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Richard Allen, The View from Murney Tower: Salem Bland, the Late Victorian Controversies, and the Search for a New Christianity, Book One. Salem Bland: A Canadian Odyssey.

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Richard Allen, The Viewfrom Murney Tower: Salem Bland, the Late Victorian Controversies, and the Search for a New Christianity, Book One. Salem Bland: A Canadian Odyssey (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 2008)

RICHARD ALLEN'S latest addition to the fields of religious and intellectual history, The View from Murney Tower, provides a detailed account of the early life of Salem Bland, a giant in 19th century Canadian Methodism. At first glance, the book is a biography. Yet, at heart, the work chronicles the intellectual shifts of a crucial era for the Christian church, and for the nation itself. Bland both influenced and was affected by the religious and scientific thought of the day, and the structure of the book certainly reflects this dichotomy.

Overall, Allen follows a typical chronological narrative style. The book's early chapters are mainly devoted to Bland's father, Henry Flesher Bland, who was also a well-known Methodist preacher. By the fourth chapter, the focus turns to Bland himself. The remainder of the book chronicles his early career and the abundance of intellectual influences under which...

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