Judgment and Grace in Dixie: Southern Faiths from Faulkner to Elvis - Softcover

"A brilliant excavation of religious strains in the southern psyche." - Commonweal "A fascinating examination of the South's pervasive evangelical Protestantism. Anyone interested in the modern South will enjoy this engaging, well-written book." - John Shelton Reed "Provides affectionate readings of the objects, architecture, and landscapes of popular religion and brings this complex and shape-shifting practice into vivid focus." - American Quarterly "Anyone who wants to know more about contemporary southern religious and cultural life should start with this book." - Christian Century "Eclectic and suggestive... A book that intersects provocatively with the work of scholars such as Colleen McDannell, Ted Ownby, and Lawrence Levine on material culture, religion, and consumerism." - Church History "This collection entertains!... Wilson is an inspired eclectic and a strategic reader in scholarship produced in disciplines other than history." - Southern Quarterly "Highly readable and often thought-provoking, these essays make a notable contribution to our understanding of religion's influence in the South." - Atlanta History"

Religion has permeated nearly every aspect of modern southern culture, with results that range from portraits of Jesus on black velvet to the soul-stirring orations of Martin Luther King Jr. In ""Judgment and Grace in Dixie"", Charles Reagan Wilson makes a lively appraisal of religion's influence on such expressions of regional life as literature, music, and folk art, as well as on such public spectacles as football games and beauty pageants.