Re-Numbering Souls: Lay Methodism and Church Growth in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, 1861-1881
Publication Details
Historians have often assumed that the secularization of religious practice paralleled or followed the industrialization of late nineteenth century Canadian communities and the declining influence of churches on elite culture and the state. The neglect of lay religion, however, has left this hypothesis untested. In the two decades following the first New Brunswick census of religion in 1861, Wesleyan Methodists remained the single largest religious group in the parish of St. Stephen. Yet the dynamics and demography of church growth show that low and fluid church involvement characterized both the rural settlements and expanding villages of this pre-industrial parish. By their remarkably varied and independent choices of religious affiliation, lay men and women determined the size and nature of Methodist communities and anticipated modern 'consumer religion'. Nevertheless, the content of their piety remained in essential continuity with the Methodist tradition. In fact, associational fluidity was rooted in the nature of Methodist belief, worship, and polity. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Physical Description: 431 pp.