CHARITY R. CARNEY. Ministers and Masters: Methodism, Manhood, and Honor in the Old South.

Abstract

Ministers and Masters joins a small body of scholarship on the antebellum South that sees white evangelicals as standing outside some of the norms of southern society, either as critics or as awkward participants. Analyzing tensions especially evident in the lives of white Methodist men, Charity R. Carney studies both church and household politics to paint a portrait of people who were torn between patriarchal honor that demanded control within the household and respect from men outside it and evangelical religion that called for spiritual equality and limits on patriarchal power. As gender history, this work is solid, but in light of so much scholarship on antebellum honor and manhood, it is perhaps not especially surprising. As religious history, getting inside tensions specific to Methodism in the antebellum South, the book makes considerable and unique contributions. Based on personal papers and Methodist publications, the work takes a personal approach to understanding gender and religion. Each chapter begins with an extended vignette of an individual whose life demonstrated important issues. Individual sections examine topics as different as relations between Methodist ministers and laity, between ministers and their wives or potential wives, between parents and children, and between slave owners and slaves. Carney shows how Methodist men dealt with their internal conflicts by finding compromises. As Methodists who believed in personal humility, they were not supposed to fight or dominate other men. But they wanted to lead and expand their churches, so they developed an idea the author terms “spiritual patriarchy” based on fighting sin and facing down male critics. Methodist beliefs in spiritual equality had the potential to undermine parental discipline and the institution of slavery, but Methodist men found ways to value both evangelizing and hierarchy.