The Politics of Faith During the Civil War
Title | The Politics of Faith During the Civil War PDF eBook |
Author | Timothy L. Wesley |
Publisher | LSU Press |
Pages | 325 |
Release | 2013-05-13 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0807150010 |
In The Politics of Faith during the Civil War, Timothy L. Wesley examines the engagement of both northern and southern preachers in politics during the American Civil War, revealing an era of denominational, governmental, and public scrutiny of religious leaders. Controversial ministers risked ostracism within the local community, censure from church leaders, and arrests by provost marshals or local police. In contested areas of the Upper Confederacy and Border Union, ministers occasionally faced deadly violence for what they said or would not say from their pulpits. Even silence on political issues did not guarantee a preacher's security, as both sides arrested clergymen who defied the dictates of civil and military authorities by refusing to declare their loyalty in sermons or to pray for the designated nation, army, or president. The generation that fought the Civil War lived in arguably the most sacralized culture in the history of the United States. The participation of church members in the public arena meant that ministers wielded great authority. Wesley outlines the scope of that influence and considers, conversely, the feared outcomes of its abuse. By treating ministers as both individual men of conscience and leaders of religious communities, Wesley reveals that the reticence of otherwise loyal ministers to bring politics into the pulpit often grew not out of partisan concerns but out of doctrinal, historical, and local factors. The Politics of Faith during the Civil War sheds new light on the political motivations of homefront clergymen during wartime, revealing how and why the Civil War stands as the nation's first concerted campaign to check the ministry's freedom of religious expression.
Martyrdom and the Politics of Religion
Title | Martyrdom and the Politics of Religion PDF eBook |
Author | Anna L. Peterson |
Publisher | SUNY Press |
Pages | 240 |
Release | 1997-01-01 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 9780791431825 |
Martyrdom and the Politics of Religion explores the ways that Salvadoran Catholics sought to make sense of political violence in their country in the 1970s and 1980s by constructing a theological ethics that could both explain repression in religious terms and propose specific responses to violence. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, the book highlights the ways that progressive Catholicism offered a justification and tools for political resistance in the face of extraordinary destruction. Using the case of Catholicism in El Salvador, the book explores the nature of religious responses to social crisis and the ways that ordinary believers construct and strive to live by ethical systems. By highlighting the importance of theological belief, of narrative, and of religious rationality in political mobilization, it touches questions of general interest to readers concerned with the social role of religion and ethics.
God's Almost Chosen Peoples
Title | God's Almost Chosen Peoples PDF eBook |
Author | George C. Rable |
Publisher | Univ of North Carolina Press |
Pages | 600 |
Release | 2010 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0807834262 |
Throughout the Civil War, soldiers and civilians on both sides of the conflict saw the hand of God in the terrible events of the day, but the standard narratives of the period pay scant attention to religion. Now, in God's Almost Chosen Peoples, Li
The Civil War as a Theological Crisis
Title | The Civil War as a Theological Crisis PDF eBook |
Author | Mark A. Noll |
Publisher | Univ of North Carolina Press |
Pages | 212 |
Release | 2006-12-08 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0807877204 |
Viewing the Civil War as a major turning point in American religious thought, Mark A. Noll examines writings about slavery and race from Americans both white and black, northern and southern, and includes commentary from Protestants and Catholics in Europe and Canada. Though the Christians on all sides agreed that the Bible was authoritative, their interpretations of slavery in Scripture led to a full-blown theological crisis.
Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory
Title | Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory PDF eBook |
Author | Steven L. Dundas |
Publisher | U of Nebraska Press |
Pages | 419 |
Release | 2022-10 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1640124888 |
Steven L. Dundas tells the epic story of how religion and racial ideology influenced slavery, emancipation, reconstruction, Jim Crow, and today’s struggles for civil rights.
Faith and Politics in America
Title | Faith and Politics in America PDF eBook |
Author | Joseph Gilbert Prud'homme |
Publisher | Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers |
Pages | 300 |
Release | 2011 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN |
Faith and Politics in America explores the period from 1607 to the American Civil War. This book addresses the role of religion in the political process in early America, the extent to which religion influenced eighteenth century politicians and decision-makers, and how the founding fathers used religion in laying the foundations for a fair and just constitution. It also explores the meaning of the separation of church and state in the mind of many of the great political actors and thinkers in America in the early and late federal period and their views on traditional Christianity. The book traces how religion contributed to the success of subsequent political leaders, such as the founders of the Whig and Democratic parties, who claimed to be religious or to be adherents of a certain faith and who used religion as a guide to execute policies; and the role of religious faith in arguments over the institution of slavery before and during the Civil War. While exploring these topics from the time of the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, the essays included in Faith and Politics in America afford unique assessments of the American Revolution; the thought of Thomas Jefferson; the religious philosophy of James Madison; the life and thought of John Quincy Adams; the operation of the second party system; and religious debates over the acceptability of slavery immediately prior to the Civil War.
Religion and the American Civil War
Title | Religion and the American Civil War PDF eBook |
Author | Randall M. Miller |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 437 |
Release | 1998-11-05 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 0199923663 |
The sixteen essays in this volume, all previously unpublished, address the little considered question of the role played by religion in the American Civil War. The authors show that religion, understood in its broadest context as a culture and community of faith, was found wherever the war was found. Comprising essays by such scholars as Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Drew Gilpin Faust, Mark Noll, Reid Mitchell, Harry Stout, and Bertram Wyatt-Brown, and featuring an afterword by James McPherson, this collection marks the first step towards uncovering this crucial yet neglected aspect of American history.