A Highly Favored Nation The Bible and Canadian Meaning, 1860-1900

A Highly Favored Nation focuses on the ways late nineteenth-century Canadians employed biblical texts to describe Canadian identity and the meanings of their nation. Recognizing that many "ordinary" Canadians who went about their day-to-day lives probably did not have much interest in existential questions, this book focuses on the words of Canada's nationalists, preachers, promoters, and enthusiasts. A Highly Favored Nation challenges the common nineteenth-century Protestant claim that Quebec was a Bible-free zone and it suggests that, by the end of the nineteenth century, Canadians' public use of Scripture had diminished the Bible's cultural authority.

Preston Jones taught Advanced Placement courses at the secondary level and history at Sonoma State University, The University of Dallas, and University of Ottawa and currently teaches at John Brown University in Arkansas.