Underground Baptist History of Furman, Professor Gezork and Preacher McIntyre

        This is the first in what may become a series. I have a muse about Will Campbell's lecture at the Furman pastors school in early 90s and how it relates to Fox News and Bill Oreilly in particular--listen online to yesterday's hr long panel drshow.org--but have a more pressing commentary with fact and fiction.

     Thursday morn for most of the morning I was entertaing the idea what if Ron Rash were to do a sequel to Serena, kinda like Marilynne Robinson did with Gilead, and do a novel on his character Preacher McIntyre. There was a great quip in Serena from one of Rash's Rogue's gallery wondering if the preacher had gotten out of the cabbage patch, a reference to the pastor's dark spirit and bouts with depression.

     As the novel paints starkly, McIntyre had just cause to be concerned about the state of the world.

    Read the novel and then imagine, what if McIntyre after the apocalypse of the timber industry in Western North Carolina in the 30's wandered down to Greenville South Carolina, and at Furman or just wandering around Reedy River Falls which was the back campus of Furman at the time, engaged Herbert Gezork in Conversation. From there McIntyre who we imagine from Rash Novel had about a third grade education at best but knew his Bible, McIntyre is introduced comes to know of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It is possible Gezork knew Bonhoeffer in Germany before he came to America but I haven't seen verification .

    Here is what we do know, and for sure from his experience in Serena, McIntyre could relate to Gezork's theology of Hell.

     http://library.furman.edu/specialcollections/HST21/ReligiousContro/gezork.htm

    McIntyre was bright enough to have mastered Albert Blackwell's biblical insights into creation, though they weren't contemporaries. Blackwell's notions magnificently presented at Furman about 7 years ago were in the air in the 30s. And We could have McIntyre be aware of the conversations of Abraham Lincoln and the Presbyterian minister in Springfield who were on the cutting  edge of theological investigations of their day.

   Depending on the vagaries of an authentic and believable narrative, Ragtime like McIntyre could get caught up in the faith altering experience of the lynching of Willie Earl, also in Furman's backyard near the Falls.

    Gilead through the Pastors Brother explores the world of Fuerbach.

   I think there is a distinct novel--Iowa to Western North Carolina--for McIntyre to foreshadow the haunts of Billy Graham.

   Wish I had the wits to take it further. From here I punt to Rash and Dartmouth's Randall Balmer.

   Update, just got an email from Rash, a kudo, which also reminded me at Serena's end McIntyre was a "prophet".

     My Furman proff Albert Blackwell has a supernal Blog, Modalities.