Title Pulpits of the Lost Cause : the faith and politics of former Confederate chaplains during Reconstruction / Steve Longenecker

Published Tuscaloosa : The University of Alabama Press, [2023]

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Description 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white) Series Religion and American culture Religion and American culture (Tuscaloosa, Ala.) Contents "Weeping, sad and lonely": chaplains during the Civil War -- "How firm a foundation": L.C. Vass -- "Nearer, my God, to thee": John L. Girardeau, Moses Drury Hoge, and George Gilman Smith -- "Rescue the perishing": Atticus G. Haygood -- "University hymn": Charles Todd Quintard and William Porcher DuBose -- "Begone, unbelief": John A. Broadus and Crawford H. Toy -- "Onward, Christian soldiers": Randolph H. McKim -- "Tenting on the old camp ground." Summary "A comparison of the faith and politics of former Confederate chaplains with intriguing insights about the evolution of their postwar beliefs and the Lost Cause Pulpits of the Lost Cause: The Faith and Politics of Former Confederate Chaplains during Reconstruction is the first in-depth study of former chaplains that juxtaposes their religion and politics, thereby revealing important insights about the Lost Cause movement. Steve Longenecker demonstrates that while some former chaplains vigorously defended the Lost Cause and were predictably conservative in the pulpit, embracing orthodoxy and resisting religious innovation, others were unexpectedly progressive and advocated on behalf of evolution, theological liberalism, and modern biblical criticism. Former Confederate chaplains embodied both the distinctive white, Southern, regional identity and the variation within it. Most were theologically conservative and Lost Cause racists. But as with the larger South, variation abounded. The Lost Cause, which Longenecker interprets as a broad popular movement with numerous versions, meant different things to different chaplains. It ranged from diehard-ism to tempered sectional forgiveness to full reconciliation to a harmless once-a-year Decoration Day ritual. This volume probes the careers of ten former chaplains, including their childhoods, wartime experiences, Lost Cause personas, and theologies, making use of manuscripts and published sermons as well as newspapers, diaries, memoirs, denominational periodicals, letters, and the books they themselves produced. In theology, many former chaplains were predictably conservative, while others were unexpectedly broad-minded and advocated evolution, theological liberalism, and modern Biblical criticism. One former chaplain became a social-climbing Harvard progressive. Another wrote innovative, liberal theology read by European scholars. Yet another espoused racial equality, at least in theory if not full practice. Additionally, former chaplains often exhibited the fundamental human trait of compartmentalization, most notably by extolling the past as they celebrated the Lost Cause while simultaneously looking to the future as religious progressives or New South boosters. The stereotypical preacher of the Lost Cause-a gray-clad Bible thumper-existed sufficiently to create the image but hardly enough to be universally accurate. "-- Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on May 12, 2023) Subject Confederate States of America. Army -- Chaplains -- Case studies Confederate States of America. Army -- Chaplains -- Political activity SUBJECT Confederate States of America. Army fast Subject Religion and politics -- Southern States -- History -- 19th century Lost Cause mythology -- Case studies Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877) RELIGION / Christian Theology / History. HISTORY / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877) Veterans -- Political activity Religion and politics Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877) Lost Cause mythology Armed Forces -- Chaplains SUBJECT United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Veterans -- Political activity -- Southern States Subject United States Southern States Genre/Form History Case studies Form Electronic book LC no. 2022026795 ISBN 9780817321499 0817394370 0817321497 9780817394370

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