George C. Rable > Quotes

“After the war, liberal theology, the emergence of the Social Gospel, and a growing faith in science competed with a rising fundamentalism.22”
― George C. Rable, God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War

“If there ever was a war undertaken in the name of God in his service, at his command, under his approbation, it is the war to which the whole north has risen as one man.”
― George C. Rable, God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War

“Sola scriptura both set and limited the terms for discussing slavery and gave apologists for the institution great advantages.”
― George C. Rable, God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War

“As Hannah Arendt has pointed out, rage is not a usual response to incurable diseases or seemingly unchangeable social conditions. Rage occurs when people suspect that a situation could be changed and their sense of justice is offended.”
― George C. Rable, But There Was No Peace: The Role of Violence in the Politics of Reconstruction

“That slavery had been sanctioned by God, as had the war itself, remained a bedrock position of the churches, the preachers, and the laity.”
― George C. Rable, God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War

“After reviewing how denominational strife had led to war and while admitting the guilt of many Confederates, a Baptist preacher concluded that “faith once delivered to the Saints has been maintained in its integrity and purity throughout the States of the South.”
― George C. Rable, God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War

“anything the war itself, along with its horrific death toll, made the standard messages of salvation all that more appealing.”
― George C. Rable, God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War

“Wars always leave a residue of violent men...who cannot return to peaceful pursuits.”
― George C. Rable, But There Was No Peace: The Role of Violence in the Politics of Reconstruction

“Slavery in one way or another had been central to civil religion in the Union and the Confederacy, and with the coming of peace, the theological questions remained just as knotty.”
― George C. Rable, God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War

“Indeed, according to one Georgia Baptist editor, it was northern “opposition to plain Biblical teachings, which has dissolved our once glorious Union.”
― George C. Rable, God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War

“In the context of world history, the American Civil War is a singular event. In four years more than six hundred thousand men died, the Union was preserved, and slavery was destroyed, but no formal peace settlement was ever made. The country miraculously avoided the bloody reprisals that commonly follow civil wars. The victors were amazing lenient and executed but one rebel... Yet more ironic, the losers in the conflict--the white southerners--committed numerous acts of violence against the winners.... By the time the federal government retreated from its reconstruction of the South, former Confederates had achieve through political terrorism what they had been unable to win with their armies...”
― George C. Rable, But There Was No Peace: The Role of Violence in the Politics of Reconstruction

“a bemused Lincoln noted how he was bombarded with a range of opinions from “religious men” all “equally certain that they represent the Divine will.”
― George C. Rable, God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War

“More terrifying than the shrouded future was the present powerlessness of the South. ...In studying a variety of civil disturbances around the world, Ted Robert Gurr concluded that 'frustration-induced anger' is largely responsible for causing internal strife.”
― George C. Rable, But There Was No Peace: The Role of Violence in the Politics of Reconstruction