This book review was written in 2003.
Increasingly studied, Southern religion is traditionally defined as
evangelical Protestantism as expressed by Baptists, Methodists, and
Presbyterians. Numerous modern studies have moved beyond this
homogeneity to find diverse expressions in terms of Roman Catholicism,
smaller faith groups, folk religion, and broader spirituality. The
sixteen essays in this volume (arranged alphabetically according to
state name) collectively occupy a middle ground, focusing primarily on
the dominant Christian denominations in each southern state, but also
incorporating Roman Catholics and minority faith groups.
Recognizing the subjectivity of
defining the “South,” Hill and the volume’s other contributors orient
their definition around the dominance of Baptists, Methodists, and
Presbyterians. Louisiana, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, West Virginia,
and Oklahoma are included because they are more similar than
dissimilar to the dominant pattern. Hill argues that religions
patterns did not appear until the 1740s, and did not take hold until
after the American Revolution. The sparse population in the region
contributed to the late development of religious patterns in the 18th
century, while favoring the rapid growth of less-formal Protestant
religious expressions in the 19th century. The Civil War
consolidated the grip of evangelical Protestantism, while
individually-oriented moral sensitivity, rather than
corporately-oriented Social Gospel, characterized southern religious
life of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
According to Hill, World War II brought the South to equal footing
with the rest of the nation, followed by social revolution and the
beginnings of an ongoing, slow, and almost imperceptible unraveling of
the homogeneity of traditional Southern religion.
Although the story of many southern
states is that of early establishment, albeit weakness, of Roman
Catholic or Anglican state religion, followed by religious liberty
and the rising popularity and eventual dominance of less-educated and
more rural-oriented Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists, some
states traveled divergent paths. Florida’s religious history is
presented as largely pluralistic, with southern patterns manifested
only from 1870 to 1921, framed on the one end by early isolated
communities, and on the other by an economic boom that attracted
northerners to the state. Kentucky, as the originator of the Second
Great Awakening in response to the influx of unchurched rural folk,
played a significant role in consolidating evangelical Protestantism
throughout the South. Louisiana’s Protestant north and Catholic
south, in addition to the presence of African religious expressions,
resisted traditional religious patterns longer than did most states.
Following early Native American and French Roman Catholic influence,
Missouri continued to display a relatively large degree of diversity
as evidenced in the founding of the Missouri Synod Lutherans and the
presence of the Mormon Church, in addition to fierce battles over
abolition.
Of all southern states, Oklahoma
harbored the largest Native American influence, holding traditional
religious patterns at bay until the 20th century, which
quickly witnessed religious uniformity under the banner of
conservative to fundamentalist theology. Tennessee, according to
David E. Harrell, has been distinguished as the “most prolific
breeding ground for sects” (289), as the rough landscape first delayed
settlement and then fostered religious diversity throughout the state,
aided by the northern presence during the Civil War and the arrival of
the holiness and Pentecostal movements in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries.
Although understandably limited in
scope because of space constraints, the essays in this volume provide
excellent introductory surveys of the religious developments of the
various southern states. Methodologies and emphases vary from author
to author, but certain themes emerge time and time again, including
the centrality of the Civil War to the cementing of southern religion
and independent development of African-American religion, the
influence of the Christian Church / Disciples of Christ, the legacy of
the Second Great Awakening, the 19th century trend to
institutionalized religion, the importance of educational
institutions, the focus on personal morality, and a gradual growth of
pluralism in competition with traditional religion. In short, the
main themes of historical southern religious expression are to be
found in the pages of this volume, although on an uneven basis from
state to state. Readers seeking a survey of minority religious
expressions will only be partially satisfied, as Jewish, Native
American religions, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Seventh Day Adventist and
other groups receive limited attention. In addition, the volume comes
up short in analyzing post World War II developments in southern
religion.
In the final analysis, Religion in
the Southern States serves as an excellent introductory survey of
the establishment and development of religion in the southern states,
providing the foundational framework for further exploration of the
diversity within traditional denominations as well as divergent
religious expressions existing independent of traditional structures.
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