The focus on Christianity being reasonable and practical was one of the causes of the downfall of theological language in public discourse. How could theology be rational and Christianity reasonable if powerful, intelligent theologians could come down on both sides of the ethics of slavery? If the authority of the Bible were obvious and supported by nature, then wouldn’t it be obvious whether slavery were just or not?
Whereas before the truth and reasonableness of Christianity were simply taken for granted, questions about slavery forced American Christians to take seriously the possibility that they were wrong in how they understood theology, revelation, scripture, and Christianity.
- “More than most other theological debates of the period...the slavery controversy displayed the extent to which cultural assumptions governed biblical interpretation. Especially visible was the intrusion into theology of assumptions about race. ...[T]he proslavery reading of scripture reflected the southern commitment to a hierarchical, organic social ideology that considered relations of dependence a necessary part of the natural ordering of things. This was one reason that the defenders of slavery so often linked their defense of slavery with their belief that children should be subordinate to adults and women should be subordinate to men.”
Because Christian theology was incapable of offering any sort of real resolution to the problem, Americans began to realize that they needed to seek out alternative ways of understanding society:
- “To a segment of American intellectuals, the theological impasse meant that theology could no longer articulate the moral vision that held the culture together. ...[T]he slavery controversy among the theologians revealed...the inability of theology to unite Americans or to help them transcend the pull of economic and political interests. The cultural language that supposedly united Americans proved itself able to contribute even more forcefully to their division”
Theology in America: Christian Thought from the Age of the Puritans to the Civil War
The debate over slavery didn’t eliminate religion and theology from public discourse, but it did dethrone them from being the only available options. Many Americans of good will realized that Christianity could no longer provide them all they needed in order to create a better society. It’s ironic — and sad — that even today we can still find those who haven’t learned that lesson. We still find Christians in American who insist that Christianity is needed to unite America and that, properly understood, it would never divide the community.
The Civil War proved exactly how dangerously wrong this belief is. Perhaps one can argue that those who insist on using theology as a model for structuring American society are precisely those who know the least about the use of theology in American history. If so, I hope that they read this book and learn not to make the same mistakes as their predecessors.
« Back...
