I found Richard Carwardine's book Righteous Strife fascinating. As a retired minister, his deep dive (at times maybe a little too deep) connected with me. I had worked on a paper about the religious effect on both the Union and Southern armies while I was in seminary, and this book brought much of that research back to mind. The biggest challenge is that it is a DEEP dive, and may get a little bit into the weeds for many folk.

Trying to understand Lincoln's relationship to God and the "church" is a challenging task. Carwardine suggests two possibilities, one is that it was more for show and political gain and the other was that it was subtle but authentic. I am still ambivalent about it. Carwardine suggests it was more authentic and gave him political capitol. Maybe, but I was not convinced.

The most challenging part of the book is the end when he tries to bring us to the present. Carwardine does not seem to like the direction that parts of the evangelical church in the USA are leaning (Christian Nationalism) and seems to suggest they have forgotten their roots in emancipation.

This is not an easy read or for the faint of heart, but I appreciate the opportunity that Netgalley and Knopt publishers gave me in exchange for this review.

4 stars for an interesting book on how religious denominations/churches and priests/ministers reacted to the issues of slavery, the civil war and secession. The author has done a prodigious amount of research, reading sermons, minutes of various religious conventions, newspaper editorials and speeches by various individuals during the pre civil war period and through the civil war itself. He quotes from all of the above. You can guess from the title that he is mostly focused on sermons/speeches from the northern states, but he does quote some southern ministers. The southern ministers gave sermons claiming that the bible justified slavery. They said that the slavery was ordained by god, and that it was moral, right and good.
The author also quotes from meetings with Lincoln and various emissaries from a multitude of religious denominations. Lincoln relied on these meetings to gauge how much support his policies had among the general population. In addition, the author quotes from various opponents of Lincoln's policies, especially the "Copperhead" Democrats.
Some readers may find this book too scholarly for their taste. I recommend it to readers interested in US civil war history. It is a long book--626 pages, and extensively documented, about 100 pages of footnotes. I am not a religious person, but I am interested in how religious denominations affect society and in this case, had a positive effect on the outcome of the US civil war.
One quote on Lincoln: "The profound trauma of war gave him a new perception of God, whom he came to see as an active force in history."
Thank you Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for sending me this eARC through NetGalley.
#RighteousStrife #NetGalley.

Pub Date Jan 21 2025 |

The same civil war events as countless other history books, but with a new lens of religious nationalism. Whether you agree with the author or not, this book will make you think about and possibly reconsider what you already know.

It was very clear that the author is knowledgable about the topic and that this was incredibly well-researched. Though not religious myself, I'm always interested in how religion has shaped history and enjoy learning about the Civil War period of American history. It was also interesting in comparing the rhetoric and views of this time period with the themes of politics and religion today -- where things are so similar and where things aren't.

Parts of this book had me captivated while others felt like a bit of a slog, hence the 3-star rating. I found bits of it to be repetitive as well, where I'd read a line and feel like I'd read something very similar but about a different person or place a few pages later. I think this book could have been a bit shorter and been more effective/engaging.

One of the most interesting sections of the book was actually the epilogue -- I know that the focus of this book was religion and it's impacts on Lincoln/the Civil War but touching on the evolution of the churches during reconstruction and how the political parties came to be today is definitely something I'd continue reading about. I think I would have preferred a bit more detail about Reconstruction in lieu of the amount of information during the course of the war itself.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc of this book.

Righteous Strife is an engaging look at a period of history that I thought I was familiar with. Looking at the American Civil War through a religious lens was an entirely new perspective that I hadn't explored before, and it was interesting to hear how religion played such a large role in shaping how Lincoln view the War, the Union, and slavery.

So this isn't my usual type of genre but I was intrigued. I found the whole process so interesting that lead before and after the civil war. Not something they teach in school so this was super informative

The mid-19th century religious divide between Northerners who saw slavery as a sin and Southerners who defended it as a Biblical, positive good is well-known. But that’s just the starting point for this upcoming book about religious sentiment during the Civil War era. Carwardine goes on to examine the religious divide between Union supporters who were either against or ambivalent about slavery and how “emancipators slowly gained the advantage.” And he considers the interplay among all of these citizens and Abraham Lincoln, as he engaged in the push-and-pull of influencing, and being influenced by, public opinion.

Carwardine doesn’t spend too much time on the first point, since the North-South divide is pretty self-evident. The second point, once the religious divide among Union supporters was established, became a bit of a slog every time it was referenced, and I found myself starting to skim the long stretches with almost endless quotes from preachers’ sermons, religious newspaper editorials and religious leaders of all denominations who corresponded with Lincoln.

The strongest part of the book, to me, involved Lincoln, his reaction to these religious sentiments, and his own religious beliefs and statements. Joshua Zeitz explored this topic in last year’s “Lincoln’s God: How Faith Transformed a President and a Nation,” with a well-written and easy-to-follow exploration of Lincoln’s personal beliefs, the increasingly influential role of Christian evangelicalism at that time, and Lincoln’s own role as something of an evangelical leader (who was not necessarily an evangelical himself.)

Carwardine explores similar topics, noting that one political admirer referred to Lincoln as a “half-way clergyman.” Lincoln, he writes, was not “the born-again Christian that many believed he was or wished him to be,” but he “recognized his role and duties as an agent of Providence.” It’s popularly believed that Lincoln “found religion” during the war, but Carwardine points out that Lincoln’s religious references began early, and didn’t just come out of nowhere in his Second Inaugural. He cites many religious references in Lincoln’s public comments beginning with his journey to Washington to be sworn in for the first time, as the duties and responsibilities he faced began to sink in. “The unprecedented national emergency would test his judgment, fortitude, and skill,” he writes. “There need have been no shame in seeking and finding strength from a superintending higher power.”

As to whether Lincoln’s religious references were performative or sincere, they might have been both, but Carwardine ultimately comes down on the side of the latter. “Being seen as an honest man of God gave Lincoln a bank of moral capital on which he could draw,” he acknowledges. So one could say it “looks like political calculation” and that Lincoln’s “providentialism might have been for show.” But his “personal journey in religious faith” was genuine, if incomplete, he concludes. Lincoln was far from a full-fledged evangelical himself, but he did display “a growing belief in a God who intervened in the life of the nation.”

Lincoln’s correspondence and his many White House meetings with religious leaders were more persuasive than performative, Carwardine argues, providing him with “a means of reading opinion and identifying significant shifts in public attitudes.” The devout encouraged his “religious patriotism,” influencing his decision to declare so many days of national fasting and thanksgiving for spiritual reflection and inspiration.

The book’s epilogue swiftly and somewhat awkwardly tries to bring the story to the present day, racing through the history of evangelicalism from then to now, chiding today’s evangelical Christian nationalists as compared to the more racially egalitarian, socially progressive evangelicals who embraced emancipation during Lincoln’s time. It’s a comparison worth making, but one that perhaps deserves more expansive thought than can be contained in an epilogue to a book that’s focused on another time altogether.

In short, then, I found this book to be valuable for its insights about Lincoln, and somewhat less so for its recitation of what seemingly every preacher of every denomination thought about events of the time. So it’s not a leisurely read, but one that has enough perceptive observations within to make it a worthwhile effort.