Southern Evangelicals and the Social Order, 1800-1860

The crisis of 1860-1861 would come as no surprise to them. They were conditioned to look for divine retribution, writes Anne C. Loveland of the evangelicals. While noting their significant doctrinal differences, she emphasizes the beliefs that this group of men held in common. Based on extensive research in primary sources, Southern Evangelicals and the Social Order focuses on the ministers rather than the professing Christians in the Old South. It elucidates not only the ministers; ideas and beliefs, but their characters and actions as well. It places their attitudes toward slavery in the context of their views on such pressing social issues of the day as temperance, benevolence, dueling, religious instruction of the Negroes, and sectional controversy. The result is a comprehensive picture of southern evangelicals - men of God in a secular world.