Overview

This book provides the first historical examination of the study of religion in Canada. While secular departments of religious studies would not emerge in Canada until the late 1960s, the teaching of religion under the guise of divinity, theology, the Bible, and moral philosophy has been omnipresent for much of the country's history. The gradual transformation from the teaching of religious truths at denominational theological colleges to the non-denominational and secular study of religion at universities was a lengthy and complicated one. From Seminary to University examines this transformation against a much broader backdrop. It is not simply the history of individual departments scattered across the nation. Instead, the story reveals the many non-academic forces that made those departments possible, such as the creation of the United Church of Canada, the adoption of multiculturalism, and the introduction of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In recounting this transformation, From Seminary to University illuminates an important part of Canadian history.

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9781487504977

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From Seminary to University makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the development of secular departments for the study of religion in Canada's universities. The continuing influence of the study of religion 'as providing the moral fabric' of society in the creation of our early colonial educational institutions has not been fully recognized elsewhere in the literatures on this topic. Furthermore, this study, unlike existing discussions and debates about the study of religion in Canada, provides an important chapter in the history of Canada and in the history of the global study of religion. - Arthur McCalla, Religious Studies, Mount Saint Vincent University Given the number of Canadians who have 'flown south' to influence the study of religion in the United States, let alone throughout the world - and I have in mind everyone from Louis H. Jordan, in the field's earliest years, and Wilfred Cantwell Smith, during its mid-twentieth-century reinvention, to Aaron W. Hughes himself, among the most prolific in the field today - it's about time for a critical history of the field as it has developed in Canada. - Russell T. McCutcheon, Department of Religious Studies, The University of Alabama

Author Information

Aaron W. Hughes is the Philip S. Bernstein Professor of Jewish Studies in the Department of Religion and Classics at the University of Rochester.

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