William Black: The Apostle of Methodism in the Maritime Provinces of Canada

MacLean, John, 1851-1928Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.6
Word count
93K words
Chapters
10

Tags

English Originals General BiographyReligion Social ObservationPortrait GalleryLegendary LivesReligious FiguresQuest for FaithInspirationPatriotismSpiritual PracticeDocumentary NarrativeFolk Legend

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.William Black: The Apostle of Methodism in the Maritime Provinces of CanadaAuthor: MacLean, John, 1851-1928,Language: English, Class: CT: History: Biography, Release Date: Feb 26, 2008

Editor's review

John Maclean's William Black: The Apostle of Methodism in the Maritime Provinces of Canada is a biographical work centered on a religious figure, made available as a free ebook by Project Gutenberg. The word "Apostle" in the title sets the tone for the whole book: the author does not aim at cool scholarly investigation but writes with respect about Black's work in spreading Methodism in the Canadian Maritimes. For general readers, the book's main value lies in offering a concrete window onto nineteenth-century North American religious life and community change—through the travels of one preacher, one can see the faith organizations, personal networks, and pioneering spirit of grassroots society at the time. The prose has a biographical flavor and the narrative is coherent, making it suitable for readers interested in religious history, Canadian local history, or biography. Note that the book's standpoint carries a clear sectarian emotional color; readers should keep some distance and treat it as a period document rather than a neutral historical verdict.

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Reading tips

  1. Read the preface or opening chapters first to understand the author's relationship with his subject and his motive for writing.
  2. Mark the place names mentioned in the book on a map as you read to build an overall sense of geography and itinerary.
  3. Flag evaluative statements with obvious sectarian feeling and revisit them together after finishing to consider the question of standpoint.
  4. Read alongside Canadian local history or general histories of Methodism to fill in the background.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

Is this an academic biography or a popular one? It is closer to a popular biography with a commemorative and celebratory tone. Maclean himself was closely connected with Methodism, and his writing focuses on his subject's deeds and contributions with evident emotional investment; its notes and documentary rigor fall short of modern academic biography. It works well as an introductory read for getting to know the figure and the atmosphere of the era; for research, consult academic works as well.
Can I understand it without knowing about Methodism? Basically yes. The book follows the figure's travels as its main thread, and the narrative is coherent; although there are many names of religious organizations and terms, they do not prevent grasping the overall story. Before reading, it is advisable to spend a little time on the basic outlines of Methodism's development in North America; reading will then be much smoother, and the historical significance of the subject's activities easier to understand.
Why is it said that one should keep some distance while reading? Because the author writes with a clear sectarian standpoint and admiration, his assessments of the subject are mostly positive, and his presentation of the religious controversies of the time may also lean to one side. Only by identifying such tendencies and checking them against other historical sources can one enjoy the readability of the biography without being limited by a single perspective.

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About the author

MacLean, John, 1851-1928 Author · Canadian · 1851–1928

John MacLean (1851–1928) was a Canadian Methodist minister and missionary who devoted himself to recording the culture of Canada's Indigenous peoples. Public information about his life is limited, and what can be confirmed comes mainly from his two surviving works. The first, The Warden of the Plains, and Other Stories of Life in the Canadian North-west, presents scenes of life in the Canadian North-west in fictional form. The second, William Black: The Apostle of Methodism in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, recounts the spread of Methodism in the Maritime Provinces. Though different in subject, the two works share his sustained attention to local society, religion and ethnic culture, combining documentary value with literary quality and offering later readers a valuable first-hand account of nineteenth-century life in the Canadian North-west and the Maritime Provinces.