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That the sacred and its proponents are retreating in the Christian West has become a commonplace. Matthew Arnold admitted it as long ago as 1867The sea of faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd; But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing marThe spread of indifference and unbelief has not been decisively checked since 'Dover Beach'. Arnold's image of a tide going out suggests that the water will rise again, but we should not be carried away by logic. No necessary return is implied if we speak instead of the drying up of what used to be full of life.In Australia this century regard for the Christian message has diminished. So has respect for the sacred intervals with which time is punctuated. No longer is the Lord's Day set apart and protected from profanation. Christian doctrines and symbols can be attacked with impunity. And yet, for two decades now, the sacred has been making a return.The extent to which religious feeling is stirring in the population at large is open to question. Its manifestations seem fragmented and ambiguous. 'New Age' thinking, 'born again' Christianity, fundamentalist revivalsperhaps they affect closed or selfisolating groups. None appears to have impacted on the political order or the laws of the land or the economy to any significant degree. Environmentalism, which has had an impact, is sometimes called a religion, but this may be said more to denigrate than describe it. Those 'greenies' who strike a genuine religious noterevering life, invoking Gaia, proclaiming the inviolability of the earthare probably the least effective in a Much of the material presented in this per was gathered as part of my research pro'ect on the law relating to sacred sites in social an&ligious context. I am indebted to the Law doundation of New South Wales for generously supporting the project.

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