Stemming from his interest in Vietnamese New Religious Movements and the impact of French culture on Indochina, Chris’s research interests have developed in the direction of the interface of religion and culture. Apart from several articles and a thesis on the Vietnamese New Religion of Caodaism, Chris has also written on the Bahà’ì Faith, New Language Development, Poetry, Séance, Surrealism and the operation of religious enclaves within ‘multicultural’ societies.

Chris is committed to engagement with the wider community and organises and participates in events for schools, teachers’ organizations, The NSW Department of Education and the general public. He is fascinated with the teaching of religion and his textbook for senior high school studies in religion recently won an Australian Publisher Association Award for best textbook. He often leads courses at the WEA and is a regular speaker for the Asia Teacher’s Association. His multi-media lectures on “Civilization” for the Art Gallery of New South Wales over the last three years have proved extremely popular as have his international tours to historical hotspots.

Courses taught:

RLST1001 Paths to Enlightenment
RLST1002 History of God

HSTY2601 Religion and Society, Conversion and Culture
RLST2620 Religion and Violence
RLST2625 Religion and the Arts
RLST2628 Religion and Film
RLST2629 Confucian Spirituality
RLST2633 Religion, Television and Technology

RLST6927 Buddhism in East Asian Thought and Practice

• New Religious Movements (especially Asia)
• Art and Religion
• The screen (television, film) and religion

• Christopher Hartney, Hinduism in the Classroom: Teaching Resources for the Study of Hinduism in the NSW HSIE and HSC Curricula, (forthcoming).
• Christopher Hartney and Alex Norman (eds), Creative Phantasies and the Religious Imagination, Sydney, Sydney Association for Literature and Aesthetics, Sydney, Sydney Society for Literature and Aesthetics, 2009 (forthcoming).
• Christopher Hartney and Carole M. Cusack (eds), Religion and Retributive Logic: Essays in Honour of Professor Garry Winston Trompf, Leiden, Brill, 2009.
• Christopher Hartney (ed.), Eternal Sunshine of the Academic Mind: Essays on Religion and Film, Sydney, Sydney Studies in Religion, 2009.
• Christopher Hartney (guest editor), ‘New Religions in East Asia’ Australian Religion Studies Review, vol 20.3, December 2007.
• Christopher Hartney, Carole M. Cusack, Frances Di Lauro (eds) The Buddha of Suburbia, RLA Conference Proceedings, Eighth Annual Australian and International Religion, Literature and the Arts Conference, Sydney, RLA Press, 2005.
• Christopher Hartney, Andrew McGarrity (eds) The Dark Side, RLA Conference Proceedings, Sixth Annual Conference of the Society for the Study of Religion, Literature and the Arts, Sydney RLA Press, 2004.
• Academic Book Chapters
• “Per saturam or Performance? Seneca’s initium saeculi felicissimi: ritual hilarity and millennial closure in the Apocolocyntosis” in Christopher Hartney and Carole M. Cusack (eds), Religion and Retributive Logic: Essays in Honour of Professor Garry Winston Tromp (resently under consideration by Brill).
• “From Kpónos to Xpónos: Time, Humour and the Hindu-Muslim Puppet” in On a Panegyrical Note: Studies in Honour of Garry W. Trompf (Victoria Barker and Frances Di Lauro eds), Sydney, Sydney Studies in Religion, 2007, 127-142.
• “The Garden and the Gardener: Towards a Cinematic Twist for America’s Prelapsarian Fantasty” in Through a Glass Darkly: Reflections on the Sacred, (Frances Di Lauro, ed), Sydney, Sydney University Press, 2006, 315-330.
• “Concerning Voltaire’s English Enterprise: The Study of Religion and the First Letter of Les Lettres Philosophiques” in Through a Glass Darkly: Through a Glass Darkly: Reflections on the Sacred (Frances Di Lauro, ed), Sydney, Sydney University Press, 2006, 112-124.
• [with Shelly Wickham] “Rockchopping with Little Pebble: Mainstream, Fringe and Criminal” in Through a Glass Darkly: Through a Glass Darkly: Reflections on the Sacred (Frances Di Lauro, ed), Sydney, Sydney University Press, 2006, 57-82.
• “Imperial and Epic: Philip Pullman’s Dead God” in The Buddha of Suburbia, (Cusack, Di Lauro, Hartney eds) Sydney, RLA Press, 2005, 245-259.
• “Between Sacred and Secular: The Pop Cult Saviour Approacheth” in The Buddha of Suburbia, (Cusack, Di Lauro, Hartney eds) Sydney, RLA Press, 2005, 282-290.
• “Traditions anciennes, foi nouvelle: le caodaïsme et la vie religieuse du monde” dans La Naissance Des Nouvelles Religions (eds Jean-François Mayer et Reender Kranenborg, Geneva, Georg Editeur, 2004, 55-79.
• ‘Performances of Multiculturalism: Three South Asian Communities in Sydney’ in South Asians in the Diaspora: History and Religious Traditions, Knut A. Jacobsen and P. Pratap Kumar eds, Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2004, 433-453.
• Selected Peer-Reviewed Articles
• [with Sarah Penicka-Smith], ‘The Fantasy of History and High Art: del Toro’s El Laberinto del Fauno’ in Mentalities/Mantalitiés, vol 23, no 1, 2009, 7-27.
• ‘Transcending Cinematic Readings: History, Film, Religion and the Mentality of Cultures’ in Christopher Hartney (ed) Eternal Sunshine of the Academic Mind: Essays on Religion and Film, Sydney, Sydney Studies in Religion, 2009.
• ‘Spiritism and Charisma: Caodaism from its Infancy’ in Australian Religion Studies Review, vol 20.3, December 2007, 334-356.
• ‘Si quando spe aleris… Between New Religion and New Language’ in Mentalities/Mentalitiés vol 20, no 1, 2006, 18-28.
• ‘Colonial Disjuncture: Aspects of the Modern Religious Life of Vietnam’ Threskeiologia [The Greek Journal of Comparative Religion] Vol 6/7, no 1 October 2005, 78-111.
• ‘Why Hugo? Personality, Séance and “Shaky Alexandrines” in Pre-war Vietnam’ in Khthónios, Volume II, no. 1. December, 2004, 5-18.
• ‘Vietnamese Mysticism and the Chinese Esoteric Model’ in Esotericism and the Control of Knowledge, ed Edward Crangle, Sydney, Sydney Studies in Religion 2004, 274-286.
• ‘Manikins Wobbling Towards Dismemberment: Art and Religion a State of the Union’ in The Dark Side, (Hartney, MacGarrity, eds) RLA Conference Proceedings, Sixth Annual Conference of the Society for the Study of Religion, Literature and the Arts, RLA Press, 2004, 262-271.
• ‘Open Temple Open Eyes: Viewing Caodaism’ in Australian Religion Studies Review, vol 16, no 1, Autumn 2003, 37-48.
• ‘From Multiculturalism to Universalism; Religion, Community and the Future of Religion in Australia’ in Threskeiologia [The Greek Journal of Comparative Religion], Vol 5, no. 1, October 2003, 231-246.
• ‘Syncretism and the End of Religions’ in The End of Religions? (Carole Cusack, Peter Oldmeadow eds), Sydney, Sydney Studies in Religion 4, 2000, 233-248.
• ‘Of Séance and Surrealism, Poetry and Crisis’ in Conference Proceedings 2001, Society for the Study of Religion Literature and the Arts, RLA 2001, (ed. Colette Rayment, Mark Byrne) Conference Proceedings, Sydney, 2002, 335-369.
• Encyclopaedia Entries (peer-reviewed)
• [with Katharine Buljan] "Ken Unsworth" in Dictionary of Australian Artists Online, May, 2008. http://www.daao.org.au/main/read/7161
• “Caodaism” in Melton, J. Gordon and Martin Baumann, eds. Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices. 4 vols. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2002.
• “Taiwan” in Melton, J. Gordon and Marin Baumann, eds. Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices. 4 vols. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2002.
• “Vietnam” Melton, J. Gordon and Marin Baumann, eds. Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices. 4 vols. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2002.
• Selected Conference Papers
• ‘Moving the Ho Phap: Caodaists and Caodaism since April 1975’ Religious Innovation in East Asia, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, 28-30 November 2007, Australian National University.
• ‘America aint shit ‘cause the white man’s got a god complex: Screening Chance and Being There’ Screenscapes, 29 November – 1 December 2007, University of Sydney.
• ‘A Fantasy of History and High Art: del Toro’s El Laberinto del Fauno’ Melancholy, Nostalgia and the Religious Imagination, Society for the Study of Religion, Literature and the Arts, 20-21 September 2007, University of Sydney.
• ‘Teaching and Researching Indian Concepts for HSC and HSIE Curricula in New South Wales’ India and Religion in the Classroom, 31 August, 2007, University of Sydney.
• ‘New Religious Movements, Law and Government in Australia’ at Mondialisation, Immigration, et Mutation du Champ Religieux, Center for the Study of New Religious Movements, 7-9 June, 2007 Université Michel de Montaigne, Bordeaux.
• ‘1999 – The Year Hollywood got Buddhism,’ Eternal Sunshine of the Academic Mind: An International Symposium on Religion, Film and Culture, 24-25 October 2006, University of Sydney.
• ‘A History of Pilgrimage – First Steps as an Ass, Apuleius’ Metamorphosis’ Celebrating the Past, Anticipating the Future, the 30th Annual Conference of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion 7-8 June, 2006, Flinders University.
• ‘Voltaire’s English Enterprise: The Quakers of London and the Study of Religion’ Ways and Means: Reinventing Studies in Religion for the Third Millennium The 29th Annual Conference of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion” 30 September – 2 October 2005, University of Sydney.
• ‘Politics, Law and Religion in Australia: the Last Few Years,’ One Nation Under God: A one-day conference on the relationship of religion and politics in Australia, especially in light of the 2004 Australian Federal Election. 25 February 2005 University of Sydney.
• ‘Imperial and Epic: Philip Pullman’s Dead God,’ The Buddha of Suburbia: Faith and Popular Culture. The Eighth International Conference of the Society for the Study of Religion and Literature and the Arts, 1-3 October 2004, Woolley Building, Science Road, University of Sydney.
• ‘The Myth and the Realities of Sydney as a Multi-religious Poleis’ (key note) From Culture to Multiculture. A Religion, Literature and the Arts/Affinity Association Joint Conference 3-5 October 2003, Great Hall, University of Sydney and Sancta Sophia College.
• Other Publications
• The Field Its Paths: A Student’s Guide to the Study of Religion, Sydney, Gilgamesh Press, 2007 (4th edition) pp. 64.
• A Gift to Australia: Caodaism and the First Caodaist Temple of Australia published online at: http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/10190/20080404-1042/wwwpersonal.usyd.edu.au/
• _cdao/tam.htm#Further%20Readings, pp. 72.
• Divine Path to Eternal Life a translation of ‘Con Duong Thieng Lieng Hang Song’ by Dao Cong Tam and Christopher Hartney, published online at, http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/10190/20080404-1042/www-personal.usyd.edu.au/_cdao/booksv/dptel/dptel.htm, pp. 87.
• Conferences Organised
• [with Assoc. Prof Vras Karalis] “The Legacies of Theosophy”, University of Sydney, June 2010.
• [with Assoc. Prof Vras Karalis] “Creative Phantasies and the Religious Imagination: A Focus on the Works of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Philip K. Dick, Philip Pullman and others,” 27-28/9/2008.
• - “Eternal Sunshine of the Academic Mind: An International Symposium on Religion, Film and Culture.” 24-25 October 2006, Woolley Common Room, University of Sydney.
• - “Ways and Means: Reinventing Studies in Religion for the Third Millennium” The 29th Annual Conference of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion” 30/9/2005.
• - “One Nation Under God” 25 February 2005 Woolley Building University of Sydney.
• - “The Buddha of Suburbia: Faith and Popular Culture.” The Eighth International Conference of the Society for the Study of Religion and Literature and the Arts, 1-3 October 2004.
• - “From Culture to Multiculture: A RLA/Affinity Association Joint Conference 3-5 October 2003, Great Hall, University of Sydney and Sancta Sophia College.
• High School Text Books
• Cambridge Studies of Religion: Stage Six, Port Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, 2008. (winner of the Australian Educational Publishing Award 2009)
• Hinduism, Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
• Buddhism, Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
• Judaism, Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, 2004
• Christianity, Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
• Islam, Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, 2004.