Download or read book The Gentlemen Theologians written by E. Brooks Holifield and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2007-10-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Professor Holifield locates the southern theologians in their broader American setting and in the context of European debates about reason, revelation, science, and moral philosophy. He thus explores a wide range of topics that clarify the history of southern--and American--religion: the presuppositions of liberalism and the logic of conservatism; the influence of Scottish Common-Sense Philosophers, British theologians, and German Biblical critics; the foundations and functions of southern social ethics; the didactic uses of ritual; and the continuing effort of nineteenth-century theologians to demonstrate the reasonableness of both the Christian religion and the whole natural order.