Australian Experiences of the Sublime and the Numinous During the Great War

This book examines how various Australians understood or expressed their experience of the Great War and early war commemoration in transcendent terms, and in so doing contributed to the creation of an Australian foundation myth, Anzac . The significant breadth and depth of religious or transcendent experience for some Australian Great War servicemen challenges longstanding historical accounts of soldiers—world-wide—as secular in outlook or unconcerned with or with no experience of religious or transcendent ( sublime or numinous ) experience. The book adopts an empirical approach to historical sources (letters, diary entries, verse), while drawing on insights and methodologies from historical biography, micro-history and comparative studies in myth, religion and phenomenology, and in particular, those of philosopher and historian of religion, Rudolf Otto. It is an interdisciplinary study grounded in deep archival research which breaks new ground in the field.