Reconstructing Religious Identity: Southern Baptists and Anti-Catholicism, 1870-1920

Abstract

This dissertation examines how Southern Baptists utilized anti-Catholicism to reconstruct their religious identity from 1870-1920. It documents the beliefs, rhetoric, and actions of Baptists as they encountered Catholics both at home and abroad. It is the first manuscript detailing Southern Baptist perceptions of Catholics and Catholicism from the Reconstruction to the end of World War I. It offers a new point of departure for southern religious history by examining how the South's largest denomination responded to and was shaped by a non-Protestant religious group.