Term of Award
Spring 2006
Degree Name
Master of Arts in History (M.A.)
Document Type and Release Option
Thesis (open access)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Department of History
Committee Chair
Anastatia Sims
Committee Member 1
Alan Downs
Committee Member 2
Craig Roell
Abstract
By the late 1840's, the South's religious and political convictions upheld slaveholders' social and economic views. These convictions permeated worship services in Georgia via the ministries. At the onset of the Civil War, spirituality provided an essential source of Southern strength in both victory and defeat. As fortitude subsided, religion also played a prodigious role in perpetuating the Confederate experience. For a generation, its theology had endorsed the South's social arrangement, asserted the morality of slavery, expunged Southern sins, and recruited the populace as God's devout guardians of the institution. Sustained by the belief that they were God's chosen people, Southerners rallied to the Confederate cause. Assserting great influence as the presiding Episcopal bishop of the Confederacy, the Right Reverent Steven Elliott, Jr., aggressively participated in contriving a religious culture that discerned threats to Southern society as challenges to Christian civilization.
Recommended Citation
Thompson, Paulette S., "Right Reverend Stephen Elliott: Political Influence and the Protestant Episcopal Church in Georgia, 1840-1866" (2006). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 592.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/592
Research Data and Supplementary Material
No
