Episode 14: Southern Evangelicals and the Culture of the New South

The Journal of Southern Religion Podcast

In Fall 2012, Perspectives in Religious Studies featured six articles that examined the complex ways that southern evangelicals engaged with the culture of the New South. In this podcast, Art Remillard speaks with the editor of this special issue, Joe Coker of Baylor University. Coker discusses how his book, Liquor in the Land of the Lost Cause served as backdrop for this issue. Remillard then interviews contributor John Hayes of Georgia Regents University about his article, “The Evangelical Ethos and the Spirit of Capitalism.” Hayes examines the role played by evangelicals in the emergence of a market revolution in the South. He also offers a brief glimpse into his forthcoming book on southern folk Christianity. The podcast concludes with Glenn Feldman of the University of Alabama at Birmingham explaining his article, “Making ‘The Southern Religion’: Economics, Theology, Martial Patriotism, and Social Indifference—(and the Big Bang Theory of Modern American Politics.” He emphasizes that the “distinct” brand of southern evangelicalism born in the New South still influences the region (and nation) today.

The remaining authors and articles in the issue are:

• Paul Harvey, “‘The Right-Minded Members of that Race’: Southern Religious Progressives Confront Race, 1880-1930”
• Fred Arthur Bailey, “Schooling the Negro to His Proper Subordination: White Protestants and Black Education in the New South”
• Kelly J. Baker, “Evangelizing Klansmen, Nationalizing the South: Faith, Fraternity, and Lost Cause Religion in the 1920s Klan”
• Art Remillard, “Between Faith and Fistic Battles: Moralists, Enthusiasts, and the Idea of Jack Johnson in the New South.”