The Regenerators: Social Criticism in Late Victorian English Canada

Earle H. Waugh worked at the Humanities Centre of the University of Alberta.

Two concerns motivate Cook’s critical thinking in this book: What happened among social thinkers in the English Canadian context during the formative period of the nineteenth century that gave birth to the social gospel? What was the result of their activity? In attempting to answer the first, he probes as fascinating a group of intellectuals as you are likely to find anywhere: Goldwin Smith’s hand-wringing that once religion was dead, society would be dead too; The Reverend Benjamin Fish Austin’s voyage into spiritualism, followed not far behind by William Lyon Mackenzie King; and Agnes Maule Machar, feminist, activist and author who looked to Jesus as a great social reformer. Allan Pringle, beekeeper and sponsor of radical, free-thinker sessions, rejoiced about “hot, exciting nights in Napanee.” His analysis of these and other “regenerators” leads him to the conclusion that they may have been looking to reform Christian society, but they actually contributed to the growth of secularism. Thus the result made Christianity not more, but far less, relevant than they could have wanted.

Cook sees orthodox Christianity as being in crisis following Darwin and scientific criticism of the Bible. He agrees with his liberal intellectuals that religion was (and perhaps still is) in serious decline. But itis far more likely that certain forms of institutional religion were (and are) in decline. This may be one problem with Cook’s categories... religion takes diverse directions, and he may only have alerted us to what happened among activists with a certain kind of religious allegiance. To then suggest that the larger pool of Christian sensitivity was totally engulfed by a convergence of the sacred and secular, with the resulting triumph of the secular is, in my view, to take religious meaning too narrowly. The growth of the fundamentalist and conservative wing of Christendom has more depth than as a reaction to the intensely “relevant” social gospel; that wing demands a secular milieu in order to propagate its view. Moreover, in today’s world, it challenges secularity in many of its assumptions. All this would seem to indicate that sacred and secular interact in Christian societies with far more dynamism than we, and Cook, have so far charted.

Despite this issue, this book is essential for anyone who hopes to understand the complexity of Canadian social development. It is a well-researched and vivaciously written account that will bring to life a dimension of the past buried too long. And should a more relevant reason to read itbe necessary, try itto come to terms with the continuing legacy of King and company in the Liberal party.