The Civil War as a Theological Crisis. By Mark A. Noll. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Pp. x, 199.)
Mark A. Noll’s The Civil War as a Theological Crisis is an insightful piece of scholarship that examines the ways in which the Civil War challenged the underpinnings of American Christianity and laid the foundation for a shift toward scientific rationalism and liberal Christianity during the late nineteenth century. While Noll admits that there were numerous social, political and cultural issues that led to the Civil War, he argues that a theological debate over the issue of slavery lay at the heart of the war. By examining the theological arguments both for and against slavery, he demonstrates that the issue of slavery posed a significant challenge to American Christianity and Protestantism’s implicit trust in the authority and inerrancy of the Bible.
In addition to the introduction and conclusion, and a brief chapter explaining the historical contexts of the chapter, the book is divided into five main chapters, each one examining a different aspect of the crisis. Noll demonstrates that during the Civil War era, Northerners and Southerners were theologically divided over the question of slavery. Utilizing texts from the Old and New Testaments, Southerners argued that the Bible sanctioned the institution of slavery and desired its perpetuation. Despite their aversions to slavery, Northerners were generally persuaded by the Southern arguments that the Bible sanctioned the practice. Accordingly they were compelled to respond with reason-based arguments that condemned the inhumanity of the practice while ignoring Biblical arguments to the contrary. This dispute over the teachings of the Bible created a theological problem for Northern Protestants. While Northerners generally rejected the issue of slavery, Noll observes that most were unwilling to examine the larger questions of racial equality that were intricately tied to the institution. Although African American churches raised the issue of racial inequality, most white Americans found the question to be too radical and revolutionary for the period.
For Noll, one of the most integral aspects of the Civil War is an understanding of the American views of Providence. He suggests that both Northerners and Southerners implicitly believed the workings of Divine Providence, and felt that they could discern it in the workings of the world around them. This belief in Providence and of man’s understanding of it was crucial to the way that Americans interpreted the outcomes of various battles and of the war in general. While a few like Lincoln admitted that they could not always discern the will and purposes of God in the events of the war, most Americans sought to explain the hand of God throughout the course of the war.
Noll’s discussion of the ways that foreign Protestants and Catholics understood and theologically contextualized the war is among the most interesting aspects of the book. He demonstrates that the Civil War was not simply a provincial affair, but rather was an event of international importance that was observed by more than just diplomats and enterprising businessmen in Europe. Additionally, these international opinions help to underscore the argument that slavery was the ultimate cause of the Civil War. As Noll demonstrates, for contemporary preachers in both domestic and foreign congregations, there was almost no debate over the cause of the war. Hence, other issues like states rights and the economic differences between the North and the South must be seen as secondary causes to the preeminent issue of slavery.
Although well thought out and reasoned, The Civil War as a Theological Crisis suffers from the fact that it was a published set of lectures rather than a traditional monograph. While this format enables to reader to easily grasp Noll’s points, the choppy writing style detracts from the book’s overall value. Further, the lectures tend to focus solely upon the thoughts and opinions of preachers and theologians while generally omitting the religious ideas of the common soldiers and citizens who turned to those preachers for guidance. One is left to wonder about the extent to which this theological crisis influenced the country’s middle and working class masses. One would hope that in the future Noll will expand these lectures into a monograph-length treatment of these important issues. As it stands, however, The Civil War as a Theological Crisis is still an important contribution to our understanding of the religious underpinnings of the Civil War, melding well with the growing body of monographs that examine the religious aspects of the war.
Brett D. Dowdle