As both Faust and Noll point out, the creation of a new
nation as a separate and distinguishable culture was important to the cause of
secession. There needed to be an intellectually established process to
legitimate and distinguish the southern cause. So they set about forming their
own identity creating “symbols of national identity” (Faust).
Noll points out that the effects of the American Revolution
and the 2nd Great Awakening created the American ideal of “common
sense” and “republican instinct” as opposed to “complicated” knowledge, which
required the attention and skills of an elite scholar. This ideal proved
fortunate to southern theologians defending slavery and aligning themselves
with the already established notion of the republican nature of Christianity.
Such an alignment with Christianity and the political views of the southern
states, namely states rights, helped to distinguish Christianity in the south
as the “true” Christianity in addition to the “true” form of republicanism.
After the fall of the Confederacy and the loss of the war,
the south (and the north) must have felt that the southern concepts of theology
and republicanism were somewhat illegitimated. The north did not have the shock
of its national identity crumbling and therefore its theology and idea of
republicanism remained and was possibly strengthened. How has this effected the
political/theological relationship in the south? (For example: the northern Midwestern
states align states rights, big “r” Republicanism with Christianity, however in
the south it seems that the opposite relation is true).
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