The United Church of Canada has a rich and complex history of theological development. This volume, written for the general reader as well as students and scholars, provides a comprehensive overview of that development, together with an analysis of this unique denomination’s core statements of faith and its contemporary theological landscape.
When the Methodist, Congregational, and Local Union Churches in Canada, as well as most of the Presbyterians, came together as The United Church of Canada, the theological commonalities between them were significant. Over the succeeding decades, this made-in-Canada denomination has continued to define its convictions through consensus-building and large-scale studies. This volume, written by leading scholars, outlines key faith perspectives in areas such as creation, the Trinity, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, sin, mission, and sacraments.
No book like this has appeared in over seventy years, and readers will find insight here that is unparalleled in its scope. In creative tension with each individual member’s freedom of conscience, the United Church as a whole has continued to express its commonly held faith in dialogue, continuity, and critical interaction with the faith of the worldwide, historic Christian community.

Don Schweitzer was ordained in The United Church of Canada in 1982 and settled at Turtle River Larger Parish in Saskatchewan Conference northwest of North Battleford, Saskatchewan. In 1987 he left to pursue doctoral studies in theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1991 he was settled along with Leslie Schweitzer (née Goodwin) at Wesley United Church in Prince Albert. He and Leslie have two sons, Simon and Ian. Since 2000 he has taught theology at St. Andrew’s College in Saskatoon. Don Schweitzer is a past president of the Canadian Theological Society. He is co-editor with Derek Simon of Intersecting Voices: Critical Theologies in a Land of Diversity (2004) and the author of Contemporary Christologies (2010).

Don Schweitzer's profile page

Michael Bourgeois is an associate professor of Theology at Emmanuel College, Toronto, researching and teaching on The Theology of The United Church of Canada. He chaired the church’s Committee on Theology and Faith from 2000 to 2006, and in 2009 he received the Davidson Trust Award for excellence in teaching and scholarship.

Michael Bourgeois' profile page

Robert C. Fennell is the academic dean and an associate professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is the author of The Rule of Faith and Biblical Interpretation: Reform, Resistance, and Renewal (2018).

Robert C. Fennell's profile page

The book does not reveal a church that is afraid to be church, but one that is courageous enough to embrace change and acknowledge human mutability in the face of an enduring God. It shows that there is a strong theological bedrock in our tradition, for anyone interested enough to look for it

Jane Dawson, UC Observer, 2019 February 1