King Coal, King Jesus, and Moonshine: Faith and life in Appalachian fiction

Theology Today, Jul 1999 by Smylie, James

In his collection of stories, The Great Appalachian Sperm Bank and Other Writings (1986), Bill Best suggests that the best way to solve the problems of the region would be to do some genetic engineering.

He sees the future in the sperm of Bartholemew, his hero, who is descended from the illegitimate son of a Spanish queen and whose seed is genetically superior to that of my Scotch-Irish ancestors who settled in Appalachia many decades ago. Surely Best jests! He would not deliberately denigrate my ancestors and their descendants, such as myself and my cousins who live in Charleston. Best does illustrate how storytellers deal with some serious arguments about mountain problems and whether they stem from a faulty genetic pool or are determined by environmental circumstances. Best also tells us that Appalachia is still on our minds. Like him, some of its story-tellers help keep it that way. In this essay, I wish to describe and comment on some literature written about the region, its people, its history, and its religious life.

THE CIRCUIT RIDER

Appalachia is, as it has always been, a part of the larger American context and a more complex place than we often think. Beginning in the eighteenth century, it served people as a passage in our pilgrimage west in our attempt to satisfy our westward ache. While some people passed through the region, others settled down to make their homes and their living. They did so in a region that was both rural and mountainous. Edward Eggleston (1837-1902) wrote of this adventure in one of his most famous novels, The Circuit Rider, published in 1873. Eggleston's family migrated from Virginia to Indiana, where he was born. He tried his hand as a Bible salesman and Methodist circuit rider before he ended up in New York as a novelist and historian of considerable reputation. He wrote his novel about early American Methodism and other religious communities for the Christian Union and suggests in his novel how rural and mountain America was christianized and civilized. This was done most effectively by denominations other than the old-line churches that dominated the colonial period in American history.

Eggleston set the scene of this popular novel in southern Ohio during the Madison administration. This was the time Methodism and Methodists were moving on to American frontiers to spread "gospel holiness" over the land. While the scene is not set in central Appalachia, it does remind us of how Methodists covered the mountain as well as the rural region with religion. Eggleston describes the rural isolation, the woods and mountains as well as the farmers' fields that were and still are very much, Appalachia. He introduces us to the world of cornshucking, dancing, and revival meetings of the region. Here we meet Patty, her father, Captain Enoch Lumsden, and nephew Kike Lumsden. The Lumsden family moved from Virginia, where Enoch was a nobody, to Ohio, where he became somebody, a self-made aristocrat and autocrat. The Lumsdens are Episcopalians, and the lovely, desirable, and sought-after Patty is often seen reading her Book of Common Prayer. The Captain is planning to steal his nephew's inheritance. The Goodwins are Presbyterians, although in the case of son Mort, Presbyterianism is only skin deep. He is undisciplined and sometimes wild. He loves Patty. Colonel Wheeler's wife is a Methodist, although Colonel Wheeler is not much of anything. Wheeler dislikes Lumsden, however, and he takes delight in challenging Lumsden's behavior in the community.

Eggleston describes various clergy in this southern Ohio settlement, including the Methodists who, encouraged by agnostic Colonel Wheeler, unsettle the sober religious life of the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians with their enthusiasm. Methodists preach a gospel of judgment along with grace and describe vividly southern Ohio sinners as hair-hung and breezeshaken over hell. The upshot of this preaching is that young Lumsden converts and becomes a circuit rider himself. Mort is saved from a hanging, due to unpaid gambling debts, by his Presbyterian minister. While the Presbyterian vouches for his character, the Methodists convert Mort and save him from hell. He abandons his Presbyterianism, just as Kike left his Episcopal church, and becomes a circuit rider. Kike and Mort learn their Bible and their theology in the saddle as they ride through the rural and mountainous regions. So did scores of other circuit riders gain their education. When they come across a difficult biblical passage or theological point, they are advised by their elders to preach "the experience." In the process, Patty Lumsden is converted and joins Kike and Mort in their Methodism. Kike also burns himself out by his devotion and is elevated to Methodist sainthood. Mort marries Patty and becomes a superintendent. There is no word in the novel about his sanctity. Patty's father is shaken by his daughter's apostasy from Episcopacy. He is also shaken with conviction at one point, although he resists the temptation to change his religious affiliation.