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Contesting the Protestant Consensus: Voluntarists, Methodists, and the Persistence of Evangelical Dissent in Upper Canada, 1829-1854

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Contesting the Protestant Consensus: Voluntarists, Methodists, and the Persistence of Evangelical Dissent in Upper Canada, 1829-1854 Document generated on 09/30/2021 6:26 p.m. Ontario History Contesting the Protestant Consensus Voluntarists, Methodists, and the Persistence of Evangelical Dissent in Upper Canada, 1829-1854 James Forbes Volume 108, Number 2, Fall 2016 Article abstract This article challenges the premise that a Protestant consensus emerged in URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1050594ar Upper Canada by the mid-nineteenth century by examining the persistence of DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1050594ar politically influential, dissenting evangelical voluntarists who advocated the secularization of the clergy reserves. State- Chruch efforts were strongly See table of contents contested by evangelicals who had come to believe that the purity of their faith was marked by its independence from the state as well as its revivalism. Using the Toronto-based Christian Guardian, this article traces a clash between the Publisher(s) British Wesleyans and the generally voluntarist Upper Canadian Methodists as they sought to claim the legacy of Methodism in the colony. Overall, this article The Ontario Historical Society seeks to highlight the persistence of an early dissenting evangelical culture, not as an exception to the rule of consensus, but as a significant influence in ISSN colonial public policy and a vital force in Upper Canadian Protestantism that calls into question the consensus model. 0030-2953 (print) 2371-4654 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Forbes, J. (2016). Contesting the Protestant Consensus: Voluntarists, Methodists, and the Persistence of Evangelical Dissent in Upper Canada, 1829-1854. Ontario History, 108(2), 189–214. https://doi.org/10.7202/1050594ar Copyright © The Ontario Historical Society, 2016 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ 189 Contesting the Protestant Consensus Voluntarists, Methodists, and the Persistence of Evangelical Dissent in Upper Canada, 1829-1854 by James Forbes “When the battle shall be over, we shall look around for some of our brethren and miss them. There is a spirit of conformity and complaisance abroad which will be the ruin of many—to be called a dissenter requires more fortitude than many possess…”1 n 1842, two old rivals met unex- defended Methodists against Strachan’s pectedly for the first time as they accusations of laziness and disloyalty.2 By shared a coach ride from Kingston 1842, however, something had changed Ito Cobourg, Upper Canada. The sub- significantly: during their amicable ex- ject of the long-standing rivalry between change on the coach ride, the two cler- Anglican John Strachan and Methodist gymen discussed accessing state funds Egerton Ryerson had been the question to support the Methodists’ new Victo- of church establishment, and their fierce ria College. Historians such as William war of words had been published for an Westfall have used this meeting as evi- eager audience in the Upper Canadian dence that a “new Protestant consensus presses beginning in 1826. Strachan had was beginning to emerge.”3 Mark Noll advocated greater state support for the said the meeting suggests “how easily the Church of England in order to combat antagonisms of the 1820s were set aside what he saw to be subversive evangelical for the common Protestant purposes of encroachment in the colony, and Ryer- the 1840s.”4 These conclusions are con- son had challenged his presumptions and sistent with a wider historiographical 1 Rev. John Roaf,Lectures on the Millennium (1844), 94. 2 For background on the political and religious context of this rivalry, see John Webster Grant, A Profusion of Spires: Religion in Nineteenth-Century Ontario (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988), 89, 100; David Mills, The Idea of Loyalty in Upper Canada, 1784-1850 (Montreal & Kingston: McGill- Queen’s University Press, 1988),53-54; E. Jane Errington, The Lion, The Eagle, and Upper Canada: A De- veloping Colonial Ideology (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1987), 187-88. 3 William Westfall, Two Worlds: The Protestant Culture of Nineteenth-Century Ontario (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1989), 49. 4 Mark A. Noll, “Canadian Evangelicalism: A View from the United States,” in Aspects of the Cana- dian Evangelical Experience, ed. G.A. Rawlyk (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997), 4. Ontario History / Volume CVIII, No. 2 / Autumn 2016 190 ONTARIO HISTORY theme that traces the tempering of an older radical revivalist culture and the Abstract transformation of evangelicalism from This article challenges the premise that a Prot- the margins of Upper Canadian soci- estant consensus emerged in Upper Canada by ety to the mainstream.5 Recently, Todd the mid-nineteenth century by examining the Webb offered a transatlantic reorienta- persistence of politically influential, dissent- ing evangelical voluntarists who advocated tion of evangelical cultural change as a the secularization of the clergy reserves. State- gradual integration of Canadian Meth- Chruch efforts were strongly contested by evan- odism into a British Wesleyan world. gelicals who had come to believe that the purity However, his interpretation reinforces of their faith was marked by its independence the narrative of evangelical assimilation from the state as well as its revivalism. Using the Toronto-based Christian Guardian, this by exhibiting what he refers to as a “tran- article traces a clash between the British Wes- soceanic version of the Protestant con- leyans and the generally voluntarist Upper Ca- sensus.”6 Others such as Margeurite Van nadian Methodists as they sought to claim the Die insist that evangelicalism was never legacy of Methodism in the colony. Overall, this article seeks to highlight the persistence of an as radical as outsiders understood it to early dissenting evangelical culture, not as an be, and that mid-century evangelical- exception to the rule of consensus, but as a sig- ism is less of a departure from an older nificant influence in colonial public policy and a vital force in Upper Canadian Protestantism 5 For example, Nancy Christie and George that calls into question the consensus model. Rawlyk have both done much to explore the distinct culture of early colonial evangelicalism, Résumé: Dans cet article, nous allons con- noting the democratic and populist implications tester la prémisse qu’un consensus protestant of early revivalism. But they both suggest that this avait émergé dans le Haut-Canada au milieu strain of evangelicalism began to lose its footing af- du 19e siècle, en examinant la persistance des ter 1815 and began to be incorporated into a more volontaristes évangéliques politiquement in- respectable mainstream. See Nancy Christie, “‘In fluents et dissidents qui étaient partisans de la These Times of Democratic Rage and Delusion’: laïcisation des réserves du clergé. Leurs efforts Popular Religion and the Challenge to the Estab- étaient vivement contestés par les évangélistes lished Order, 1760-1815,” in The Canadian Prot- qui croyaient que la pureté de leur foi était cen- estant Experience, 1760-1990, ed. G.A. Rawlyk (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s Univer- trée sur son indépendance de l’état aussi bien sity Press, 1990), 11, 42-43; see also G.A. Rawlyk, que sur son revivalisme. Nous analyserons le The Canada Fire: Radical Evangelicalism in British conflit entre les Wesleyens britanniques et les North America, 1775-1812 (Montreal & King- méthodistes plutôt volontaristes du Haut- ston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1994), xv, Canada dans leurs efforts à établir la succes- 207-208. Michael Gauvreau notes a similar shift sion du Méthodisme dans les colonies. Nous toward respectability in the 1830s. Michael Gau- allons souligner la persistance de la jeune cul- vreau, “Protestantism Transformed: Personal Piety ture évangélique dissidente, non pas comme and the Evangelical Social Vision, 1815-1867,” in une exception à la règle du consensus, mais The Canadian Protestant Experience, 61. comme une influence importante de la poli- 6 Todd Webb, Transatlantic Methodists: Brit- tique publique coloniale et une force vitale du ish Wesleyanism and the Formation of an Evangeli- protestantisme du Haut-Canada remettant cal Culture in Nineteenth-Century Ontario and en cause le modèle de consensus.. Quebec (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013), 101. contesting the protestant consensus 191 religious culture than an adaptation to settlement of the clergy reserve question new circumstances.7 Either way, for most ended my controversy with the Church historians the famous 1842 coach ride of England, as I have again and again is indicative of a natural progression for intimated that it would.”8 Following his evangelicals and representative of their coach ride with Strachan, Ryerson mused position in colonial politics and society. that “the settlement of the Clergy Re- Not everyone in Upper Canada serve Question had annihilated the prin- looked favourably upon Ryerson’s ac- cipal causes of difference between those tions, however, or the perceived changes individuals and bodies in the Province in evangelicalism
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