Serving the Present Age: Revivalism, Progressivism, and the Methodist Tradition in Canada

A.J. Pell is rector of Holy Trinity Cathedral in the Diocese of New
Westminster, British Columbia.

People whose only knowledge of the United Church of Canada comes from
press coverage of controversies and positions reflecting a very liberal
theological and social agenda may be surprised to learn that a
significant part of the United Church’s roots was Methodist revivalism
in the 19th century. United Church members too may be mystified by the
transformation from a conservative evangelical foundation to a liberal
social gospel edifice. This book traces the path of Canadian Methodism
from the early 19th century to 1925, the year the Methodist Church
became a founding part of the United Church of Canada.

Airhart’s history opens up the “mind” of Canadian Methodism for
us. She begins by showing how revivalism was the keystone of Methodist
identity in the 1800s. It was through revivalism that the early circuit
riders evangelized rural frontier societies in eastern and central
Canada and built up a growing, thriving denomination. Although it is
through the sermons and writing of those who became denominational
leaders that we grasp the powerful effects of revivalism on individuals,
the conversion experience for which revivals strove was the common
uniting experience of all members of that church.

But as the 19th century faded into the 20th, and as the church began to
grapple with the new urban realities that were changing Canadian
society, revivalism lost its power over the Methodist identity and
imagination. Many of the leaders whose testimonies pointed to the
centrality of a conversion experience changed their expectations of how
the church should operate. The change started with Methodism’s
encounter with the Arminianism of the Plymouth Brethren, which
downplayed the experience of repentance and “the witness of the
Spirit” and emphasized conversion by the more intellectual act of
“believing.” The social activism of the new Salvation Army was
another influence on Methodist leaders. There was also the urban sense
of being more sophisticated than rural folk. Airhart traces
Methodism’s path from transforming individuals to transforming
society. And in doing that, she has exposed the genesis of current
conservative–liberal tensions in today’s United Church.