bout de papier, Vol. 10, No. 4 (1993) — Fall/Winter 1993 // Automne/Hiver 1993, pp. 42–44
A World Mission: Canadian Protestantism
and the Quest for a New International
Order, 1918-1939 by Robert Wright,
McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1991,
$44.95, 337 pp.
Reviewed by Don Page This is a book that is long overdue in Canadian historiography because it brings to light the importance of religious thinking on Canadian attitudes towards international events. The author has written a series of topical essays on the thinking of the main line protestant denominations (Anglican, Baptist, Congregationalist, Methodist, Presbyterian and later United Churches) on major international issues of the interwar period. The focus is not on how any given denomination thought about an issue but on how this branch of Christendom, as represented largely by their central Canada spokesmen, press and missionary training schools, collectively responded to Russian Bolshevism, European relief, disarmament, the League of Nations, the Far Eastern crisis, and a Christian alternative to the rise of communism and oppressive totalitarian regimes in Italy and Germany.
In some ways, a much wider perspective on the who were responsible
The vision for a Christian international order was rooted in the belief that in commitment to Christ alone was the universal embodiment of the ideals of brotherhood, peace and justice that the world was looking for. Like other internationalists of their time, their thinking was a reaction against their experiences in the First World War. Organized Christianity was to make itself indispensable in the molding of a “new internationalism” without the “tragic mistake to divorce the missionary and the maker of foreign policy” in the pursuit of peace. For the churches, however, there was the additional concern of how to fit their message of spiritual renewal through personal salvation into changing international events. Missionary zeal was to be found not only in the churches’ Great Commission but also in responding to the threats of communism and fascism against their persecuted brethren.
In some ways, the churches had a much wider perspective on the world than those who were responsible for the nation’s foreign policies. They saw the world beyond war-torn Europe. Their missionaries had first hand knowledge of Russian influence in China and Japan’s invasion of Manchuria. When Canada was still relying largely on British reports to find out what was happening around the world, these Canadian church leaders had in 1920 some 768 missionaries abroad that gave them information on such diverse countries as India, China, Japan, Palestine, Egypt, and Bolivia, and western and central African and Caribbean colonies. While such information on China may not have made them any more perceptive on the importance of nationalism in China, they were certainly better informed about the competing forces for the souls of the Chinese people. The common problems faced by missionaries and their compatriots abroad gave them, in most instances, a united perspective on the world, or at least the international threats to the west and Christendom in general.
The churches were also responsible for educating a large number of Canadians about international affairs. Before the universities were organized to study international relations and foreign cultures, the mission training schools had incorporated them into their curricula. They had seen the necessity of studying nationalism, militarism, social revolution, and cross-cultural communications in an increasingly interdependent world. Before the universities had established international relations clubs, there was the church sponsored Student Volunteer Movement that was organized on every campus to get students excited about world evangelism and service. Through their publications, speakers who had travelled and lived in foreign lands, and international conferences, they brought news of the world to those who dwelt in “the fireproof house”. Their speakers commanded large audiences and not infrequently that of the prime minister and leading journalists. Probably the largest international gathering hosted by Canadians to that time was the 1928 Congress of the Baptist World Alliance which brought over 7,000 delegates from 56 countries and all continents to Toronto.
During this period there was also a very significant change in missionary philosophy. The white man’s burden and a Christian superiority over non-Christians had become embarrassingly anachronistic by the 1920s and missions switched their philosophy to brotherhood and service that provided a powerful backup to the internationalists of that era. The author has done a great service to students of Canadian foreign policy in that he has provided the basis for understanding so much of the underpinnings of the internationalists who were to serve in the Department of External Affairs, like Lester Pearson, Escott Reid, Walter Riddell, Chester Ronning, and their contemporaries who may have had less direct connections with religious thinking. The churches certainly provided the foundation for a wider acceptance for dialogue with foreign cultures, as well as the translators. While they may not have been any more generous towards Japanese- Canadians during the internment period or magnanimous in their acceptance of Jewish refugees, they did acknowledge their failings and sought to make amends before the state did. It was the churches that led the way in publicly recognizing the importance of the rising East and the tyranny of fascism in Europe. One cannot help but conclude in reading this book that the church did a much better job than the state in educating its constituencies for the possibility of war in 1939.
Wright has demonstrated the churches’ significant role “in the subtle metamorphosis of Canadians’ sense of themselves and of their nation as they became increasingly cognizant of the outside world.” This was especially true in the development of international aid. Long before there was any thought given to the establishment of an External Aid Office or a CIDA, Canadian missionaries and churches were in the forefront of international relief, development and education.
Still the question remains, why did the Christian internationalists not make a greater impact? While most of the answers are found in this book, there is one fundamental one that still must be addressed. The strength of its new international order had to rest not on the churches response to temporal events but in its theology, which the author did not examine. He has, however, made a valuable contribution to historiography in drawing attention to the vast array of literature that Christians were reading about the church worldwise. He has also consulted an impressive list of knowledgeable scholars in the field who have read and contributed to this scholarly book. It deserves to be read not only by social, religious, and intellectual historians, but by students of the Canadian contribution to the internationalism of the interwar period and those who wish to understand the ethos of more recent Canadian foreign policy.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 10, No. 4 (1993) — Fall/Winter 1993 // Automne/Hiver 1993, pp. 42–44. Read the rest of this issue →
