In the Hands of a Happy God: The "no-hellers" of Central AppalachiaThe investigation of Primitive Baptist Universalists -- Calvinist 'No-Hellers, ' which sounds for all the world like an oxymoron -- requires the exact type of seasoned and comprehensive field experience which Dorgan has brought to it with meticulous care and insight. -- Deborah Vansau McCauley, author of Appalachian Mountain ReligionAmong the many forms of religious practice found in the ridges and hollows of Central Appalachia, one of the most intriguing -- and least understood -- is that of the Primitive Baptist Universalists (PBUs). Popularly known as the No-Hellers, this small Baptist sub-denomination rejects the notion of an angry God bent on punishment and retribution and instead embraces the concept of a happy God who consigns no one to eternal damnation. This book is the first in-depth study of the PBUs and their beliefs.As Howard Dorgan points out, the designation No-Heller is something of a misnomer. Primitive Baptist Universalists, he notes, believe in hell -- but they see it as something that exists in this life, in the temporal world, rather than in an afterlife. For a PBU, sinfulness is the given state of natural man, and hell a reality of earthly life -- the absence-from-God's-blessing torment that sin generates. PBUs further believe that, at the moment of Resurrection, all temporal existence will end as all human-kind joins in a wholly egalitarian heaven, the culmination of Christ's universal atonement.In researching this book, Dorgan spent considerable time with PBU congregations, interviewing their members and observing their emotionally charged and joyous worship services. He deftly combines lucid descriptions of PBU beliefs with richly texturedvignettes portraying the people and how they live their faith on a daily basis. He also explores a fascinating possibility concerning PBU origins: that a strain of early- nineteenth-century American Universalism reached the mountains of Appalachia and there fused with Primitive Baptist theology to form this subdenomination, which barely exists outside a handful of counties in Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and West Virginia.Like Dorgan's earlier books, In the Hands of a Happy God offers an insightful blend of ethnography, history, and theological analysis that will appeal to both Appalachian scholars and all students of American religion. |
Contents
Recognitions | 11 |
Holston Primitive Baptist Church near Riverview Tennessee 2 | 11 |
Ashworth Memorial Regular Baptist Church near Princeton West | 16 |
They Call Us the NoHellers | 31 |
Elder Wallace Cooper in the Stand at Washington Associations | 33 |
The Split between Hellers and NoHellers | 50 |
Hale Creek Meetinghouse Buchanan County Virginia | 52 |
The Old Log Hale Creek Meetinghouse Buchanan County Virginia | 53 |
The Happifying of God | 100 |
Footwashing at Oak Grove Church Keokee Virginia | 103 |
Home of Dr William Hale Free Hill Tennessee | 119 |
Carried Out | 122 |
Keeping Them Near | 145 |
Baptism by Elder Unice Davis Moderator of the Elkhorn Association | 149 |
Migration of the Faith | 157 |
Pilgrims in the Hands of a Happy God | 180 |
Common terms and phrases
affiliated annual session Appalachian appears Association's atonement Ballou Baptist Washington District Buchanan County Carter County Central Appalachia chapter Christ ciation Creek Church Dorgan Elder Farley elect Elkhorn Association eternal faith Farley Beavers Forks of Powell's God's Grammich Hale Creek hell Holston Hopkinsville humankind individual Keokee letters Line Ridge McDowell County McGennis Adair meetinghouse membership Messenger Minutes Missionary Baptist moderator Mountain Nickels No-Heller North Carolina Ohio Old Regular Baptists Old-Time Baptist PBU doctrine PBU elders PBU fellowships PBU preachers PBU worship Pilgrim's Rest Pilgrim's Rest Church Point Truth Church Powell's River preaching Primitive Baptist Association Primitive Baptist Universalists Primitive Baptist Washington punishment Regular Primitive Baptist religious Resurrection Rich Hill Church Salem Church Separate Baptists sermon side split Stony Creek Stony Creek Association Sunday Sutherland temporal world Tennessee Three Forks tion tists tradition union meetings Universalism Washington Association Washington County Washington District Association West Virginia Wise County