TY - BOOK AU - Grant,John Webster TI - A Profusion of spires: religion in nineteenth-century Ontario SN - 9781442670419 AV - BR575.O5 G73 1988 U1 - 291/.09713 19 PY - 1988/// PB - University of Toronto Press KW - Religious thought KW - Ontario KW - 19th century KW - Pensée religieuse KW - 19e siècle KW - HISTORY KW - Canada KW - General KW - bisacsh KW - RELIGION KW - Comparative Religion KW - Religion KW - fast KW - gnd KW - Church history KW - Histoire religieuse KW - Religions, history N1 - Contents -- The Ontario Historical Studies Series -- Preface -- 1 Spirits of the Land -- 2 Uprooted Traditions -- 3 Foundations -- 4 Varieties of Pioneer Religion -- 5 Atlantic Triangle -- 6 Religion on the Hustings -- 7 New Measures -- 8 Echoes of Europe -- 9 Affairs of State -- 10 Mission Accomplished -- 11 The Activist Temper -- 12 The Beckoning Vision -- 13 Strains in the Fabric -- 14 The Anatomy of Ontario Religion -- Notes -- Picture credits -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M; No -- p -- q -- r -- s -- t -- u -- v -- w -- y -- z; Electronic reproduction; [Place of publication not identified]; HathiTrust Digital Library; 2010 N2 - In their heyday, Ontario's churches were the acknowledged arbiters of acceptable belief and respectable behaviour. Denominational affiliation was a key factor in determining whom people married, what colleges they chose for their children, how they voted, and in some cases what they wore. The central role of religion in provincial life did not spring spontaneously from the pious inclinations of settlers; it was carefully planted and nurtured by missionaires from Britain and the United States. Theirs was a continuing struggle, beset with relics of frontier barbarism on one hand and the preoccupation with material pogress on the other. Their dominant position had scarcely been won when it began to be threatened by the emergence of new social and intellectual patterns. But the roots still run deep: even today one only has to propose changes in the school system or in Sunday-retail legislation to discover how deeply the chuches have shaped provincial assumptions and attitudes. John Webster Grant traces the development of religion in Ontario from before the arrival of European settlers until the end of the nineteenth century. Here we meet sober (and not so sober) representatives of the 'three churches' of England, Scotland, and Rome, fervent Methodist saddle-bag preachers, plain Mennonites and Quakers, colourful Children of Peace, and many others. We follow the course of conflicts and controversies that arose from different views of the appropriateness of government aid to churches or their educational institutions. We see Ontarians trying to change the world or to maintain ancestral folkways, in either case for religious reasons. Above all, we are given a picture of what it meant to be religious in Nineteenth-century Ontario, and a clearer understanding of controversies still bitter today UR - https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=682374 ER -