Canadian Churches & Social Justice

A.J. Pell is editor of the Canadian Evangelical Review and an instructor
of Liturgy, Anglican Studies Program, Regent College, Vancouver.

“Social justice” has been a rallying call for many mainline Christian denominations since the early 1970s. While most publicity in the media has centred on the churches’ concern for justice in Latin America and South Africa, social justice has been a major concern for mainline Canadian Christianity within this country as well. Over the years individual communions and inter-denominational groups have issued many reports, statements, and submissions to all levels of government based upon this concern. In this volume we find 21 such documents compiled by John Williams, a professor of religious ethics at Memorial University. Williams has earned doctorates in theology from both St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto and the University of Strasbourg, France.

The 21 documents have been arranged into seven major categories. Two of these, “Population, Immigration and Refugees” and “Canada and the Third World,” look beyond our borders. The remaining sections examine issues here at home: “Poverty in Canada,” “Capitalism and Corporations,” “Nuclear Energy,” “Northern Development and Native Rights,” and “Canada, Quebec and the Constitution.” To these Williams has added a minimal 12-page introduction to the whole collection and brief two- or three-page introductions to each section.

Two features of the assembled documents stand out clearly. On the one hand, there is an admirable concern for the disadvantaged and the ordinary members of society. The churches’ social conscience is vividly portrayed by the selection of documents reprinted here. On the other hand, there is almost no reference to the Bible or to Christian theology. Rather, these collected statements talk from and about economic theory and sociological observation. This leaves the reader questioning the ultimate source of the churches’ commendable social concern. Unfortunately, Williams does nothing to help his readers find the faith and world-view upon which the call for social justice rests.