A Country Strange and Far: The Methodist Church in the Pacific Northwest, 1834–1918 PDF
Preview A Country Strange and Far: The Methodist Church in the Pacific Northwest, 1834–1918
“Michael McKenzie’s lively narrative of the Methodist efforts to establish a foothold in the Pacific Northwest brings fresh insight into the early religious landscape of the region. McKenzie’s story not only brings to life traditional Methodist figures but details the challenges presented by indifferent immigrants, Indigenous peoples, natural geography, and urbanity. This is a very welcome addition to the study of religion in the Pacific Northwest.” —D ale SoDen, author of Outsiders in a Promised Land: Religious Activists in Pacific Northwest History “McKenzie draws on a variety of sources to analyze the mindsets of evangelists, Native peoples, public officials, and settler families as they faced shattering hardships and disillusionment. Carefully researched and smoothly written, his study outlines a classic American drama: idealists struggling in vain to claim and subdue a new region.” — albert Furtwangler, author of Bringing Indians to the Book “A compelling, original new history, A Country Strange and Far reveals that efforts to establish the Methodist Church in the Pacific Northwest were confounded by the region itself. Through rich storytelling and nuanced analysis, Michael McKenzie sheds new light on the relationship between place and religion and significantly deepens our understanding of the roots of the Pacific Northwest’s distinct secularity.” — tina block, author of The Secular Northwest: Religion and Irreligion in Everyday Postwar Life “In this artfully crafted book, McKenzie uses architecture as one indicator of the movement of the Methodist Church from being a sect focused on discipline and saving souls to accommodating itself to the upwardly mobile status of its congregants, thus losing resonance with the common person. The focus on the Pacific Northwest makes this book an original contribution to our understanding of the importance of geography in understanding religious demographics.” — DonalD e. Miller, author of Reinventing American Protestantism: Christianity in the New Millennium A Country Strange and Far A C o u n t r y S t r A n g e A n d FA r The Methodist Church in the Pacific Northwest, 1834–1 918 MiCh Ael C. MCKenzie University of Nebraska Press Lincoln © 2022 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: McKenzie, Michael C., author. Title: A country strange and far: the Methodist Church in the Pacific Northwest, 1834– 1918 / Michael C. McKenzie. Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2021015363 iSbn 9781496218810 (hardback) iSbn 9781496229243 (epub) iSbn 9781496229250 (pdf) Subjects: lcSh: Methodist Church— Northwest, Pacific— History. | Northwest, Pacific— Church history. | biSac: hiStory / United States / State & Local / Pacific Northwest (or, wa) | religion / Christianity / History Classification: lcc bx8245 .M35 2022 | DDc 287.09795/09034— dc23 lc record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov /2021015363 Set in Charter ITC Pro by Laura Buis. Designed by L. Auten. No Sunday west of St. Louis, no God west of Fort Smith. FreDerick norwooD, The Story of American Methodism ContentS List of Illustrations ix Prologue: Listening to Janus xi Acknowledgments xvii Introduction: Death of the Old Gods 1 1. A Man Overwhelmed 21 2. Broken Is the Tie That Binds 53 3. Miracle in the Valley? 83 4. A Damned Hilly Place 113 5. The Peopled Cities 135 6. Dry and Scattered 167 7. As the Lion Lay Dying 197 Epilogue: Just a Few Bones 229 Notes 233 Bibliography 279 Index 315
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