A Highly Favored Nation: The Bible and Canadian Meaning, 1860-1900

by Preston Jones

Overview

A Highly Favored Nation focuses on the ways late nineteenth-century Canadians employed biblical texts to describe Canadian identity and the meanings of their nation. Recognizing that many "ordinary" Canadians who went about their day-to-day lives probably did not have much interest in existential questions, this book focuses on the words of Canada's nationalists, preachers, promoters, and enthusiasts. A Highly Favored Nation challenges the common nineteenth-century Protestant claim that Quebec was a Bible-free zone and it suggests that, by the end of the nineteenth century, Canadians' public use of Scripture had diminished the Bible's cultural authority.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761839033
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	10/22/2007
Pages:	132
Product dimensions:	6.08(w) x 9.09(h) x 0.46(d)

About the Author

Preston Jones has been a U.S.-Canada Fulbright Scholar and a fellow of the Pew Program in Religion and American History. He has contributed over 220 articles to numerous publications for general and academic audiences, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, the National Post (Toronto), the Journal of Church and State, and the American Review of Canadian Studies. Professor Jones has taught Advanced Placement courses at the secondary level and history at Sonoma State University (California), the University of Dallas, and the University of Ottawa (Canada), where he completed his Ph.D. in 1999. Currently he teaches at John Brown University in Arkansas. This is his fourth book.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Preface Chapter 2 Introduction Chapter 3 The Bible and Confederation Chapter 4 The Bible and Anglo-Canadian Identity Chapter 5 The Bible and National Expansion Chapter 6 The Bible and Quebec Chapter 7 Conclusion Part 8 Bibliography Part 9 About the Author

Editorial Reviews

Jones showsthat Canadian experience illustrates just as much as American experience the beatitude arising from treating God-given 'holy things' as gifts from a merciful Sovereign, but also the enervating peril when these 'holy things' are mishandled as objects of partisan advantage.

Books and Culture

Jones showsthat Canadian experience illustrates just as much as American experience the beatitude arising from treating God-given 'holy things' as gifts from a merciful Sovereign, but also the enervating peril when these 'holy things' are mishandled as objects of partisan advantage.

July 2008 Books and Culture

Jones showsthat Canadian experience illustrates just as much as American experience the beatitude arising from treating God-given 'holy things' as gifts from a merciful Sovereign, but also the enervating peril when these 'holy things' are mishandled as objects of partisan advantage.--Books and Culture, July 2008

From the Publisher