Southern Crossroads: Perspectives on Religion and Culture takes the study of southern religion beyond a narrow focus on Christianity and churches. The interdisciplinary research found in this volume extends to non-Western religions and even to such topics as food, music, art, vernacular folkways, and literature. Contributors include Walter H. Conser Jr., James R. Curtis, Matthew Day, Marcie Cohen Ferris, Paul Harvey, Samuel S. Hill, Barbara Lau, Bill J. Leonard, William Martin, Donald G. Mathews, William D. Moore, Charles E. Orser Jr., Diana Pasulka, Celeste Ray, Randall J. Stephens, and Charles Reagan Wilson.

Walter H. Conser Jr. is professor of history and religion at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. He is the author of A Coat of Many Colors: Religion and Society along the Cape Fear River of North Carolina .

Rodger M. Payne is associate professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and is editor of the Journal of Southern Religion. He is the author of The Self and the Sacred: Conversion and Autobiography in Early American Protestantism.

 Reviews:

"Southern Crossroads puts the new religious history squarely at the center of the question of what religion meant and did in making many Souths over the past two centuries. It is the story of people expressing their religious selves on their own terms more than a history of churches. That is the South to tell about, as these authors know so well."-Randall M. Miller, The Journal of Southern History

"Southern Crossroads will overturn old ideas that southern religion is, above everything else, emotional and anti-intellectual and apart from and opposed to the direction of the modern world. . . . It is exciting to see so much good scholarship on southern religious life, past and present."--Ted M. Ownby, author of Subduing Satan: Religion, Recreation, and Manhood in the Rural South, 1865-1920

"These essays vividly illustrate the diversity of religious life in the South and the myriad ways in which religion is joined with civil devotions to music, literature, folkways, food, manners, landscape and other aspects of everyday life in the region. This is fascinating reading and a perfect introduction to the complex and volatile interplay of tradition with the shifting priorities of Southern culture."--John Corrigan, Florida State University

"An indispensable collection of essays as varied and engaging as the region they interpret. Using a diversity of approaches and considering multiple traditions, this landmark volume analyzes religion's diverse expressions in music, food, art, literature, and politics. Especially useful for courses in American Studies, U.S. religious history, and Southern Studies."-- Thomas A. Tweed, author of Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion

"Taken as a whole, these essays help illuminate perhaps the most distinctive aspect of the most self-conscious region of the nation."--Choice