A Full-Orbed Christianity: The Protestant Churches and Social Welfare in Canada, 1900-1940

David E. Smith is a professor of political Studies at the University of
Saskatchewan and the author of Building a Province: A History of
Saskatchewan in Documents and The Invisible Crown.

Those who are concerned about the decline of the mainline Protestant
churches will be both cheered and chastened by the argument of this
book. The good news is that nonconformists in Canada were “responsible
for laying the groundwork of the modern welfare state.” Indeed, modern
medicare can be traced to sectarian campaigns of the 1920s for improved
hospitals and nursing care. Once upon a time, the Protestant churches
actually moved “like a juggernaut” across the landscape of Canadian
social reform, and it is the unhappy contrast between the simile of
power now evaporated and the present position of these churches that
makes for sober reflection.

Nor can heart be taken from the idea that the situation at the
beginning of the century was more favorable to denominational success
than that faced today. On the contrary, Christie and Gauvreau describe a
series of daunting obstacles that had to be overcome before “muscular
Christianity” could triumph. Among these were a constricting
theological discourse of Causabon-like sterility (“spiritual
onanism” is the authors’ graphic phrase) and unparalleled social and
economic upheaval following war, mass immigration, urbanization, and
industrialization. The churches responded by way of Christianized
citizenship, sociological experimentation, and rural reconstruction.

Among several contributions the book makes is to emphasize the crucial
role played by women in local politics, where social welfare questions
were most prevalent and where, the authors bluntly say, the contribution
of women has been ignored. In this regard, the bias of traditional party
studies (like W.L. Morton’s on the Progressives) is unfavorably noted,
as is that of academic social science investigation in
general—“fundamentally flawed” is the judgment the authors pass.

The Depression, and more particularly the rise of a reform-minded party
like the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, undermined the churches’
social capability and authority. The CCF may have been among the least
secular of a very secular type of organization, but even it could not
convincingly claim to impart spiritual renewal to its supporters.
Another war, the expansion of government services, and the growth of the
mass media drove the church out of the public sphere and largely out of
the public mind. As this book convincingly demonstrates, the eclipse of
religion is a matter of political importance.