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Examining a wide range of published and unpublished documents — including sermons, official statements from various churches, denominational papers and periodicals, and letters, diaries, and newspaper articles — Rable illuminates the broad role of religion during the Civil War, giving attention to often-neglected groups such as Mormons, Catholics, blacks, and people from the Trans-Mississippi region. The book underscores religion's presence in the everyday lives of Americans north and south struggling to understand the meaning of the conflict, from the tragedy of individual death to victory and defeat in battle and even the ultimate outcome of the war. Rable shows that themes of providence, sin, and judgment pervaded both public and private writings about the conflict. Perhaps most important, this volume — the only comprehensive religious history of the war — highlights the resilience of religious faith in the face of political and military storms the likes of which Americans had never before endured.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
November 29, 2010 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781469603841
- File size: 3555 KB
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781469603841
- File size: 3555 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from October 18, 2010
Apart from Charles Regan Wilson's classic Baptized in the Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865–1920, Civil War historians have often neglected the story of religion in their chronicles of America's sectarian conflict. In this brilliant and groundbreaking book, University of Alabama historian Rable draws upon newspapers, sermons, diaries, letters, and journals to show that many people on both sides of the conflict turned to faith to help explain the war's causes, course, and consequences. Rable demonstrates that both Northerners and Southerners tried to make sense of the brutal war by thumbing through their Bibles, listening to their preachers, and interpreting battles as a fulfillment of a divine plan. Thus, Stephen Alexander Hodgman, a Northerner who had lived in the South for 32 years before the war, declared that God had not just sealed the doom of slavery, but that the war had helped prepare the way for the reign of Christ. Because of its thorough research and its chronicle of the lives of ordinary people, Rable's engrossing study of the role of religion in the Civil War will stand as the definitive religious history of America's most divisive conflict. -
November 15, 2010
Rable (Southern history, Univ. of Alabama; The Confederate Republic) provides an excellent analysis of how Christians on both sides of the Civil War used religion to interpret their experience of the conflict. Analyzing hundreds of sermons, religious tracts, and articles, Rable shows how belief in Divine Providence informed how even the nominally religious viewed the war: if it was going well for your side it was because Providence favored the righteous, if poorly it was because Providence chastises those whom God loves. Christians, North and South, preached highly politicized sermons, with church and state creating a comprehensive if confused civic religion. Rable focuses his attention on the major Protestant and Catholic denominations but briefly considers Jewish and Mormon interpretations of the war as well. VERDICT There have been some excellent books on this topic, e.g., Mark A. Noll's The Civil War as a Theological Crisis, but Rable's book stands out for its accessibility and thorough research. The author shows himself to be an expert both on the controversies of the conflict and on the theological issues treated by the Christian denominations of the period. Highly recommended for readers of Civil War history or American religious history.--Michael Farrell, Reformed Theological Seminary Lib., Oviedo, FL
Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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