In March 2006 Charles Reagan Wilson, noted historian and specialist in Southern studies, delivered the twenty-eighth lecture for the Edmondson Historical Lectures Series at Baylor University. Actually, there were two lectures that have been published under the title Southern Missions: The Religion of the American South in Global Perspective. The guiding thesis of this set of lectures is that Southern religion is not simply a religion of a distinct region of the United States; it is also a phenomenon that should be placed in global or international context. To whatever degree one might point out parochial and unique elements of Southern religion, it is also clear that Southern religion has made an impact on and has been affected by the international community. This is a fascinating and clearly demonstrable thesis but one that has not received considerable treatment from historians (or religionists, for that matter).

The first lecture, “Southern Religion, the Atlantic World, and Beyond,” focuses on the American South's emergence as a part of the world community. Among Wilson's points are the international and interdenominational aspect of Southern colonial settlements; the interactions and conflicts among Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans; the presence of a broad array of religious expressions, such as Catholicism, Judaism, various Protestant bodies, African traditional religion, African Islam, and Native American religions; the role and impact of revivals, missions, fundamentalism, and the holiness/pentecostal movement; and religious broadcasting and televangelism, as they relate to global issues.

Wilson's second lecture, “The World Comes South: The Changing Context of Southern Religion,” emphasizes how the South historically and contemporaneously is home to religious practices and ideas from around the world. Wilson makes it clear that while evangelical Protestantism has dominated the South in recent centuries, there have always been important non-evangelical minority players, including Catholics, Jews, Mennonites, Quakers, Pietists, and especially in more recent decades Muslims, Buddhists, Jains, practitioners of Santeria, and Hindus. The author provides some interesting statistics and examples to demonstrates how thoroughly global the modern South has become: more than one-fifth of professing Southerners are non-Protestants; over one-fourth of all American Muslims make their home in the South; Hindu temples are prevalent throughout the South; 20,000 Bahais are present in South Carolina; and Elvis Presley was attracted to Eastern religions.

Southern Missions has much to commend itself. It is well-written and explores an angle to Southern religion that is insufficiently studied. Also, Wilson does a fine job presenting Southern religion in a multiracial and gender-inclusive manner, whether he is discussing the role of Lottie Moon in the spread of Christianity in China in the 1800s or the activities of the African American Charlestonian, Louis G. Gregory, in establishing the Bahai religion in the South in the early twentieth century. I suspect the title Southern Missions might suggest a more narrow scope to the book's subject matter than is the case. Nonetheless, this book is a very valuable resource for those interested in Southern studies and religion.