ElliotHanowski: Toward a Godless Dominion: Unbelief in Interwar Canada. Montreal: <scp>McGill‐Queen</scp>'s University Press, 2023; pp. 360.

During the interwar period, Canada was predominantly Christian, as measured by both census and cultural self-definition.Yet Elliot Hanowski explores unbelief in this period experiencing the mounting traumas of World War I, labour unrest, worldwide pandemic, economic depression, and the rise of fascism in Europe.This historical context created conditions for challenging and defending the social, economic, and spiritual status quo.His analysis contributes to our understanding of the path toward post-Christian Canada.Hanowski tells a complex story of unbelief.He makes clear that unbelief was not uniform, it went by a variety of names, ranged across the social/economic strata and manifested differently across the country.In general, this survey confirms the received wisdom that religious commitment diminishes from east to west in Canada.Nor was unbelief unique or particularly Canadian.Ideas reached back to Voltaire and Tom Paine and not surprisingly in English Canada much of the influence and literature came from British and American sources, while in Quebec, French and continental European influences dominated.The contribution of this book is to document the transition of Canada from a Christian nation in the popular imagination to a secular society.Hanowski draws on Hugh McLeod's explanation of secularisation as a slow process from "Christendom", when it was assumed Christian principles were foundational to social well-being, through tolerance of religious difference, to a disintegration of ties between church and society (pp.7-8).Unbelief in the interwar period was not a sudden disruption of the role of religion but a growing acceptance of divergent ideas and a loosening of the social and legal sanctions for unbelief.In Winnipeg, Marshall Gauvin conducted a fourteen-year career as a professional atheist with little opposition.When two United Church clergy convinced the local newspapers to keep Gauvin's notices off the Church pages, Gauvin struck back in the interest of free speech.In Toronto, Ernest Sterry faced much sterner consequences being charged and convicted of blasphemous libel for his publication decrying the defects of the Bible and the touchy, wrathful character of God.Sperry's conviction however created an uproar in favour of freedom of thought in the press, drawing parallels with the Scopes trial in Tennessee when a conviction for the offence of teaching evolution resulted in widespread questioning of traditional Christian orthodoxy.The most militant unbelief and the severest response occurred in Montreal where Université ouvrière organisers Albert Saint-Martin and Gaston Pilon were not only convicted of blasphemous libel but had their premises vandalised and were physically assaulted for promotion of unbelief.The apparatus of Christendom was clearly still intact but its use brought popular questioning of its compatibility with the values of Canadian society.Hanowski also follows Laura Schwartz in her analysis of secularism as in tension and dialogue with religion.Thus, the process of secularisation was not simply stripping away religious belief and practice but entailed construction of a positively constituted orientation to life (p.6).This is consistent with Charles Taylor's approach in A Secular Age, which rejects a subtraction narrative and traces the development of a new secular social imaginary.This process is evident in Marshall Gauvin's Winnipeg Rationalist Society.In many respects, Gauvin functioned as a pastor to this group of unbelievers.Meetings were advertised on the Church pages in the newspaper, lectures were typically held Sunday evening, a collection plate raised support for Gauvin and his family (pp.44-5).

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