Marion Maddox (FAHA) passed away on Thursday 16th September, 2025. She had been ill for many years with multiple cancers. We are deeply saddened by this loss, and our hearts go out to her husband Michael and daughter Dorothy at this time, to her mother Shirley, brothers Geoff and Alan and sisters-in-law Margie and Lyn, to her extended family, friends, and to her church family at Pitt Street Uniting Church.

Many of us in the Australian Student Christian Movement (ASCM) remember Marion fondly as a vibrant, confident, and encouraging friend, whose insight into the challenges and problems that believers face never stopped her from loving her faith and having a clear and hopeful vision of the way forward. Her sheer joy in learning was always contagious.

In the 1980s, as a student, Marion was a member of Sydney University branch of the ASCM, and later a National Staff Worker of the Australian Student Christian Movement. She helped us to reposition ourselves in a changing religious world, and to connect with the spirituality of justice, especially of Indigenous land rights and feminist theology. Her critical thinking and analysis were greatly appreciated by those who knew her.

She went on to become a leading authority in the intersection of politics and religion. She was an Emeritus Professor in Discipline of Politics and International Relations at Macquarie University, where she taught Australian politics and religious studies until her retirement in 2021. She was an interdisciplinary scholar, with an Honours degree in Anthropology (USyd), two PhDs, one in Theology (Flinders) and one in Political Philosophy (UNSW). In addition to academic work, her books For God and Country: Religious Dynamics in Australian Federal Politics (2001); God Under Howard: The Rise of The Religious Right in Australian Politics (2005); and Taking God to School: The End of Australia’s Egalitarian Education, (2014) were highly influential. They challenged the idea that the “religious right” was only a political force in the USA, and raised popular awareness that Australia was also being influenced by religious ideologies. She also highlighted the contribution to society of women such Catherine Helen Spence, influential social activist, political reformer and writer from South Australia. Most recently she edited Charles Strong’s Australian Church: Christian Social Activism 1885 – 1917 (2021).

Through Marion’s legacy of scholarship, and her commitment to faith and justice, she continues to inspire us. We will miss her greatly.