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  • Borderland Religion: The Emergence of an English-Canadian Identity, 1792-1852
  • Nancy Christie
Borderland Religion: The Emergence of an English-Canadian Identity, 1792-1852. By J. I. Little (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2004) 386 pp. $75.00

Borderland Religion convincingly demonstrates that religion was a powerful force in reshaping an American identity into a British one. The importance of this volume lies, first, in its exhaustive, detailed research of a hitherto unexplored religious terrain. Little has deftly utilized the Eastern Townships as a vast case study by which to test and revise persuasively the overemphasis upon Upper Canada as the template for discussions of English-Canadian identity. Second, Little brilliantly dislodges one of the most enduring canons of Canadian religious historiography—Clark's argument that the variety of smaller Protestant sects, which included Methodism, constituted the only vital and expansive form of religion in early nineteenth-century Canada.1 Clark portrayed the Anglican church as an outmoded vestige of Europe, out of touch with the democratic values of North America. Although Little does not dissent from Clark's theoretical dichotomy of radical American religion versus British conservative religiosity, he effectively demonstrates the extent to which, especially following the Rebellions of 1837, American-based churches—including Baptist, Methodist, Quaker, and Congregationalist—slowly waned with the advance of the more stably funded British Wesleyan and Anglican denominations. Of equal significance, the volume gives due attention to such smaller sects as the Universalists and Millerites, which have been little explored within the [End Page 163] Canadian context, thus further enriching the framework of religious pluralism as a central characteristic of English Canada's formative years.

The book's organization around denominations allows Little to penetrate beneath the macro-level of census statistics and to explore the growth, internal dynamics, finances, and, most importantly, the life histories of many hitherto unknown clergyman through their correspondence and discourse about popular religious practices. In focusing upon the success and failure of specific churches, the author connects the pattern of religious revival to specific socioeconomic factors in a manner that will be familiar to American historians who have emphasized revivalism as the central lever of religious progress. His attention to micro-history well demonstrates the degree to which localism was a central feature of religious culture during this period, and to which the rise and fall of particular religious groups depended on the personalities of specific clergymen. Little's vast knowledge of the financial structures of each denomination helps to explain the patterns of religious adherence within and between denominations. Indeed, Little is one of the first historians of religion in Canada to focus upon monetary considerations as a primary dynamic of religious growth—hence, the ultimate success of British-funded denominations, most notably, the Anglican Church.

The cumulative effect of these denominationally based chapters is a portrait of extreme religious instability and fluidity in a pluralistic environment where ordinary parishioners exercised a high degree of religious choice. In this regard, this book affirms for the Eastern Townships Lane's conclusions about St. Stephen, New Brunswick, another borderland community.2 Although Little did not have access to Lane's extensive church-membership lists, his extensive analysis of the discourse of various clergymen and their constant complaints about religious indifference illustrates the frustrated attempts of the upper clergy to define strict denominational identities for ordinary people. Like the church adherents of New Brunswick, Little's American and British settlers did not frequently become church members, often changing religious affiliations between evangelical and high Anglican conformity. Little's focus upon attitudes to baptism, churching, and burial reveals that ordinary people contested the authority of, and in turn shaped, the Anglican Church.

In the final chapters, Little palpably revises the stereotype of Anglican ministers as effete failures. He also shows that High Church practices were effective and probably a direct response to the ostensible American loyalties of this area, thus rendering the Eastern Townships unique insofar as the Anglican Church in Upper Canada was largely controlled by evangelical clergy. How much of a role did the French-Canadian factor play in this imperial project? If the Presbyterians, who were British and [End Page 164] often politically radical...

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