The West After the Enlightenment The American Revolution Period (1775-1783)

The West After the Enlightenment

The American Revolution Period(1775-1783)

The American Revolution Period

American religion shifted from Revivalism to Revolutionary Politics The Great Awakening was an “Americanizing”

phenomena Dominant Libertine Agenda of Revolution—

political and religious

The American Churches at War

1. New England Congregationalism - Patriots

2. Anglicans of NE / Middle colonies - Tory oriented

3. Southern colonies were complicated array of Patriots and Tories

4. Historic Peace Churches: Quakers and Mennonites

The American Revolution Period

Revolutionary impact on religion in America Christian losses due to the Revolutionary War

Revolution ended censorship Conservative reactions to Christian losses

Establishing and securing Disestablishment Nationally: religious liberties legally secured from

outset Denominationalism framed to insure religious

liberties

Incipient Anti-denominationalism in response Disciples of Christ: Thomas & Alexander Campbell Christian Church (or Disciples of Christ)


The French Revolution & Conquests(1789-1795)

The French Revolution

Background: The Perils of Louis XVI’s Reign Philosophe ideology popularizing new republican

ambitions

King Louis XVI popularity declining

Initiation of Revolt: Calling of the Estates General Storming of the Bastille, July 14, 1789

Reorganizing governance / religion under Republic National Convention

Jacobins

Reign of Terror (1793-95) in France under

Maximilian Robespierre

The French Revolution

Impact of “Reign of Terror” on the Church Completely severed church and state relationship

Created national religion: “Cult of Reason” (1793)

Final chapters in the Revolution Execution of Maximilian Robespierre

Government persisted in Christian persecution

Napoleon Bonaparte, a rising figure in military

Reign of Napoleon Bonaparte as French “Consul” Resurrection of French Catholicism

Crowned Holy Roman Emperor (Notre Dame, 1806)


Restoration of R.C. Papal Power(1815-1870)

Restoration of R.C. Papal Power

Tensions in 19th century European attitudes

toward Catholicism

Struggles between Ultramontanism and

Galicanism / Febronianism (German)

Factors restoring authority of church in Europe

1. Effects of Romanticism

2. Restoration of Jesuit Order (1814)

3. Removal of nationally instituted political disabilities

4. Oxford Movement’s defectors to RC. (1833-45)

Restoration of R.C. Papal Power

Reign of Pius IX (r.1846-1878)

Doctrine of Immaculate Conception of Mary

Syllabus of Errors (1864)

Vatican I: Declaration of Papal Infallibility (1870)

Decline in papal political influence/power after Vatican I Anticlerical hostility emerged in many countries

“Iron Chancellor Bismarck” initiated May Laws

France’s “Separation Law”

Papal problems in Italy Italian armies captured Rome (1870)

Law of the Papal Guarantees (1871)


Romanticism:Cultural Response to Rationalism


What is Romanticism? Intellectual and literary movement at the end of

the 18th c. (ca. 1780-1830)

Diverse 18th c. sources

Intellectual fruit of post-enlightenment philosophers

Kant Critique of Practical Reason

Rousseau Social Contract (1762)

Renewed emphasis on ethnic history

(feature in German Idealism)

Influence of Hegel

Nationalism


Romanticism’s Impact on Religion

Reassigned roots of Christian religion

Potentiality of human goodness and achievement

emphasized

New theological approach

Altered the historic doctrine of God

Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) defined the

new Romantic theology

Speeches on Religion to its Cultured Despisers (1799)

The Christian Faith (1821) [his magnum opus]


Colonialism:Political Fruit of Romanticism


Colonization erupted as consequence of several factors

Napoleonic Wars (turned Britain’s attention toward its

opponents’ colonies)

Industrial revolution

Political ambitions for imperial world domination

Consequences of European colonization were

widespread

Latin America

Asia (military colonialism of China & Japan)

Sub-Sahara Africa (imperialistic colonialism)


America’s “Manifest Destiny”: Popular Ethos of

“naked political aggression”

Apologetic for colonization on grounds of

“benevolent” development

James Monroe’s platform: No toleration of European

ventures in western hemisphere

By close of 19th century, US secured entire

continental land mass now held

Churches’ reaction to such expansionism


Second Great Awakening in America


New England Congregational Phase – Conservative / Collegiate basis Began at Yale under President Timothy Dwight Spread to Dartmouth, Williams, and other colleges

American Frontier Phase – Camp Meeting basis Protracted meetings attracted large crowds Because of sparse populations, denominational

barriers reduced James McGready Barton Stone and the Cane Ridge Revival (1801)

Spiritual fruit harvested along with suspicions Groundwork of Francis Asbury (d. 1816)


Urban Phase – Charles G. Finney

Prominence as Presbyterian revivalist in

Rochester NY campaigns

Published Lectures on Revival (1834-35)

“New Measures” for conducting of revivals

Oberlin college

Lectures on Systematic Theology


Holiness Phase: The Third Awakening (1857-58)

Phoebe Palmer: Methodist lay theologian

Developed “altar theology”

Impact

Emphasized role of women in ministry

(“Promise of the Father”)

Centrality of necessity of a “second work of grace” in

revival preaching

Spawning of distinctly holiness camp-meetings

throughout America and Europe


Effects of the Second Great Awakening Benevolent Empire of multiple voluntary societies

Memberships mushrooming in support / effectiveness

Denominational Splintering and Restructuring Congregational: Liberal vs. Conservative Presbyterian: Old School vs. New School

Theological conflicts over soteriology and free will New School theology represented by Taylor Conservative Calvinists (Old School) feared New

Haven Theology Horace Bushnell: Criticized excessive revivalism in

Christian Nurture


Effects of the Second Great Awakening Emergence of new anti-denominationalism

Disciples movement: Thomas & Alexander Campbell

Swelling of evangelically aggressive denominations

Methodist soar to prominence

Baptists increase

New colleges and seminaries

Hundreds of new denominational colleges

Cults / alternative religions (“burned over district”)

Millenarian groups / Perfectionist groups / Revelatory

groups


Aberrant Religious Expressions


Utopian Communities (Perfectionist or Millenarian)

Oneida Community (1846) of John Noyes

transcendental perfectionism

Ephrata Community (PA) (German Anabaptists)

Shakers of Ann Lee Stanley (Mother Ann Lee)

Spiritualist Church

Fox sisters (Kate and Margaret) of Hydesville, NY


Mormonism Joseph Smith with his golden plates in Palmyra NY Brigham Young moved group to Salt Lake City, Utah

Seventh Day Adventists Hermeneutics of William Miller Adventist denomination Merged with Seventh Day Baptist Influence of Ellen Harmon White

Jehovah’s Witnesses of Charles Taze Russell Restorationist group focused on hidden clues within

scriptures concerning future


American Civil War Era


Grounds for an American Civil War Aggravated cultural disparities Consequence of disparity—Ideological differences in

both politics and religion Pulpits on both sides defended justice of their cause

The slavery issue in American churches Early voices against slavery in America (18th c.)

Such positions were modified with passage of time Entrenchment of Southern attitudes by 1830 Northern campaigns against slavery

American Anti-Slavery Society organized (1833) as part of benevolent empire


Splitting churches on geographical fault line N-S (Mason-Dixon Line) Only Episcopalians and Catholics weathered the

storm without long-term divisions

New denominations emerged Wesleyan Methodist Church of America (1843) Free Methodist Church (1860)

Division among existing denominations Methodist Episcopal Church South (1845) Southern Baptist Convention (1845) Presbyterian Churches split as Civil War approached


Emergence of Black American churches Early separations from mainline churches in

the North

African Methodist Episcopal Church

(Richard Allen) [Philadelphia]

African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church

[New York City]

After Civil War, separations in the South

National Baptist Convention

Colored Methodist Episcopal Church


Challenges Facing the 19th c. Church

Challenges Facing the 19th c. ChurchSocial Issues

Evangelicals popularized Christian moral

standards as a civic duty to aid mankind

Influential Clapham Sect

Multiple societies emerging to improve society

Legislation enacted to ensure proper behavior

Abolitionism coming of age and achievement

In England: Woolman, Wesley, and Wilberforce

Voices from American Abolitionists (including Lane

Seminary and Oberlin College)


Industrial revolution and urban plight Groundwork for new social order

Ideas led to Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto

Many (in Victorian England) leveraged

evangelicalism to resolve problems

Salvation Army of William Booth

The Ragged Schools Union (Lord Shaftesbury)

Anti-Prostitution Campaign of William Gladstone

Women’s Christian Temperance Union of Frances

Willard

Cadbury brothers Bournville village


American churches responded to inner city social

ills / exploitation

City rescue missions (since 1850)

Christian social relief work (YMCA / YWCA / Salvation

Army)

Institutional church models providing for holistic

human needs

Goodwill Industries (est. ca. 1900)

Challenges Facing the 19th c. ChurchCrises of Faith: Modernity & Religion

Christianity responded on multiple fronts

Liberals: German theology (Tübingen School) and

biblical criticism

The Broad Church Movement in Anglicanism

Fundamentalists: Taking cue from English

evangelicalism and Princeton theology

The Fundamentalist Movement in America

J. Gresham Machen: Christianity and Liberalism


New sciences / scientific philosophies - Earth sciences (geology) - Biological sciences: Charles Darwin

Scopes Monkey Trial(Clarence Darrow vs. William J. Bryan)

Biblical Criticism Hermann Reimarus Johann Eichhorn

Ferdinand Baur: Leader of the Tübingen School Julius Wellhausen: JEPD theory J.B. Lightfoot: An English conservative


Liberal Theology

Schleiermacher the “Father of Liberalism”

David Strauss

Albrecht Ritschl

The Social Gospel

Walter Rauschenbush [American Apostle of Social Gospel]


Responding to Christian liberalism

Catholics: shut and bolted door against liberalism

Protestants: largely entrenched against slippery slope of

liberalism

High Church (Tractarians)

Low Church (evangelicals) emphasized scriptural authority

Princeton Theology of Charles Hodge, Benjamin Warfield

Dogmas developed in 12 volume

“The Fundamentals” (1910-1915)

Cairns, Earle E. Christianity Through the Centuries: A History of the Christian Church,

Third Edition, Revised and Expanded. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996.

Dowley, Tim, ed. The History of Christianity: A Lion Handbook. Oxford: Lion Publishing,

1990.

Gonzalez, Justo. The Story of Christianity Vol. 2: Reformation to the Present Day. San

Francisco: Harper, 1985.

Hill, Jonathan. Zondervan Handbook to the History of Christianity. Grand Rapids:

Zondervan, 2006.

Kagan, Donald, S. Ozment and F. Turner, eds. The Western Heritage. New York:

Macmillan Pub. Co., 1987.

Miller, Glenn T. The Modern Church. Nashville: Abingdon Press: 1997.

Needham, N.R. 2,000 Years of Christ’s Power Pt. 3: Renaissance and Reformation.

London: Grace Publications Trust, 2004.

Noll, Mark . Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity. Leicester,

England: IVP, 1997.

Walker, Williston A History of the Christian Church. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons,

1985.

Resources Drawn From…

The West After the Enlightenment The American Revolution Period (1775-1783)

Documents

papal powertensions

papal guarantees

french revolutionbackground

papal political influencepower

papal powerreign of

cultural response

religiousthe american

authority of church