“Civilizational Protestantism rested on a confidence that Christian faith was no mere private consolation or a sectarian preference, but a moral inheritance capable of ordering the common life. Its builders believed that Christianity could produce better leaders, more humane institutions, and a more just society. This confidence did not require perfection or coercion. It required the conviction that Christianity, rightly lived, was a blessing to the nation—and therefore something that ought to be publicly expressed, publicly defended, and publicly institutionalized.”
(Josh Abbotoy – American Reformer) On a recent visit to the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, it struck me that it would be impossible for any branch of American Christianity to reproduce such a thing today. American Christianity—the soul of our nation—is fractured and insecure about its place in public life.
Founded by Southern Episcopalians in 1857, Sewanee sits on a bucolic 13,000-acre campus in the Southern Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee. Its campus architecture offers a rare, elevated celebration of rural Tennessee terroir. Local sandstone and limestone adorn its Southern Gothic buildings. History pours out of every little plaque and stained-glass window (of which there are thousands), commemorating a rich legacy ranging from Teddy Roosevelt’s campus visit and the Panama Canal to the scores of service academy graduates who fought in America’s wars. Here, pomp and circumstance come naturally; the chancellor of the College—who is also charged with being mayor of the town of Sewanee—dons a red velvet robe for high occasions.
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