Book description
The South has always been one of the most distinctive regions of the
United States, with its own set of traditions and a turbulent history.
Although often associated with cotton, hearty food, and rich dialects,
the South is also noted for its strong sense of religion, which has
significantly shaped its history. Dramatic political, social, and
economic events have often shaped the development of southern religion,
making the nuanced dissection of the religious history of the region a
difficult undertaking. For instance, segregation and the subsequent
civil rights movement profoundly affected churches in the South as they
sought to mesh the tenets of their faith with the prevailing culture.
Editors Walter H. Conser and Rodger M. Payne and the book's contributors
place their work firmly in the trend of modern studies of southern
religion that analyze cultural changes to gain a better understanding of
religion's place in southern culture now and in the future. Southern
Crossroads: Perspectives on Religion and Culture takes a broad,
interdisciplinary approach that explores the intersection of religion
and various aspects of southern life. The volume is organized into three
sections, such as “Religious Aspects of Southern Culture,” that deal
with a variety of topics, including food, art, literature, violence,
ritual, shrines, music, and interactions among religious groups. The
authors survey many combinations of religion and culture, with
discussions ranging from the effect of Elvis Presley's music on southern
spirituality to yard shrines in Miami to the archaeological record of
African American slave religion. The book explores the experiences of
immigrant religious groups in the South, also dealing with the reactions
of native southerners to the groups arriving in the region. The authors
discuss the emergence of religious and cultural acceptance, as well as
some of the apparent resistance to this development, as they explore the
experiences of Buddhist Americans in the South and Jewish foodways.
Southern Crossroads also looks at distinct markers of religious identity
and the role they play in gender, politics, ritual, and violence. The
authors address issues such as the role of women in Southern Baptist
churches and the religious overtones of lynching, with its themes of
blood sacrifice and atonement. Southern Crossroads offers valuable
insights into how southern religion is studied and how people and
congregations evolve and adapt in an age of constant cultural change.
Walter H. Conser Jr. is professor of history and religion at the
University of North Carolina, Wilmington. He is the author of A Coat of
Many Colors: Religion and Society along the Cape Fear River of North
Carolina. Rodger M. Payne is associate professor of religious studies at
the University of North Carolina at Asheville and is editor of the
Journal of Southern Religion. He is the author of The Self and the
Sacred: Conversion and Autobiography in Early American Protestantism.
