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Recent Historiography on Religion and the Civil War by Bruce
Gourley
(section 9 of 9)
Denominational Histories
Little has been written in terms of specific denominational
histories of the Civil War era. Historians have paid
scant attention to the subject, while in-house
denominational historians have treated the Civil War
as a brief, unfortunate event within the larger
history of their respective denominations.[74]
Nonetheless, a few works do exist.[75]
Ed Crowther, in his dissertation, “Southern
Protestants, Slavery and Secession: A Study in
Religious Ideology, 1830-1861” (1986), concludes that
the Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian denominations
significantly influenced the culture and society of
the South in terms of championing slavery and
embracing secession.[76]
Daniel W. Stowell, in Rebuilding Zion: The
Religious Reconstruction of the South, 1863-1877
(1998), traces the post-war growth of Baptists,
Methodists and Presbyterians in Tennessee and Georgia.[77]
Samuel S. Hill’s, “Religion and the Results of the
Civil War” (Religion and the American Civil War),
examines the post-war activism of Methodists,
retrenchment of Southern Baptists, and birth of the
Holiness and Pentecostal movements.[78]
Baptists North and South were prominent in
the Civil War era. Paul Harvey, in “’Yankee Faith’
and Southern Redemption: White Southern Baptist
Ministers from 1850-1890” (Religion and the
American Civil War), traces the rise of white
supremacy among Southern Baptists during the Civil War
and Reconstruction in correlation with Baptist
activity in the political arena, contrasted to
political reticence prior to the war.[79]
On the other hand, Martin Lyndon McMahone, in
Liberty More than Separation: The Multiple Streams of
Baptist Thought on Church State Issues, 1830-1900
(2001), argues that Baptists in the Civil War era were
willing to allow the state to recognize Christianity
if no preference were shown for a specific
denomination.[80]
James Fuller, in the aforementioned Chaplain to the
Confederacy: Basil Manly and Baptist Life in the Old
South, examines the immense contributions of
Baptist minister, slave owner, and Confederate
chaplain Basil Manly.[81]
Finally, Daniel W. Stowell explores the theme of
Baptists, God’s Providence and competing nationalisms
in “The Ways of Providence: Baptist Nationalism and
Dissent in the Civil War” (Baptist History and
Heritage 32, nos. 3-4, July / October, 1997).[82]
Methodist contributions are examined by Gerald J.
Smith in Smite Them Hip and Thigh!: Georgia
Methodist Ministers in the Confederate Military
(1993),[83]
and in an essay by Richard Carwardine (“Methodists,
Politics and the Coming of the Civil War,”
Methodism and the Shaping of American Culture,
2001) which explores Methodist willingness to use
politics to perfect society.”[84]
Clarence E. Walker, in A Rock in a Weary Land: The
African Methodist Episcopal Church During the Civil
War and Reconstruction, chronicles the black
Methodist experience.[85]
Presbyterian views of the Civil War are examined by
James O. Farmer Jr., in The Metaphysical
Confederacy: James Henley Thornwell and the Synthesis
of Southern Values (1999). Thornwell was an
influential, outspoken Presbyterian minister and
pro-slavery apologist from South Carolina whose views
represented much of the southern mindset concerning
slavery and secession.[86]
The
Catholic faith and the Civil War is explored by
Randall M. Miller in, “Catholic Religion, Irish
Ethnicity and the Civil War” (Religion and
the American Civil War),[87]
and “Catholics in a Protestant World: The Old South
Example” (Varieties of Southern Religious
Experience, 1988).[88]
Stephen J. Ochs, in A Black Patriot and a White
Priest: Andre’ Cailloux and Claude Paschal Maistre in
Civil War New Orleans (2000), examines a Catholic
priest’s ministry to blacks in and southern racial and
social dimensions in Louisiana.[89]
William B. Faherty and Phillip T. Tucker, in their
aforementioned volumes (Exile in Erin and
The Confederacy’s Fighting Chaplain,
respectively), explored the extraordinary
contributions of Irish Catholic Confederate Chaplain
John B. Bannon, Jefferson Davis’ personal emissary to
Pope Piux IX.[90]
In
conclusion, religion and the American Civil War is a
field of study which has recently begun to bear
increased scholarly fruit. The publication of
Religion and the American Civil War in 1998
reflected this growing interest that has led to many
new works. In terms of publishing houses, Mercer
University Press (Macon, Georgia) and Louisiana State
University Press (Baton Rouge) are currently leading
the way in this field of study.[91]
Although no aspects of this field have yet reached
full maturity, several areas are notably lacking.
Foremost among these are women and religion during the
Civil War era, as well as denominational histories of
the Civil War era. Regarding the later, Civil
War-related histories of minority religious groups
(such as Unitarians, Quakers and Jews) and minority
sects of large denominations (such as Primitive
Baptists), as well as Civil War era social histories
of denominations in general, are conspicuously lacking
in terms of recent historiography.
Continue on to Bibliography
[74] One Baptist historian,
Robert Gardner, commented that the notable lack of
material from a Baptist perspective left one to
wonder if the Civil War had actually happened (Baptist
History and Heritage 32, nos. 3-4, July /
October 1997, 4). This journal edition,
containing eight Civil War-related articles, is
the most comprehensive in-house Baptist work on
the subject.
[75] A survey of Baptist,
Methodist and Presbyterian denominational journals
and other denominationally-published literature
from 1980-2002 revealed few Civil War-related
works. Space constraints do not allow discussion
of those or similar denominationally-produced
works, although a survey of such works would shed
additional light on religion and the Civil War.
[76] Edward R. Crowther,
“Southern Protestants, Slavery and Secession: A
Study in Religions Ideology, 1830-1861” (Ph.D.
diss., Auburn University, 1986).
[77] Daniel W. Stowell,
Rebuilding Zion: The Religious Reconstruction of
the South, 1863-1877 (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1998).
[78] Samuel S. Hill,
“Religion and the Results of the Civil War,” in
Religion and the American Civil War, ed.
Randall M. Miller (New York and Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1998), 368-375.
[79] Paul Harvey, “’Yankee
Faith’ and Southern Redemption: White Southern
Baptist Ministers, 1850-1890, in Religion and
the American Civil War, ed. Randall M. Miller
(New York and Oxford: Oxford University
Publishing, 1998), 167-186. Also see Paul Harvey,
Redeeming the South: Religious Cultures and
Racial Identities Among Southern Baptists,
1865-1925 (Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1997).
[80] Martin L. McMahone,
“Liberty More than Separation: The Multiple
Streams of Baptist Thought on Church State Issues,
1830-1900” (Ph.D. diss.,, Baylor University,
2001). See chapter five.
[81] Fuller, Chaplain
to the Confederacy. Manly, a minister and a
slave owner, was a high-profile spokesperson and a
leading theologian among Southern Baptists.
[82] Daniel W. Stowell,
“The Ways of Providence: Baptist Nationalism and
Dissent in the Civil War,” Baptist History and
Heritage 32, nos. 3-4 (July/October 1997):
7-17. For a survey of Southern Baptists in the
Reconstruction era, see Joe Wright Burton, Road
to Recovery: Southern Baptist Renewal Following
the Civil War, as Seen Especially in the Work of
I. T. Tichenor (Nashville: Broadman Press,
1977).
[83] Gerald J. Smith,
Smite Them Hip and High!: Georgia Methodist
Ministers in the Confederate Military
(Murfreesboro, TN: Ambassador Press, 1993).
[84] Richard J. Carwardine,
“Methodists, Politics and the Coming of the Civil
War,” In Methodism and the Shaping of American
Culture, eds. Nathan O. Hatch and John H.
Wigger (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 2001),
309-342.
[85] Clarence Earl
Walker, A Rock in a Weary Land: The African
Methodist Episcopal Church During the Civil War
and Reconstruction. Baton Rogue: Louisiana
State University Press, 1982.
[86] James O. Farmer,
Jr., The Metaphysical Confederacy: James Henley
Thornwell and the Synthesis of Southern Values
(Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1999).
[87] Randall M. Miller,
“Catholic Religion, Irish Ethnicity and the Civil
War,” in Religion and the American Civil
War, ed. Randall M. Miller (New York and
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 261-296.
[88] Randall M. Miller,
“Catholics in a Protestant World: The Old South
Example,” Varieties of Southern Religious
Experience, ed. Samuel S. Hill (Baton Rogue:
Louisiana State University Press, 1988), 115-134.
[89] Stephen J. Ochs,
A Black Patriot and a White Priest: Andre Cailloux
and Claude Paschal Maistre in Civil War New
Orleans (Baton Rogue: Louisiana State
University Press, 2000).
[91] Other publishing
houses at the forefront in the field of religion
and the Civil War include University Press of
North Carolina (Chapel Hill), Syracuse University
Press (New York) and University Press of Kentucky
(Lexington).
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