Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The Early Slavery Debates
2. Antislavery Moderation
3. The Antebellum Slavery Debate
4. Social Sin
5. God in History
6. The New Theology
Conclusion
Notes

About the Author

Molly Oshatz is an assistant professor at San Francisco State University, where she teaches courses in American intellectual and religious history. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley.

Reviews

"Political theology is back. In this fresh first book, Molly Oshatz gives us a cogent and original portrayal of the debate among antebellum theologians and ministers over the Bible as a warrant for slavery. She also lucidly demonstrates how the moderate antislavery theologians in this high-stakes battle were forced to originate the contours of liberal Protestantism. In telling a fascinating tale of thinkers making conceptual choices in a new discursive world,
Oshatz offers us a genuine life of American minds."
---Charles Capper, author of Margaret Fuller: An American Romantic Life
"Focusing on how and why northern Protestants developed an antislavery theology before the Civil War, Molly Oshatz offers a brilliant new perspective on the making and shaping of liberal Protestantism in America. This book changes how we think about the birthplaces, biblical approaches, historical worldviews, and legacies of liberal Protestantism. Slavery and Sin deserves a spot alongside works by Mark Noll and E. Brooks Holifield. It is a must read for anyone
interested in American theology, faith and slavery, or the impact of the Civil War on American religion."
---Edward J. Blum, author of Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion, and American Nationalism, 1865-1898
"Indispensable for understanding the religious debates over slavery and the rise of liberal Christianity in the United States, Slavery and Sin is a vital, beautifully written book that illuminates ongoing debates over the relationship between religion, culture, and politics."
---John Stauffer, author of GIANTS: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln
"In Oshatz's skilled analysis, liberal theology provided an important, if short-lived, haven for those Christians who wished for a biblical rather than a secular morality, but whose evolving moral vision could not countenance the evils of antebellum slavery."--Religion in American History
"Oshatz deepens our understanding of debates over slavery and their legacy for the emergence of liberal Protestantism."--New England Quarterly