From the Sudan to the Suez (Canadian Protestant Churches and the British Empire, 1885-1956)

In the late nineteenth century Canadian Protestant churches embraced a vision of Canada’s providential destiny within the British Empire, grounded in a theology of imperial trusteeship that understood the empire to be a temporary means for the professed blessing and raising up of colonized nations. From the Sudan to the Suez explores the transformation of this vision over seven consequential decades, tracing changing Canadian attitudes toward Britain, empire, race, and national identity and showing how the churches responded to and at times helped shape these shifts.

Gordon Heath argues that Protestant churches’ national and imperialist visions were fluid, adaptive, and forward-thinking. Responding to domestic and geopolitical realities, and with a growing conviction that imperial trusteeship had run its course, by the Cold War the churches regarded the United Nations, rather than the British Empire, as the best hope for postwar peace and protection for the world’s vulnerable – a position that had changed beyond recognition compared with that of the earlier generation. This reimagining of Canada’s place in the world included a vision of racial equality that fuelled uneven but growing church support for a multi-racial Canada. Heath contends that these churches contributed to debate over national identity while helping their congregations navigate and embrace a decolonizing world.

Bringing together the histories of religion, empire, race, and Canadian identity, From the Sudan to the Suez presents a fresh account of the role Protestant churches played in shaping modern Canada.

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