How Did The Civil War Use Religion

Most of us know the Civil War was a war about slavery, but is that all? While the war alone was not specifically about religion, both the North and the South actually did use religion for different reasons. Many people will argue their points on whether this is true or not, but there are many examples in the Civil War showing the use of religion. I argue that the American Civil War is a “war of religion” because the South used Christianity as a justification of their actions. This war involved religious politics and civil religion was used by both the North and the South as the soldiers fought for their separate beliefs in patriotism.

The South used Christianity to justify slavery and the war itself. The South believed that slavery should

Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States during the war, stated that the state is the most important entity and that states have the authority to ignore laws that are unconstitutional. He believed that the state had a supremacy over the federal government. Also, Davis thought that the North could do what they wanted and the South could do what they wanted, including secede. With the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln was wanting to keep the Union together, but at the cost of states’ rights. He gave the South the option of either rejoining the Union so they could keep their slaves or if they did not, the slaves would be set free. This goes against states’ rights because Lincoln is trying to force states to do something they do not want to. We see here that neither Davis nor Lincoln mentioned anything about God, so one may argue that it was simply about states’ rights and not religion.

However, religious politics were actually a part of the Civil War. During Lincoln’s presidency, Lincoln wrote The Meditation on the Divine Will. He said that he did not really know what God wanted, but He could not be in favor of both the North and the South. To Noll, people knew what God wanted as if it were common sense, but Lincoln did not. Lincoln did, however, join together “trust in providence and much agnosticism about the work of God in the

Civil religion has elements of patriotism and nationalism, but it is not quite either of those. Jonathan Ebel connects the soldier to Christianity through civil religion. The soldiers are the ultimate example of civil religion because they sacrifice their lives for our country. Both the North and the South had soldiers who were fighting for what they believed in. Once again, both sides did not have the same views on slavery. The North viewed slavery as something that was immoral and the South viewed slavery as being a part of Christianity through the Bible. Here we have two sides that both have their own beliefs and they show the use civil religion when they fight for them. The Civil War may not have been a war of religion, meaning it included God, to some people, but it was a war that had civil religion. Civil religion played a big part in the war because everyone involved was fighting for their