Building the New Jerusalem in Canada’s Green and Pleasant Land”

The Social Gospel and the Roots of English-Language Academic Sociology in Canada, 1889-1921

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11971899
AutoresRichard C Helmes-Hayes (University of Waterloo, autor de correspondencia), Richard Helmes-Hayes
Año2016
Volumen41
Número1
Páginas1-52
Fecha de publicación2016-03-31
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Canadian Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0318-6431 • E-ISSN: 1710-1123
EditorialUniversity of Alberta Libraries (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.29173/cjs24707
OpenAlexW2314787276
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas32

According to the conventional account of the history of English-Canadian sociology, the discipline was established in the 1920s at McGill, followed by developments at Dalhousie, Toronto and elsewhere. I dispute this account by documenting the substantial institutional footprint of so-called “social gospel” sociology in Canada’s Protestant universities and religious colleges, 1889-1921: courses taught; faculty appointments made; programs established. Between 1889 and 1921, 28 men, many of them clerics, taught sociology for two years or more in one of Canada’s English-language universities or Protestant denominational colleges. By 1921, 11 institutions offered sociology courses, 7 institutions had made a dedicated faculty appointment in sociology, and 8 institutions offered a program in sociology. In most cases, their teaching reflected the political – but not theological – principles of the social gospel. I argue that these men are the true pioneers of Canadian sociology and that we should rewrite the first chapter of Canadian sociology to give them their due

Gospel · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Protestantism · Social Gospel · Social science · Sociology · Theology · Canadian Identity and History · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Law