended it

is arguable that more than half the modern heresies would

vanish overnight. In contemporary Australia the intellectual

climate very much favours man as a glorified animal, thus

Dawson’s understanding of the religious nature of man is

of essential importance to the Society’s work. Finally there

is the apostolate of study. It is not right to despair over

modernity. Very well. The alternative is hard work in prayer,

thought and action.

The danger Dawson saw was that any one of the social sciences might claim for itself the sole and complete right to comprehend and explain man’s social life. The consequences of such claims would inevitably be a disastrous narrowing of the philosophical conception of man, his purpose, morals and meaning.

T H E H I S T O R I CA L V I S I O N O F C H R I S T O P H ER DAW S O N

22

AS YOU MAY BE AWARE, the Dawson Society

is a newly incorporated association that

survives on the tenacity of its volunteers and

the generosity of those individuals who have

donated their time and expertise.

We would especially like to thank the generous

donations of the following:

Squire Sanders legal firm, for their efforts

in aiding the society to achieve incorporated

status.

Paul Bui of Monk Media, for his work in

coding and hosting the website.

Elizabeth Bogoni, for the generous

donation of many hours of design work, for our

invitations, general branding and the Dawson

Society website.

5,000

4,2505,400

4,000

2,000 2,025

5,500 5,200 6,000

10,275

24,100

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

Speakers Forum Website General Expenses

Glowery Prize

Paideia Lectures

TOTAL

2013 2014

As we look to 2014 and further into the future

the organising committee of the Dawson Society

for Philosophy and Culture is keen to move the

Society’s finances onto a more formal footing,

as we have now become a formal incorporated

association with legal rights and responsibilities.

To this end we have included a summary of the

Society’s financial totals in 2013 and a budget of

projected expenses for 2014.

Though the Dawson Society is run largely by

volunteer labour and is consequently relatively

cheap to run it is simply not possible to provide

the events we host without cost. We are

currently in the process of financing events for

the coming year and are seeking grants and

private donations so that these events can go

ahead successfully.

Financial Report

EX P EN S ES

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D I R E C T PAY M EN T

The Dawson Society

BSB 066 118

Account Number 10347746

SUPPORT THE DAWSON SOCIETYContributions can be made via the following

SINCE WE BEGAN the Dawson Society last year I have been

continually impressed by the support we have received from

a variety of sectors within the community. Our events and

activities are made possible by generous donors who really

are investors in cultural renewal.

Due to the voluntary nature of the society our expenses

are minimal for their overall return, however it would be

impossible to proceed with our planned events without

solid financial backing. We are currently seeking donations

for either specific projects, as detailed above, or general

donations to support the society’s activities.

If just 40 people were to commit to a pledge of $50 a month

our expenses for the year ahead would be entirely met.

Understanding that this might not be possible for many

people, any monthly or one-off contributions will go a long

way to supporting our proposed activities for 2014.

Myself and the other organisers of the Dawson Society are

also seeking grants from a variety of sources and institutions

however these donations cannot replace the dedicated

support of those in the community who share our goal of

the Christianisation of Australian Culture. Whilst we have

currently budgeted a financial need of $24 100 for 2014

any donations above this amount will be invested in the

continuing activities of the society, with an aim not merely

to maintain, but to grow.

I personally would like to thank those individuals and

institutions who, through their generous donations and

contributions made our work in 2013 possible. I firmly

believe in the continuing mission of the Dawson Society and

I invite you to join with us in this exciting mission.

F U N D R A I S I N G A P P E A L

C H E Q U ES

Cheques can be made out to

The Dawson Society,

PO Box 1413 Booragoon WA 6954

PAY PA L

Secure Paypal transactions may be made at

www.dawsonsociety.com.au

CA S H D O N AT I O N S

Cash donations are always gratefully accepted

at Dawson Society events

thomas gourlayPresident and Co-Founder

S U P P O RT

24

THE DAWSON SOCIETY for Philosophy and

Culture is proud to appoint three members

to a new advisory board. The purpose of the

board is to lend their expertise and advice to

assist the committee of management in the

overall direction of the Society’s activities.

We thank these founding members for thier

ongoing support.

CO M M I T T EE O F M A N AG EM EN T

Mr Pe t e r Roseng ren ,

Editor of The Catholic Weekly

(Sydney), former Editor of The

Record (Perth)

Pro f e s so r Ce l i a Hammond ,Vice-Chancellor of the University

of Notre Dame Australia

Pro f e s so r Tr ace y RowlandDean of the John Paul II Institute

for Marriage and Family

Thomas Gour l ayPresident

El i z abe th Bogon iArtistic Director

J i ng-P ing Wong

Dan i e l Mat thy sVice-President

Ric ha rd S e l l wood

Deon Mat thy s

Advisory Board