Canadian Churches and the First World War

Gordon L. Heath

Jan 2014 · McMaster General Studies Series Ibhuku elingu-4 · Wipf and Stock Publishers

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Most accounts of Canada and the First World War either ignore or merely mention in passing the churches' experience. Such neglect does not do justice to the remarkable influence of the wartime churches nor to the religious identity of the young Dominion. The churches' support for the war was often wholehearted, but just as often nuanced and critical, shaped by either the classic just war paradigm or pacifism's outright rejection of violence. The war heightened issues of Canadianization, attitudes to violence, and ministry to the bereaved and the disillusioned. It also exacerbated ethnic tensions within and between denominations, and challenged notions of national and imperial identity. The authors of this volume provide a detailed summary of various Christian traditions and the war, both synthesizing and furthering previous research. In addition to examining the experience of Roman Catholics (English and French speaking), Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, Mennonites, and Quakers, there are chapters on precedents formed during the South African War, the work of military chaplains, and the roles of church women on the home front.

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Gordon L. Heath (PhD, St. Michael's College) is Associate Professor of Christian History at McMaster Divinity College, where he holds the Centenary Chair in World Christianity and serves as Director of the Canadian Baptist Archives. His publications include A War with a Silver Lining: Canadian Protestant Churches and the South African War, 1899-1902 (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2009), and Doing Church History: A User-Friendly Introduction to Researching the History of Christianity (Clements, 2008).