Saturday, February 11, 2012

The United Church of Canada: A History

I've started reading a new book out of Wilfrid Laurier University Press, The United Church of Canada: A History edited by Don Schweitzer. It's a collection of articles by various authors and it claims to be the first academic, as opposed to popular, history of the United Church. I haven't finished it yet but one passage just struck me and I thought I'd share. I'm continually amazed at the boom of Canadian nationalism in the 1920's and 1930's. It often gets lost in favour of discussing of the Pearson years. In my own area of interest I see in the 20's and 30's  The Canadian Forum, with its advocation of the Group of Seven and later a 'Canadian made' brand of socialism in the CCF espoused in the Forum and other ways as examples. That's why the following passage struck me, as I knew the United Church began as an attempt to have a national protestant Church but breaking its name down brought this to the fore. C.T. McIntire claims in the first chapter that the nationalism aspect of the name actually trumped the Christian aspect.
The United Church of Canada: A History, p. 20



Schweitzer, Don. ed. The United Church of Canada: A History. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2012.

Happy Reading, the book is available for purchase here.

Jordan
jordan.kerr[AT]utoronto.ca

ps. sorry for the bad iphone photo!
 
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