Scott McLaren
Graduate Faculty
Associate Librarian
Office: SC310L
Ext: 88892
Email: scottm@yorku.ca
Media Requests Welcome
Accepting New Graduate Students
A cultural historian by training, Dr. McLaren is a faculty member in the graduate programs in Humanities and History at York University and an associate librarian in the Scott Library. He is lead editor of the Historical Papers of the Canadian Society of Church History and his work has appeared in the Cambridge History of the Bible, the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, and the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception.
Dr. McLaren's current research interests lie mostly at the intersections of religion and print culture. He is also interested in the expression of religious values and themes in literature. Although these two agendas are distinct in focus and method, most of his published work is marked by a common preoccupation with religion and the nature of things: the human soul as a thing; literary representations of being and goodness; and, more recently, the relationship between religion and material culture. He is the author of Pulpit, Press, and Politics: Methodists and the Market for Books in Upper Canada (UTP, 2019). His most recent book is an edited collection titled The Bible in the Age of Empire: A Cultural History (Bloomsbury, 2024). Dr. McLaren will be on sabbatical from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025.
Degrees
PhD in Cultural History, University of TorontoMLS in Library Science, University of Toronto
BA in English and Classical Studies, University of Toronto
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesProfessional Leadership
Lead Editor, Historical Papers, Canadian Society of Church History, 2019 - present
Editorial Advisory Board, Mèmoires de livre / Studies in Book Culture, 2015 - present
President, Canadian Society of Church History, 2015-2016
Editorial Advisory Board, Bibliographical Society of Canada, 2013-2015
Chair, Publications Committee, Conference on Christianity and Literature, 2008-2009
Research Interests
- Stephen Botein Fellowship, American Antiquarian Society - 2013
- Lionel Basney Award, Conference on Christianity and Literature - 2006
"The Bible in Popular Culture." The Bible in the Age of Empire: A Cultural History. Ed. Scott McLaren. London: Bloomsbury Academic, June 2024. 147-166.
Scott McLaren and Leslie Howsam. "Producing the Text: Production and distribution of popular editions of the Bible." New Cambridge History of the Bible. Volume IV: Modernity, Colonialism, and Their Successors. Edited by John Riches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. 49-82.
"Brandishing their Grey Goose Quills: The struggle to published an official life of John Wesley, 1791-1805." Book History 17 (2014): 191-220.
"Before the Christian Guardian: American Methodist periodicals in the Upper Canada backwoods, 1818-1829." Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada. 49.2 (2011): 143-165.
"Hermeticism and the Metaphysics of Goodness in the Novels of Charles Williams." Mythlore 24.3/4 (2006): 5-29.
"Saving the Monsters: Images of redemption in the Gothic tales of George MacDonald." Christianity and Literature 55.2 (2006): 245-269. Winner of the Lionel Basney Award.
"The Evolution of Joss Whedon's Vampire Mythology and the Ontology of the Soul." Slayage: The Journal of Whedon Studies 18 5.2 (2005): 29 pars.
"A Problem of Morality: Sacramentalism in the early novels of Charles Williams." Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature 65.2 (2004): 109-127.
“‘Seer of Visions and Worker of Miracles’: Evangelicals and the Cult of Lorenzo Dow.” Historical Papers of the Canadian Society of Church History (2022): 21-32.
"Aiming the Most Deadly Blows at Our Book Concern: Piracy and the Methodist Hymnbook, 1824-1836." Historical Papers of the Canadian Society of Church History (2019): 129-138.
"A Canadian, then an English subject. American impressions of Egerton Ryerson." Historical Papers of the Canadian Society of Church History (2017): 113-121.
"May I Print any of your Books? John Wesley and the rise of Methodist publishing in America." Historical Papers of the Canadian Society of Church History (2016): 127-144.
"Anti-British in Every Sense of the Word? Methodist preachers, school libraries, and the problem of American books in Upper Canada, 1820-1860." Historical Papers of the Canadian Society of Church History (2013): 55-76.
A cultural historian by training, Dr. McLaren is a faculty member in the graduate programs in Humanities and History at York University and an associate librarian in the Scott Library. He is lead editor of the Historical Papers of the Canadian Society of Church History and his work has appeared in the Cambridge History of the Bible, the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, and the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception.
Dr. McLaren's current research interests lie mostly at the intersections of religion and print culture. He is also interested in the expression of religious values and themes in literature. Although these two agendas are distinct in focus and method, most of his published work is marked by a common preoccupation with religion and the nature of things: the human soul as a thing; literary representations of being and goodness; and, more recently, the relationship between religion and material culture. He is the author of Pulpit, Press, and Politics: Methodists and the Market for Books in Upper Canada (UTP, 2019). His most recent book is an edited collection titled The Bible in the Age of Empire: A Cultural History (Bloomsbury, 2024). Dr. McLaren will be on sabbatical from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025.
Degrees
PhD in Cultural History, University of TorontoMLS in Library Science, University of Toronto
BA in English and Classical Studies, University of Toronto
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesProfessional Leadership
Lead Editor, Historical Papers, Canadian Society of Church History, 2019 - present
Editorial Advisory Board, Mèmoires de livre / Studies in Book Culture, 2015 - present
President, Canadian Society of Church History, 2015-2016
Editorial Advisory Board, Bibliographical Society of Canada, 2013-2015
Chair, Publications Committee, Conference on Christianity and Literature, 2008-2009
Research Interests
Awards
- Stephen Botein Fellowship, American Antiquarian Society - 2013
- Lionel Basney Award, Conference on Christianity and Literature - 2006
All Publications
"The Bible in Popular Culture." The Bible in the Age of Empire: A Cultural History. Ed. Scott McLaren. London: Bloomsbury Academic, June 2024. 147-166.
Scott McLaren and Leslie Howsam. "Producing the Text: Production and distribution of popular editions of the Bible." New Cambridge History of the Bible. Volume IV: Modernity, Colonialism, and Their Successors. Edited by John Riches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. 49-82.
"Brandishing their Grey Goose Quills: The struggle to published an official life of John Wesley, 1791-1805." Book History 17 (2014): 191-220.
"Before the Christian Guardian: American Methodist periodicals in the Upper Canada backwoods, 1818-1829." Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada. 49.2 (2011): 143-165.
"Hermeticism and the Metaphysics of Goodness in the Novels of Charles Williams." Mythlore 24.3/4 (2006): 5-29.
"Saving the Monsters: Images of redemption in the Gothic tales of George MacDonald." Christianity and Literature 55.2 (2006): 245-269. Winner of the Lionel Basney Award.
"The Evolution of Joss Whedon's Vampire Mythology and the Ontology of the Soul." Slayage: The Journal of Whedon Studies 18 5.2 (2005): 29 pars.
"A Problem of Morality: Sacramentalism in the early novels of Charles Williams." Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature 65.2 (2004): 109-127.
“‘Seer of Visions and Worker of Miracles’: Evangelicals and the Cult of Lorenzo Dow.” Historical Papers of the Canadian Society of Church History (2022): 21-32.
"Aiming the Most Deadly Blows at Our Book Concern: Piracy and the Methodist Hymnbook, 1824-1836." Historical Papers of the Canadian Society of Church History (2019): 129-138.
"A Canadian, then an English subject. American impressions of Egerton Ryerson." Historical Papers of the Canadian Society of Church History (2017): 113-121.
"May I Print any of your Books? John Wesley and the rise of Methodist publishing in America." Historical Papers of the Canadian Society of Church History (2016): 127-144.
"Anti-British in Every Sense of the Word? Methodist preachers, school libraries, and the problem of American books in Upper Canada, 1820-1860." Historical Papers of the Canadian Society of Church History (2013): 55-76.
