The Origins of the Bahá’í Community of Canada, 1898-1948

Will C. Van Den Hoonaard

Description

What binds together Louis Riel’s former secretary, a railroad inventor, a Montreal comedienne, an early proponent of Canada’s juvenile system and a prominent Canadian architect? Socialists, suffragists, musicians, artists—from 1898 to 1948, these and some 550 other individual Canadian Bahá’ís helped create a movement described as the second most widespread religion in the world.

Using diaries, memoirs, official reports, private correspondence, newspapers, archives and interviews, Will C. van den Hoonaard has created the first historical account of Bahá’ís in Canada. In addition, The Origins of the Bahá’í Community of Canada, 1898-1948 clearly depicts the dynamics and the struggles of a new religion in a new country.

This is a story of modern spiritual heroes—people who changed the lives of others through their devotion to the Bahá’í ideals, in particular to the belief that the earth is one country and all of humankind are its citizens.

Thirty-nine original photographs effectively depict persons and events influencing the growth of the Bahá’í movement in Canada.

The Origins of the Bahá’í Community of Canada, 1898-1948 makes an original contribution to religious history in Canada and provides a major sociological reference tool, as well as a narrative history that can be used by scholars and Bahá’ís alike for many years to come.

Sujets

• Religión
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Date de parution: 30 octobre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781554587063
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Origins of the Bah Community of Canada, 1898-1948
Will C. van den Hoonaard
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Van den Hoonaard, Will C. The origins of the Bah community of Canada, 1898-1948
Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-88920-272-9
1. Bahai Faith - Canada - History. I. Tide.
BP355.C3V3 1996 297 .093 0971 C95-933178-6
Copyright 1996 WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY PRESS Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3C5
Cover design: Leslie Macredie Cover illustration: Decorative Landscape by Lawren S. Harris (courtesy of the National Gallery of Canada [#36813])

Printed in Canada
All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means-graphic, electronic, or mechanical-without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any request for photocopying, recording, taping, or reproducing in information storage and retrieval systems of any part of this book shall be directed in writing to the Canadian Reprography Collective, 214 King Street West, Suite 312, Toronto, Ontario M5H 3S6.
Dedicated to Rowland A. Estall, J. Jameson and Gale Bond, Nicholas and Jessica Echevarria, and Keith and Janet Eldridge
Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations Used to Indicate Archival and Other Sources
One Introduction
Part One Early Dependence on Liberal Protestantism
Two Early Stirrings
Three Spiritual Roots and Early Conversions, 1899-1911
Four Abdu 1-Bah and the Press in Canada, 1912
Part Two Formation of Community Identity, 1913-37
Five Changing Styles of Recruitment: The Montreal Community
Six Early Ethnic Involvement
Seven The Literary Circle of the Toronto Bah s, 1913-37
Eight Tentative Anchorings in Atlantic Canada, 1913-37
Nine Retinence in the Canadian West, 1913-37
Illustrations
Part Three Organization and Community Boundaries
Ten Changing Styles of Organization and Boundary Maintenance
Eleven On Spreading the New Religion, 1937-47
Twelve Opportunities and Constraints of Community Growth, 1937-47
Thirteen Religion, Gender, Class, and Ethnicity
Part Four Relationship to Canadian Society
Fourteen Opposition, Recognition, and World War II
Fifteen Building a National Bah Community, 1947-48
Sixteen Social and Cultural Adaptation in the Canadian Setting
Appendixes
Appendix A
Summary of Items Appearing in the French- and English-Language Press on the Occasion of Abdu l-Bah s Visit to Canada, 1912
Appendix B Statistical Overview of the Canadian Bah Community, 1898-1948 (April)
Appendix C Bah Community Profiles, 21 April 1937-20 April 1947
Appendix D Chronology of Important Canadian Bah Dates
Appendix E Notes on Sources
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
I owe a special debt of gratitude to those whose lives were directly the subject of this research and particularly to those who were interviewed for this book. Their names appear in the bibliography. Among the scholars to whom I am particularly indebted, I include Dr. A. David Nock, Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, and Dr. Robert H. Stockman, Director of the Office of Research, Bah National Center, Evanston, Illinois. There are other scholars who have assisted me: Dr. Donald Smith, Professor of History at the University of Calgary, and Dr. P.M. Toner of the Department of History at the University of New Brunswick, Saint John. There is also a particular group of Bah scholars who have also contributed to the successful completion of the book: Dr. Sandra Hutchinson, Dr. Richard Hollinger, and Dr. John Walbridge. Scholarly credit should also be extended to the anonymous reviewers who read the earlier drafts on behalf of the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme and Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
I am indebted to: Mrs. Rosanne Buzzell, Archivist of the Eliot Bah Community, Maine; Dr. Roger Dahl and Mr. Lewis Walker of the National Bah Archives, Wilmette, Illinois; Mr. Joseph W.P. Frost of Eliot, Maine; Mr. Golgasht Mossafa i of Montreal; Mme Margot L onard; Mr. John Taylor, the Hamilton Bah Archivist; Mrs. Michelle Cooney; Julian Lebensold of Baie d Urf Mrs. Susanne Tamas of Ottawa; and Dr. Margaret Deutsch, a devoted Ottawa-area doctor.
After finishing the first draft of the manuscript, I asked two circles of Bah readers, old and young, to carefully read it for tone and factual accuracy: Mr. Don Dainty, Mrs. Dianna Dainty, Mrs. Helen Andrews, Mr. Andrew Andrews, Ms. Linda O Neil, Dr. Phyllis Perrakis, Mr. Stephen Thirlwall, and Mrs. Nathalie Thirlwall. I have purposely selected these two circles of readers, using age and gender as criteria for making my choice, in the hopes of their pointing out biases in my approach to writing this social history: they did not disappoint me; and I am grateful for their assessments of my biases that had inadvertently found their way into the initial draft. I was thus able to carry out further revisions with the help of their wise and thoughtful comments and enthusiastic support of the project. I have also found Wilfrid Laurier University Press, and particularly its director, Ms. Sandra Woolfrey, very encouraging. Ms. Woolfrey has been singularly kind and helpful in guiding the work from the earliest stages of manuscript preparation and submission to placing the final iota of the manuscript. Ms. Carroll Klein at the Press made it possible to scale the last mountain for any published scholarly endeavour: copy editing. I am also delighted to have had an opportunity to work with Leslie Macredie, who designed the cover.
Mr. James Kerr, now a reference librarian at the University of New Brunswick, and Ms. Suzanne Webster provided invaluable help as research assistants, as did Ms. Kim Naqvi at the Bah National Centre in Thornhill, Ontario. Mr. Peter Waddell also served as an assistant during a few months in the summer of 1991. I am pleased that the John Robarts Memorial Fund of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bah s of Canada has provided the funding for publishing the photographs in this book. Ms. Marta Wojnarowska of the University of New Brunswick Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering was kind enough to prepare the map outlining Abdu l-Bah s visit to Montreal in 1912. Mr. Daryush Naimian of Fredericton provided a generous amount of time in making the necessary productions of the photographs.
I also wish to express my heartfelt appreciation to the University of New Brunswick for its offer of important resources to conduct this research. The Dean of Arts, Dr. Peter Kent, provided a grant to allow Ms. Linda O Neil to edit the manuscript. The Association for Bah Studies in Ottawa offered an office for my use during my sabbatical year, permitting me to complete the work in peace. The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bah s of Canada offered me unrestricted access to their archives and membership records, and have been unfailing in their warm encouragement and wholehearted support.
I owe a further debt of gratitude to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for providing in 1990 a generous grant in support of the research project. The Arts Publications Fund of the University of New Brunswick provided funds for the rental of the Lawren S. Harris painting gracing the cover. A grant from the John Robarts Memorial Fund contributed to the costs of reproducing the photographs.
Finally, there are individuals who have, in my view, contributed significantly to the intellectual underpinning and completion of the book: Dr. Michael Rochester of Memorial University of Newfoundland, Dr. David Sudnow of the University of Arizona, Professor Jameson Bond, formerly of the University of Windsor, Mrs. Gale Bond, Mr. Hubert Schuurman, Mrs. Suzanne Schuurman, Mr. David Hofman, and Dr. Ross Woodman. Ms. Lynn Echevarria-Howe was unwavering in her encouragement.
The place where scholarly habits and intellectual goals meet, however, is in the circle of one s family and friends. My children, Lisa-Jo, Lynn, and Jordan were unfailing in their support by making room for this project in their tender lives. I would like to assume that the excitement of discovery and the sharing of stories (perhaps too frequently) were met without a murmur of complaint.
Dr. Deborah van den Hoonaard performed the critical and most helpful task of trimming, cutting, and streamlining a manuscript which contained a medley of minutiae. She lovingly urged the work to completion, while completing her own doctoral work in sociology. I benefited from her advice as well as her editorial and academic insights. On a more personal note, she sustained the hardships of research that seem, of necessity, to attend a family of scholars, marked by frequent travel and periods of monastic isolation. During the ten years of research, she was selfless in her support, knowing that Bah s might derive inspiration from this first history of their religion in Canada.
Abbreviations Used to Indicate Archival and Other Sources
Unpublished Archival Materials AL Alfred E. Lunt Papers, NBAUS. AMM Archives municipales de Montreal, Montreal, QC. AO Provincial Archives of Ontario, letter to W.C. van den Hoonaard, 27 July 1987. AW Albert Windust Papers, NBAUS. BTU Bah i Temple Unity Records, NBAUS. CHSR Chicago House of Spirituality Records, NBAUS. EBA Eliot Bah Archives, Eliot, ME. EVH Ernest V. Harrison Papers, NBAC. GAR Green Acre Records, National Bah Archives, Wilmette, IL. HBA Hamilton