The Confederacy was founded on postmillennialist Christian optimism

Evidence

Prior to the Civil War, it was generally popular for white Christians to be what theologians call postmillennialist: to believe that Christ will return for this victorious period only when society has advanced sufficiently toward the ideal of a Christian civilization. The role of Christians, in this model, is to work for the salvation of souls and to participate in reform efforts to help build this model society. The optimism and enthusiasm expressed by Manly and others at the inauguration of Jefferson Davis, for example, tapped this sensibility. The establishment of the Confederacy represented progress toward God’s ideal for human society. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 263

Categorization

• XREF: Interlocking with the reader’s material on moral panics and legitimation — here a political project is grounded in an eschatological reading of history rather than secular reason. — connects to: Civil War casualties shattered evangelical postmillennial optimism — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 51; Civil War defeat drove southern evangelicals from postmillennialism to premillennialism — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 264
• DEFINE: Postmillennialism is defined clearly enough here that the term is worth keeping.

Broader Connections

• Civil War casualties shattered evangelical postmillennial optimism #corroborates (0.95) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 51
• Civil War defeat drove southern evangelicals from postmillennialism to premillennialism #expands (0.92) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 264