The Churches and Social Order in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-century Canada (Mcgill-Queen's Studies in the History of Religion)

Changing social and cultural strategies pursued by Protestant and Catholic religious institutions have shaped the social order in Quebec and English Canada. Through a sustained comparison of Protestantism and Catholicism, this volume explores the transition from pre-industrial to industrial society and challenges conventional chronologies of religious change. By examinng education, charity, community discipline, the relationship between clergy and congregations, and working-class religion, the contributors shift the field of religious history into the realm of the socio-cultural. This novel perspective reveals that the Christian churches remained dynamic and popular in English and French Canada, as well as among immigrants, well into the twentieth century.