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Broken Churches, Broken Nation: Denominational Schisms and the Coming of the American Civil War
In the first comprehensive treatment of the role of churches in the processes that led to the American Civil War, C.C. Goen suggests that when Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist churches divided along lines of North and South in the antebellum controversy over slavery they severed an important bond of national union. The forebodings of church leaders and other contemporary observers about the probability of disastrous political consequences were well-founded. The denominational schisms, as irreversible steps along the nation's tortuous course to violence, were both portent and catalyst to the imminent national tragedy. Caught in a quagmire of conflicting purposes, church leadership failed and Christian community broke down, presaging in a scenario of secession and conflict the impending crisis of the Union. As the churches chose sides over the supremely transcendent issue of slavery, so did the nation.
Professor Goen, an eminent historian of American religion, does not seek in these pages for the "causes" of the Civil War. Rather, he establishes evangelical Christianity as "a major bond of national unity" in antebellum America. His careful analysis and critical interpretation demonstrate that antebellum American churches - committed to institutional growth, swayed by sectional interests, and silent about racial prejudice - could neither contain nor redirect the awesome forces of national dissension. Their failure sealed the nation's fate.
Professor Goen, an eminent historian of American religion, does not seek in these pages for the "causes" of the Civil War. Rather, he establishes evangelical Christianity as "a major bond of national unity" in antebellum America. His careful analysis and critical interpretation demonstrate that antebellum American churches - committed to institutional growth, swayed by sectional interests, and silent about racial prejudice - could neither contain nor redirect the awesome forces of national dissension. Their failure sealed the nation's fate.
198 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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About the author
C.C. Goen
3 booksClarence C. Goen was a church historian and professor emeritus of Christianity at Wesley Theological Seminary. Dr. Goen joined the Wesley faculty in 1960 and served there until he retired in 1989. He also had been an adjunct professor at Catholic, American and George Washington universities, and at the School of Theology at the Claremont Colleges in California. He was a specialist in 19th century American church history and had received the Frank and Elizabeth Brewer Prize of the American Society of Church History for his book, "Revivalism and Separatism in New England."
Dr. Goen, who lived in Gaithersburg, was born in San Marcos, Tex. He graduated from the University of Texas and Hardin-Simmons University. From 1944 to 1947, he worked for Radio Corporation of America in Bloomington, Ind. He then served as a Baptist clergyman at churches in Austin, Rowena and Allen, Tex., and Ada, Okla., while attending Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he received a bachelor's degree in divinity and a doctorate in theology.
He received a doctorate in church history at Yale University.
He was a former president of the American Society of Church History and president and secretary of the American Baptist Historical Society.
Dr. Goen, who lived in Gaithersburg, was born in San Marcos, Tex. He graduated from the University of Texas and Hardin-Simmons University. From 1944 to 1947, he worked for Radio Corporation of America in Bloomington, Ind. He then served as a Baptist clergyman at churches in Austin, Rowena and Allen, Tex., and Ada, Okla., while attending Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he received a bachelor's degree in divinity and a doctorate in theology.
He received a doctorate in church history at Yale University.
He was a former president of the American Society of Church History and president and secretary of the American Baptist Historical Society.
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July 13, 2023
Fifteen years before the Civil War, the three main American Protestant denominations (Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian) were so internally agitated by the issue of slavery that they each split into Northern and Southern factions. The incident that triggered the rupture of Methodism involved
bishop James O. Andrew of Georgia, who had been elected to the episcopacy in 1832, in part because he was not a slaveowner. Since then, however, he had become “connected with slavery” when his deceased wife bequeathed him a young mulatto woman, Kitty, and a black boy. The boy had been separated from his family and was too young to send away; Kitty refused to migrate to a free state or join the new colony of free blacks in Liberia; and Georgia state law prohibited manumission. In addition, Andrew’s second wife had inherited several slaves from her former husband, although Andrew himself had promptly executed a quitclaim deed forgoing any interest in his wife’s slaves as common property. In a candid report to the Conference Committee on Episcopacy, the bishop truthfully declared that he had neither bought nor sold a slave, that he was only an unwilling trustee, and that there was no legal or practical way of emancipating either his slaves or those of his wife. Andrew offered to resign his episcopal office, but his fellow Southerners would not hear of it. This was a test case, and both Northern and Southern factions were determined to press the question to its issue, even if that meant fracturing the church.
The church resolved that Andrew should “desist from the exercise of his office” as long as he remained a slaveowner, whereupon the Southerners split from the national church.
Goen argues that these religious ruptures were an ominous portent, a “rehearsal,” for the political rupture that would later happen, and were seen as such by contemporary religious and political observers. As Henry Clay of Kentucky noted in 1852, “If all the Churches divide on the subject of slavery, there will be nothing left to bind our people together but trade and commerce.”
The Southern churches flourished temporarily after the splits, which encouraged some to believe that a political secession could happen peaceably too. In 1850 Daniel Webster argued in a famous speech that this was absurd and impossible; the rupture of the Methodist Church had caused him deep concern about the Union. James Chesnut, a South Carolina politician, “scoffed at Webster’s warning and promised to drink all the blood that might be shed as a result of secession.”
What Goen calls the “easygoing ecclesiology” of the American Protestant churches – bound together by belief and a Christianizing mission, but only in a loose structure that allowed for splintering – provided a religious parallel in the South to the doctrine of states’ rights. Just as voluntary associations of the converted create the church, “consenting people create the state” and if their consent is withdrawn, a political union can be dissolved. After the first battle of Bull Run, the Congregationalist minister Horace Bushnell of Hartford, Connecticut preached in a sermon:
Our political theories never gave us a real nationality, but only a copartnership, and the armed treason is only the consummated result of our speculations. Where nothing exists but a consent, what can be needed to end it but a dissent? And if the states are formed by the consent of individuals, was not the general government formed by the consent of the states? What then have we to do but to give up the partnership of the states when we will? If a tariff act is passed displeasing to some states they may rightfully nullify it; if a President is elected not in the interest of slavery they may secede; that is, withdraw their consent and stand upon their reserved rights.
Goen’s final chapter addresses the issue of “the impotence of moral suasion”: why were the churches ineffective in opposing slavery? While there was plenty of antislavery rhetoric in the Northern churches, piety was viewed as individualistic. If ministers could just convert enough souls to Christ, the moral betterment of society would follow. (Although why they thought this is unclear, since the pro-slavery Southern churches found their slavery defenses in biblical scripture.) There were no strategies for reform, little commitment to action. The churches lacked a comprehensive social ethic (apart from the Quakers, whose smaller numbers can be attributed to their strict and cohesive moral discipline with regard to antislavery). Their primary loyalty was institutional: to their own growth and maintenance, rather than to an antislavery ideal that could alienate potential recruits.
October 17, 2012
Lincoln famously stated in his second inaugural address, that the North and South, "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other." In this book, Goen examines the historical record to understand how the church failed in both the North and the South to deal with the problem of slavery and then fuel the fire of war.
Goen begins by humbly stating that no one, least of all he, can understand the motivations of other men--particularly when separated by a century. It is important to acknowledge this truth, but Goen rightfully continues to examine the historical record--as he should. Just because we cannot know something omnisciently does not mean we cannot know it.
Goen spends most of his time examining the break-up of the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist denominations that occurred in the years leading up to secession. These three predominant denominations divided over the slavery question geographically. This spiritual schism led many at the time, to predict that if the churches, keepers of the faith, could not reconcile, what chance had the civil authorities?
Goen insightfully critiques the foundations of individualistic Christianity nascent in the Reformation, but blossoming under the tutelage of revolution and revivalism. This individualistic autonomy undermined the authority of the local church, and ultimately the denominations themselves. The big three denominations were unwilling, and seemed unable, to deal biblically with the slavery issue.
Northern clergy were self-righteous in their condemntation of slavery and uninterested in solutions to slavery beyond its absolute abolition. Meanwhile southern clergy were complicit in the institution of slavery, and morally compromised. They recognized that slavery is not condemned in the Bible--but they used this to justify its existence and leave it under the jurisdiction of the state alone. The southern clergy were uninterested in any biblical argument against slavery. In fact, slavery was one of the "moral" bedrocks of southern culture. The racism and caste-system in the south was biblically defended and they equated the assault on slavery as an assault on their "biblical" way of life.
The inability and the lack of desire for reconciliation ratcheted up the rhetoric and radicalized the two sides to a fever-pitch. Goen demonstrates that the clergy in both the North and the South were complicit in driving both sides to "holy war."
The work is actually quite short (190 pages) and focuses largely on the denominational schisms. He forthrightly lays the blame for the war at the feet of the churches. He had earlier defended the historian's practice of moralizing. I was disappointed that he did not adequately contextualize the abolitionist movement. But it is clear that the churches in both the North and the South bear a great deal of guilt in bringing the war upon the nation.
Goen begins by humbly stating that no one, least of all he, can understand the motivations of other men--particularly when separated by a century. It is important to acknowledge this truth, but Goen rightfully continues to examine the historical record--as he should. Just because we cannot know something omnisciently does not mean we cannot know it.
Goen spends most of his time examining the break-up of the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist denominations that occurred in the years leading up to secession. These three predominant denominations divided over the slavery question geographically. This spiritual schism led many at the time, to predict that if the churches, keepers of the faith, could not reconcile, what chance had the civil authorities?
Goen insightfully critiques the foundations of individualistic Christianity nascent in the Reformation, but blossoming under the tutelage of revolution and revivalism. This individualistic autonomy undermined the authority of the local church, and ultimately the denominations themselves. The big three denominations were unwilling, and seemed unable, to deal biblically with the slavery issue.
Northern clergy were self-righteous in their condemntation of slavery and uninterested in solutions to slavery beyond its absolute abolition. Meanwhile southern clergy were complicit in the institution of slavery, and morally compromised. They recognized that slavery is not condemned in the Bible--but they used this to justify its existence and leave it under the jurisdiction of the state alone. The southern clergy were uninterested in any biblical argument against slavery. In fact, slavery was one of the "moral" bedrocks of southern culture. The racism and caste-system in the south was biblically defended and they equated the assault on slavery as an assault on their "biblical" way of life.
The inability and the lack of desire for reconciliation ratcheted up the rhetoric and radicalized the two sides to a fever-pitch. Goen demonstrates that the clergy in both the North and the South were complicit in driving both sides to "holy war."
The work is actually quite short (190 pages) and focuses largely on the denominational schisms. He forthrightly lays the blame for the war at the feet of the churches. He had earlier defended the historian's practice of moralizing. I was disappointed that he did not adequately contextualize the abolitionist movement. But it is clear that the churches in both the North and the South bear a great deal of guilt in bringing the war upon the nation.
October 31, 2021
I learned about this book from Dilbek's religious biography of Frederick Douglass and had to get it. Goen's "Broken Churches, Broken Nations" talks about a fact of American history I hadn't previously realized - that in the couple of decades prior the American Civil War, the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist churches divided along North-South lines, presaging through ecclesiastical division and secession the upcoming more political secession and civil war.
Goen starts by covering the growth of evangelical Christianity in the United States, arguing that evangelical Christianity constituted a "bond of Union" across the states. While possibly exaggerating the effects of evangelical Christianity as a bond on America during the first Great Awakening, Goen convincingly shows the presence of this bond through the Second Great Awakening and popular growth of the Methodists and Baptists (and to a more limited extent of the Presbyterians). He next covers these three denominations and their particular governing models - with Presbyterians and Methodists being very organized movements, and Baptists significantly more decentralized. Yet all three churches had some national form of organization, and all three broke apart in the decades preceding the Civil War - starting with the Presbyterians dividing into Old School and New School factions in 1837, the Methodist Episcopal Church dividing explicitly over slavery in 1844, and the Baptist societies similarly dividing over slavery in 1845. While the Presbyterians ostensibly divided over theological issues, Goen shows that in fact the divisions on slavery was "the last straw" ultimately enabling separation. While Goen's treatment is brief (the book is less than 200 pages), and I would have liked to have read more details about the division of the churches, he successfully shows how slavery caused these divisions, as exacerbated by theological defenses of slavery by southerners and by abolitionists condemning slavery. Incidentally, the division of these churches into northern and southern factions did not lead most northern clerics to condemn slavery more fully, as church leaders still attempted to hold onto southern members.
Chapter 4 explains some of the ways in which the denominational schisms presaged and led to the Civil War. First, Goen argues that the secession of southern churches served as an example for the secession from the Union in 1861. This is important not just because secession was attempted, but because secession was successful and did not include opposition from the north - leading some to wager that political secession could likewise be peaceful. Second, the division of churches along sectional lines gave more free reins to clerics, especially in the south, to argue in defense of slavery, without needing to be concerned about the unity of the church. Very interestingly here, Goen argues that the North-South split resulted in theological differentiation in American Christianity: with the South being more literalist in its defense of slavery based on the Bible, and the North more focused on a relatively more progressive interpretation of the Bible with a focus on the love and spirit of Jesus. Third (and partially also covered in the fifth chapter), Goen shows how southern Christian advocacy of political secession both preceded (in the case of Alabama) but more overwhelmingly confirmed and supported (through clerical sanction) the secession of the Confederacy from the Union. Fourth, Goen's argues more widely that the division of the churches constituted a breaking of national bonds as Christians no longer interacting with fellow Christians along sectional lines, creating stronger sectional identities that further enflamed divisions.
In the fifth and last chapter, Goen assigns blame for a lack of leadership on both Northern and Southern churches, arguing that little was done to salvage divisions, and that anti-slavery reforms advocated by some clerics was focused overwhelmingly on individual morality and not on engaging with the issue more structurally. He argues that this lack of leadership was baked into American Christianity early on - and that the very growth of evangelical Christianity in the several decades prior to the Civil War rested on an understanding that the controversial message of antislavery would not be a message of the Christian church. Had it been otherwise, evangelical Christianity would have had a significantly smaller presence in the United States. From my perspective, this further reinforces that the condemnations of Frederick Douglass against the moral failures of "slaveholding Christianity" apply not just to the South but to a very wide segment of American Christianity.
Goen starts by covering the growth of evangelical Christianity in the United States, arguing that evangelical Christianity constituted a "bond of Union" across the states. While possibly exaggerating the effects of evangelical Christianity as a bond on America during the first Great Awakening, Goen convincingly shows the presence of this bond through the Second Great Awakening and popular growth of the Methodists and Baptists (and to a more limited extent of the Presbyterians). He next covers these three denominations and their particular governing models - with Presbyterians and Methodists being very organized movements, and Baptists significantly more decentralized. Yet all three churches had some national form of organization, and all three broke apart in the decades preceding the Civil War - starting with the Presbyterians dividing into Old School and New School factions in 1837, the Methodist Episcopal Church dividing explicitly over slavery in 1844, and the Baptist societies similarly dividing over slavery in 1845. While the Presbyterians ostensibly divided over theological issues, Goen shows that in fact the divisions on slavery was "the last straw" ultimately enabling separation. While Goen's treatment is brief (the book is less than 200 pages), and I would have liked to have read more details about the division of the churches, he successfully shows how slavery caused these divisions, as exacerbated by theological defenses of slavery by southerners and by abolitionists condemning slavery. Incidentally, the division of these churches into northern and southern factions did not lead most northern clerics to condemn slavery more fully, as church leaders still attempted to hold onto southern members.
Chapter 4 explains some of the ways in which the denominational schisms presaged and led to the Civil War. First, Goen argues that the secession of southern churches served as an example for the secession from the Union in 1861. This is important not just because secession was attempted, but because secession was successful and did not include opposition from the north - leading some to wager that political secession could likewise be peaceful. Second, the division of churches along sectional lines gave more free reins to clerics, especially in the south, to argue in defense of slavery, without needing to be concerned about the unity of the church. Very interestingly here, Goen argues that the North-South split resulted in theological differentiation in American Christianity: with the South being more literalist in its defense of slavery based on the Bible, and the North more focused on a relatively more progressive interpretation of the Bible with a focus on the love and spirit of Jesus. Third (and partially also covered in the fifth chapter), Goen shows how southern Christian advocacy of political secession both preceded (in the case of Alabama) but more overwhelmingly confirmed and supported (through clerical sanction) the secession of the Confederacy from the Union. Fourth, Goen's argues more widely that the division of the churches constituted a breaking of national bonds as Christians no longer interacting with fellow Christians along sectional lines, creating stronger sectional identities that further enflamed divisions.
In the fifth and last chapter, Goen assigns blame for a lack of leadership on both Northern and Southern churches, arguing that little was done to salvage divisions, and that anti-slavery reforms advocated by some clerics was focused overwhelmingly on individual morality and not on engaging with the issue more structurally. He argues that this lack of leadership was baked into American Christianity early on - and that the very growth of evangelical Christianity in the several decades prior to the Civil War rested on an understanding that the controversial message of antislavery would not be a message of the Christian church. Had it been otherwise, evangelical Christianity would have had a significantly smaller presence in the United States. From my perspective, this further reinforces that the condemnations of Frederick Douglass against the moral failures of "slaveholding Christianity" apply not just to the South but to a very wide segment of American Christianity.
September 1, 2017
I would heartily recommend this to anyone wanting a deeper understanding of the churches role in the events leading to the civil war. The splintering of the major denominations in the pre-war years foreshadowed the splintering of the states that followed. It was a sorry display from the major denominations and an example of what depths men, churched men, can go to defend a pet evil. The Quakers, it seems, are the only ecclesiastical group to survive with gospel integrity. I was especially saddened to learn of the origins of my denomination, the Southern Baptist. The one quote that stood out to me was from Dwight Lowell Dumond. " the failure of the churches at this point in our history forced the country to turn to political action against slavery, and political action destroyed slavery as a system but left the hearts of slaveholders (and it must be added, other white Americans) unregenerate and left oppression of the free Negro little less of an evil than slavery had been".
September 3, 2019
This book mainly addresses the breaking of the national Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian churches into separate northern and southern churches in the 2 decades before the Civil War. The theme of the book is that the separations, and the churchs' inability to deal with the issue of slavery, presaged the Civil War . In fact, there was much discussion when the separations occurred that disunion/secession was inevitable.
The southern churches were arguably the most blameworthy as they placed the growth of their membership as a higher priority than dealing with the morality of slavery, knowing that its members and potential members would react negatively to an anti-slavery message. Northern churches, knowing that abolitionists were not a major part of their congregations, did not adequately make the moral case against slavery.
The southern churches were arguably the most blameworthy as they placed the growth of their membership as a higher priority than dealing with the morality of slavery, knowing that its members and potential members would react negatively to an anti-slavery message. Northern churches, knowing that abolitionists were not a major part of their congregations, did not adequately make the moral case against slavery.
April 17, 2018
“Yes, the world is a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete. And the pulpit is its prow.” - Herman Melville, Moby Dick
This book began as a 3 star book, became a 4 Star, and ended as a 5 Star. Goen carefully defends his thesis and indirectly challenges modern evangelicals to steward their influence well.
This book began as a 3 star book, became a 4 Star, and ended as a 5 Star. Goen carefully defends his thesis and indirectly challenges modern evangelicals to steward their influence well.
April 9, 2024
This book is extremely repetitive, however, it is a staple when examining the Civil War. Even though it was published in 1985, the themes carry so that they're applicable and informative for conversation today. Recommended reading if you are critical of the church and are willing to muscle through the dense yet repetitive five chapters. Will not be holding onto this one for future reference.
June 25, 2019
Excellent brief look at the division within churches and denominations prior to the Civil War.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews