The West After the
Enlightenment



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.
2.
3.
4.
New England Congregationalism Patriots
Anglicans of NE / Middle colonies Tory oriented
Southern colonies were complicated array of
Patriots and Tories
Historic Peace Churches: Quakers and Mennonites


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 West After the
Enlightenment




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




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)

The West After the
Enlightenment



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)




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)

The West After the
Enlightenment

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:
Cultural Response to Rationalism

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]

The West After the
Enlightenment

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)

Colonialism:
Political Fruit of Romanticism

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

The West After the
Enlightenment

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)

Second Great Awakening in America


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

Second Great Awakening in America

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

Second Great Awakening in America

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

Second Great Awakening in America

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

The West After the
Enlightenment


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

The West After the
Enlightenment


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



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

The West After the
Enlightenment
th

Challenges Facing the 19 th c. Church
Social 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)

Challenges Facing the 19 th c. Church
Social Issues

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

Challenges Facing the 19 th c. Church
Social Issues

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 19 th c. Church
Crises 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

Challenges Facing the 19 th c. Church
Crises of Faith: Modernity & Religion


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

Challenges Facing the 19 th c. Church
Crises of Faith: Modernity & Religion

Liberal Theology

Schleiermacher the “Father of Liberalism”

David Strauss

Albrecht Ritschl

The Social Gospel

Walter Rauschenbush
[American Apostle of Social Gospel]

Challenges Facing the 19 th c. Church
Crises of Faith: Modernity & Religion

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)



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

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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.