A Kingdom Not of this World

A Kingdom Not of this World
Author: Preston D. Graham
Publisher: Mercer University Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2002
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780865547575

Stuart Robinson was a prominent Presbyterian newspaper editor who took upon himself the dangerous task of distinguishing between the spiritual world and within a border state "city of conflict" during the Civil War. Presently, historians tend to depict religion during the American Civil War as domesticated under sectional nationalism -- where theologizing was directed at justifying the war in order to forge either a northern or southern Zion. Graham argues that such one-sided depictions do not sufficiently account for either the existence of a border state phenomenon during the civil war or the kind of theologizing that was being propagated from out of the border states against the domestication of religion to sectional politics. In A Kingdom Not of This World: Stuart Robinson's Struggle to Distinguish the Sacred from the Secular During the Civil War Preston D. Graham, Jr. presents a case study of a rather sizeable movement among border state Presbyterians, with special attention given to their most celebrated and influential leader, the Dr. Rev. Stuart Robinson of Louisville, Kentucky. Given the significance of Robinson's theologizing relative to the American doctrine of the separation of church and state, several primary resources are included in a reader portion of the appendix.

Christian Slavery

Christian Slavery
Author: Katharine Gerbner
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2018-02-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0812294904

Could slaves become Christian? If so, did their conversion lead to freedom? If not, then how could perpetual enslavement be justified? In Christian Slavery, Katharine Gerbner contends that religion was fundamental to the development of both slavery and race in the Protestant Atlantic world. Slave owners in the Caribbean and elsewhere established governments and legal codes based on an ideology of "Protestant Supremacy," which excluded the majority of enslaved men and women from Christian communities. For slaveholders, Christianity was a sign of freedom, and most believed that slaves should not be eligible for conversion. When Protestant missionaries arrived in the plantation colonies intending to convert enslaved Africans to Christianity in the 1670s, they were appalled that most slave owners rejected the prospect of slave conversion. Slaveholders regularly attacked missionaries, both verbally and physically, and blamed the evangelizing newcomers for slave rebellions. In response, Quaker, Anglican, and Moravian missionaries articulated a vision of "Christian Slavery," arguing that Christianity would make slaves hardworking and loyal. Over time, missionaries increasingly used the language of race to support their arguments for slave conversion. Enslaved Christians, meanwhile, developed an alternate vision of Protestantism that linked religious conversion to literacy and freedom. Christian Slavery shows how the contentions between slave owners, enslaved people, and missionaries transformed the practice of Protestantism and the language of race in the early modern Atlantic world.

Southern Religion and Christian Diversity in the Twentieth Century

Southern Religion and Christian Diversity in the Twentieth Century
Author: Wayne Flynt
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2016-08-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 0817319085

12. Religion for the Blues: Evangelicalism, Poor Whites, and the Great Depression -- 13. Conflicted Interpretations of Christ, the Church, and the American Constitution -- 14. The South's Battle over God -- 15. God's Politics: Is Southern Religion Blue, Red, or Purple? -- Notes -- Wayne Flynt's Works about Southern Religion Published in Books, Journals, and Anthologies from 1963 to 2011 -- Index

The Stone-Campbell Movement

The Stone-Campbell Movement
Author: D. Newell Williams
Publisher: Chalice Press
Total Pages: 678
Release: 2013-03-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0827235275

The Stone-Campbell Movement: A Global History tells the story of Christians from around the globe and across time who have sought to witness faithfully to the gospel of reconciliation. Transcending theological differences by drawing from all the major streams of the movement, this foundational book documents the movement's humble beginnings on the American frontier and growth into international churches of the twenty-first century.

Religion in the American South

Religion in the American South
Author: Beth Barton Schweiger
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2005-10-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 080787597X

This collection of essays examines religion in the American South across three centuries--from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The first collection published on the subject in fifteen years, Religion in the American South builds upon a new generation of scholarship to push scholarly conversation about the field to a new level of sophistication by complicating "southern religion" geographically, chronologically, and thematically and by challenging the interpretive hegemony of the "Bible belt." Contributors demonstrate the importance of religion in the South not only to American religious history but also to the history of the nation as a whole. They show that religion touched every corner of society--from the nightclub to the lynching tree, from the church sanctuary to the kitchen hearth. These essays will stimulate discussions of a wide variety of subjects, including eighteenth-century religious history, conversion narratives, religion and violence, the cultural power of prayer, the importance of women in exploiting religious contexts in innovative ways, and the interracialism of southern religious history. Contributors: Kurt O. Berends, University of Notre Dame Emily Bingham, Louisville, Kentucky Anthea D. Butler, Loyola Marymount University Paul Harvey, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs Jerma Jackson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Lynn Lyerly, Boston College Donald G. Mathews, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Jon F. Sensbach, University of Florida Beth Barton Schweiger, University of Arkansas Daniel Woods, Ferrum College

Listen, America!

Listen, America!
Author: Jerry Falwell
Publisher: Doubleday Books
Total Pages: 296
Release: 1980
Genre: History
ISBN:

Strangers and Friends at the Welcome Table

Strangers and Friends at the Welcome Table
Author: James Hudnut-Beumler
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2018-03-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1469640384

In this fresh and fascinating chronicle of Christianity in the contemporary South, historian and minister James Hudnut-Beumler draws on extensive interviews and his own personal journeys throughout the region over the past decade to present a comprehensive portrait of the South's long-dominant religion. Hudnut-Beumler traveled to both rural and urban communities, listening to the faithful talk about their lives and beliefs. What he heard pushes hard against prevailing notions of southern Christianity as an evangelical Protestant monolith so predominant as to be unremarkable. True, outside of a few spots, no non-Christian group forms more than six-tenths of one percent of a state's population in what Hudnut-Beumler calls the Now South. Drilling deeper, however, he discovers an unexpected, blossoming diversity in theology, practice, and outlook among southern Christians. He finds, alongside traditional Baptists, black and white, growing numbers of Christians exemplifying changes that no one could have predicted even just forty years ago, from congregations of LGBT-supportive evangelicals and Spanish-language church services to a Christian homeschooling movement so robust in some places that it may rival public education in terms of acceptance. He also finds sharp struggles and political divisions among those trying to reconcile such Christian values as morality and forgiveness—the aftermath of the mass shooting at Charleston's Emanuel A.M.E. Church in 2015 forming just one example. This book makes clear that understanding the twenty-first-century South means recognizing many kinds of southern Christianities.

Southern Cross

Southern Cross
Author: Christine Leigh Heyrman
Publisher: Knopf
Total Pages: 492
Release: 2013-04-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0307829731

In an astonishing history, a work of strikingly original research and interpretation, Heyrman shows how the evangelical Protestants of the late-18th century affronted the Southern Baptist majority of the day, not only by their opposition to slaveholding, war, and class privilege, but also by their espousal of the rights of the poor and their encouragement of women's public involvement in the church.

Religion in the Contemporary South

Religion in the Contemporary South
Author: Corrie Norman (E.)
Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2005
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781572333611

Religion has always been crucial to the cultural identity of the South. Religion in the Contemporary South is the first book to fully address the emerging religious pluralism in the South today.