SOURCE: "The Hill Man's Religion," in Jesse Stuart's Kentucky, McGraw-Hill, 1968, pp. 55-90.

In the following excerpt, Clark examines the role of religion in Stuart's short fiction.

But the hill people still saw God. . . .

Beyond Dark Hills

With less of social protest than of humor, Jesse Stuart has brought alive the old-time religion with its narrow intolerance, its dark superstition, and at the same time its undeniable sustaining power. The strange blend of self-contradictory elements that made up hill church doctrine was as basic in hill thinking as were the religious gatherings in the social life and in the personal relationships of the people. Stuart's vivid descriptions of the highly emotional scenes of a hill revival, a spring baptizing, a footwashing, an Association, a funeralizing, and other religious meetings have communicated the hill man's concepts of Heaven, Hell, God, the Devil, sin, and living by the Word, with each...