In this richly suggestive overview, a noted historian illuminates
the variety and vitality of southern religion by examining three
major Protestant denominational families in the region: Baptists,
"Christians" (for example, the Churches of Christ), and the "of
God" groups (Pentecostals, among others). Ranging in coverage from
the colonial period to the present, with special emphasis on the
nineteenth century, Samuel S. Hill traces the growth and
diversification of each of these groups as they have sloughed off
old patterns, conventions, and constraints in their never-ending
searches for systems of belief and modes of expression that better
embody their convictions and fit their socioeconomic situations.
Throughout One Name but Several Faces, Hill turns again and again
to the interrelated themes of freedom, creativity, and
discontinuity that emerge from the major transitions of southern
religious history: the toppling of the old Europe-influenced
religious establishment and the emergence of Baptists and
Methodists; the informal, unofficial "establishment" of folk
religious formations; the rapid growth of separate and independent
black churches and denominations; and the beginning of the Holiness
and Pentecostal movements. Within this context of religious trends
and events, Hill also points to other factors that have affected
both the formation and the ongoing capacity for transformation of
southern religious groups. Such factors include war, sectionalism,
urbanization, industrialization, and new currents of thought.
Internal forces are also constantly at work in the religious South,
says Hill. He points to a medley of sacred and secular concerns,
manifested as "freedoms," that have driven religious history from
the bottom up and fueled the seemingly constant splinterings and
regroupings of some denominations. Some of these ideals stem from
democratic principles and the theological heritage of the
Reformation; others are in response to major economic and social
changes. Among them are the freedoms from church and theological
systems; from constraining conventions of polite society; from
domination by higher social classes or by traditions perceived as
inviolate; and from restraints on holistic human expression, in
spirit, body, and emotions. The story of southern religion, says
Hill, is one of courage, imagination, and persistence. Not only
does One Name but Several Faces bring into sharper focus some of
the political, social, and economic contours of the religious
South, it also affirms the value of some challenging new trends in
historiography that allow for southern religious complexity and
division without deadening or downplaying its dynamism.
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