Dr. James Robertson and his book Overlooked: The Forgotten Origin Stories of Canadian Christianity
Dr. James Tyler Robertson joins John Borthwick to explore the overlooked origins of Canadian Christianity. Drawing on his book Overlooked: The Forgotten Origin Stories of Canadian Christianity, Robertson uncovers surprising parallels between the 19th-century church and today’s realities—declining attendance, social change, and cultural anxiety.
The two discuss how immigration, economics, and everyday faith—not programs or evangelism—shaped past church growth, and what that means for ministry now.
Along the way, they touch on heresy trials, Pierre Berton, Gen X nostalgia, and the enduring question of how the church can serve rather than survive. It’s history told with humour, depth, and a distinctly Canadian sensibility.
About Dr. James Tyler Robertson
Dr. James Tyler Robertson is Associate Professor of Christian History and Director of Distributed Learning at Tyndale University. He teaches the History of Christianity as well as courses on Canadian Christianity and Evangelicalism. His areas of research are on Church and War, Canadian Religious History, and Historical Theology. At least that’s what the back of his book says… I know him as a bi-vocational pastor of two rural Baptist churches – Mountsberg and Westover. And just a great guy to talk about 80s shows and The War of 1812.
Additional Resources:
Overlooked: The Forgotten Stories of Canadian Christianity
An honest assessment of the spiritual ground we inhabit begins by acknowledging the criticisms many Canadians have about the church are valid. We have to see that the church’s traditional treatment of women, our inability to calmly address the shifting moral norms of our society, our pandering, or our obsession with certain church models and church language has worked against us. We have to admit Christianity has been used as a tool of oppression.
Each generation in this land from the 1500s and on has dealt with the perceived lack of Christian influence over this place. The who, what, when, where, and why are different but the outcomes and responses were noticeably similar. Even in a country as young as Canada, there have always been those who lamented and feared the loss of time-tested Christianity…make no mistake, when it comes to the struggles of declining Christianity, Canada has been here before. Get the book here
Douglas Wilson's The Church Grows in Canada
Pierre Burton's The Comfortable Pew
Douglas Coupland's Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament
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Transcript
[Introduction]
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