Paper short abstract:

Bishop Short consecrated Christ Church North Adelaide in 1849 and founded The University of Adelaide in 1874. The work of Mary Douglas (Purity and Danger), Edwards Deming (Out of the Crisis) and Claude Shannon (A mathematical theory of communication) are under the long shadow of Bishop Short.

Paper long abstract:

Mary Douglas summarises the way in which Anthropolgy had its origins in the pulpit and the ill informed break that placed religion ahead of magic and science ahead of religion. Edwards Deming provided three axioms that never fail for successful management -- constancy of purpose, respect for systems and reliance upon profound knowledge. Claude Shannon linked binary mathematics to the value of information in all its forms -- electrical, literal, musical etc. Harvey Whitehouse posits "Ritual brought us to where we are, can ritual save us?"

The institutions set in place by Bishop Short ( a church, a parish school, Adelaide's St Peter's College and The University of Adelaide) by 1915 had informed a Nobel Prize winner (Sir Lawrence Bragg) and Elton Mayo whose studies of workers in Chicago at the Hawthorne Works of Western Electric Company informed Edwards Deming. Edwards Deming is attributed with the survival and success of the Japanese economy and the resurgence of national pride that was able to generate after the devastation of World War Two.

It is all too easy for the world of machines, transport, food, energy and communication to be taken for granted without deeply ingrained knowledge and appreciation of how those vitalities are generated and maintained. Churches for centuries have been curators of that knowledge and appreciation and in a world of narrowly focused specialisation the need for that role persits towards an all encompassing profound knowledge base in life-long learning.