The Civil War as a Theological Crisis

by Mark A. Noll

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469621814
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	02/01/2015
Series:	The Steven and Janice Brose Lectures in the Civil War Era
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	216
Sales rank:	317,450
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Mark A. Noll is McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. He is author or editor of 35 books, including the award-winning America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

'Crises,' like 'culture wars,' are easily declared but seldom live up to their name. But thanks to Mark Noll's thoroughly researched and brilliantly written The Civil War as a Theological Crisis, we find a subject that was indeed critical—in the generic sense of the term—to the future of Christianity in America. For a long while we have known that the Civil War represented a political and military crisis without peer in American history. Now, really for the first time, we see how the war played out in American theology and biblical interpretation. Using never-before-seen sources from Catholic and Protestant Europe as well as America itself, Noll confirms in stunning detail just how central theological discourse was to the conflagration of North and South. Americans' understanding of the 'baptism in blood' will never be the same after reading this book.—Harry S. Stout, Yale University



In this rigorous and learned book, Mark Noll shows that the American Civil War was a crisis not only for theology, but also of theology. Even theologians who disagreed profoundly over slavery concurred that the fate of Christianity rested on the fate of the nation. This consensus not only paralyzed Reformed theology during the sectional crisis; Noll demonstrates that it crippled its development after the war. He creates a narrative for nineteenth-century theology that will reward scholars and general readers alike.—Beth Barton Schweiger, author of The Gospel Working Up: Progress and the Pulpit in Nineteenth-Century Virginia

Editorial Reviews

An informative account of the theological dramas that underpinned and were unleashed by the Civil War. . . . This book's substantive analysis belies its brevity. . . . This slim work of history is surprisingly timely."—Publishers Weekly



The best account and interpretation of how Christian ideas shaped, and were shaped by, the Civil War."—Christianity Today



Raises momentous questions for the history of American Christianity while offering . . . intriguing insights into an understudied aspect of our nation's greatest civil ordeal."—Books & Culture



Bound to spark major revisionist studies and challenge young scholars to explore its provocative and convincing theses. . . . [A] masterful analysis of Civil War-era religion."—American Historical Review



A distinctive piece of Civil War scholarship. . . . This slim set of lectures greatly enhances the study of religion's role in the American Civil War and the study of Christian intellectual life during a crucial period of U.S. history. Scholars in both fields will profit especially from its pioneering research into Christian Europe's varied reactions to the American Iliad and its causes. Advanced students and discerning general readers will appreciate the book's lively prose and its suggestive conclusions."—Civil War Book Review



[Noll] grapples convincingly with one of the oldest arguments among theologians: their interpretation of what the Bible has to say about slavery."—Black Issues Book Review



Intriguing. . . . Both those who pray for an Evangelical majority in America and those who fear the rise of the religious right will find something of importance in this book."—Common Review



By one of the premier historians of American religion. . . . It quotes and cites . . . voices on all sides of the issues."—Touchstone



The book's particular force derives from its broad perspective. . . . More pathbreaking still is his delving into foreign critiques."—Civil War History



Readers will appreciate Noll's extensive command of the literature relating to his subject. . . . Noll's book adds yet another important commentary to the war that still intrigues Americans."—North Carolina Historical Review

From the Publisher

In an informative account of the theological dramas that underpinned and were unleashed by the Civil War, Noll (America's God) argues that mid-19th-century America harbored "a significant theological crisis." Quite simply, ministers disagreed about how to read the Bible-and as much as it was a result of fierce disagreements about slavery or Union, Noll says, the Civil War was a crisis over biblical interpretation. The Bible's apparent acceptance of slavery led Christians into bitter debates, with Southern proslavery theologians detailing an elaborate defense of the "peculiar institution" and Northern antislavery clerics arguing that the slavery found in the Old Testament bore no resemblance to the chattel slavery of Southern plantations. Noll detours, for several chapters, to Europe, analyzing what Christians there had to say about America's sectional and scriptural debates. He suggests that religious upheaval did not evaporate at Appomattox. In the postbellum years, Americans grappled with two great problems of "practical theology": racism, and the convulsions of capitalism. This book's substantive analysis belies its brevity. As today's church debates over homosexuality reveal a new set of disagreements about how to read the Bible, this slim work of history is surprisingly timely. (Apr. 24) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly