This is the first interpretation of the reaction of the Southern Churches to the Civil War and Reconstruction. During the Civil War and afterwards, Southern evangelicals remained convinced that their cause was both Christian and just. This position became more entrenched as northern evangelicals entered the South after the war, aiming to save freedmen. Stowell shows the religious reconstruction that followed deeply effected the logic of the Lost Cause and the subsequent history of Reconstruction.

Rebuilding Zion offers a pivotal new perspective on Reconstruction. Stowell carefully considers the religious interpretations of the Civil War by the main groups that defined Reconstruction-southern whites, northern whites, and freedmen - and shows how the southern churches became one of the principal bulwarks of the New South.