On April 2nd of this year, I delivered the Easter Oration to some 1,200 staff and students of Melbourne Grammar School, at the end-of-term service in St Paul’s Cathedral.
In this oration I addressed one paradoxical question: “why are young people experiencing record levels of loneliness, anxiety and depression, as the health, wealth and life expectancy of Australians increases?”
How did I end up doing this?
In recent years, I have felt compelled to name the deeper condition causing the steep rise in mental health problems among the young students that I teach. I have a sense that what they face is not only psychological distress, but spiritual disorientation - a sense that life no longer holds moral depth or existential coherence.
In response, I have begun articulating a concept I call DARK spirituality, which I see as a vital component of Spiritual Sociology, offering the foundations necessary for education and society to recover their true purpose.
In late 2024, I first introduced this concept in an article for ABC Religion & Ethics, reflecting on Wim Wenders’ 2023 film Perfect Days. Following the ABC publication, I spoke about DARK spirituality on ABC Radio National’s Soul Search with Meredith Lake, exploring the growing hunger among young people for spiritual depth beyond traditional religion and how spiritual insight often emerges through disorientation, mourning, and shared vulnerability.
When the Senior Chaplain at Melbourne Grammar School heard my interview on the ABC, he asked me to deliver the Easter Oration at St Paul’s Cathedral, addressing over 1,200 students and staff. This was an unusual request but I was honoured that he should think I was up for the task. Was I nervous? I was more worried about how my ideas would be received by this large and unknown audience.
The oration was well received and featured in the Melbourne Grammar Bulletin. The Headmaster wrote:
Our Guest Speaker, Dr Adrian Rosenfeldt, challenged us with his thoughts on rising anxiety and depression amongst young people in the Western world and the link to a decline in spirituality.
The oration was subsequently published in The Australian newspaper, where it was cited in an editorial reflecting on mental health and spirituality. These public engagements helped give voice to what I had long observed in classrooms: a deep yearning not for easy answers, but for spiritual meaning that confronts suffering, mortality and mystery.
Dark spirituality resonates with students because it does not patronise them. It trusts their capacity for moral seriousness, even in suffering. It links spiritual experience to perplexity, relational vulnerability, and the search for meaning within community.
DARK spirituality thus becomes a vital focus within Spiritual Sociology, helping us reclaim the moral and spiritual dimensions stripped away by neoliberal and digital cultures - foundations essential to restoring the true purpose of education and society.
At the beginning of the video I have included a minute overview of the service before I gave the oration. The senior Chaplin, the headmaster and all the students and staff I met were very welcoming. It was a very moving event and I am glad that I was able to contribute in some way.
(Filmed by Will McCrae) #DarkSpirituality #YouthMentalHealth #SpiritualSociology #mentalhealthawareness