Households of Faith: Family, Gender and Community in Canada, 1760-1969

Households of Faith examines a variety of religious traditions with a particular focus on the way in which religious communities define gender identities. The authors explore the boundaries drawn in religious discourse between the private and public, offering a revisionist perspective on the theoretical framework of separate spheres. By analysing gender relations within the matrix of the family, they explore both the conflicts and interdependency of gender roles. Households of Faith has a broad scope, extending from a consideration of church ritual in New France, to demographic analyses of New Brunswick and the Eastern Townships of Quebec, to the intersection of gender and ethnicity, the construction of family in Aboriginal communities, and the changing definitions of sex roles and the family itself among both clergy and laypeople. Contributors include Nancy Christie, Enrico Cumbo (CBC), Patricia Dirks (Brock University), Ken Draper (Canadian Bible College), Michael Gauvreau (McMaster University), Ollivier Hubert (Université de Montréal), Christine Hudon (Université de Sherbrooke), Hannah Lane (University of New Brunswick), J.I. Little (Simon Fraser University), Susan Neylan (Wilfrid Laurier University), and Marguerite Van Die (Queen's University).