The Civil War as a theological crisis

Short Review: This is the second time I have read this book. I read it it first a bit over a year ago accidentally. I borrowed it because it was by Noll, not because I actually knew anything about it. But it has been one of the books I frequently have recommended since then. Since it dropped down into reasonable price range for kindle I picked it up and read it again.

The main takeaway is still the same, that we read scripture through cultural lenses. And too often we do not even know that the lenses exist, let along how they influence our reading. So the most important part of this book I think is the chapters on how other Christians outside of the US understood the role of slavery, racism and the civil war and how that was different from those inside of the US. Of course, it was a different age and we cannot forget that. But the differences between US and non-US understandings is in large part the differences in culture, more than the differences in scripture.

The other thing that this book really forces me to think though is the role of sin as a Christian. I have to view slaveholding as a sinful action. And the actual act of holding a slave, not just how the particular slaveholder treated their slaves. It was an institutional sin as well as an individual sin. And that institutional sin was more than just those that held the slaves. Many Northerners depended on the slave economy as much as the actual slave holders.

So what sins do we as 21st century Christians have that we are culturally ignorant of? And how does that sinfulness keep us from God in ways that we just don't see? And that also needs to inform our own grace toward sinners. Sin does keep us distant from God. But sin does not keep God from us. We can be and are still sinners inspite of our salvation.

This is history written at its best and most helpful.

My full review of the second reading is at my blog at http://bookwi.se/civil-war/