A Full-Orbed Christianity

The Protestant Churches and Social Welfare in Canada, 1900-1940

Nancy Christie author Michael Gauvreau author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:McGill-Queen's University Press

Published:25th Mar '96

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A Full-Orbed Christianity cover

Christie and Gauvreau look at the ways in which reformers expanded the churches' popular base through mass revivalism, established social work and sociology in Canadian universities and church colleges, and aggressively sought to take a leadership role in social reform by incorporating independent reform organizations into the church-sponsored Social Service Council of Canada. They also explore the instrumental role of Protestant clergymen in formulating social legislation and transforming the scope and responsibilities of the modern state. The enormous influence of the Protestant churches before World War II can no longer be ignored, nor can the view that the churches were accomplices in their own secularization be justified. A Full-Orbed Christianity calls on historians to rethink the role of Protestantism in Canadian life and to see it not as the garrison of anti-modernity but as the chief harbinger of cultural change before 1940.

"A Full-Orbed Christianity offers nothing less than a fundamental reinterpretation of the relationship between religion and social reform in the first four decades of the twentieth century. Christie and Gauvreau open up a number of new and provocative issues, especially the relationship between religious reform and the development of the welfare state. Without doubt the book's impact will be enormous." William Westfall, Department of History, York University.

ISBN: 9780773513976

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 726g

384 pages