Psychological temperament and religious orientation: An empirical enquiry among Australian church leaders

In the opening essay in this volume, Philip Hughes narrates the remarkable story of the trajectory of the Christian Research Association in Australia over a thirty-year period (1985-2015), a trajectory closely associated with his own personal vision, inspiration,and academic skills. In recognition and celebration of Philip’s remarkable achievement, this chapter has been crafted to link with aspects of Philip’s earlier work. The first link is with NCLS Research. Dr Peter Kaldor was instrumental in founding both CRA and NCLS Research, two complementary research organisations that have each shared a strong collaborative ecumenical base. Over the years, Philip has collaborated with members of the NCLS Research team on multiple projects, including major Australian Research Council linkage grant projects, such as the Australian Community Survey (1998) and the Security and Wellbeing project (2002). Some books and major research papers resulting from this collaboration include Why People Don’t Go to Church (Bellamy, Black, Castle, Hughes, & Kaldor, 2002); Building Stronger Communities (Hughes, Black, Kaldor, Bellamy, & Castle, 2007), and Spirit Matters (Kaldor, P., Hughes, P., & Black, A, 2010).