Recently I attended an international multi-faith conference in Brisbane (Global Multifaith: Dreaming Landscapes. Spiritualities and Justice in Learning Communities).

One of the keynote speakers was David Tacy, Associate Professor and Reader in Arts at La Trobe University.

For the past few years, David has been teaching a course on Australian Spirituality, which has grown to be one of the most popular first-year subjects at his university.

In his most recent book 'The Spirituality Revolution', he observes that "secular society realising that it has been running on empty, has to restore itself at a deep primal source, a source which is beyond humanity and yet paradoxically at the very core of our experience".

This was the theme of his keynote address – that secularisation has run its course leaving human beings empty and blindly groping for something that would nourish their starving souls.

He observes that the secular world is quick to condemn religion as coercive and indoctrinating, while failing to realise that secularism itself is a \"potent form of indoctrination, all the more powerful for its not being detected as such\".

Over the past 10 years as chaplain to the CQU community, I have listened to many staff and students speak to me of the desolation and meaninglessness that they experience in their daily lives.

When I listen to their stories of despair and alienation it becomes clear that their suffering is a form of spiritual suffering. Materialism - more things, more stuff, more entertainment does not satisfy the deep human hunger for meaning and connection. I concur with Tacy that we are on the eve of a spirituality revolution. In the coming issues of Uninews I am hoping to explore the terrain of this new revolution.

- Matthew Quaife-Ryan, CQU Chaplain, ph 07 4930 9285 or via chaplain@cqu.edu.au.