Visions Of The New Jerusalem : Religious Settlement On The Prairies

A study of religiously motivated prairie settlement, Visions of the New Jerusalem examines how varied immigrant communities—Indo-Métis, French Catholic, Anglican, Protestant, Jewish, Mennonite, Doukhobor, Ukrainian, German Catholic, and Hutterite—sought to fashion life in accordance with their spiritual ideals. Centred on the “hamlet clause” of the Dominion Lands Act of 1872, the volume explores how abundant land alone did not lure these groups westward; rather, each hoped to establish a society shaped by its own sacred principles. Through contributions written from within the traditions discussed, the book traces eleven distinct settlement experiments, charting both the endurance their religious visions inspired and the tensions that arose as they struggled to sustain those convictions within often unaccommodating prairie conditions.

Notes adapted from the publishers information.