The Bible, Slavery, & the American Civil War

This class surveys the history of the Bible in the United States from the War for Independence through the Civil War. It is a case study designed to sharpen awareness of how intellectual assumptions, cultural conventions, engrained interests, and spiritual motives shaped the understanding and application of Scripture. Special emphases are how Scripture was enlisted to both defend and attack the American slave system, how that interpretive conflict exerted long-term consequences for the churches as well as the nation, why African American approaches were so distinct, what role the Bible played in the Civil War, and how Canadian history differed from this American history.