Christianity and Race in the American South: A History

by Paul Harvey

The history of race and religion in the American South is infused with tragedy, survival, and water—from St. Augustine on the shores of Florida’s Atlantic Coast to the swampy mire of Jamestown to the floodwaters that nearly destroyed New Orleans. Determination, resistance, survival, even transcendence, shape the story of race and southern Christianities. In Christianity and Race in the American South , Paul Harvey gives us a narrative history of the South as it integrates into the story of religious history, fundamentally transforming our understanding of the importance of American Christianity and religious identity.

Harvey chronicles the diversity and complexity in the intertwined histories of race and religion in the South, dating back to the first days of European settlement. He presents a history rife with strange alliances, unlikely parallels, and far too many tragedies, along the way illustrating that ideas about the role of churches in the South were critically shaped by conflicts over slavery and race that defined southern life more broadly. Race, violence, religion, and southern identity remain a volatile brew, and this book is the persuasive historical examination that is essential to making sense of it.

Genres: Race, History, Religion, Nonfiction

264 pages, Hardcover

Published November 21, 2016

About the author

Paul Harvey (Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 1992) is Professor of History and Presidential Teaching Scholar at University of Colorado Colorado Springs. He researches, writes, and teaches in the field of American history from the 16th century to the present. Harvey is the creator and “blogmeister” of the nationally known professional scholarly blog Religion in American History, and is a contributor to the online journal Religion Dispatches. He is the author/editor of eleven books and numerous articles.


Honors and Awards

In 2008, Harvey was designated as the Lamar Lecturer in Southern History at Mercer University; the lectures he gave there have been published as Moses, Jesus and the Trickster in the Evangelical South (University of Georgia Press). In 2009, Harvey was named a Presidential Teaching Scholar at the University of Colorado, and from 2007-09, he served as the Senior Mentor to the Young Scholars in American Religion program at IUPUI in Indianapolis.

In 2006, Harvey received the Faculty Award for Excellence in Research from the University of Colorado. In 2008, Harvey received the Outstanding Teaching Award from UCCS. In 2009, Harvey received the designation of Presidential Teaching Scholar at the University of Colorado, a system-wide award recognizing specially designated scholar/teachers throughout the University of Colorado system. Paul has also received the UCCS Chancellor's Award, and served as a Senior Mentor to the Young Scholars in American Religion Program at IUPUI in Indianapolis.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

An impressively thorough and readable history of, well, the title says it all, doesn't it? Harvey manages to pack 400 years of Southern history into a little more than 200 pages, and he does it in an engaging and informative way that moves meaningfully away from the tired old "white Protestants are everything" histories. Catholicism, Afro-Atlantic religions, and Native traditions all receive their due, and Harvey does not shy away from how Christianity in particular both challenged and upheld the racial caste system of the Southern United States. Well worth reading.

[Jeff Bracken · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must-read book for those who want to know why Christianity in the South and the North are seemingly so different. The book is extremely well researched and every time period painstakingly investigated. Every paragraph seems full of detail and meaning The primary focus is white southern Christianity's unholy handling of slavery and race relations beginning just after the Revolution, through the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights movement, to the present day emergence of the prosperity gospel. The only weakness is the description of the present day situation, which is not surprising because circumstances continue to evolve.

[Michael Longerbeam]

I read about half for a Fall class. Harvey's book was helpful for the cultural context of the antebellum South regarding religion.