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  • Strangers and Friends at the Welcome Table: Contemporary Christianities in the American South by James Hudnut-Beumler
  • Brady Kal Cox
Strangers and Friends at the Welcome Table: Contemporary Christianities in the American South. By James Hudnut-Beumler. University of North Carolina Press, 2018. 288 pages. $34.95 cloth; ebook available.

Is there still a distinctively southern religious life in the United States? James Hudnut-Beumler, historian of American religious history, seeks to answer that question in this work. Strangers and Friends at the Welcome Table is the result of an inductive research process that includes interviews with religious leaders, religious practitioners, and scholars of religion, and analysis of archival sources. Hudnut-Beumler explains, “This book unveils the considerable variety in ideology, practice, and outlook among southern Christians today but also demonstrates that they all derive considerable support for their respective worldviews from their common faith” (3). The professor of American religions at Vanderbilt Divinity School explores the diverse areas of Christianity in what he calls the “Now South.”

Part One focuses on the current reinterpretation of previously “southern” Christian practices and traditions. For example, Hudnut-Beumler traces how historical understandings of homosexuality and Confederate history have developed over time, yet still serve as major points of division among Christians in the South. Additionally, he examines how the arrival of Hispanic migrant workers has diversified Christianity in the South due to the presence of a larger number of Catholic adherents, and through the “pentecostalization” of southern churches. Part Two examines the religious response to natural disasters in the New South, focusing on New Orleans and Coastal Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina. Hudnut-Beumler interviewed a number of Christian leaders to learn about the recovery of their religious communities following the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. He concludes, “To understand the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a Bible is indispensable” (150). That is, the methods and rhetoric used in the recovery process cannot be well understood without knowledge of Christian values and traditions.

Part Three focuses on new developments in southern Christianity—particularly the growth of Catholicism, increases in Christian home-schooling, and the increasingly significant presence of LGBTQI [End Page 139] congregations. Christianity is still the common denominator among a majority of Americans who live in the South, but the diversity of conclusions and convictions held by Christians in the South continues to develop and change. As the South becomes increasingly religiously plural, scholars and laypeople alike can no longer assume the old practices and stereotypes of southern religion still hold true. As Hudnut-Beumler discovered, even when they do continue to be valid, these practices are often being reinterpreted. The author concludes, “understanding the Christianities in their particularity seems more important than ever to me if we are to understand the place of religion in contemporary southern life” (245).

Strangers and Friends at the Welcome Table relies on a number of anecdotes from Hudnut-Beumler’s interviews and interactions with Christians all over the southern United States. He also provides his own reactions and thoughts at times during his travel to interview people and visit churches. These stories and insights are interesting, but they are not particularly revealing. The work reads more as a journal or catalog of reflections than it does a historical study, and it is lacking in regard to use of historiographic methods. Additionally, there are a number of grammatical errors and typographical errors spread throughout the book that are distracting. Despite these drawbacks, the work is still worth reading. As Hudnut-Beumler explains, “this book is an invitation to do more such work and not the last word” (8). This study will serve as a good reference for those interested in further exploring or conducting research on the recent history of Christianity in the South.

Brady Kal Cox
University of Texas at Austin
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