Appalachian Mountain Christianity

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Appalachian Mountain Religion

Author : Deborah Vansau McCauley
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 9780252064142
Total Pages : 584 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (641 download)

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Book Synopsis Appalachian Mountain Religion by : Deborah Vansau McCauley

Download or read book Appalachian Mountain Religion written by Deborah Vansau McCauley and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A monumental achievement. . . . Certainly the best thing written on Appalachian Religion and one of the best works on the region itself. Deborah McCauley has made a winning argument that Appalachian religion is a true and authentic counter-stream to modern mainstream Protestant religion." -- Loyal Jones, founding director of the Appalachian Center at Berea College Appalachian Mountain Religion is much more than a narrowly focused look at the religion of a region. Within this largest regional and widely diverse religious tradition can be found the strings that tie it to all of American religious history. The fierce drama between American Protestantism and Appalachian mountain religion has been played out for nearly two hundred years; the struggle between piety and reason, between the heart and the head, has echoes reaching back even further--from Continental Pietism and the Scots-Irish of western Scotland and Ulster to Colonial Baptist revival culture and plain-folk camp-meeting religion. Deborah Vansau McCauley places Appalachian mountain religion squarely at the center of American religious history, depicting the interaction and dramatic conflicts between it and the denominations that comprise the Protestant "mainstream." She clarifies the tradition histories and symbol systems of the area's principally oral religious culture, its worship practices and beliefs, further illuminating the clash between mountain religion and the "dominant religious culture" of the United States. This clash has helped to shape the course of American religious history. The explorations in Appalachian Mountain Religion range from Puritan theology to liberation theology, from Calvinism to the Holiness-Pentecostal movements. Within that wide realm and in the ongoing contention over religious values, the many strains of American religious history can be heard.

The Roots of Appalachian Christianity

Author : Elder John Sparks
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 0813158397
Total Pages : 350 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (131 download)

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Book Synopsis The Roots of Appalachian Christianity by : Elder John Sparks

Download or read book The Roots of Appalachian Christianity written by Elder John Sparks and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-10-17 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Appalachia's distinctive brand of Christianity has always been something of a puzzle to mainline American congregations. Often treated as pagan and unchurched, native Appalachian sects are labeled as ultraconservative, primitive, and fatalistic, and the actions of minority sub-groups such as "snake handlers" are associated with all worshippers in the region. Yet these churches that many regard as being outside the mainstream are living examples of America's own religious heritage. The emotional and experience-based religion that still thrives in Appalachia is very much at the heart of American worship. The lack of a recognizable "father figure" like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Knox compounds the mystery of Appalachia's religious origins. Ordained minister John Sparks determined that such a person must have existed, and his search turned up a man less literate, urbane, and well-known than Luther, Calvin, and Knox—but no less charismatic and influential. Shubal Stearns, a New England Baptist minister, led a group of sixteen Baptists—now dubbed "The Old Brethren" by Old School Baptists churches in Appalachia—from New England to North Carolina in the mid-eighteenth century. His musical "barking" preaching is still popular, and the association of churches that he established gave birth to many of the disparate denominations prospering in the region today. A man lacking in the scholarship of his peers but endowed with the eccentricities that would make their mark on Appalachian faith, Stearns has long been an object of shame among most Baptist historians. In The Roots of Appalachian Christianity, Sparks depicts an important religious figure in a new light. Poring over pages of out-of-print and little-used histories, Sparks discovered the complexity of Stearns's character and his impact on Appalachian Christianity. The result is a history not just of this leader but of the roots of a religious movement.

The Man who Moved a Mountain

Author : Richard C. Davids
Publisher : Fortress Press
ISBN 13 : 9780800612375
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (123 download)

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Book Synopsis The Man who Moved a Mountain by : Richard C. Davids

Download or read book The Man who Moved a Mountain written by Richard C. Davids and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 1970 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This biography of Reverend Bob Childress of the Blue Ridge Mountains has been compared to the tales of Mark Twain and the Mississippi. Shows Childress' transforming effects on rough and wild mountain communities.

Christianity in Appalachia

Author : Bill J. Leonard
Publisher : Univ. of Tennessee Press
ISBN 13 : 9781572330405
Total Pages : 364 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (34 download)

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Book Synopsis Christianity in Appalachia by : Bill J. Leonard

Download or read book Christianity in Appalachia written by Bill J. Leonard and published by Univ. of Tennessee Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion has long been a source of identity for many Southerners, and the Appalachian areas in particular have proven to be a virtual fortress protecting faith and culture. Yet, in a region popularly thought to be religiously homogeneous, congregations reflect a wide range of doctrinal differences over such issues as conversion, ministerial leadership, and the authority on which a church bases its core beliefs. Profiling the prominent Christian traditions in southern Appalachia, this book brings together contributions by twenty scholars who have long studied the religious practices found in the region's cities, small towns, and rural communities. These authors provide insights into not only the independent mountain churches that are strongly linked to local customs but also the mainline and other religious bodies that have a significant presence in Appalachia but are not strictly associated with it. The essays explore the nature of ministry within these various churches, show the impact of broader culture on religion in the region, and consider the question of whether previously isolated, tradition-based churches can retain their distinctiveness in a changing world. One group of chapters focuses on elements of mountain religion as seen in the beliefs and practices of mountain Holiness folk, serpent handlers, and various Baptist traditions. Later chapters review the history and activities of other denominations, including Southern Baptist, Presbyterian, Wesleyan/Holiness, Church of God, and Roman Catholic. Also considered are the economic history of the region, popular religiosity, and the role of church-affiliated colleges. Taken together, these essays offer a richly nuanced understanding of Christianity in Appalachia. The Editor: Bill J. Leonard is dean of the Divinity School at Wake Forest University. His other books include Out of One, Many: American Religion and American Pluralism and God's Last and Only Hope: The Fragmentation of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Contributors: Monica Kelly Appleby, Donald N. Bowdle, Mary Lee Daugherty, Melvin E. Dieter, Howard Dorgan, Anthony Dunnavant, Gary Farley, Samuel S. Hill, Loyal Jones, Helen Lewis, Charles H. Lippy, Bill J. Leonard, Deborah Vansau McCauley, Lou F. McNeil, Marcia Clark Myers, Bennett Poage, Ira Read, James Sessions, Barbara Ellen Smith, H. Davis Yeuell.

Hiking Through

Author : Paul Stutzman
Publisher : Baker Books
ISBN 13 : 0800720539
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Hiking Through by : Paul Stutzman

Download or read book Hiking Through written by Paul Stutzman and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2012-03-12 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With breathtaking descriptions and humorous anecdotes from his 2,176-mile journey along the Appalachian Trail, Paul Stutzman reveals how immersing himself in nature and befriending fellow hikers helped him recover from a devastating loss.

Praying with One Eye Open

Author : Mary Ella Engel
Publisher : University of Georgia Press
ISBN 13 : 0820355240
Total Pages : 247 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (23 download)

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Book Synopsis Praying with One Eye Open by : Mary Ella Engel

Download or read book Praying with One Eye Open written by Mary Ella Engel and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2019-07-15 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1878, Elder Joseph Standing traveled into the Appalachian mountains of North Georgia, seeking converts for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sixteen months later, he was dead, murdered by a group of twelve men. The church refused to bury the missionary in Georgia soil; instead, he was laid to rest in Salt Lake City beneath a monument that declared, “There is no law in Georgia for the Mormons.” Most accounts of this event have linked Standing’s murder to the virulent nineteenth-century anti-Mormonism that also took the life of prophet Joseph Smith and to an enduring southern tradition of extralegal violence. In these writings, the stories of the men who took Standing’s life are largely ignored, and they are treated as significant only as vigilantes who escaped justice. Historian Mary Ella Engel adopts a different approach, arguing that the mob violence against Standing was a local event, best understood at the local level. Her examination of Standing’s murder carefully situates it in the disquiet created by missionaries’ successes in the North Georgia community. As Georgia converts typically abandoned the state for Mormon colonies in the West, a disquiet situated within a wider narrative of post-Reconstruction Mormon outmigration to colonies in the West. In this rich context, the murder reveals the complex social relationships that linked North Georgians—families, kin, neighbors, and coreligionists—and illuminates how mob violence attempted to resolve the psychological dissonance and gender anxieties created by Mormon missionaries. In laying bare the bonds linking Georgia converts to the mob, Engel reveals Standing’s murder as more than simply mountain lawlessness or religious persecution. Rather, the murder responds to the challenges posed by the separation of converts from their loved ones, especially the separation of women and their dependents from heads of households.

Brother Jesus

Author : Schalom Ben-Chorin
Publisher : University of Georgia Press
ISBN 13 : 0820344303
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (23 download)

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Book Synopsis Brother Jesus by : Schalom Ben-Chorin

Download or read book Brother Jesus written by Schalom Ben-Chorin and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Students of American history know of the law's critical role in systematizing a racial hierarchy in the United States. Showing that this history is best appreciated in a comparative perspective, The Long, Lingering Shadow looks at the parallel legal histories of race relations in the United States, Brazil, and Spanish America. Robert J. Cottrol takes the reader on a journey from the origins of New World slavery in colonial Latin America to current debates and litigation over affirmative action in Brazil and the United States, as well as contemporary struggles against racial discrimination and Afro-Latin invisibility in the Spanish-speaking nations of the hemisphere. Ranging across such topics as slavery, emancipation, scientific racism, immigration policies, racial classifications, and legal processes, Cottrol unravels a complex odyssey. By the eve of the Civil War, the U.S. slave system was rooted in a legal and cultural foundation of racial exclusion unmatched in the Western Hemisphere. That system's legacy was later echoed in Jim Crow, the practice of legally mandated segregation. Jim Crow in turn caused leading Latin Americans to regard their nations as models of racial equality because their laws did not mandate racial discrimination-- a belief that masked very real patterns of racism throughout the Americas. And yet, Cottrol says, if the United States has had a history of more-rigid racial exclusion, since the Second World War it has also had a more thorough civil rights revolution, with significant legal victories over racial discrimination. Cottrol explores this remarkable transformation and shows how it is now inspiring civil rights activists throughout the Americas.

Faith and Meaning in the Southern Uplands

Author : Loyal Jones
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 9780252067594
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (675 download)

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Book Synopsis Faith and Meaning in the Southern Uplands by : Loyal Jones

Download or read book Faith and Meaning in the Southern Uplands written by Loyal Jones and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jones attacks what he sees as the historical dismissal of mountain religious life, as supported by nineteenth- and twentieth-century missionary movements bent on changing mountain life through better religion. He explores the creation and perpetuation of negative stereotypes as mainline Christians contended that "Upland Christians" had to be saved from themselves.

Beyond My Limits

Author : Charles Anderson
Publisher : Winepress Pub
ISBN 13 : 9781606150207
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (52 download)

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Book Synopsis Beyond My Limits by : Charles Anderson

Download or read book Beyond My Limits written by Charles Anderson and published by Winepress Pub. This book was released on 2011-02 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is the story of a 5,000,000-step journey of faith and determination! Beyond My Limits is not only the story of Charles Anderson's mission to section-hike the entire Appalachian Trail from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Mount Katahdin, Maine, but also to share Christ with his fellow hikers in hostels, shelters, on the trail, or wherever he found them. As he touched others' lives along the way with a message of hope and salvation, a personal inner journey took place. Trusting, obeying, believing, and worshiping God in the beauty and challenges of the wilderness rewarded him with moments of astounding joy and a deepened relationship with his Creator. The overriding message of our culture is to take the easy road, stay within our comfort zones, and avoid risk. But God calls Christians to venture by faith beyond comfort and ease so that they can experience the amazing purposes God has for their lives. This exciting account of the author's epic 2,160-mile journey of determination and faith will introduce readers to a world of adventure on the Appalachian Trail. It will inspire them to take up that challenging mission to which God is calling them -- "beyond their limits." - Publisher.

Salvation on Sand Mountain

Author : Dennis Covington
Publisher : ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN 13 : 1458766276
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (587 download)

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Book Synopsis Salvation on Sand Mountain by : Dennis Covington

Download or read book Salvation on Sand Mountain written by Dennis Covington and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-02 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Dennis Covington, what began as a journalistic assignment - covering the trial of an Alabama preacher convicted of attempting to murder his wife with poisonous snakes - would evolve into a headlong plunge into a bizarre, mysterious, and ultimately irresistible world of unshakable faith: the world of holiness snake handling, where people drink strychnine, speak in tongues, lay hands on the sick, and, some claim, raise the dead. Set in the heart of Appalachia, Salvation on Sand Mountain is Covington's unsurpassed and chillingly captivating exploration of the nature, power, and extremity of faith - an exploration that gradually turns inward, until Covington finds himself taking up the snakes. University.

Canoeing the Mountains

Author : Tod Bolsinger
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
ISBN 13 : 0830873872
Total Pages : 278 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis Canoeing the Mountains by : Tod Bolsinger

Download or read book Canoeing the Mountains written by Tod Bolsinger and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2018-04-24 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you ever feel that you are leading in uncharted territory? Pastor and consultant Tod Bolsinger draws on decades of expertise guiding churches and organizations in this expanded practical leadership resource, offering illuminating insights and practical tools to help you reimagine what effective church leadership looks like in our rapidly changing world.

Christy

Author : Catherine Marshall
Publisher : Evergreen Farm
ISBN 13 : 1683701275
Total Pages : 452 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (837 download)

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Book Synopsis Christy by : Catherine Marshall

Download or read book Christy written by Catherine Marshall and published by Evergreen Farm. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The train taking nineteen-year-old teacher Christy Huddleston from her home in Asheville, North Carolina, might as well be transporting her to another world. The Smoky Mountain community of Cutter Gap feels suspended in time, trapped by poverty, superstitions, and century-old traditions. But as Christy struggles to find acceptance in her new home, some see her — and her one-room school — as a threat to their way of life. Her faith is challenged and her heart is torn between two strong men with conflicting views about how to care for the families of the Cove. Yearning to make a difference, will Christy’s determination and devotion be enough?

Mountain Sisters

Author : Helen M. Lewis
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 081318858X
Total Pages : 433 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (131 download)

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Book Synopsis Mountain Sisters by : Helen M. Lewis

Download or read book Mountain Sisters written by Helen M. Lewis and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2021-12-14 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monica Appleby and Helen Lewis reveal the largely untold story of women who stood up to the Church and joined Appalachians in their struggle for social justice. Their poignant story of how faith, compassion, and persistence overcame obstacles to progress in Appalachia is a fascinating example of how a collaborative and creative learning community fosters strong voices. Mountain Sisters is a prophetic first-person account of the history of American Catholicism, the war on poverty, and the influence of the turbulent 1960s on the cultural and religious communities of Appalachia. Founded in 1941, The Glenmary Sisters embraced a calling to serve rural Appalachian communities where few Catholics resided. The sisters, many of them seeking alternatives to the choices available to most women during this time, zealously pursued their duties but soon became frustrated with the rules and restrictions of the Church. Outmoded doctrine—even styles of dress—made it difficult for them to interact with the very people they hoped to help. In 1967, after many unsuccessful attempts to persuade the Church to ease its requirements, some seventy Sisters left the security of convent life. Over forty of these women formed a secular service group, FOCIS (Federation of Communities in Service). Mountain Sisters is their story.

Appalachian Mountain Girl

Author : Rhoda B. Warren
Publisher : Chicago Review Press
ISBN 13 : 0897335368
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (973 download)

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Book Synopsis Appalachian Mountain Girl by : Rhoda B. Warren

Download or read book Appalachian Mountain Girl written by Rhoda B. Warren and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the compelling memoir, Rhoda Warren, whose father was a miner, introduces us to Letcher, KY in 1930. She takes us inside this isolated community, whose denizens lived difficult, poverty-stricken lives. This is the story of the Bailey family's escape from the grueling Corbin Glow mines to find a better life in Letcher--"The prettiest place in the world." Rhoda Warren's account is three-dimensional: with humor and warmth, but without sentimentality. She recounts the lives of these mining people whose religion and "family values" buttressed and sustained them.

Stand Up That Mountain

Author : Jay Erskine Leutze
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1451682646
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (516 download)

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Book Synopsis Stand Up That Mountain by : Jay Erskine Leutze

Download or read book Stand Up That Mountain written by Jay Erskine Leutze and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-07-30 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the tradition of A Civil Action—this true story of a North Carolina outdoorsman who teams up with his Appalachian neighbors to save treasured land from being destroyed will “make you want to head for the mountains” (Raleigh News & Observer). LIVING ALONE IN HIS WOODED MOUNTAIN RETREAT, Jay Leutze gets a call from a whip-smart fourteen-year-old, Ashley Cook, and her aunt, Ollie Cox, who say a local mining company is intent on tearing down Belview Mountain, the towering peak above their house. Ashley and her family, who live in a little spot known locally as Dog Town, are “mountain people,” with a way of life and speech unique to their home high in the Appalachians. They suspect the mining company is violating North Carolina’s mining law, and they want Jay, a nonpracticing attorney, to stop the destruction of the mountain. Jay, a devoted naturalist and fisherman, quickly decides to join their cause. So begins the epic quest of “the Dog Town Bunch,” a battle that involves fiery public hearings, clandestine surveillance of the mine operator’s highly questionable activities, ferocious pressure on public officials, and high-stakes legal brinksmanship in the North Carolina court system. Jay helps assemble a talented group of environmental lawyers to contend with the well-funded attorneys protecting the mining company’s plan to dynamite Belview Mountain, which happens to sit next to the famous Appalachian Trail, the 2,184- mile national park that stretches from Maine to Georgia. As the mining company continues to level the forest and erect the gigantic crushing plant on the site, Jay’s group searches frantically for a way to stop an act of environmental desecration that will destroy a fragile wild place and mar the Appalachian Trail forever.

Appalachian Mountain Christianity

Author : Bill J. Leonard
Publisher : University of Georgia Press
ISBN 13 : 0820367257
Total Pages : 108 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (23 download)

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Book Synopsis Appalachian Mountain Christianity by : Bill J. Leonard

Download or read book Appalachian Mountain Christianity written by Bill J. Leonard and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2024-11-01 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Appalachian Mountain Christianity examines the beliefs and practices of certain Protestant religious groups, primarily Baptists and Holiness Pentecostals, whose history is shaped in and by the Central Appalachian context. Particular attention is given to Primitive and Old Regular Baptists as well as certain denominationally connected or independent Pentecostal communions. Bill J. Leonard explores the ways in which Appalachian cultural and religious transitions and upheavals impact these traditional faith communities; the style and significance of their rituals including preaching, worship, baptism, foot washing, and glossolalia; their varied approaches to scripture and doctrine as evident in their views on salvation and women’s roles in church and home; and in the dramatic nonconformity of two specific Appalachian traditions, the Pentecostal Serpent Handlers and the Primitive Baptist Universalists. Through his examination, Leonard suggests that the ideas and actions of these Appalachian Christians reflect the spirituality of otherness. This is not the otherness of inferiority or ignorance by which Appalachians and their churches are often caricatured but the otherness of religious experiences that focus on encounters with the Divine and contribute to individual and collective spiritual insight and “inwardness.” Those traditions and the spirituality that centers them are worth exploring, even for those who do not join them.

In the Hands of a Happy God

Author : Howard Dorgan
Publisher : Univ. of Tennessee Press
ISBN 13 : 9780870499623
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (996 download)

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Book Synopsis In the Hands of a Happy God by : Howard Dorgan

Download or read book In the Hands of a Happy God written by Howard Dorgan and published by Univ. of Tennessee Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The investigation of Primitive Baptist Universalists -- Calvinist 'No-Hellers, ' which sounds for all the world like an oxymoron -- requires the exact type of seasoned and comprehensive field experience which Dorgan has brought to it with meticulous care and insight. -- Deborah Vansau McCauley, author of Appalachian Mountain ReligionAmong the many forms of religious practice found in the ridges and hollows of Central Appalachia, one of the most intriguing -- and least understood -- is that of the Primitive Baptist Universalists (PBUs). Popularly known as the No-Hellers, this small Baptist sub-denomination rejects the notion of an angry God bent on punishment and retribution and instead embraces the concept of a happy God who consigns no one to eternal damnation. This book is the first in-depth study of the PBUs and their beliefs.As Howard Dorgan points out, the designation No-Heller is something of a misnomer. Primitive Baptist Universalists, he notes, believe in hell -- but they see it as something that exists in this life, in the temporal world, rather than in an afterlife. For a PBU, sinfulness is the given state of natural man, and hell a reality of earthly life -- the absence-from-God's-blessing torment that sin generates. PBUs further believe that, at the moment of Resurrection, all temporal existence will end as all human-kind joins in a wholly egalitarian heaven, the culmination of Christ's universal atonement.In researching this book, Dorgan spent considerable time with PBU congregations, interviewing their members and observing their emotionally charged and joyous worship services. He deftly combines lucid descriptions of PBU beliefs with richly texturedvignettes portraying the people and how they live their faith on a daily basis. He also explores a fascinating possibility concerning PBU origins: that a strain of early- nineteenth-century American Universalism reached the mountains of Appalachia and there fused with Primitive Baptist theology to form this subdenomination, which barely exists outside a handful of counties in Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and West Virginia.Like Dorgan's earlier books, In the Hands of a Happy God offers an insightful blend of ethnography, history, and theological analysis that will appeal to both Appalachian scholars and all students of American religion.