The Many Rooms of this House: Diversity in Toronto's Places of Worship Since 1840

‘Historians and social scientists interested in the evolution of Canadian society, cities, urban geography, religious diversity, and multiculturalism will gain much from reading this important, well-written, and meticulously researched book.’

David Seljack, Canadian Historical Review vol 99:01:2018

"In The Many Rooms of This House, Roberto Perin synthesizes some of the best available scholarship on Toronto with new archival research, to produce one of the most comprehensive narratives on religious life and change in Canada's largest city. Perin's excellent research tracks the growth of Catholic, Jewish, and other religious groups, who through immigration added to the spiritual tapestry of Toronto. Most important, the author does not shy away from exploring the decline and eventual decimation of Protestant Christianity in the city, as congregations fled to the suburbs, as more Catholics and non-Christians sojourned and settled in Toronto, and as organized religion itself faced the more general social forces of capitalism, consumerism, secularization, and privatization in the late-twentieth-century-Canada. This book will be savored by historians of religion, immigration, and architecture, and Torontonians, themselves, will be fascinated　by the ongoing change in the architectural and social landscape of their city."

Mark McGowan, Professor of History, University of Toronto

"Roberto Perin uses a fine-grained sieve to sift out what religious communities made homes where, and how they responded to changes in their own local communities and Canadian culture at large. The Many Rooms of This House is an important and very revealing study of the cultural landscape of Toronto over the course of 170 years, seen through the eyes of its religious communities."

Gary Miedema, Project Manager, Museums and Heritage Services, City of Toronto