Book Review

Twenty years ago most historians paid scant attention to the role of religion in America's Civil War. In the past two decades, however, an explosion of literature—books, essays, articles—has been published demonstrating the essential and vital role religion played in promoting sectional animosities that culminated in a violent and bloody conflict. This is a book of sixteen essays, written, for the most part, by those who have contributed to the increasing awareness of religion and its relationship to the Civil War.

1

Though the essays are diverse, there are two common themes that run through most of them. The first and most dominant theme is that religion reflects culture; even more, culture drives religion, determining in large measure religious expression and interpretation. Mark A. Noll, in his essay, "The Bible and Slavery," has observed that "the issue from first to last was one of cultural hermeneutics as well as biblical exegesis." Though, as Abraham Lincoln noted, both sides in the conflict "read the same Bible and pray to the same God," the interpretation of that Bible and the expression of those prayers were blindsided by culture. Lincoln appeared to be one of the few who could rise above a cultural religion and a tribal God. Ronald C. White Jr., in his comments upon Lincoln's second inaugural address, has noted: "Lincoln was acutely aware that religion, precisely because of its appeal to the absolute, is capable of the most maniacal pretension by clothing limited causes with ultimate sanction."

. . .