Members of the Christian Brethren in the 19th century (Image: Christian Brethren)
In 1989 a then 21-year-old Scott Morrison wrote a detailed thesis for his Bachelor of Science honours degree. His topic,
Crikey can reveal, was the local history of a relatively obscure evangelical church known as the Christian Brethren.
The full title of Morrison’s 154-page thesis is “Religion and Society, a Micro Approach: an Examination of the Christian Brethren Assemblies in the Sydney Metropolitan Area, 1964-1989”.
Morrison’s thesis is not easy to find.
Crikey has been trying for weeks. Written for his course at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) school of geography, Morrison’s thesis is now kept 17,000 kilometres away in a specialist archive at the University of Manchester the world’s leading collection of Christian Brethren books, periodicals and magazines. A niche topic to be sure.