A Spiritual Wayside Inn: Lutherans, the New South and Cultural Change in South Carolina

Team Members/Contributors

Susan Wilds McArver Duke University Contact Me

About this dissertation fellowship

This dissertation is a study of how people with a strong denominational identity deal with a culture undergoing rapid social change. Specifically, it examines how Lutherans in South Carolina between 1886 and 1917 dealt with the enormous social upheaval taking place in the cities and towns of the New South. Utilizing a case study approach, this study examines a wide—ranging program of social reform initiated by a small mission Lutheran congregation in a rapidly growing textile mill village at the turn of the century. The study explores how differences in social and educational background, in gender, in status (whether lay or clergy), and in geographic location (whether urban or rural) conditioned responses to the issues of social reform and cultural transformation. The study contributes to an understanding of similar problems facing contemporary protestants today by exploring the responses which one denomination made to its changing cultural context. The study also contributes to current historiographical discussions centered around the writing of southern religious history, denominational history, and gender studies.

Image Title Year Type Contributor(s) Other Info
  A Spiritual Wayside Inn: Lutherans, The New South and Cultural Change in South Carolina, 1886-1918 1995 Dissertation Susan Wilds McArver