Apocalypse and the Millennium in the American Civil War Era (original) (raw)

The US Civil War as a Theological War: Confederate Christian Nationalism and the League of the South

Canadian Review of American Studies, 2002

IntroductionFormed in Alabama in 1994, the League of the South is a nationalist organization that advocates secession from the United States of America and the establishment of a fifteen-state Confederate States of America (CSA) – four states more than seceded during the US Civil War (1861–1865), the additional states being Okla­homa, Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland (Southern Patriot). With over ten thou­sand members, the League professes a commitment to constructing this new CSA based on a reading of Christianity and the Bible that can be identified as “Chris­tian nationalist.” This position is centred upon what we identify as the theological war thesis, an assessment that interprets the nineteenth-century CSA to be an orthodox Christian nation and understands the 1861–1865 US Civil War to have been a theological war over the future of American religiosity fought between devout Confederate and heretical Union states. In turn, this reasoning leads to claims that the “stars and bars...

Abraham Lincoln's Political Religion and the Civil War

Lincoln's powerful drive to do whatever necessary to preserve what he called in his last message to Congress before releasing the Emancipation Proclamation, "the last, best hope of earth," was a strong motivation that helped him endure the trials he faced. 1 It is possible to show that his motivation stemmed from a faith in the God-guided destiny of his country that was a common thread in American political and religious history. This is America as a nation of destiny, the Promised Land, God's special agent in the world unlike any other nation.

Pugnacious Reformation or "Civil War"? A Reconsideration of the American Civil War

Global Journal of Human-Social Science: E Economics, Vol.15 Issue 6. (USA), 44-49, 2015

Civil war in its generic outlook implies a war between citizens of the same nation or a war within a nation. This article is a reflection on the American civil war in its origins, nature, scope and aftermath. The thesis in the paper conflicts with the label (American Civil War) given to the violent upheaval that featured between the Southern and Northern states of America in the 1860s. It posits that the label emanated from a facile outlook;that a more in-depth and critical analysis of the occurrence will occasion the birth of a healthierdepiction of the event. The paper therefore, clinches within the premises of the aforementioned that the label-American Civil War is a misnomer; it suggests that a more befitting term could be 'American Pugnacious.