'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

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
'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
Abstract
The author points out that according to the conventional account of the history of English-Canadian sociology, the discipline was established in the 1920s at Montreal's McGill University, followed by developments at Dalhousie, Toronto and elsewhere. The author disputes this account by documenting the substantial institutional footprint of so-called "social gospel" sociology in Canada's Protestant universities and religious colleges between 1889-1921: courses taught; faculty appointments made; and programs established. Between 1889 and 1921, twenty-eight 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, eleven institutions offered sociology courses, seven institutions had made a dedicated faculty appointment in sociology, and eight institutions offered a program in sociology. In most cases, their teaching reflected the political – but not theological – principles of the social gospel. The author argues that these men are the true pioneers of Canadian sociology and that historians should rewrite the first chapter of Canadian sociology to give them their due.
Publication
Canadian Journal of Sociology/Cahiers canadiens de sociologie
Volume
Vol. 41
Issue
no. 1
Pages
1-52
Date
2016
Language
en
URL
Citation
Helmes-Hayes, Richard. “‘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.” Canadian Journal of Sociology/Cahiers canadiens de sociologie Vol. 41, no. 1 (2016): 1–52. https://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/CJS/article/view/24707/20329.
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