The Regenerators

Social Criticism in Late Victorian English Canada

Nonfiction, History, Americas, Canada, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity
Cover of the book The Regenerators by Ramsay Cook, University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Ramsay Cook ISBN: 9781442658035
Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division Publication: December 15, 1985
Imprint: Language: English
Author: Ramsay Cook
ISBN: 9781442658035
Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Publication: December 15, 1985
Imprint:
Language: English

A crisis of faith confronted many Canadian Protestants in the late nineteenth century. Their religious beliefs were challenged by the new biological sciences and by historical criticism of the Bible. Personal salvation, for centuries the central concern of Christianity, no longer seemed an adequate focus in an age that gave rise to industrial cities and grave social problems.

No single word, Cook claims, catches more correctly the spirit of the late Victorian reform movement than 'regeneration': a concept originall meaning rebirth and applied to individuals, now increasingly used to describe social salvation.

In exploring the nature of social criticism and its complex ties to the religious thinking of the day, Cook analyses the thought of an extraordinary cast of characters who presented a bewildering array of nostrums and beliefs, from evolutionists, rationalists, higher critcis, and free-thinkers, to feminists, spiritualists, theosophists, socialists, communists, single-taxers, adn many more. THere is Goldwin Smith, 'the sceptic who needed God,' spreading gloom and doom from the comfort of the Grange; W.D. LeSueur, the 'positvist in the Post Office'; the heresiarch Dr R.M. Bucke, overdosed on Whitman, with his message of 'cosmis consciousness'; and a free-thinking, high-rolling bee-keeper named Allen Pringle, whose perorations led to 'hot, exciting nights in Napanee.' It is a world of such diverse figures as Phillips Thompson, Floar MacDonald Denison, Agnes Machar, J.W. Bengough, and J.S. Woodsworth, a world that made Mackenzie King.

Cook concludes that the path blazed by nineteenth-century religious liberals led not to the Kingdom of God on earth, as many had hoped, but, ironically, to the secular city.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A crisis of faith confronted many Canadian Protestants in the late nineteenth century. Their religious beliefs were challenged by the new biological sciences and by historical criticism of the Bible. Personal salvation, for centuries the central concern of Christianity, no longer seemed an adequate focus in an age that gave rise to industrial cities and grave social problems.

No single word, Cook claims, catches more correctly the spirit of the late Victorian reform movement than 'regeneration': a concept originall meaning rebirth and applied to individuals, now increasingly used to describe social salvation.

In exploring the nature of social criticism and its complex ties to the religious thinking of the day, Cook analyses the thought of an extraordinary cast of characters who presented a bewildering array of nostrums and beliefs, from evolutionists, rationalists, higher critcis, and free-thinkers, to feminists, spiritualists, theosophists, socialists, communists, single-taxers, adn many more. THere is Goldwin Smith, 'the sceptic who needed God,' spreading gloom and doom from the comfort of the Grange; W.D. LeSueur, the 'positvist in the Post Office'; the heresiarch Dr R.M. Bucke, overdosed on Whitman, with his message of 'cosmis consciousness'; and a free-thinking, high-rolling bee-keeper named Allen Pringle, whose perorations led to 'hot, exciting nights in Napanee.' It is a world of such diverse figures as Phillips Thompson, Floar MacDonald Denison, Agnes Machar, J.W. Bengough, and J.S. Woodsworth, a world that made Mackenzie King.

Cook concludes that the path blazed by nineteenth-century religious liberals led not to the Kingdom of God on earth, as many had hoped, but, ironically, to the secular city.

More books from University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division

Cover of the book The Hateful and the Obscene by Ramsay Cook
Cover of the book Island in the Stream by Ramsay Cook
Cover of the book Objectivity in Social Science by Ramsay Cook
Cover of the book Business in a Changing Climate by Ramsay Cook
Cover of the book The New Christianity by Ramsay Cook
Cover of the book The Czechs and Slovaks in Canada by Ramsay Cook
Cover of the book Indigenous Methodologies by Ramsay Cook
Cover of the book Mississauga Portraits by Ramsay Cook
Cover of the book Sovereignty's Entailments by Ramsay Cook
Cover of the book British Universities by Ramsay Cook
Cover of the book The Complete Poetry of Giacomo da Lentini by Ramsay Cook
Cover of the book The Moral Economy of Cities by Ramsay Cook
Cover of the book Hidden in Plain Sight by Ramsay Cook
Cover of the book Sun, Sex and Socialism by Ramsay Cook
Cover of the book Negotiating Demands by Ramsay Cook
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy