MARC Record from harvard_bibliographic_metadata

LEADER: 02945cam a2200349uu 4500
001 000382569-8
005 20020606090541.3
008 850319s1985 gaua b 00110 eng
010 $a 85007131
020 $a0865541876 (pbk.)
020 $a0865541663 :$c$16.95
035 0 $aocm11917739
040 $aDLC$cDLC
043 $an-us---
050 00 $aBR525$b.G56 1985
100 1 $aGoen, C. C.
245 10 $aBroken churches, broken nation :$bdenominational schisms and the coming of the American Civil War /$cby C.C. Goen.
260 0 $aMacon, Ga. :$bMercer University Press,$cc1985.
300 $ax, 198 p. :$bill. ;$c24 cm.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505 0 $aThe problem and the hypothesis -- The evangelical bond -- Churches of the people -- Secession scenario -- The broken union -- A failure of leadership.
520 $aIn 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 moral issue of slavery, so did the nation. Professor Goen, an eminent historian of American religion, does not seek in these pages 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. - Publisher.
650 0 $aEvangelicalism$zUnited States$xHistory$y19th century.
650 0 $aChristian sects$zUnited States$xHistory$y19th century.
651 0 $aUnited States$xChurch history$y19th century.
651 0 $aUnited States$xHistory$yCivil War, 1861-1865$xCauses.
651 0 $aUnited States$xHistory$yCivil War, 1861-1865$xReligious aspects.
655 7 $aChurch history.$2fast
655 7 $aHistory.$2fast
776 08 $iOnline version:$aGoen, C.C.$tBroken churches, broken nation.$dMacon, Ga. : Mercer University Press, ©1985$w(OCoLC)567386305
988 $a20020608
906 $0DLC