Product Description: With the discovery of the Gospel of Judas came an outpouring of hyperbolic language, both negative and positive. Alongside the loudly stated opinions of historians and scholars was the quiet bewilderment of people who simply weren't sure what to think -- confusion not helped by vast, often incorrect, media attention...read more

Product Description: Gordon Heath's A War with a Silver Lining is a ground-breaking analysis of why the Canadian Protestant churches enthusiastically supported the war effort. Extensive archival research allows Heath to show how the churches' concern for international justice, the development of the nascent nation Canada, the unifying and strengthening of the empire, and the spreading of missions led to passionate and widespread support for the war effort...read more

Most accounts of Canada and the First World War either ignore or merely mention in passing the churches' experience. Such neglect does not do justice to the remarkable influence of the wartime churches nor to the religious identity of the young Dominion. The churches' support for the war was often wholehearted, but just as often nuanced and critical, shaped by either the classic just war paradigm or pacifism's outright rejection of violence. The war heightened issues of Canadianization, attitudes to violence, and ministry to the bereaved and the disillusioned. It also exacerbated ethnic tensions within and between denominations, and challenged notions of national and imperial identity. The authors of this volume provide a detailed summary of various Christian traditions and the war, both synthesizing and furthering previous research. In addition to examining the experience of Roman Catholics (English and French speaking), Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, Mennonites, and Quakers, there are chapters on precedents formed during the South African War, the work of military chaplains, and the roles of church women on the home front.