In this book, Phyllis Airhart has read varied primary and secondary sources related to the history of The United Church of Canada “in their best possible light.” She has then offered a thorough and thoughtful historical accounting of the life of a denomination that has had a key place in Canada's religious history. She examines that history from the initial murmurings in the last quarter of the nineteen century about the possibilities of protestant denominations coming together, through the formal church union discussions among Canadian Methodists, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians in the early twentieth century, the formation of the United Church in 1925, and the triumphs and vicissitudes of the denomination from 1925 through to the mid-1970s. Her assessment of that history is particularly rich because she has worked hard to understand the particular context of each of the periods she examines and because she considers the key events of each period in a multi-faceted way, assessing the hopes, the dreams, the accomplishments, and the failures of each period.

In this book, Airhart challenges some myths about the United Church, myths of both the popular and the academic variety. One of the most important is her assertion that the United Church has not been nearly as “modern” as either its popular image or the claims of its critics. She asserts, accurately in my view, that even the move to church union itself was motivated by a vision of a Christian Canada already outmoded by the time union came about in 1925. Indeed, one takes away from this book a sense that the United Church was unknowingly looking backward for its vision and inspiration more often than it was looking forward, at least until one comes to the 1960s. Another myth she challenges is the view that a social gospel, or even socialist, perspective was a prominent one in the era from church union through to the beginning of World War II. During the 1930s, she recognizes some radical statements that were adopted by various church courts and she notes the writings and activities of persons who were socialist in their philosophical/theological and political perspective. But she argues convincingly that such a perspective was far from the dominant one among either United Church clergy or laity. A strong valuing of community in congregational circles, and a desire to offer “friendly service” to the state, were more dominant.

Her discussion of the years leading up to church union presents those advocating for a union of Canadians as “pragmatic progressives.” She sees them as motivated by their vision of the church as a key player in building a nation, given Canada's stage of development and the large number of immigrants who came to Canada in the decade and one-half prior to World War I.

Airhart's discussion of evangelism is particularly nuanced. She looks at the way the term was understood by the liberal evangelicals who drove the move toward church union in 1925. She then examines the work of the Board of Evangelism and Social Service from its creation just after church union through to the absorption of that Board in an organizational restructuring in the early 1970s, focusing on how the term was used and understood by the various individuals who worked in key leadership positions in that Board. Perhaps most importantly, in light of other critical studies, in particular the work of Kevin Flatt, she concludes that “honest differences over evangelism” (368) were present at least as early as the 1950s and that moderates in the Church helped to hold divergent perspectives on evangelism together until well into the 1960s. She discusses how the United Church began increasingly to distance itself from conservative evangelical churches, especially during and after the 1960s.

Airhart is thorough and insightful in her account of how the United Church endeavored to adjust to the huge cultural shifts of the 1960s, including the changed place of Christian churches generally in Canadian society. Her careful research also enables her to show the significant similarities between what was happening in Canada and developments in both the United States and Western Europe.

Other features add to the book's strength and utility. Her research is extensive and thorough; there are more than one hundred pages of footnotes. The book is well organized and written, with careful precision in the choice of words. Photos of key individuals and events add an important element to the story she tells. An engaging feature, at least for me, was the short quotation that began each chapter. Drawn from various sources, and rarely theological in any explicit way, each quote seemed to capture something of the essence or struggle of the United Church in the period under consideration in that particular chapter.

Magisterial is a word overused in our time, where many things are described in terms verging on hyperbole. However, that modifier does fit this book. It is a magisterial study of the formation and the first half-century of the United Church of Canada. It should probably be compulsory reading for ministry personnel in the United Church. Historians of Canadian religious life will gain much insight from it. However, Airhart's research, and her resulting regular comparisons of developments in the United Church with what was happening at the same time in American and British mainline protestant denominations, make this book one that church historians beyond Canada's borders could also read with profit.