"Ministering to an Unsettled World": The Protestant Churches, the Cold War, and Ontario 1945-1956

During the aftermath of the Second World War in Canada the pace of change in society accelerated. The economy shifted from war-time industry to booming post-war reconstruction. Citizens attempted to define “normal” in the wake of a world war and the trepidation caused by the onset of the Cold War. Change, too, came to the place of religion in society. In an examination of the main Protestant Churches in Canada, my dissertation explores the tenor of post-war change and its implications on the place of religious institutions and religion in Canada. This work considers the most populous three Protestant Churches in Ontario as they sought to minister to a shifting population and tried to balance ideas about preserving traditional values with a desire to remain relevant and modern. People remained nominally Christian and defined their identity based on their religion despite growing secular pressures and trends in the post Second World War decade. This project unsettles historical assumptions made about secularization in Canada by incorporating ideas of “diffusive Christianity” used up to this point by historians of modern England in order to evaluate the continued impact and importance of religion in society, but also the way it altered or changed as a result of shifting values or norms. The churches’ attempts to modernize without sacrificing any of the values or ideas that they argued had helped to support, define, and strengthen Canadian society reflected the way the place of belief in society shifted but belief itself remained a strong touchstone of citizenship. Between 1945 and 1956 the United Church of Canada, the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and the Anglican Church dynamically engaged in reformulating their place in society. Regardless of creed, churches created a space where citizens could find both a link to traditional values (as laid out in the Bible) and also a place where they could understand the changes in society. As a whole, my dissertation contributes to a growing literature in Canadian history on post-war society. The focus upon the Protestant churches and the changing place of religion provides a way of assessing shifting values and traditions in Canada in light of the war. To reinsert religion into the mainstream historical appraisal of the post-war period means a greater appreciation for how 1945-1956 was more than an interregnum between the war and the stability of staidness of the 1950s or even the radical 1960s. The place of the Church in society and in the lives of Canadian citizens is traced through chapters on commemoration, radio-broadcasting and ministry, the Royal Commission on Education, immigration, and the ecumenical movement. Each chapter focuses on a key area of church activism or policy advocacy. Using evidence pulled from each of the mainline Protestant churches as well as the secular and religious presses, provincial and government archives, and the archives of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation moves this study of religion outside of a strictly denominational focus. The Canadian social and religious components of this dissertation are not taken as discrete areas of history, but rather inform one another. From the everyday commemoration of the fallen to the broader ecumenical movement, understanding how religious belief was dynamic during this decade allows us to analyze better why religion remained important and relevant to Canadian citizens, and how it became diffused or even diluted in society.

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