A Church with the Soul of a Nation: Making and Remaking the United Church of Canada

by Phyllis D. Airhart

Overview

"As Canadian as the maple leaf" is how one observer summed up the United Church of Canada after its founding in 1925. But was this Canadian-made church flawed in its design, as critics have charged? A Church with the Soul of a Nation explores this question by weaving together the history of the United Church with a provocative analysis of religion and cultural change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780773589308
Publisher:	McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date:	01/01/2014
Series:	McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Religion , #3
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	408
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Phyllis D. Airhart is professor of the history of Christianity at Emmanuel College, University of Toronto.

Table of Contents

Figures and Tables xiii

Abbreviations xv

Prologue xvii

1 "Friendly Service" to the Nation 3

2 Controversy and the Construction of Identity 30

3 The Mission and the "Machinery" 73

4 The Search for a Faith for Sociable Souls 102

5 Christian Canada in a "New World Order" 126

6 Calling Postwar Canada to Christ 154

7 Uncoupling Christianity and Culture in Canada 196

8 Listening to the World 225

9 Reconceiving the United Church 255

Epilogue 292

Acknowledgments 301

Notes 305

Index 419

Editorial Reviews

"In A Church with the Soul of a Nation will stand for a long time as the most thoughtfully and thoroughly developed judgment and will be the gold standard against which other efforts to interpret the history of the United Church must be measured." Mark Noll, Department of History, University of Notre Dame


"In A Church with the Soul of a Nation, Phyllis Airhart provides us with a sweeping and valuable telling of a central Canadian institution, one that echoes powerfully through the last century." Duncan McDowall, Department of History, Queen's University


“A Church with the Soul of a Nation is an excellent introduction to the history of one of Canada’s major social institutions. Accessibly written and engaging, it is a good choice for undergraduate courses in Canadian religious history. More broadly, Airhart’s interweaving of Canada’s religious story and larger themes of nationhood and culture makes this important reading for Canadian historians in general. It is a story worth telling, and Airhart tells it well.” Canadian Historical Review


"A Church with the Soul of a Nation will establish itself as the starting point for any scholarly discussion of the United Church of Canada and its place in national history. Airhart writes history well and the story she unfolds flows in excellent prose.


“…a deeply engaging work … the book is a major achievement, remarkable for both its breadth of research and its interpretive insight.” United Church Observer


“A massive addition to the religious history of Canada, this book should prove indispensable in the study of the [United Church of Canada].” British Journal of Canadian Studies

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