Encountering Spirits: Evangelical and Holiness Revivals in Victoria, B.C., and the "Colonial Project"

Abstract

Christian revivals in British Columbia in the late 1800s were natural extensions of the assimilationist impulse so strongly associated with missionary objectives of controlling, reforming, and re-educating Native peoples. Beyond being a tool of the colonial project, however, Christian missions were also shaped and adapted by First Nations in the region to fit their own social, political, and cultural needs. Evangelical forms prospered and proliferated under the direction of devout and inspired Native Christians. Gender was also a factor in revivalism in the province, especially with regard to the Salvation Army in Victoria, whose officers were overwhelmingly women despite the preponderance of men in the city. Women leaders challenged yet also represented the dominant culture’s assumptions about feminine behaviour in revivalist religion.