Before the Bible belt...
Sensbach is drawing our eyes to focus on a more historically relevant justification of the south. He references Samuel Hill’s notion that the south has been rendered as historically a “limited-options culture.” He suggests, “Hardly any other aspect has the limitation of choices been more pronounced than in religion.” This is so true, the characterization of Christianity has been influenced and twisted by so many different industrialized classifications of denominations that our understanding of the religion has become merely an obstinate platform for justification and establishment among community.
However, Sencbach later proposes that the eighteenth century southern was hardly limited by options because of external influences. “The eighteenth-century South encompassed an even broader narrative of religious struggle, declension, and reinvention.” He continues to say that the eighteenth century was a obviously the most dynamic period in southern religious history. This is because the region was so receptive to their interactions with international influences. I found this historical evidence surprising because I had never realized the contextual significance of the religious transition in the south in that point in history.
Furthermore, the depiction of a “Christ-haunted” region interested me because I kept thinking about the two-fold relationship that Christians have in devotion to God. From one standpoint, we are “God-fearing” people; always eager to do the will of our Lord in fear of his mighty will. The other side of the relationship establishes the everlasting love and devotion that we receive unconditionally. So where is the line between the obedience of being “god-fearing” and the horror of a “Christ-haunted” area?
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