Degree Type
Thesis
Date of Award
2020
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
History
Major
History
First Advisor
Lawrence T. McDonnell
Abstract
Heaven is mankind’s place of eternal rest. In the years surrounding the Civil War, Southern clergymen and intellectuals interpreted heaven within the framework of their beliefs about and aspirations for the South. This study examines Southern Presbyterian conceptions of heaven. Studying the Southern Presbyterian Review, a Charleston-based denominational journal, this thesis explores what heaven meant to these authors, and how these views aligned with social reform efforts. Heaven focused Southern Presbyterian attempts to build an “almost-heavenly state” on earth. Intellectual leaders such as James H. Thornwell advanced connections between heavenly and terrestrial society that shaped discussion in the Southern Presbyterian Review. Although they did not claim a large membership in the Old South, Southern Presbyterian leaders were powerfully influential and strove to reconcile the fallibility of social order with their beliefs about the nature of the afterlife. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Presbyterian clergy seized the chance to guide society in a godlier direction, within the framework of their beliefs in a slaveholders’ paradise.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.31274/etd-20200902-33
Copyright Owner
Matthew Dawdy
Copyright Date
2020-08
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
File Size
44 pages
Recommended Citation
Dawdy, Matthew, "Slaveholders’ Paradise: Conceptions of heaven in antebellum southern Presbyterian thought" (2020). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 18114.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/18114
