The Civil War as a Theological Crisis

• DOI: 10.2307/27649509
• Publication Date: 2010-05-04T23:09:29Z
• Authors: Jack P. Maddex; Mark A. Noll
• Keywords: 0601 history and archaeology; 06 humanities and the arts

The Civil War was a major turning point in American religious thought, argues Mark A. Noll. Although Christian believers agreed with one another that the Bible authoritative and it should be interpreted through commonsense principles, there rampant disagreement about what Scripture taught slavery. Furthermore, most Americans continued to believe God ruled over affairs of people nations, but they were radically divided their interpretations doing war. In addition examining white black wrote slavery race, Noll surveys commentary from foreign observers. Protestants Catholics Europe Canada saw clearly no matter how much voluntary reliance on scriptural authority had contributed construction national civilization, if higher than personal interpretation regarding an issue as contentious slavery, resulting public deadlock would amount full-blown theological crisis. By highlighting this conflict, adds our understanding not only origins also intensity War.