Dr. James Robertson

Associate Professor of Christian History, Director of Distributed Learning

 Email: jtrobertson [at] tyndale.ca

Academic Credentials

B.R.S. Rocky Mountain College, 2003
M.Div. McMaster University, 2008
Ph.D. McMaster Divinity College, 2015

Areas of Specialization

Church and War, Canadian History, Evangelicalism, The English Reformation, The Crusades, Western Cultural Studies, Nineteenth-Century Missionary movements, and Just War/Pacifism

Biography

Dr. Robertson was born and raised in Western Canada but moved to Ontario in 2008 to pursue Graduate and Doctoral studies. His Scots/Irish roots created in him an interest to see how religion is utilized in violent conflict. His Master's Thesis looked at the Fenian invasion of Canada in 1866 and how that was interpreted by churches in the year before Confederation. This piqued Dr. Robertson's interest in church and war as well as the way religion has shaped the nation of Canada.

His doctoral work was on religion in the War of 1812 and publications from that brought Dr. Robertson all over Canada, America, and into the United Kingdom. He has since branched out into other areas and published articles and book chapters on Canadian religious history, pacifism and military ethics, missionary movements and the development of Canadian Western identity, religious historiography, and current prevailing trends in the post-modern world of Canadian Christianity. This final element brought Dr. Robertson into his role as an historian with the New Leaf Network of Church planters and their ongoing desire to serve Canadian Churches in the struggles they face in twenty-first century Canada.

Dr. Robertson is currently completing two monographs in his areas of expertise; Yield: How the Canadian Church Got to When It Is and A Good Fight: The Religious War of 1812.

As Creative Producer of the Department of Distributed Learning, Dr. Robertson helps create the various online classes that Tyndale students are taking in increasing numbers. It is the goal of this department to study pedagogy and technology in order to create online communities of learning that are both beneficial and educational. In the current age, technology can bring us together rather than highlighting the distance and has proven helpful for students as their schedules do not always allow them to be on campus several days a week.

Dr. Robertson remains an active speaker in both academic and popular level conferences and teaches The History of Christianity I and II for the Seminary online and at the University College as well as What Happened to Christian Canada? a survey of Canadian religious movements that form the backdrop for his book.

Dr. Robertson is teaching a course on History of Christianity I in Spring & Summer 2025.