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A review by stephenmatlock
The Civil War as a Theological Crisis by Mark A. Noll
5.0
Very, very good. A well-written, crisp, authoritative review of the broad controversy of American slavery, focused mostly in the years just after the American Revolutionary War and up through the American Civil War and several years after.
This is not simply a review, but a deep analysis of the theological basis for the varied viewpoints about the purpose and place of slavery in America and in Christendom (and indeed in the conflated American Christian nation). The author has his own voice, of course, but he does an excellent job of presenting every voice fairly, and illustrating how dangerous the ideas of Abolitionism were to the foundations of conservative Christianity. Not, perhaps, due to a cultural attack on conservatism, but as an attack on a certain method of observing the words of the Bible.
It is simply packed with information (and there are some 25 pages of notes), quoting extensively from contemporary sources (letter and sermons and debates) describing how American Christians, and their European co-religionists, tangled with each other and with their Bible to figure out the right path to explain or condemn American black slavery.
Thoroughly enjoyed this book.
This is not simply a review, but a deep analysis of the theological basis for the varied viewpoints about the purpose and place of slavery in America and in Christendom (and indeed in the conflated American Christian nation). The author has his own voice, of course, but he does an excellent job of presenting every voice fairly, and illustrating how dangerous the ideas of Abolitionism were to the foundations of conservative Christianity. Not, perhaps, due to a cultural attack on conservatism, but as an attack on a certain method of observing the words of the Bible.
It is simply packed with information (and there are some 25 pages of notes), quoting extensively from contemporary sources (letter and sermons and debates) describing how American Christians, and their European co-religionists, tangled with each other and with their Bible to figure out the right path to explain or condemn American black slavery.
Thoroughly enjoyed this book.