"As Canadian as the maple leaf" is how one observer summed up the United Church of Canada after its founding in 1925. But was this Canadian-made church flawed in its design, as critics have charged? A Church with the Soul of a Nation explores this question by weaving together the history of the United Church with a provocative analysis of religion and cultural change.

Phyllis D. Airhart is Professor Emeritus of the History of Christianity at Emmanuel College and cross-appointed to the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. She is the author of A Church with the Soul of a Nation: Making and Remaking the United Church of Canada (winner of the 2016 book prize from the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion and shortlisted for the 2015 Canada Prize in the Humanities from the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences) as well as a number of other books and articles on religion in Canada.

Phyllis D. Airhart's profile page

“…a deeply engaging work … the book is a major achievement, remarkable for both its breadth of research and its interpretive insight.” United Church Observer

"In A Church with the Soul of a Nation, Phyllis Airhart provides us with a sweeping and valuable telling of a central Canadian institution, one that echoes powerfully through the last century." Duncan McDowall, Department of History, Queen's University

"A Church with the Soul of a Nation will establish itself as the starting point for any scholarly discussion of the United Church of Canada and its place in national history. Airhart writes history well and the story she unfolds flows in excellent prose.

"In A Church with the Soul of a Nation will stand for a long time as the most thoughtfully and thoroughly developed judgment and will be the gold standard against which other efforts to interpret the history of the United Church must be measured." Mark Noll, Department of History, University of Notre Dame

“A massive addition to the religious history of Canada, this book should prove indispensable in the study of the [United Church of Canada].” British Journal of Canadian Studies

“A Church with the Soul of a Nation is an excellent introduction to the history of one of Canada’s major social institutions. Accessibly written and engaging, it is a good choice for undergraduate courses in Canadian religious history. More broadly, Airhart’s interweaving of Canada’s religious story and larger themes of nationhood and culture makes this important reading for Canadian historians in general. It is a story worth telling, and Airhart tells it well.” Canadian Historical Review