Book Reviews and Notices : Church and Sect in Canada. BY SAMUEL DELBERT CLARK. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 1948. Pp. xii, 458. $4.75.)

• DOI: 10.1177/106591294900200327
• Date: 01 September 1949
• Published date: 01 September 1949
• Author: Emil Lucki
• Subject Matter: Articles

445

In

the

long

run,

Lauterbach

finds

the

answer

to

his

original

question

in

the

political

safeguards

with

which

we

are

familiar

in

this

country,

but

which

should

be

improved

by

civic

education

and

by

a

system

of

&dquo;functional&dquo;

representation.

A

teacher

may

comment

that

if

we

are

to

be

saved,

we

must

find

something

that

will

work

with

the

uneducated.

It

may

also

be

doubted

whether

American

experience

with

functional

representation

in

the

NRA

warrants

any

belief

that

the

suggestion

is

rele-

vant

to

the

American

scene.

The

essay

lacks

the

orientation

to

action

which

seems

to

be

dictated

by

the

character

of

the

problem.

(&dquo;In

our

day,

lack

of

social

control

over

the

economic

forces

means

periodic

misery

and

constant

insecurity.&dquo;)

Nevertheless,

the

book

is

well

worth

reading

for

an

over,all

view

of

the

problems

and

the

solutions

it

proposes.

University

of

Wyoming.

F.

L.

NUSSBAUM.

Church

and

Sect

in

Canada.

BY

SAMUEL

DELBERT

CLARK.

(Toronto:

University

of

Toronto

Press.

1948.

Pp.

xii,

458.

$4.75.)

Dr.

Clark,

Professor

of

Sociology

at

the

University

of

Toronto,

has

made

a

notable

contribution

to

our

knowledge

of

Canadian

history

and

institutions.

Taking

the

theme

that

the

frontier

invites

sectarianism

and

that

social

and

political

maturation

transforms

the

sect

into

an

estab-

lished

and

&dquo;respectable&dquo;

church,

he

shows

(1)

how

the

Methodists

and

Baptists,

starting

out

as

revivalist

sects

in

the

late

eighteenth

century,

first

disengaged

themselves

from

American

sectarianism

and

then

trans-

formed

themselves

into

territorial

churches,

(2)

how

this

transformation

provoked

new

personal

sectaries

(Millerites,

Mormons,

etc.),

and

(3)

how,

when

the

new

frontier,

the

urban

frontier

of

the

&dquo;footloose,&dquo;

&dquo;churchless&dquo;

masses,

came

with

the

rising

city,

new

forms

of

sectarianism

(Bretherenism

and

the

Salvation

Army)

came

into

being,

the

first

to

die

out,

the

other

to

turn

&dquo;respectable&dquo;

as

former

sects

had

done.

Whether

one

is

prepared

to

follow

Dr.

Clark

in

seeing

the

frontier

as

the

determining

influence

in

the

sect-church

relation

or

not

(the

reviewer

feels

that

Dr.

Clark

has

overlabored

the

thesis),

one

must

recognize

the

value

of

Dr.

Clark’s

work;

for,

in

addition

to

opening

up

for

the

benefit

of

the

historian

and

the

political

scientist

the

arcana

of

the

church

liter-

ature

(his

quotations

from

contemporary

works

are

numerous,

enlighten-

ing

and

interesting),

he

provides

a

challenging

thesis

that

deserves

wide-

spread

attention.

It

is

regrettable

that

the

book

does

not

include

a

bibliography.

A

glossary

defining

the

many

sects

would

also

have been

very

helpful.

University

of

Utah.

EMIL

LUCKI.