"The Missionary Lives" is the first comprehensive literary examination of the biographies and autobiographies of Canadian missionaries at home and abroad.

A history of Chinese immigrants encounter with Canadian Protestant missionaries, “His Dominion” and the “Yellow Peril”: Protestant Missions to Chinese Immigrants in Canada, 1859-1967, analyzes the evangelizing activities of missionaries and the role of religion in helping Chinese immigrants affirm their ethnic identity in a climate of cultural conflict. Jiwu Wang argues that, by working toward a vision of Canada that espoused Anglo-Saxon Protestant values, missionaries inevitably reinforced popular cultural stereotypes about the Chinese and widened the gap between Chinese and Canadian communities. Those immigrants who did embrace the Christian faith felt isolated from their community and their old way of life, but they were still not accepted by mainstream society. Although the missionaries’ goal was to assimilate the Chinese into Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture, it was Chinese religion and cultural values that helped the immigrants maintain their identity and served to protect them from the intrusion of the Protestant missions. Wang documents the methods used by the missionaries and the responses from the Chinese community, noting the shift in approach that took place in the 1920s, when the clergy began to preach respect for Chinese ways and sought to welcome them into Protestant-Canadian life. Although in the early days of the missions, Chinese Canadians rejected the evangelizing to take what education they could from the missionaries, as time went on and prejudice lessened, they embraced the Christian faith as a way to gain acceptance as Canadians.

This book is the story of the congregation of the First Presbyterian Church, Edmonton and the people who made it such a fascinating religious community. The colourful characters, the saints and sinners, the good and the worthy, the weak and the domineering, and portrayed in a very caring fashion. The dignity and worth of the human spirit along with the foibles of human nature are laid bare in this portrayal of a congregation's struggle to assert a dominant role within the Presbyterian, and Edmonton, communities. With the arrival of the Presbyterian Church in Canada in what latter became the province of Alberta and the formation of the congregation in 1881, the influence and prestige of members of the congregation ensured Presbyterians played a vibrant role over the religious and public affairs of the national Church and throughout northern Alberta until the disruption of 1925. The haemorrhage of members of First Presbyterian Church, Edmonton, to the new United Church of Canada left a weakened congregation with a diminished presence in the Presbyterian Church and provincial society. This book examines how this struggling congregation has attempted to rise to prominence again and move out of the shadow of humanism and play a credible Christian role within our twenty-first century secular environment.

In The Covenanters in Canada, Eldon Hay sheds light on a religious community often overlooked in the chronicle of Canadian history. A group of religious and political dissenters who opposed the interference by the Stuart kings in the affairs of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, the Covenanter movement was small, but had deep roots worthy of attention and respect. This study of a resilient tradition of religious dissent reflects the value of variance in a genuinely pluralistic society. The Covenanters objected to a ruler who was both the head of state and head of the church. Tracing the theological and historical significance of the movement in Scotland, Ireland, and the United States, Hay outlines the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of Covenanter missionaries in the Maritimes, Upper and Lower Canada, and the West. Despite fierce opposition from rival denominations, the Covenanters ultimately survived to carve a niche for themselves and develop a precarious relationship with other denominations and secular society - a relationship that remains tenacious and tenuous. A comprehensive study of a minority religious movement, The Covenanters in Canada is an insightful perspective on the evolving relationship between small religious movements and the majority culture.