Civil War Religion

By the middle of the 1700’s, a significant organization took place. From New England to Georgia, different groups of Baptists began to form churches. They had only one doctrinal requirement that united them, i.e., the believer’s baptism by full immersion in water; also, Baptists then had different theological doctrinal beliefs. Notwithstanding, in the 1700’s, Baptist leaders sought to unify and homogenize the Baptist theology; they founded colleges and formed associations. However, the cause of “religious liberty,” was also a unanimous and significant characteristic that united the majority of Baptists. Their participation within their communities distinguished from other denominations. The Baptists were not contending for tolerance but for absolute “religious liberty.” Theirs demand was not for their right only but for the right of all dissenters and non-conformists as well. Some historians affirm that religious liberty in America was accomplished due to the diligence of the American Baptist, which now is proven to be the greatest contribution to American science and statecraft.”11

In American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation, Jon Meacham explores the dynamic relationship between religion and government in America in the hope that contemporary America can learn from the past. The period covered by the book spans from 1620 until Reagan’s presidency in the late 1980s. However, Meacham focuses on the Founding Fathers stances and their continued impact on American politics. More specifically, the book details the conflict over the separation of private religious expression and the more neutral ‘public religion’.

While his work did not engage directly with the topic, a tinge of anti-intellectualism was fostered within the movement this book examined. In Spiritual Mobilization’s magazine, Faith and Freedom, the editor devoted an entire issue to confronting clergymen who supported the Social Gospel, a movement which he claimed was led by, “a small, unusually articulate minority who feel political power is the way to save the world. . .” If the articles of the 1930’s demonstrated a distrust of the “unusually articulate,” the embracing of religious identity and language publicly by the Eisenhower administration had created an atmosphere in the 1950's whereby the Gideons International, Inc. was actively trying to influence curriculum in U.S. schools. Traveling preachers successfully utilized marketing techniques to blend entertainment, education, and religion into a single message. Sadly, that single message forbade the kind of discourse or dissent which fosters intellectual growth. Rather, the libertarian ideologies, which had inspired the original rebellion against the Social Gospel, had come to full fruition in snuffing out dissenters and making commonplace the existence of state-sanctioned

The Great Awakening of the 1730s significantly altered the social structure of early Americal colonial society. The laity’s internal subjectivity and passional experiences were validated in regards to religious sentiments. This novel type of engagement of the laity is significant, as previously voiceless social and racial classes were given the authority to proclaim and propagate their interpretations of biblical scripture. The New Lights’ emphasis on the transformative power of the Holy Spirit severed social norms and exalted and justified the personal experiences of commoners against that of the old order. Moreover, the revivals challenged the prevailing social and religious elite by questioning the sincerity of their religious convictions. The conservative religious rationalism was challenged by a novel and enthusiastic expression of faith characterized by personal experience and individual sensory experience. The New Lights, or the revivalist leaders, deplored the abundance of inequality between rich landowners in relation to poor and indebted frontier farmers. I interpret the revival as an intellectual severance from the old order, or the Old Light’s doctrine’s of salvation. Jonathan Edwards, the revival’s prominent contributor, launched an attack against the rationalism and conservatism of the old religious order and emphasized a New Birth, characterized by passional and experiential conversion. My analysis of the Great Awakening brings forth evidence that the New

America’s economic success brought about a series of societal and cultural changes which impacted many aspects of citizens lives, ranging from family life, gender roles, social class, and religion. At the time of the Second Great Awakening, Americans turned to religious revivalists to provide them with resolutions to these fundamental problems facing the United States. While most of these revivalists preached of constructive changes, Johnson and Wilentz highlight the dangers behind our nation’s tolerance of fundamentalists, enthusiasts and visionaries of all sorts. They display our nation's susceptibility to volatile cults and revivals. Motivated by his desire to protect the “ancient truth” and "Despite all of his protestations of faith, [Matthews] was violating the most basic precepts of evangelical manhood, with his unsteady work habits, his self-glorification, and his domestic tyranny" (Johnson and Wilentz

The 17th century Puritans were known to represent a religious group migrating from England to America in order to practice religious freedom. These groups were determined to “purify” churches of England from Catholic practices. Puritans are known for their religious, social, and political influences on early America. Edmund S. Morgan’s novel The Puritan Family highlights a part of history that many would tend to look over upon- that is, the complex structural life of Puritan Families in the 17th century.

One of the important subjects during the civil war was Religion even though it received minor attention until recent years. Historians have considered civil war an important story of war; however, religion rose as an important factor with many publications. For example “Religion and the American Civil War” is a collection of essays and poems by various writers (Harry S. Stout, George Reagan Wilson, etc.1)

Existing in this book are fifteen essays, all written by Flynt, and all are relative to the South, religion, and diversity. His essays review southern history, politics, southern regionalism, evangelicalism, traditionalism, fundamentalism, social history, labor history, two case studies; one on the Southern Baptists in Appalachia and of modernization and community; the second one of twentieth-century politics and religion in Florida. Asserts the complexity of social issues and the reforms Baptists felt were necessary to change. He expounds a minister’s battle within a church to not display the American flag because of the death involved behind it and to not be willing for his church life to be separated from his personal convictions. Flynt

In a sermon delivered aboard the ship Arbella, future-New England governor John Winthrop declared that the new colony "...shall be as a city upon a hill” with “the eyes of all people upon us” (1630) . Evidently, Winthrop’s sermon held great significance for the colonists of the Massachusetts Bay Colony as this sentiment – that is, to be an illuminated, moral example to the Old and New World – remained foundational to the development of their lives in the New World. Thus, it is clear that religion was tremendously significant in the lives of the northern colonists –known as ‘Puritans’ or ‘Separatists’ – particularly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries following colonial expansion into the New World. The colonies – Plymouth, Connecticut,

It is with his first few sentences that author, Nathan Hatch, lets the readers know about the scope and the reason for his book The Democratization of American Christianity. Nathan Hatch, who is currently the president of Wake Forest University in Wake Forest, NC and was previously the dean and provost at Notre Dame, states, “This book is about the cultural and religious history of the early American republic and the enduring structures of American Christianity. It argues both that the theme of democratization is central to understanding the development of American Christianity, and that the years of the early republic are the most crucial in revealing that process.” (3) The freedom and liberty that were experienced by people in America’s infancy bled into all aspects of life: government, family, and religion. It was this freedom that gave many in the church the boldness to either go and start churches, or serve as a leader in the church: things that were not an option during their time in England. A great deal of church growth in early America can be attributed to this freedom and the conversion of the masses to the various denominations that were available to the early Americans, choices that they did not have while in England. In telling the story of the growth of Protestantism in America, Hatch regales the readers with stories and information about a fascinating time in the history of the American Protestantism. It was a time filled with such varied and unique

In the 1800’s the Civil War, a war between the Northern and Southern states, erupted into a massive conflict after President Lincoln was elected and after eleven states seceded from the Union. Following the secession from the Union, The Ft. Sumer conflict erupted, and this four-year tragedy between the Northern and Southern United States began causing an innumerable amount of casualties. This immense number of casualties, reaching approximately 600,000, resulted from economic and social differences of the North and South, the Dred Scott Case, and the election of President Abraham Lincoln. These causes of the Civil War were all created on conflict rather than intervention. They led to the creation of the Confederacy, a league of confederate states that embodied various disadvantages: the creation of weapons manually, the lack of railroads, the small population, as well as various advantages: tough fighting, devastating the Union’s army and unity that brought the people of the Southern states together. Alongside these advantages came devastation, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves, and led to the Confederacy 's defeat in 1865.

Throughout history, religion has shaped individual’s lives for many different reasons. The Civil War is commonly known to be fought over the issue of slavery, but religion did play a major role before, during, and after the war. People who’s religion was against slavery believed they needed to fight for what they believe in and stop slavery no matter what it takes. During the Civil War, religion inspired people both to go into battle and help free the slaves.

In 1642, Civil war broke out in Britain. On one side was Parliament. On the other side was the King. Ever since the beginning of his reign, there was unease between the king and the parliament. The reasons for this were money, religion and power. Money was an issue for Charles because he was a very flamboyant person and spent large amounts of money unnecessarily. This lead to him running out of it and Parliament did not approve. Religion was an issue as Charles was obliquely trying to change the country back to Catholicism. This wasn’t a good thing to do because the nation had finally settled on Protestant beliefs. Power, and who gets it, was an issue as Parliament believed

From the initial formation of the American colonies, there has been tension between Protestant and Catholic religious ideology. In his book Who Are We, Samuel Huntington discusses the importance of the early American settler’s dissenting Protestant values. Without the Protestants, Huntington claims, American culture as we know it would not exist (Huntington, 59). Huntington is right that American culture was formally designed by dissenting Protestants, although that history is fraught with prejudice against opposing religious groups. This tension is most notable within the concept and application of religious freedom throughout American history.

“The Civil War may also be termed as the second American Revolution in terms of the political, social and economic changes that occurred during the war”