Essays by the distinguished historian of southern religion Wayne
Flynt, that illuminate the often overlooked complexity among southern
Protestants.
Throughout its dramatic history, the American South has wrestled with
issues such as poverty, social change, labor reform, civil rights, and
party politics, and Flynt's writing reaffirms religion as the lens
through which southerners understand and attempt to answer these
contentious questions. In Southern Religion and Christian Diversity in
the Twentieth Century, however, Flynt gently but persuasively dispels
the myth--comforting to some and dismaying to others--of religion in the
South as an inert cairn of reactionary conservatism.
Flynt introduces a wealth of stories about individuals and communities
of faith whose beliefs and actions map the South's web of theological
fault lines. In the early twentieth century, North Carolinian pastor
Alexander McKelway became a relentless crusader against the common
practice of child labor. In 1972, Rev. Dr. Ruby Kile, in a time of
segregated churches led by men, took the helm of the eight-member
Powderly Faith Deliverance Center in Jefferson County, Alabama and built
the fledgling group into a robust congregation with more than 700 black
and white worshippers. Flynt also examines the role of religion in
numerous pivotal court cases, such as the US Supreme Court school prayer
case Engel v. Vitale, whose majority opinion was penned by Justice
Hugo Black, an Alabamian. These fascinating case studies and many more
illuminate a religious landscape of far more varied texture and
complexity than is commonly believed.
Southern Religion and Christian Diversity in the Twentieth Century
offers much to readers and scholars interested in the South, religion,
and theology. Writing with his hallmark wit, warmth, and erudition,
Flynt's Southern Religion and Christian Diversity in the Twentieth
Century is a vital record of gospel-inspired southerners whose stories
revivify sclerotic assumptions about the narrow conformity of southern
Christians.
