Secularizing the Faith: Canadian Protestant Clergy and the Crisis of Belief, 1850-1940 - Hardcover

Marshall, David B.

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9780802059383: Secularizing the Faith: Canadian Protestant Clergy and the Crisis of Belief, 1850-1940

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802059384 ISBN 13: 9780802059383

Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr, 1992

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The intellectual ferment of the Victorian era posed a substantial challenge to religious institutions. In Canada as elsewhere the focus of religious belief, especially in the Protestant sects, shifted perceptibly away from spiritual concerns. David B. Marshall explores the ways in which the clergy responded to these changes.

Faced with war, depress, and the absense of religious revival in the twentieth century, a crisis in theology emerged: the church and religion seemed 'marginal.' Ministers strained to find a 'preachable gospel.' Sensing that their congregations were growing indifferent to spiritual homilies and references to the supernatural, ministers spoke of the Christian mission in the world with growing reference to morality and the obligation to create social justice. God ceased to be a transcendent being and Jesus became a historical man actively engaged in the concerns of the world rather than the son of God showing the way to personal salvation. Clergymen no longer led their congregations in a quest to understand the mysterious or supernatural.

The process of secularization during this time took place throughtout much of the Western world. In exploring its course in Canadian Protestantism, Marshall sheds light on a key development in Canadian religious and intellectual history.

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