John Hayes describes his book, Hard, Hard Religion, as a “historical excavation of a hidden layer of religious activity, a vibrant world of grassroots ferment and folk creativity” (4). This is an apt metaphor for an ambitious, deeply and widely researched book that draws on scholarship from a number of fields, as well as on Farm Security Administration photographs and Flannery O’Connor’s fiction, to explore religious practices among impoverished Black and White Southerners in the post-Reconstruction New South. In his introduction, Hayes argues that a new form of poverty emerged in the South in the early twentieth century, based in debt, lack of land ownership, and other factors. This “modern poverty” affected both White and Black Southerners, establishing a common ground across racial lines. In many ways, Hayes suggests, social class became a more significant marker of identity than race in this era.
Religion was not oblivious to these class barriers. An emerging evangelical culture “sent powerful messages to the poor” (83) that they were to blame for their poverty and that their lives were unimportant. In this context, poor Blacks and Whites built a new biracial “folk Christianity,” which drew on elements of existing traditions. Throughout the book, Hayes emphasizes the hard work and hard lives of impoverished Southerners in this era, the ways that they found common ground across racial barriers, and the creativity and imagination that shaped their religious lives.
The book’s introduction and chapter 1 lay out this framework and basic assertions. Subsequent chapters explore and weave together (a metaphor favored by the author) a wide range of seemingly unrelated cultural practices from African and European tradition. In particular, the book examines the many ways that poor Southerners borrowed, and reinvented, these practices across color lines, giving them new meanings in new contexts. Throughout the book, the author emphasizes the role of creativity in this cultural blending, borrowing, and refashioning.
Other chapters address “folk songs of death” (notably Lloyd Chandler’s song, “Conversation with Death,” and variations sung by others); personal experience stories of religious conversion and calls to the ministry; notions of respectability and the “ethics of neighborliness” expressed in blues music, stories of meeting the Devil, folk healing, and other forms. I particularly enjoyed chapter 4, “Sacramental Expressions,” which argues that graveyard decorations in African-American cemeteries in the South, stories of “Old Christmas” miracles, folk sermons, river baptisms, and “praying grounds” (favorite places for private prayer) are all ways that poor Whites and Blacks brought sacred meanings to the landscape.
Hard, Hard Religion is thoroughly researched, well written, and convincingly argued. The sheer number and range of cultural traditions explored here make it relevant to academics and students in a number of fields, and as well to non-academic readers. It is not a casual read, but it is an excellent example of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of vernacular religion.
Photojournalist Lauren Pond’s 2017 book, Test of Faith, takes the reader on a very different and primarily photographic exploration of folk religion in the South. In an afterword, she briefly describes her fascination with the “raw and mysterious” practice of serpent handling (often called Signs Following) and her “deep desire to understand this seemingly exotic world.” In 2011, this fascination led her to visit West Virginia in a search for Signs Followers church services. There she met and photographed Pastor Mark Wolford and members of his small Full Gospel Apostolic congregation, most of whom are family members. The photographs include images of relaxed moments of family life, Bible study, worship services, and caretaking for the rattlesnakes who live in crates in the family’s guest bedroom.
A second group of photographs, accompanied with a brief text, focus on a single day in 2012. During a worship service, Pastor Wolford was bitten by the snake he was handling. Refusing medical treatment as an act of faith, Wolford became progressively ill at home, surrounded by worried family members. Hours later, he agreed to be transported to a hospital, where he died. Pond’s photos capture the progression of Wolford’s illness, and the growing concern and grief of family members. These images are wrenching and intimate. As the author explains in a postscript, she agreed to publish some of these photos in the news media without consent from family members, and this led to estrangement from some of Wolford’s relatives. This rift was eventually resolved, and she has returned to the region—and to Wolford’s family—to photograph them attending to everyday family life (working at a café, mourning Wolford, barbecuing, playing with pet dogs, and so on) as well as at worship services, now led by Pastor Wolford’s brother. Church members continue to handle snakes as an act of faith, and these images are included as well.
Lauren Pond’s skill as a documentary photographer is considerable, and her book was selected for the Center of Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography. At the same time, some readers (like me) may find her documentation of Pastor Wolford’s fatal illness a bit intrusive and inappropriate.
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[Review length: 836 words • Review posted on August 27, 2020]