Description
Book SynopsisAn exploration of the Methodist Church's response to the explosive settlement on the western prairies. This book uses quantitative methods and social interpretation to show that the Methodist Church was a cross-class institution with a dynamic evangelical culture, and not a middle-class institution whose culture was undergoing secularization.
Trade Review"The Methodist Church on the Prairies, 1896-1914 is groundbreaking. It is one of the few works in religious history that focuses on the prairie region and it is one of the few that takes a strong social history approach. Emery's use of statistics is sophisticated and marks a long overdue departure in Canadian church history. He revises the recent literature that argues Methodism was a middle-class institution, reminds us of the important rural constituency that made up the Methodist church, and calls for a better understanding of class as opposed to sweeping definitions of the middle class that virtually render Canada a classless society. Emery adds another voice to the secularization debate but makes the arguement from a unique social history of religion and western Canadian perspective." David Marshall, Department of History, University of Calgary
