Religious Studies In Atlantic Canada

What is “Religious Studies” and what is its future in Atlantic Canada? How have universities founded by Roman Catholic and Protestant denominations, and public universities, differed as they approached the study of religious life and traditions? Religious Studies in Atlantic Canada surveys the history and place of the study of religion within Canadian universities. Following a historical introduction to the public and denominationally founded universities in the Atlantic region, the book situates the departments of religious studies in relation to the distinctive characteristics of the various universities in the region, focusing on curriculum, research and teaching. Bowlby examines the current strengths of the religious studies departments in Atlantic Canada, and where those departments are fragile, i.e., where departments have thrived because of careful long-term planning, as well as where crises of retirements have radically affected the size and strength of departments. In conclusion Bowlby suggests strategies for future survival and growth in the field of religious studies. Religious Studies in Atlantic Canada is the last of a six-part series on the state of the art of religious studies in Canada, a unique account of the regional differences in the development of religious studies in Canada. Written for anyone interested in the teaching of religion as well as the specialist, the book provides an introduction and an overview of religious studies curricula, faculty research, and teaching areas at the region’s universities.

Most Ontario universities were established by Christian denominations; a Christian ethos was assumed and pervasive, and students were required to take courses designed to teach and inculcate religion. This insightful and comprehensive study demonstrates how, as Ontario society became secularized and pluralistic, so too did universities. Today, religion is again studies in university classrooms but as “religious studies,” a relatively new field that reflects the religiously pluralistic nature of Ontario and the world-wide explosion of knowledge. This authoritative volume will be of interest to students of religion in and outside academic circles, to adminstratots of academic institutions and granting agencies and to persons wanting to know more about the social and cultural changes that have transformed Ontario and Canadian society.

In Canadian universities in the early 1960s, no courses were offered on Hinduism, Buddhism, or Islam. Only the study of Christianity was available, usually in a theology program in a church college or seminary. Today almost every university in North America has a religious studies department that offers courses on Western and Eastern religions as well as religion in general. Harold Coward addresses this change in this memoir of his forty-five-year career in the development of religious studies as a new academic field in Canada. He also addresses the shift from theology classes in seminaries to non-sectarian religious studies faculties of arts and humanities; the birth and growth of departments across Canada from the 1960s to the present; the contribution of McMaster University to religious studies in Canada and Coward’s Ph.D. experience there; the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria; and the future of religious studies as a truly interdisciplinary enterprise. Coward’s retrospective, while not a history as such, documents information from his varied experience and wide network of colleagues that is essential for a future formal history of the discipline. His story is both personally engaging and richly informative about the development of the field.

This first volume on the “state-of-the-art” in religious studies in Canada offers a description and critique of the field in the colleges, universities, and secondary schools in Alberta. Among the findings: philosophical-theological and textual approaches to the study of religion predominate, to the relative neglect of methodologies employed in fields such as sociology and anthropology; the quality and quantity of published research is significant but focusses on Christian studies; some interdisciplinary study is being carried on and benefits religious studies as well as other fields; religious studies scholars in Alberta have a relatively high public profile, but their exercise of public responsibility is time consuming and can jeopardize career advancement; in view of wide-spread religious illiteracy among students, descriptive courses must not be neglected in favour of analytical ones. An appendix listing courses offered in the schools surveyed concludes the volume.

The United Church of Canada has a rich and complex history of theological development. This volume, written for the general reader as well as students and scholars, provides a comprehensive overview of that development, together with an analysis of this unique denomination’s core statements of faith and its contemporary theological landscape. When the Methodist, Congregational, and Local Union Churches in Canada, as well as most of the Presbyterians, came together as The United Church of Canada, the theological commonalities between them were significant. Over the succeeding decades, this made-in-Canada denomination has continued to define its convictions through consensus-building and large-scale studies. This volume, written by leading scholars, outlines key faith perspectives in areas such as creation, the Trinity, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, sin, mission, and sacraments. No book like this has appeared in over seventy years, and readers will find insight here that is unparalleled in its scope. In creative tension with each individual member’s freedom of conscience, the United Church as a whole has continued to express its commonly held faith in dialogue, continuity, and critical interaction with the faith of the worldwide, historic Christian community.

Contents: "John Wesley and the Origins of Methodism" by Owen Chadwick; "Methodist Origins in Atlantic Canada" by John Webster Grant; "Laurence Coughlan and the Origins of Methodism in Newfoundland" by Hans Rollmann; "Henry Alline, William Black, and Nova Scotia's First Great Awakening" by George Rawlyk; "`Give All You Can': Methodists and Charitable Causes in Nineteenth Century Nova Scotia" by Allen B. Robertson; "Methodism and the Problem of Methodist Identity in Nineteenth-Century New Brunswick" by T.W. Acheson; "Prince Edward Island Methodist Prelude to Church Union, 1925" by James D. Cameron; "Methodism and Education in the Atlantic Provinces, 1800-1874" by Goldwin French; "The Golden Age of the Church College: Mount Allison's Encounter with `Modern Thought,' 1850-1890" by Michael Gauvreau; "Methodism and Methodist Poets in the Early Literature of Maritime Canada" by Thomas B. Vincent; "`In the Garden of Christ': Methodist Literary Women in Nineteenth-Century Maritime Canada" by Gwendolyn Davies; "Methodism and E.J. Pratt: A Study of the Methodist Background of a Canadian Poet and Its Influence on His Life and Work" by David G. Pitt; "The Singer's Response to the World: Charles Wesley's Hymns of Invitation" by James Dale; "Methodist Hymn Tunes in Atlantic Canada" by Fred K. Graham.

From Seminary to University is the first historical, social, political, and institutional examination of how religion is taught in Canada.

An interdisciplinary collection of 13 essays which examine the development of Presbyterianism in the Maritimes from its roots in Scotland to Church Union in 1925. Contributors provide fascinating explorations of Presbyterianism in such areas as education, literature, social influence, and missionary outreach. Topics include the Kirk versus the Free Church; Thomas McCulloch's fictional celebration of the Reverend James McGregor; and Presbyterian revivals. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR