Religious Print Culture and the British and Foreign Bible Society in Canada, 1820-1904
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University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2016 Religious Print Culture and the British and Foreign Bible Society in Canada, 1820-1904 Barnard, Stuart Wayne Barnard, S. W. (2016). Religious Print Culture and the British and Foreign Bible Society in Canada, 1820-1904 (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27618 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/2909 doctoral thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY “Religious Print Culture and the British and Foreign Bible Society in Canada, 1820-1904” by Stuart Wayne Barnard A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN HISTORY CALGARY, ALBERTA APRIL, 2016 © Stuart Wayne Barnard 2016 Abstract This study addresses the central question of how Canadians came to obtain the bibles they read in nineteenth century Canada. Historians of religion in Canada have recognized the importance of evangelicalism in nineteenth century Canada, but have rooted their analyses largely in denominational and intellectual frameworks. This study seeks to examine Protestant evangelicalism through its outworking in the British and Foreign Bible Society, one of the largest voluntary societies in Canada in this period. The Bible Society’s organization, its methods in Bible distribution, and its expansion across Canada in the nineteenth century reveal the enormous influence of evangelical Protestant faith in English-speaking Canada. The Bible Society garnered considerable support across Protestant denominations, building a broad coalition of evangelicals whose active involvement in the BFBS’s enterprise was fuelled by their commitment to religious voluntarism and the centrality of the Bible in an individual’s salvation. The BFBS’s leaders in Canada defined themselves using popular ideas of anti-Catholicism, and used anecdotes of Catholic opposition to their Bible enterprise to highlight the importance of liberty and individual freedom in matters of faith and conscience. By the end of the nineteenth century, the Bible Society operated within a competitive book trade in which emerging consumer tastes created new demands on the Bible Society that challenged the way it operated as both a religious organization and a competitive bookseller. The BFBS’s enterprise in Canada in the nineteenth century highlights the importance of the evangelical movement in Canadian society and offers a unique lens on religion and print culture in this period. ii Acknowledgements In undertaking this project, I have benefitted immensely from the assistance, support, and guidance of many. The professors in the Department of History at the University of Calgary have played an important role in helping me formulate my research questions. I owe many thanks to David Marshall, who has been extraordinarily supportive in his supervision of my research. Through conversations, directed readings, seminars, and helpful comments, other professors have also helped shape this dissertation including Jewel Spangler, Doug Francis, Frank Towers, Nancy Janovicek, Francine Michaud, George Colpitts, Betsy Jameson, Ken MacMillan, Faye Halpern, Warren Elofsen, Annette Timm, and others. Amy Shaw, Lynn Kennedy, Sheila McManus, Heidi Macdonald, Christopher Burton, and others at the University of Lethbridge were also important in shaping my understanding of historical study. I am grateful for their input. Leslie Howsam was especially generous in her advice and assistance as I set out to learn how Canadians obtained bibles in the nineteenth century. So too was Michael Suarez whose advice about the material aspects of book production informed this project. Scott McLaren, Bill Mitchell, Stephen Ney, and many others have been helpful in providing important direction and advice. I am grateful for the friendship and companionship of my colleagues and fellow graduate students at the University of Calgary. I am grateful to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for their generous funding of this project, and for a research stipend that afforded substantial time at the Cambridge University Library. I am also grateful to the Royal Bank of Canada and the Bodleian Library at Oxford University for their support of a Visiting Fellowship. The Faculty of Graduate Studies and the Department of History also provided important funding for this dissertation’s research. iii I owe a great debt of gratitude to the librarians and archivists at Library and Archives Canada, the Provincial Archives of Ontario, the British Columbia provincial archives, and the United Church of Canada. Onesimus Ngundu and Kathleen Cann were especially helpful in dealing with the British and Foreign Bible Society records at Cambridge University Library. The archivists at the American Bible Society’s archives in New York City were helpful in locating past reports of Canadian BFBS auxiliaries. Of course, this dissertation could not have been completed without the extraordinary kindness, generosity, and friendship of family and friends who are each so dear and too many to name. My sons, Isaac, Jonah, and Daniel have made their own contributions to this study in the wonderful company they have given. My deepest gratitude is for Jenni, whose kindness, grace, gentleness, and faith have blessed me as we have faced the challenges and enjoyed the adventure of this project. Her patience and long-suffering have known no limits, and her companionship has been the greatest gift throughout the dissertation. iv Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii Table of Contents .................................................................................................................v Note on Terminology ......................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................7 Canadian Religious History .............................................................................................8 History of the Book in Canada ......................................................................................24 Bible Distribution in Canada .........................................................................................30 CHAPTER 1: PRINTING AND IMPORTING BIBLES IN BRITISH NORTH AMERICA ...................................................................................................................................39 CHAPTER 2: THE TRANSDENOMINATIONAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE BFBS...80 CHAPTER 3: JAMES THOMSON AND THE EXTENSION OF THE BFBS ENTERPRISE .................................................................................................................................113 CHAPTER 4: AGENTS AND AUXILIARIES ..............................................................147 CHAPTER 5: COLPORTEURS AND BIBLEWOMEN ................................................185 CHAPTER 6: EVANGELICAL BIBLE DISTRIBUTION AND ANTI-CATHOLICISM222 CHAPTER 7: THE CANADIAN BIBLE SOCIETY CONFERENCE, 1904 ................256 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................310 APPENDIX 1: LAWS AND REGULATIONS OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY ................................................................................................................316 APPENDIX 2: COLPORTEURS’ REGULATIONS ......................................................318 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................320 v Note on Terminology I have chosen to distinguish between the proper and common nouns in reference to the Bible. I use the capitalized proper noun when I or my subjects refer to the Bible as a scriptural text with some inference to singularity and immutability. Recognition of the Bible and a belief in its divine message were shared among most Protestants in nineteenth century Canada. I use the common noun especially when bibles are referred to in plural form and when bibles are discussed primarily as material objects that had a wide variety of styles, sizes, bindings, and editions that shaped the way Canadians read scriptures. Although this is an imperfect convention, I adopt it here to signify the importance of the material differences in the bibles that Canadians obtained in this period. vi INTRODUCTION On the evening of the fourth of September 1904, Toronto’s Fellowship Hall was filled for a public meeting in support of the work of the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) in Canada. The Bible Society’s London-based Foreign Secretary John Ritson had been invited to convene a conference of the BFBS’s Canadian auxiliaries with a view to coordinate its work under a