Theology, Presbyterian History, and the Civil War

In the generation after the American Civil War, the main theological issues American Presbyterians addressed were church order, biblical criticism, and confessional revision. But the Civil War raised other important theological questions, including whether the war had been justified by classical just-war criteria and how traditional Reformed theology could accommodate the run-away civil religion that was so palpable in both the North and the South. Few Presbyterians seemed interested in addressing the theological problems raised by the systematic imposition of Jim Crow segregation or the rapidly industrializing society that the Civil War had stimulated. This article also suggests that some Presbyterian and Reformed voices did address these issues, such as Abraham Kuyper, who proposed a theological approach to industrialization, and Francis Grimke, who sought to combine the "spirituality of the church" and the promotion of racial justice, but they have not appeared in the main Presbyterian histories. Considering what Presbyterians did or did not say about race, civil religion, and industrialization broadens theological history in keeping with the comprehensive perspectives of historical Presbyterianism itself.