Gospel of Disunion examines the ways in which religion influenced the development of a distinctive Southern culture and politics before the Civil War, translating the secessionist movement into a struggle of the highest moral significance. It explores such topics as the religious pro-slavery argument and the slaveholding ethic for Christian masters, the denominational schisms of the 1830s and 1840s that divided Southern Protestants along sectional lines, and the distinctive religious rationale for secession. This book is the first major attempt to explore fully the relationship between religion and the origins of Southern nationalism in all these manifestations.