"Baptized in Blood" by Charles Reagan Wilson. A Review

 

I once lived in Mississippi for an extended period, and was struck by the breadth of Christian texture that surfaced in the social nuances and niceties. So, in many ways, "Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause. 1865-1920" penned by Charles Reagan Wilson, professor emeritus of history and southern studies at the University of Mississippi and co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Southern Studies, gave me some colorful background to my experiences. This volume first surfaced in the 1980s and was republished in 2009. The volume's thesis is plainly stated early on, "the Lost cause was a mythic construct that helped white southerners define a cultural identity in the aftermath of Confederate defeat" (x). Since the book has already been around for decades and has received numerous reviews, online and in educational and historical journals, I will simply get down to brass tacks.

I'm not sure the author makes a completely convincing case. The material is intriguing, quoting from a decently diverse, but select, number of original sources. In many ways it feels like he might be close to the heart of the matter in most areas, but the fact that he paints a monolithic picture, and doesn't draw in the larger scenes going on in Evangelicalism throughout the west at the time, as well as northern cultural/religious trends, and so forth, often left me with doubts about many of his conclusions. For example, simply reading the sources he cites I often thought, "But that doesn't seem to go along tightly with your conclusion! That actually seems to go against your assertions."

With that said, I did find the manuscript useful and cautioning. The danger for Christianity is to allow itself to get folded into national or intra-national mores and movements and begin to identify the aims and goals of the one with the other, and to merge the Kingdom of God with a political format. We did it in the west in Rome, then the Holy Roman Empire, and so forth. And our Eastern Orthodox friends did it under Byzantium and Constantinople. Thus, it is a real danger, and that's what made the book mostly "believable". The material in the book will give a reader reasons to think and reflect, but also some historical background to certain customs. For example, I always wondered why and when the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" found approval in the south and southern churches - a hymn written by a Unitarian which pictures the Kingdom of God housed in the Union Army. I received my answer, and how it fit into the perception regarding the first world war (176). All said, it's a worthwhile book.