The Civil War as a Theological Crisis (original) (raw)
Material Religion, 2022
This essay examines how the American Civil War (1861–1865) transformed the material nature of the Bible such that some copies did not operate in the ways Anglo-Americans expected them to work as the inspired words of God. According to U.S. law, Bibles shipped to the Confederate States were contraband: illegal objects that should be confiscated before reaching enemy hands. Classifying Bibles as contraband led to the widespread notion that Bibles assumed national identities in their work for God. Protestants marked and printed Bibles as war objects that worked specifically for (or against) the Confederate States or the United States. They deployed these Bibles against other Protestants as powerful weapons of God. According to some, Bibles of enemy Protestants operated as immoral books that threatened to undermine God, God’s people, and the military victory of God’s favored nation. Thus, Bibles realized multiple and, sometimes, competing material natures. Confederate and Union Protestants put Bibles to work as powerful objects that mediated God’s presence on earth, materialized debates over slavery, killed enemies, and stopped bullets. Some Bibles functioned simultaneously as God’s Word, commodities, contraband, weapons, shields, and talismans. Each side attempted to hinder the progress and agency of enemy Bibles by capturing volumes as prisoners of war, stealing copies as souvenirs, and destroying books as powerful enemy weapons. The harsh and violent realities of the Civil War initiated a crisis in the material nature of Bibles such that some copies of the Good Book transformed into the Bad Book.
Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, 2018
The analysis that follows examines how religious citizenship evolved during the twelve years of Reconstruction (1865-1877) in the United States that followed Lincoln's injunction to his fellow Americans to act in the years ahead "with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right." The essay begins by tracing some of the divergences between postwar religious assumptions in the North and South to attitudes honed during the conflict. It takes as symbols of the contrasting views two of the opposing generals at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1862, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, the early avatar of the religion of the lost cause in the South, and Oliver Otis Howard, the future head of the Freedmen's Bureau. It then deals with how Americans made peace with the dead -- at least 620,000 of them, or two percent of the nation's population -- in ways that included Horace Bushnell's theology of vicarious sacrifice, resurgent spiritualism, and the annihilation of pain and suffering in Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health (1875). It concludes with the religious impulse to make peace with the living through reuniting the national family. However, this compassionate religious citizenship too often offered only a blinkered definition of family, for reconciliation with the white prodigal sons of the South typically entailed abandoning the newly admitted African American members of the national family.
In God We Trust: A Historiography of American Civil Religion
In some regards, the chief executive of the land is the high priest of how Americans define the country to the world. After all, the presidential/vice presidential slate is the only one up for election every four years and the person who wins the office represents the cherished beliefs of the American people.
Isaac Nelson's response to the civil war represented the fruit of twenty years' reflection on the issues of slavery and emancipation. Perhaps surprisingly, he did not support the Federal government's efforts to restore the Union, even after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. Nelson's analysis of the struggle helpfully illuminates the complexity of radical abolitionist responses to the civil war, while it also serves to correct hasty generalizations concerning British and Irish evangelical support for the Federal government. Thus, by means of a biographical case study of Ulster Presbyterianism's most zealous abolitionist, a wide number of thematic issues can be freshly examined.
Dr. Mackey never hesitated to answer questions, read drafts of my work, write recommendation letters for scholarships, or to chat about history, historiography, the academy, politics, or life after graduate school. I owe Dr. Mackey my sincerest gratitude for guiding me through the process of writing this thesis and for improving its arguments and prose along the way. In addition to Dr. Mackey, I thank Dr. A. Glenn Crothers for encouraging me to pursue the topic and for agreeing to serve as the second reader on my thesis committee. Dr. Jasmine Farrier also deserves recognition for serving as the third reader and for agreeing to join the committee late during the semester. I also want to thank other members of the University of Louisville Department of History, especially those who served on the Graduate Committee and awarded me a Graduate Teaching Assistantship during the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 academic years. v The GTA position afforded me the opportunity to gain post-secondary teaching experience as well as provided a generous stipend that allowed me to focus on research and writing. Furthermore, I want to recognize Drs. Malissa Taylor and John McLeod, both of whom accepted me as a teaching assistant and served as valuable mentors. As I have learned during the final weeks of my graduate career, the reading, research, and writing components of the M.A. degree often constitute the "easy parts" of the process. Completing paperwork, organizing committees and defense dates, and formatting the thesis to the required style have produced several "hiccups and headaches." Fortunately for me and my classmates, Dr. Daniel Krebs, Director of Graduate Studies, and Lee Keeling, Senior Program Assistant, offered timely and invaluable assistance throughout the process. In fact, I doubt any department has a more efficient and accommodating administrative duo than the Department of History. Robin Carroll and Lee Keeling have been remarkable in helping me allocate funding for research trips and ensuring that I adhered to all required deadlines during the last two years. I also thank Lee for her "motherly" attributes and regular treats. In addition to the faculty and staff in the department, members of my cohort-especially Hannah O'Daniel[s], Benjamin Gies, and Eric Brumfield-helped make my experience worthwhile and enjoyable. Together we learned much about history and historiography, engaged in thought-provoking political discussions, and shared an inordinate number of laughs but not enough beers. I would not have succeeded at the University of Louisville without the guidance and tutelage I received while earning my B.A. in History at Murray State University. Drs. Duane Bolin and James Humphreys, and Mr. Ted F. Belue have and continue to be great friends, teachers, and mentors. In particular, Dr. Humphreys encouraged me to vi pursue graduate studies in History, seek publication opportunities, and present papers at academic conferences. I thank him for his guidance and for helping me "build a C.V." before beginning graduate work. In writing this thesis, I have relied on several professionals outside of the academy, particularly staff members at The Filson Historical Society, the Kentucky Historical Society,
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.