SOUTHERN CHURCHES IN CRISIS

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1967

The recent stresses put upon Southern churches by the racial revolution calls for a full understanding of the nature of Southern Protestantism, and it has developed particularly since the decades just before the Civil War and on into our own time. The author undertakes such a study with a careful scrutiny of the close interweaving of Southern culture and Southern Protestantism. The result has been a variety of evangelistic Protestantism hardly found anywhere else in the world. Its leading characteristics are indicated as fundamentalism and evangelism. In recognition of the predominance of the two largest Protestant denominations in the South, the author characterizes this Protestantism as ""The Baptist- Methodist syndrome."" The economic, racial, and cultural revolution now penetrating the South is disrupting the old alliance of Protestantism and Southern mores, and the grave issue, in the author's judgement, is whether the Protestant churches have the capacity to adapt themselves to these radical changes. The churches' role, he fears, may be one of short-term value, but long-term obstruction, to the transition that Southern society must now make. The author's diagnosis is sharp, and his tone far from optimistic, yet not without indications of his sympathetic concern for the churches in their present grave predicament.

Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Holt, Rinehart & Winston

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1967

Categories: NONFICTION