Until now Canadian religious historiography has neglected the English-speaking Catholic community in Canada. In part this neglect has occurred because Roman Catholicism is so closely associated with the French language and culture, while English-speaking Canada has been firmly identified with Protestantism. English-speaking Catholics of Irish and Scottish origin, however, formed a very substantial proportion of the population of the Atlantic provinces and Ontario and also played an important role in the social and cultural development of the west.

The essays in Creed and Culture combine narrative elements with historical analysis to examine the experience of English-speaking Catholics in the light of social categories such as ethnicity, gender, and class. The Catholicism of English Canada is set in context by comparisons with broader Canadian developments and with the history of Catholicism in the English-speaking world. The authors discuss not only institutional history and church-state relations but also popular piety and lay involvement in religious affairs. The complexity and diversity of the experience of anglophone Catholics is highlighted through accounts of relations with their French-speaking counterparts and Protestant compatriots, European Catholic immigrants, and ecclesiastical authorities in Quebec, Ireland, Scotland, and Rome.