Hard, Hard Religion

“A beautiful exploration and an excellent and unusual volume.” — CHOICE

“Offers a glimpse of the remarkable creativity, passion, and tenacity of the poor Christians — black and white — who were thrown into a world that, in a variety of sometimes exclusive and sometimes overlapping ways, was predicated on their marginalization.” — Journal of the American Academy of Religion

“In this remarkable book, Hayes explores how poor black and white Christians shaped a 'folk Christianity' in the New South out of their common experiences with poverty and Christianity.”—The Journal of Southern History

“A significant addition and revision to both the history of and religious accounts of the New South and deserves a wide readership.”—Virginia Magazine

“Makes an important contribution by showing that human and religious contact occurred across the color line in the Jim Crow South, even if neighborliness never challenged segregation.”—Journal of American History

“Hard, Hard Religion is thoroughly researched, well written, and convincingly argued. . . . An excellent example of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of vernacular religion.”—Journal of Folklore Research

“Hard, Hard Religion is a powerfully epic evocation and analysis of the biracial religious world of ordinary southerners who encountered and struggled with God, life, and death through visions, dreams, oral poetry, and song more than they did in formal religious institutions. It’s a beautiful work, and a landmark in the field of American religious studies.” — Paul Harvey, author of Christianity and Race in the American South: A History

“Offering much-needed insight into social class and poverty in the religious world of the early twentieth-century South, John Hayes’s fine study of folk religion reveals the rich emotional and aesthetic lives of its subjects. A fascinating book.” — Fred Hobson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“John Hayes offers a fresh view of the New South that engages history, musicology, folklore, and material culture. This is an immensely rewarding piece of work from an original and skilled voice.”-–Beth Barton Schweiger, author of The Gospel Working Up: Progress and the Pulpit in Nineteenth-Century Virginia