Boundless Dominion: Providence, Politics, and the Early Canadian Presbyterian Worldview (McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Religion, 80)

by Denis McKim

In the twenty-first century, the word Presbyterian is virtually synonymous with “austere” and “parochial.” These associations are by no means historically unfounded, as early Canadian Presbyterians insisted on Sabbath observance and had a penchant for inter- and intra-denominational disagreement. However, many other ideas circulated within this religious community’s collective psyche. Boundless Dominion delves into the elaborate worldview that galvanized nineteenth-century Canadian Presbyterianism. Denis McKim uncovers a vibrant print culture and Presbyterian support for such initiatives as Indigenous evangelism, temperance advocacy, and anti-slavery activism and finds that many of the denomination’s characteristics contrast sharply with its dour and quarrelsome reputation. Tracing the themes of providence, politics, nature, and history in Presbyterian communities across five provinces, from Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick to Lower and Upper Canada, this book reveals that at the heart of this denomination lay a desire to facilitate God’s dominion and to promote Protestant piety across northern North America and beyond. Through an innovative approach to the study of religious ideas, Boundless Dominion highlights the permeability of borders and the myriad ways in which nineteenth-century Canada – including its Presbyterian community – shaped and was shaped by interactions with the wider world.

Genres: Canada

384 pages, Paperback

Published November 29, 2017

Reviews

[Dasha]

Boundless Dominion: Providence, Politics, and the Early Canadian Presbyterian Worldview (2017) investigates the Presbyterian worldview in the nineteenth century. In contrast to the austere and fractured reputation that precedes modern-day Presbyterianism, McKim seeks to understand the transatlantic and local context that influenced the development of Canadian Presbyterians’ intellectual tradition. Through this exploration, McKim argues that Presbyterianism, and the study of religion more broadly, can help to understand Canadian culture and development of the nation before “secularization’s onset, whenever that may have been” (p. 19). This is particularly important in understanding the “Protestant moral vision” that influenced much of English Canada in the nineteenth century (p. 13).
I believe a potential weakness of McKim’s focus on the intellectual history of Presbyterian faith is the distinct lack of any attention to gendered experiences, either in the colonies or abroad. Apart from his section on nature which engages with the gendered language adherents of the faith used to understand the wilderness and his brief mention on family and male-heads of household, there is not much attention paid to how members of the denomination conceived gender and acted out those roles, and then how that impacted Canada’s national development. While focusing on elites may present an aggregated culture that does not necessarily exclude “low culture” it does appear to exclude women