There is a paradox in American Christianity. According to Gallup, nearly eight in ten Americans regard the Bible as either the literal word of God or inspired by God. At the same time, surveys have revealed gaps in these same Americans' biblical literacy. These discrepancies reveal the complex relationship between American Christians and Holy Writ, a subject that is widely acknowledged but rarely investigated. The Bible in American Life is a sustained, collaborative reflection on the ways Americans use the Bible in their personal lives. It also considers how other influences, including religious communities and the Internet, shape individuals' comprehension of scripture. Employing both quantitative methods (the General Social Survey and the National Congregations Study) and qualitative research (historical studies for context), The Bible in American Life provides an unprecedented perspective on the Bible's role outside of worship, in the lived religion of a broad cross-section of Americans both now and in the past. The Bible has been central to Christian practice, and has functioned as a cultural touchstone From the broadest scale imaginable, national survey data about all Americans, down to the smallest details, such as the portrayal of Noah and his ark in children's Bibles, this book offers insight and illumination from scholars across the intellectual spectrum. It will be useful and informative for scholars seeking to understand changes in American Christianity as well as clergy seeking more effective ways to preach and teach about scripture in a changing environment.

In the half century after the Civil War, evangelical southerners turned increasingly to Sunday schools as a means of rejuvenating their destitute region and adjusting to an ever-modernizing world. By educating children -- and later adults -- in Sunday school and exposing them to Christian teachings, biblical truths, and exemplary behavior, southerners felt certain that a better world would emerge and cast aside the death and destruction wrought by the Civil War. In To Raise Up the South, Sally G. McMillen offers an examination of Sunday schools in seven black and white denominations and reveals their vital role in the larger quest for southen redemption. McMillen begins by explaining how the schools were established, detailing northern missionaries' collaboration in their creation and the eventual southern resistance to this northern aid. She then turns to the classroom, discussing the roles of church officials, teachers, ministers, and parents in the effort to raise pious children; the different functions of men and women; and the social benefits of such participation. Though denominations of both races saw Sunday schools as a way to increase their numbers and mold their children, white southerners rarely raised the race issue in the classroom. Black evangelicals, on the other hand, used their Sunday schools to discuss and decry Jim Crow laws, rising violence, and widespread injustices. Integrating the study of race, class, gender, and religion, To Raise Up the South provides an exciting new lens through which to view the turbulent years of Reconstruction and the emergence of the New South. It charts the rise of an institution that became a mainstay in the lives of millions of southerners.