It is with great sadness that we share the news of the death of Professor Marion Maddox who passed away on 16th September 2025. Marion was a Professor in the Discipline of Politics and International Relations at Macquarie University where she taught Australian politics and religious studies until her retirement in 2021. Prior to her tenure at Macquarie University, she held positions at Victoria University Wellington for seven years, the University of Adelaide, and the University of South Australia. In November 2017 she was elected fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (AAH).
She was a truly inter-disciplinary scholar with an Honours degree in Anthropology (USyd); two PhDs – one in Theology (Flinders) and one in Political Philosophy (UNSW); and her later career working in political science departments. Her research spoke to the intersection of religion and politics in different countries (notably Australia, New Zealand, France and the United States) and different points in time (debates and movements at the turn of the last century to contemporary concerns)
Her landmark works include For God and Country: Religious Dynamics in Australian Federal Politics (Canberra: Parliament of Australia 2001), God Under Howard: The Rise of The Religious Right in Australian Politics (Sydney: Allen & Unwin 2005) and Taking God to School: The End of Australia’s Egalitarian Education (Sydney: Allen & Unwin 2014).
For those of us who were privileged enough to work with her, we will remember her charm, wit, sense of humour, and kind nature but also, her powerful intellectual scholarship. A lasting image of Marion is of her knitting during the highs and lows of departmental meetings – although no one ever knew what it was she was actually making. She was widely admired by her colleagues and will be sorely missed.
She is survived by her husband, Michael, and her daughter, Dorothy. Marion is preceded in death by her son, Lawrence.