cover image The Roots of Appalachian Christianity: The Life and Legacy of Elder Shubal Stearns

The Roots of Appalachian Christianity: The Life and Legacy of Elder Shubal Stearns

John Sparks. University Press of Kentucky, $40 (327pp) ISBN 978-0-8131-2223-6

In Appalachian Mountain Religion: A History, Deborah Vansau McCauley described the history of Appalachian Christianity using a broad canvas, using 551 pages to give a sweeping overview of how the region ""got religion."" Since its publication in 1995, a trickle of studies has followed, filling in the blanks of Appalachian history and focusing on some of its major players. John Sparks's The Roots of Appalachian Christianity: The Life and Legacy of Elder Shubal Stearns argues for the importance of the 18th-century traveling preacher in establishing Appalachian Christianity as a distinctive, populist movement. The story is well-told by Sparks, who is not an academic but describes himself as an unpaid ""country preacher"" in Eastern Kentucky. This is a fine addition to the University Press of Kentucky series on Religion in the South. (Nov.)