Noor Cultural Centre
    

Lecture: Religion and Public Life in Canada and the US

Jan 12th 2017
Two Nations Under God:  Religion and Public Life in Canada and the United States – Lecture by Dr Mark Toulouse

In Canada, the public expectation, at least associated with the majority of people in the country, is that religion does not belong in public.  Reginald Bibby has argued there is a growing polarization between Canadians who still care about religion and those who don’t want anything to do with it.  And the growing edge of the polarization favours the non-religious.   The irony in Canada, of course, is that the country has no constitutional separation between state and religion. Because religion is so obviously visible today both in public and in politics within the United States, many Canadians naturally assume that the mixture of religion and public south of the border is much more prevalent, and usually more problematic, than it is in Canada.  In many ways, this is true; in others, perhaps not so much.  This presentation will explore connections between religion and public in Canada, in contrast to the United States, that might prove surprising for some.
 
Dr Mark G. Toulouse is Principal and Professor of the History of Christianity at Emmanuel College, University of Toronto. He is the author of numerous articles and books, the latter including Sources of Christian Theology in America (1999), Walter Scott: A Nineteenth-Century Evangelical (1999), and God in Public (2006). The Academy of Parish Clergy named God in Public one of the top ten books of the year. Dr Toulouse’s most recent book is The Altars Where We Worship The Religious Significance of Popular Culture (2016).
 
Date: Saturday April 8, 2017
Time: 7.00 – 9.00pm
Location: Auditorium, Noor Cultural Centre.
Tickets: $5
 





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