Christianity in the 19th century
Encyclopedia
Characteristic of Christianity in the 19th century were Evangelical revivals in some largely Protestant countries and later the effects of modern scientific theories such as Darwinism on the churches; Modernist theology was one consequence of this. In Europe, the Roman Catholic Church suffered a schism after the first Vatican Council leading to the founding of Old Catholic churches. In Europe
there was a general move away from religious observance and belief in Christian teachings and a move towards secularism
. The "secularization of society", attributed to the time of the Enlightenment
and its following years, is largely responsible for the spread of secularism.
began to be felt in the Protestant churches, especially in the 19th century, Liberal Christianity
, exemplified especially by numerous theologians in Germany
in the 19th century, sought to bring the churches alongside of the broad revolution that Modernism
represented. In doing so, new critical approaches to the Bible were developed, new attitudes became evident about the role of religion in society, and a new openness to questioning the nearly universally accepted definitions of Christian orthodoxy began to become obvious.
In reaction to these developments, Christian fundamentalism was a movement to reject the radical influences of philosophical humanism, as this was affecting the Christian religion. Especially targeting critical approaches to the interpretation of the Bible, and trying to blockade the inroads made into their churches by atheistic scientific assumptions, the fundamentalists began to appear in various denominations as numerous independent movements of resistance to the drift away from historic Christianity. Over time, the Fundamentalist Evangelical movement has divided into two main wings, with the label Fundamentalist following one branch, while Evangelical has become the preferred banner of the more moderate movement. Although both movements primarily originated in the English speaking world, the majority of Evangelicals now live elsewhere in the world.
After the Reformation, protestant groups continued to splinter, leading to a range of new theologies. The Enthusiasts were so named because of their emotional zeal. These included the Methodists, the Quakers, and the Baptists. Another group sought to reconcile Christian faith with modernist ideas, sometimes causing them to reject beliefs they considered to be illogical, including the Nicene creed
and Chalcedonian Creed
. These included Unitarians
and Universalists. A major issue for Protestants became the degree to which people contribute to their salvation. The debate is often viewed as synergism
versus monergism
, though the labels Calvinist and Arminian are more frequently used, referring to the conclusion of the Synod of Dort
.
The 19th century saw the rise of Biblical criticism
, new knowledge of religious diversity in other continents, and above all the growth of science. This led many Christians to espouse a form of Deism
. This, along with concepts such as the brotherhood of man and a rejection of miracle
s led to what is called "Classic Liberalism
". Immensely influential in its day, Classic Liberalism suffered badly as a result of the two world wars and fell prey to the criticisms of postmodernism
.
—sometimes called liberal theology—has an affinity with certain current forms of postmodern Christianity. Liberal Christianity is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically informed movements and moods within 19th and 20th century Christianity.
Despite its name, liberal Christianity has always been thoroughly protean. The word liberal in liberal Christianity does not refer to a leftist political agenda but rather to insights developed during the Enlightenment
. Generally speaking, Enlightenment
-era liberalism
held that people are political creatures and that liberty
of thought and expression should be their highest value. The development of liberal Christianity owes a lot to the works of philosophers Immanuel Kant
and Friedrich Schleiermacher. As a whole, liberal Christianity is a product of a continuing philosophical dialogue.
Many 20th century liberal Christians have been influenced by philosophers Edmund Husserl
and Martin Heidegger
. Examples of important liberal Christian thinkers are Rudolf Bultmann
and John A.T. Robinson
.
(1790-1840s) was the second great religious revival in United States
history and, unlike the First Great Awakening
of the 18th century
, focused on the unchurched and sought to instil in them a deep sense of personal salvation as experienced in revival meeting
s. It also sparked the beginnings of groups such as the Mormons
and the Holiness movement
. Leaders included Asahel Nettleton
, Edward Payson
, James Brainerd Taylor, Charles Grandison Finney
, Lyman Beecher
, Barton W. Stone
, Peter Cartwright
, and James Finley
.
In New England
, the renewed interest in religion inspired a wave of social activism. In western New York
, the spirit of revival encouraged the emergence of the Restoration Movement
, the Latter Day Saint movement
, Adventism, and the Holiness movement
. Especially in the west—at Cane Ridge, Kentucky
, and in Tennessee
—the revival strengthened the Methodists
and the Baptists and introduced into America a new form of religious expression—the Scottish camp meeting
.
The Second Great Awakening
made its way across the frontier territories, fed by intense longing for a prominent place for God in the life of the new nation, a new liberal attitude toward fresh interpretations of the Bible, and a contagious experience of zeal for authentic spirituality. As these revivals spread, they gathered converts to Protestant sects of the time. However, the revivals eventually moved freely across denominational lines, with practically identical results, and went farther than ever toward breaking down the allegiances which kept adherents to these denominations loyal to their own. Consequently, the revivals were accompanied by a growing dissatisfaction with Evangelical churches and especially with the doctrine of Calvinism
, which was nominally accepted or at least tolerated in most Evangelical churches at the time. Various unaffiliated movements arose that were often restorationist in outlook, considering contemporary Christianity of the time to be a deviation from the true, original Christianity. These groups attempted to transcend Protestant denominationalism and orthodox Christian
creeds to restore Christianity to its original form.
movement that began on the American frontier during the Second Great Awakening
of the early 19th century. The movement sought to restore the church and "the unification of all Christians in a single body patterned after the church of the New Testament."
The Restoration Movement developed from several independent efforts to return to apostolic Christianity
, but two groups, which independently developed similar approaches to the Christian faith, were particularly important to the development of the movement. The first, led by Barton W. Stone
, began at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, and called themselves simply Christians. The second began in western Pennsylvania and Virginia (now West Virginia) and was led by Thomas Campbell and his son, Alexander Campbell; they used the name Disciples of Christ. Both groups sought to restore the whole Christian church on the pattern set forth in the New Testament
, and both believed that creed
s kept Christianity divided. In 1832 they joined in fellowship with a handshake.
Among other things, they were united in the belief that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God; that Christians should celebrate the Lord's Supper
on the first day of each week
; and that baptism of adult believers
by immersion in water is a necessary condition for salvation
. Because the founders wanted to abandon all denominational labels, they used the biblical names for the followers of Jesus. Both groups promoted a return to the purposes of the 1st century churches as described in the New Testament. One historian of the movement has argued that it was primarily a unity movement, with the restoration motif playing a subordinate role.
The Restoration Movement has since divided into multiple separate groups. There are three main branches in the United States: the Churches of Christ, the Christian churches and churches of Christ, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
. Some see divisions in the movement as the result of the tension between the goals of restoration and ecumenism
, with the Churches of Christ and Christian churches and churches of Christ resolving the tension by stressing restoration, while the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
resolved the tension by stressing ecumenism. A number of groups outside the U.S. also have historical associations with this movement. In Canada, this includes the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Canada, the Churches of Christ, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, and Christian churches and churches of Christ. In Australia, among Churches of Christ in Australia
there are congregations that identify with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
and those who identify with the Christian churches and churches of Christ.
belief that looks for the imminent Second Coming
of Jesus to inaugurate the Kingdom of God
. This view involves the belief that Jesus will return to receive those who have died in Christ and those who are awaiting his return, and that they must be ready when he returns.
The Millerites
, the most well-known family of the Adventist movements, were the followers of the teachings of William Miller
, who, in 1833, first shared publicly his belief in the coming Second Advent
of Jesus Christ
in roughly the year 1843. They emphasized apocalyptic teachings anticipating the end of the world, and did not look for the unity of Christendom
but busied themselves in preparation for Christ's return. Millerites sought to restore a prophetic immediacy and uncompromising biblicism that they believed had once existed but had long been rejected by mainstream Protestant and Catholic churches. From the Millerites descended the Seventh-day Adventists and the Advent Christian Church. The Millerites
were part of the wave of revivalism in the United States
known as the Second Great Awakening
.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church
is the largest of several Adventist
groups which arose from the Millerite movement of the 1840s. Miller predicted on the basis of and the day-year principle
that Jesus Christ would return to Earth on October 22, 1844. When this did not happen
, most of his followers disbanded and returned to their original churches.
A small number of Millerites came to believe that Miller's calculations were correct, but that his interpretation of Daniel 8:14 was flawed. Beginning with a vision reported by Hiram Edson
on October 23, these Adventists (as this group of Millerite believers came to be known) arrived at the conviction that Daniel 8:14 foretold Christ's entrance into the "Most Holy Place" of the heavenly sanctuary rather than his second coming
. Over the next decade this understanding developed into the doctrine of the investigative judgment
: an eschatological
process commencing in 1844 in which Christians will be judged to verify their eligibility for salvation and God's justice will be confirmed before the universe. The Adventists continued to believe that Christ's second coming would be imminent, although they refrained from setting further dates for the event.
, started the Tuesday Meeting for the Promotion of Holiness in New York City
. A year later, Methodist minister Timothy Merritt founded a journal called the Guide to Christian Perfection to promote the Wesleyan
message of Christian holiness.
In 1837, Phoebe Palmer experienced what she called entire sanctification. She began leading the Tuesday Meeting for the Promotion of Holiness. At first only women attended these meetings, but eventually Methodist bishops and other clergy members began to attend them also. In 1859, she published The Promise of the Father, in which she argued in favor of women in ministry, later to influence Catherine Booth
, co-founder of the Salvation Army
. The practice of ministry by women is common but not universal within the denominations of the holiness movement.
At the Tuesday Meetings, Methodists soon enjoyed fellowship with Christians of different denominations, including the Congregationalist
Thomas Upham. Upham was the first man to attend the meetings, and his participation in them led him to study mystical
experiences, looking to find precursors of holiness teaching in the writings of persons like German Pietist Johann Arndt
and the Roman Catholic mystic Madame Guyon
. Other non-Methodists also contributed to the holiness movement. Asa Mahan, the president of Oberlin College
, and Charles Grandison Finney
, an evangelist
, promoted the idea of Christian holiness. In 1836, Mahan experienced what he called a baptism with the Holy Spirit
. Mahan believed that this experience had cleansed him from the desire and inclination to sin.
The first distinct "holiness" camp meeting
convened in Vineland, New Jersey, in 1867 and attracted as many as 10,000 people. Ministers formed the National Camp Meeting Association for the Promotion of Holiness, and agreed to conduct a similar gathering the next year. Later, this association became the Christian Holiness Partnership
. The third National Camp Meeting met at Round Lake, New York
. This time the national press attended and write-ups appeared in numerous papers. Robert and Hannah Smith were among those who took the holiness message to England, and their ministries helped lay the foundation for the now-famous Keswick Convention
.
In the 1870s, the holiness movement spread to Great Britain, where it was sometimes called the Higher Life movement
after the title of William Boardman’s book, The Higher Life. Higher Life conferences were held at Broadlands
and Oxford
in 1874 and in Brighton
and Keswick
in 1875. The Keswick Convention soon became the British headquarters for the movement. The Faith Mission
in Scotland was one consequence of the British holiness movement. Another was a flow of influence from Britain back to the United States. In 1874, Albert Benjamin Simpson read Boardman’s Higher Christian Life and felt the need for such a life himself. He went on to found the Christian and Missionary Alliance
.
of Joseph Smith, Jr., publisher of the Book of Mormon
in 1830. Throughout his life Joseph Smith shared and later wrote of an experience he had as a boy having seen God the Father and Jesus Christ
, as two separate beings, who told him that the true church had been lost and would be restored through him, and he would be given the authority to organize and lead the true Church of Christ. Smith and Oliver Cowdery
also said that the angels John the Baptist
, Peter
, James, and John
had visited them in 1829 and given them authority to reestablish the Church of Christ.
The first Latter Day Saint church was formed in April 1830, consisting of a community of believers in the western New York
towns of Fayette
, Manchester
, and Colesville
. They called themselves the Church of Christ. On April 6, 1830, this church formally organized into a legal institution under the name Church of Christ. By 1834, the church was being referred to as the Church of the Latter Day Saints in early church publications, and in 1838 Joseph Smith announced that he had received a revelation from God that officially changed the name to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
In 1844, William Law
and several other Latter Day Saints in church leadership positions publicly denounced Joseph Smith's secret practice of polygamy in the controversial Nauvoo Expositor
, and formed their own church. Following Smith's death
by a mob in Carthage, Illinois
, some prominent members of the church claimed to be Smith's legitimate successor resulting in a succession crisis, in which the majority of church members followed Brigham Young
's leadership; others followed Sidney Rigdon
. The crisis resulted in several permanent schisms as well as the formation of occasional splinter groups, some of which no longer exist. The largest group, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), migrated to Utah Territory
. Other groups originating within the Latter Day Saint movement followed different paths in Missouri
, Illinois
, Michigan
, and Pennsylvania
. The largest of these other groups, the Community of Christ
(originally known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), was formed in Illinois in 1860 by several groups uniting around Smith's son, Joseph Smith III
.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has 14 million members.
, also known as Pastor Russell. Members of the movement generally referred to themselves as Bible Students
or Independent Bible Students. A number of schisms developed within the congregations of Bible Students associated with the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
between 1909 and 1932. The most significant split began in January 1917 after the election of Joseph Franklin Rutherford
as the president of the Society about two months after Russell's death, and Rutherford's subsequent replacement of four directors of the Watch Tower Society. Thousands also left in the years following 1925, prompted in part by failed predictions for 1925 and disillusionment with Rutherford's doctrinal changes and his campaign for centralized control of the Bible Student movement. William Schnell, author and former Witness, has claimed that three-quarters of the Bible Students who had been associating in 1921 had left by 1931; in 1934, Rutherford himself wrote that "of the great multitude that left the world to follow Jesus Christ only a few are now in God's organization".
The "Jehovah's Witnesses" emerged from the Bible Student movement
. Following a schism in the movement, the branch that maintained control of the Society underwent significant organizational changes, bringing its authority structure and methods of evangelism under centralized control. The name Jehovah's witnesses was adopted in 1931. Several factions formed their own independent religious fellowships, such as the Dawn Bible Students Association
(which continues to print and advertise the first six volumes of Russell's Studies in the Scriptures
series and others of his writings), the Standfast Movement, the Paul Johnson
Movement (later called the Laymen's Home Missionary Movement), the Elijah Voice Movement, the Eagle Society, and the Pastoral Bible Institute
of Brooklyn. These groups range from those who are more conservative, claiming to be Russell's true followers, to those who are more liberal and claim that Russell's role is not as important as once believed. Rutherford's faction of the movement retained control of the Watch Tower Society and adopted the name Jehovah's Witnesses
in 1931.
The current total membership amongst the various Bible Students fellowships is unknown; worldwide membership among Jehovah's Witnesses
exceeds 7 million.
of Christ would come after humankind had reformed the entire earth. The Social Gospel
Movement gained its force from the Awakening, as did the worldwide missionary movement. New groupings emerged, such as the Holiness
and Nazarene
movements, and Christian Science
. Significant names include Dwight L. Moody
, Ira D. Sankey
, William Booth
and Catherine Booth (founders of the Salvation Army
), Charles Spurgeon
, and James Caughey. Hudson Taylor
began the China Inland Mission
and Thomas John Barnardo
founded his famous orphanages. The Keswick Convention
movement began out of the British Holiness movement
, encouraging a lifestyle of holiness
, unity, and prayer.
Mary Baker Eddy
introduced Christian Science
, which gained a national following. In 1880, the Salvation Army
denomination arrived in America. Although its theology was based on ideals expressed during the Second Great Awakening
, its focus on poverty was of the Third. The Society for Ethical Culture, established in New York
in 1876 by Felix Adler, attracted a Reform Jewish clientele. Charles Taze Russell
founded a Bible Student Institute now known as the Jehovah's Witnesses
.
With Jane Addams
's Hull House
in Chicago as its center, the settlement house movement and the vocation of social work were deeply influenced by the Tolstoy
an reworking of Christian idealism. The final group to emerge from this awakening in North America was Pentecostalism
, which had its roots in the Methodist, Wesleyan, and Holiness movement
s, and began in 1906 on Azusa Street
, in Los Angeles. Pentecostalism would later lead to the Charismatic movement
.
began to advocate restoring Catholic
faith and practice to the Church of England
(see Anglo-Catholicism
), there was felt to be a need for a restoration of the monastic life. Anglican priest John Henry Newman established a community of men at Littlemore
near Oxford
in the 1840s. From then forward, there have been many communities of monk
s, friar
s, sisters, and nun
s established within the Anglican Communion
. In 1848, Mother Priscilla Lydia Sellon founded the Anglican Sisters of Charity and became the first woman to take religious vows within the Anglican Communion
since the Reformation
. In October 1850, the first building specifically built for the purpose of housing an Anglican Sisterhood
was consecrated at Abbeymere in Plymouth
. It housed several schools for the destitute, a laundry, printing press, and a soup kitchen. From the 1840s and throughout the following hundred years, religious orders for both men and women proliferated in the UK and the United States
, as well as in various countries of Africa
, Asia
, Canada
, India
, and the Pacific.
Some Anglican religious communities are contemplative, some active, but a distinguishing feature of the monastic life among Anglicans is that most practice the so-called "mixed life", a combination of a life of contemplative prayer with active service. Anglican religious life closely mirrors that of Roman Catholicism. Like Roman Catholics, Anglicans also take the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Religious communities live together under a common rule, reciting the Divine Office
and celebrating the Eucharist
daily.
issued the papal constitution
entitled Ad Universalis Ecclesiae
, dealing with the conditions for admission to religious orders of men in which solemn vows
are prescribed.
, which declared that "in the disposition of God the Roman church holds the preeminence of ordinary power over all the other churches". This council also affirmed the dogma of papal infallibility
, (declaring that the infallibility of the Christian community extends to the pope himself, when he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church), and of papal supremacy
(supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary jurisdiction of the Pope).
The most substantial body of defined doctrine on the subject is found in Pastor Aeternus
, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ of Vatican Council I. This document declares that “in the disposition of God the Roman church holds the preeminence of ordinary power over all the other churches.” This council also affirmed the dogma of papal infallibility
, deciding that the “infallibility” of the Christian community extended to the pope himself, at least when speaking on matters of faith.
Vatican I defined a twofold Primacy of Peter, one in papal teaching on faith and morals (the charism of infallibility), and the other a primacy of jurisdiction involving government and discipline of the Church, submission to both being necessary to Catholic faith and salvation.
Vatican I rejected the ideas that papal decrees have "no force or value unless confirmed by an order of the secular power" and that the Pope’s decisions can be appealed to an ecumenical council "as to an authority higher than the Roman Pontiff."
Paul Collins argues that "(the doctrine of papal primacy as formulated by the First Vatican Council) has led to the exercise of untrammelled papal power and has become a major stumbling block in ecumenical relationships with the Orthodox (who consider the definition to be heresy) and Protestants."
Forced to break off prematurely by secular political developments in 1870, Vatican I left behind it a somewhat unbalanced ecclesiology. "In theology the question of papal primacy was so much in the foreground that the Church appeared essentially as a centrally directed institution which one was dogged in defending but which only encountered one externally."
Before the council, in 1854, Pius IX, with the support of the overwhelming majority of Roman Catholic Bishop
s, whom he had consulted between 1851 and 1853, proclaimed the dogma
of the Immaculate Conception
. Eight years earlier, in 1846, the Pope had granted the unanimous wish of the bishops from the United States, and declared the Immaculata the patron of the US.
During the First Vatican Council
, some 108 council fathers requested to add the words “Immaculate Virgin” to the Hail Mary
. Some fathers requested the dogma of the Immaculate Conception to be included in the Creed
of the Church, which was opposed by Pius IX. Many French
Catholics wished the dogmatization of Papal infallibility
and the assumption of Mary
by the ecumenical council. During Vatican One
, nine mariological petitions favoured a possible assumption dogma, which however was strongly opposed by some council fathers, especially from Germany
. In 1870, the First Vatican Council
affirmed the doctrine of papal infallibility
when exercised in specifically defined pronouncements. Controversy over this and other issues resulted in a very small breakaway movement called the Old Catholic Church
.
The Industrial Revolution
brought many concerns about the deteriorating working and living conditions of urban workers. Influenced by the German Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von Ketteler, in 1891, Pope Leo XIII
published the encyclical Rerum Novarum
, which set in context Catholic social teaching
in terms that rejected socialism but advocated the regulation of working conditions. Rerum Novarum argued for the establishment of a living wage and the right of workers to form trade union
s.
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Popes have always highlighted the inner link between the Virgin Mary as Mother of God and the full acceptance of Jesus Christ as Son of God
.
Since the 19th century, they were highly important for the development of mariology to explain the veneration of Mary
through their decisions not only in the area of Marian beliefs (Mariology) but also Marian practices and devotions
. Before the 19th century, Popes promulgated Marian veneration by authorizing new Marian feast days, prayer
s, initiatives, and the acceptance and support of Marian congregations. Since the 19th century, Popes began to use encyclicals more frequently. Thus Leo XIII, the Rosary Pope, issued eleven Marian encyclicals. Recent Popes promulgated the veneration of the Blessed Virgin with two dogma
s: Pius IX with the Immaculate Conception
in 1854, and the Assumption of Mary
in 1950 by Pope Pius XII
. Pius XII also promulgated the new feast Queenship of Mary celebrating Mary as Queen of Heaven
, and he introduced the first ever Marian year
in 1954; a second one was proclaimed by John Paul II. Pius IX, Pius XI, and Pius XII facilitated the veneration of Marian apparitions such as in Lourdes
and Fátima
. Later Popes such from John XXIII to Benedict XVI promoted the visit to Marian shrines (Benedict XVI in 2007 and 2008). The Second Vatican Council
highlighted the importance of Marian veneration in Lumen Gentium
. During the Council, Paul VI proclaimed Mary to be the Mother of the Church
.
and the Mexican Revolution
there was a distinct anti-clerical
tone in those countries that exists to this day. Communism in particular was in many cases openly hostile to religion; Karl Marx
condemned religion as the "opium of the people
" as he considered it a false sense of hope in an afterlife withholding the people from facing their worldly situation. Based on a similar quote ("opium for the people"), Lenin believed religion was being used by ruling classes as a tool of suppression of the people. The Marxist-Leninist
governments of the 20th century were generally atheistic. All of them restricted the exercise of religion to a greater or lesser degree, but only Albania
actually banned religion and officially declared itself to be an atheistic state.
In Latin America, a succession of anti-clerical
regimes came to power beginning in the 1830s. The confiscation of Church properties and restrictions on people's religious freedoms generally accompanied secularist, and later, Marxist-leaning, governmental reforms. One such regime emerged in Mexico in 1860. Church properties were confiscated and basic civil and political rights were denied to religious orders and the clergy. More severe laws called Calles Law
during the rule of atheist Plutarco Elías Calles
eventually led to the "worst guerilla war in Latin American History", the Cristero War
.
Only in the 19th century, after the breakdown of most Spanish and Portuguese colonies, was the Vatican able to take charge of Catholic missionary activities through its Propaganda Fide organization.
During this period, the Church faced colonial abuses from the Portuguese and Spanish governments. In South America, the Jesuits protected native peoples from enslavement by establishing semi-independent settlements called reductions
. Pope Gregory XVI
, challenging Spanish and Portuguese sovereignty, appointed his own candidates as bishops in the colonies, condemned slavery and the slave trade in 1839 (papal bull In Supremo Apostolatus
), and approved the ordination of native clergy in spite of government racism.
The Russian Orthodox Church held a privileged position in the Russian Empire
, expressed in the motto, Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Populism, of the late Russian Empire. At the same time, it was placed under the control of the Tsar
by the Church reform of Peter I
in the 18th century. Its governing body was the Most Holy Synod
, which was run by an official (titled Ober-Procurator) appointed by the Tsar himself.
The church was involved in the various campaigns of russification
, and accused of involvement in anti-Jewish pogroms. In the case of anti-Semitism and the anti-Jewish pogroms, no evidence is given of the direct participation of the church, and many Russian Orthodox clerics, including senior hierarchs, openly defended persecuted Jews, at least from the second half of the 19th century. Also, the Church has no official position on Judaism as such.
The Church, like the Tsarist state, was seen as an enemy of the people by the Bolsheviks and other Russian revolutionaries.
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
there was a general move away from religious observance and belief in Christian teachings and a move towards secularism
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
. The "secularization of society", attributed to the time of the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
and its following years, is largely responsible for the spread of secularism.
Modernism in Christian theology
As the more radical implications of the scientific and cultural influences of the EnlightenmentAge of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
began to be felt in the Protestant churches, especially in the 19th century, Liberal Christianity
Liberal Christianity
Liberal Christianity, sometimes called liberal theology, is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically and biblically informed religious movements and ideas within Christianity from the late 18th century and onward...
, exemplified especially by numerous theologians in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in the 19th century, sought to bring the churches alongside of the broad revolution that Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
represented. In doing so, new critical approaches to the Bible were developed, new attitudes became evident about the role of religion in society, and a new openness to questioning the nearly universally accepted definitions of Christian orthodoxy began to become obvious.
In reaction to these developments, Christian fundamentalism was a movement to reject the radical influences of philosophical humanism, as this was affecting the Christian religion. Especially targeting critical approaches to the interpretation of the Bible, and trying to blockade the inroads made into their churches by atheistic scientific assumptions, the fundamentalists began to appear in various denominations as numerous independent movements of resistance to the drift away from historic Christianity. Over time, the Fundamentalist Evangelical movement has divided into two main wings, with the label Fundamentalist following one branch, while Evangelical has become the preferred banner of the more moderate movement. Although both movements primarily originated in the English speaking world, the majority of Evangelicals now live elsewhere in the world.
After the Reformation, protestant groups continued to splinter, leading to a range of new theologies. The Enthusiasts were so named because of their emotional zeal. These included the Methodists, the Quakers, and the Baptists. Another group sought to reconcile Christian faith with modernist ideas, sometimes causing them to reject beliefs they considered to be illogical, including the Nicene creed
Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed is the creed or profession of faith that is most widely used in Christian liturgy. It is called Nicene because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Nicaea by the first ecumenical council, which met there in the year 325.The Nicene Creed has been normative to the...
and Chalcedonian Creed
Chalcedonian Creed
The Confession of Chalcedon , also known as the Doctrine of the Hypostatic Union or the Two-Nature Doctrine, was adopted at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 in Asia Minor. That Council of Chalcedon is one of the first seven Ecumenical Councils accepted by Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and many...
. These included Unitarians
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
and Universalists. A major issue for Protestants became the degree to which people contribute to their salvation. The debate is often viewed as synergism
Synergism
In theology, synergism is the position of those who hold that salvation involves some form of cooperation between divine grace and human freedom...
versus monergism
Monergism
Monergism describes the position in Christian theology of those who believe that God, through the Holy Spirit, works to bring about effectually the salvation of individuals through spiritual regeneration without cooperation from the individual...
, though the labels Calvinist and Arminian are more frequently used, referring to the conclusion of the Synod of Dort
Synod of Dort
The Synod of Dort was a National Synod held in Dordrecht in 1618-1619, by the Dutch Reformed Church, to settle a divisive controversy initiated by the rise of Arminianism. The first meeting was on November 13, 1618, and the final meeting, the 154th, was on May 9, 1619...
.
The 19th century saw the rise of Biblical criticism
Biblical criticism
Biblical criticism is the scholarly "study and investigation of Biblical writings that seeks to make discerning judgments about these writings." It asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were at work...
, new knowledge of religious diversity in other continents, and above all the growth of science. This led many Christians to espouse a form of Deism
Deism
Deism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
. This, along with concepts such as the brotherhood of man and a rejection of miracle
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
s led to what is called "Classic Liberalism
Classical liberalism
Classical liberalism is the philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets....
". Immensely influential in its day, Classic Liberalism suffered badly as a result of the two world wars and fell prey to the criticisms of postmodernism
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
.
Liberal Christianity
Liberal ChristianityLiberal Christianity
Liberal Christianity, sometimes called liberal theology, is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically and biblically informed religious movements and ideas within Christianity from the late 18th century and onward...
—sometimes called liberal theology—has an affinity with certain current forms of postmodern Christianity. Liberal Christianity is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically informed movements and moods within 19th and 20th century Christianity.
Despite its name, liberal Christianity has always been thoroughly protean. The word liberal in liberal Christianity does not refer to a leftist political agenda but rather to insights developed during the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
. Generally speaking, Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
-era liberalism
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
held that people are political creatures and that liberty
Liberty
Liberty is a moral and political principle, or Right, that identifies the condition in which human beings are able to govern themselves, to behave according to their own free will, and take responsibility for their actions...
of thought and expression should be their highest value. The development of liberal Christianity owes a lot to the works of philosophers Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
and Friedrich Schleiermacher. As a whole, liberal Christianity is a product of a continuing philosophical dialogue.
Many 20th century liberal Christians have been influenced by philosophers Edmund Husserl
Edmund Husserl
Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl was a philosopher and mathematician and the founder of the 20th century philosophical school of phenomenology. He broke with the positivist orientation of the science and philosophy of his day, yet he elaborated critiques of historicism and of psychologism in logic...
and Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...
. Examples of important liberal Christian thinkers are Rudolf Bultmann
Rudolf Bultmann
Rudolf Karl Bultmann was a German theologian of Lutheran background, who was for three decades professor of New Testament studies at the University of Marburg...
and John A.T. Robinson
John A.T. Robinson
John Arthur Thomas Robinson was a New Testament scholar, author and a former Anglican Bishop of Woolwich, England....
.
Second Great Awakening
The Second Great AwakeningSecond Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was a Christian revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1800, had begun to gain momentum by 1820, and was in decline by 1870. The Second Great Awakening expressed Arminian theology, by which every person could be...
(1790-1840s) was the second great religious revival in United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
history and, unlike the First Great Awakening
First Great Awakening
The First Awakening was a Christian revitalization movement that swept Protestant Europe and British America, and especially the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, leaving a permanent impact on American religion. It resulted from powerful preaching that gave listeners a sense of personal...
of the 18th century
Christianity in the 18th century
-Revivalism:Revivalism refers to the Calvinist and Wesleyan revival, called the Great Awakening, in North America which saw the development of evangelical Congregationalist, Presbyterian, Baptist, and new Methodist churches....
, focused on the unchurched and sought to instil in them a deep sense of personal salvation as experienced in revival meeting
Revival meeting
A revival meeting is a series of Christian religious services held in order to inspire active members of a church body, to raise funds and to gain new converts...
s. It also sparked the beginnings of groups such as the Mormons
Mormons
The Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, a religion started by Joseph Smith during the American Second Great Awakening. A vast majority of Mormons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while a minority are members of other independent churches....
and the Holiness movement
Holiness movement
The holiness movement refers to a set of beliefs and practices emerging from the Methodist Christian church in the mid 19th century. The movement is distinguished by its emphasis on John Wesley's doctrine of "Christian perfection" - the belief that it is possible to live free of voluntary sin - and...
. Leaders included Asahel Nettleton
Asahel Nettleton
Asahel Nettleton was an American theologian and pastor from Connecticut who was highly influential during the Second Great Awakening. The number of people converted to Christianity as a result of his ministry is estimated at 30,000. He attended Yale College from 1805 until his graduation in 1809...
, Edward Payson
Edward Payson
Edward Payson , American Congregational preacher, was born on 25 July 1783 at Rindge, New Hampshire, where his father, Seth Payson , was pastor of the Congregational Church. His uncle, Phillips Payson , pastor of a church in Chelsea, Massachusetts, was a physicist and astronomer...
, James Brainerd Taylor, Charles Grandison Finney
Charles Grandison Finney
Charles Grandison Finney was a leader in the Second Great Awakening. He has been called The Father of Modern Revivalism. Finney was best known as an innovative revivalist, an opponent of Old School Presbyterian theology, an advocate of Christian perfectionism, a pioneer in social reforms in favor...
, Lyman Beecher
Lyman Beecher
Lyman Beecher was a Presbyterian minister, American Temperance Society co-founder and leader, and the father of 13 children, many of whom were noted leaders, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Beecher, Edward Beecher, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Catharine Beecher, and Thomas...
, Barton W. Stone
Barton W. Stone
Barton Warren Stone was an important preacher during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century. He was first ordained a Presbyterian minister, then was expelled from the church after the Cane Ridge, Kentucky revival for his stated beliefs in faith as the sole prerequisite for salvation...
, Peter Cartwright
Peter Cartwright (exhorter)
Peter Cartwright was an American Methodist revivalist and politician in Illinois. Born in Amherst County, Virginia, Cartwright was a missionary who helped start the Second Great Awakening and personally baptized twelve thousand converts. He settled in Illinois. He lost against Abraham Lincoln...
, and James Finley
James Finley (minister)
James Finley was an American Presbyterian minister and politician who was a pioneer resident of western Pennsylvania...
.
In New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, the renewed interest in religion inspired a wave of social activism. In western New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, the spirit of revival encouraged the emergence of the Restoration Movement
Restoration Movement
The Restoration Movement is a Christian movement that began on the American frontier during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century...
, the Latter Day Saint movement
Latter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...
, Adventism, and the Holiness movement
Holiness movement
The holiness movement refers to a set of beliefs and practices emerging from the Methodist Christian church in the mid 19th century. The movement is distinguished by its emphasis on John Wesley's doctrine of "Christian perfection" - the belief that it is possible to live free of voluntary sin - and...
. Especially in the west—at Cane Ridge, Kentucky
Cane Ridge, Kentucky
Cane Ridge, Kentucky, USA was the site, in 1801, of a large camp meeting that drew thousands of people and had a lasting influence as one of the landmark events of the Second Great Awakening. Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians all participated, and many of the "spiritual exercises", such as...
, and in Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
—the revival strengthened the Methodists
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
and the Baptists and introduced into America a new form of religious expression—the Scottish camp meeting
Camp meeting
The camp meeting is a form of Protestant Christian religious service originating in Britain and once common in some parts of the United States, wherein people would travel from a large area to a particular site to camp out, listen to itinerant preachers, and pray...
.
The Second Great Awakening
Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was a Christian revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1800, had begun to gain momentum by 1820, and was in decline by 1870. The Second Great Awakening expressed Arminian theology, by which every person could be...
made its way across the frontier territories, fed by intense longing for a prominent place for God in the life of the new nation, a new liberal attitude toward fresh interpretations of the Bible, and a contagious experience of zeal for authentic spirituality. As these revivals spread, they gathered converts to Protestant sects of the time. However, the revivals eventually moved freely across denominational lines, with practically identical results, and went farther than ever toward breaking down the allegiances which kept adherents to these denominations loyal to their own. Consequently, the revivals were accompanied by a growing dissatisfaction with Evangelical churches and especially with the doctrine of Calvinism
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
, which was nominally accepted or at least tolerated in most Evangelical churches at the time. Various unaffiliated movements arose that were often restorationist in outlook, considering contemporary Christianity of the time to be a deviation from the true, original Christianity. These groups attempted to transcend Protestant denominationalism and orthodox Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
creeds to restore Christianity to its original form.
Restoration Movement
The Restoration Movement (also known as the American Restoration Movement or the Stone-Campbell Movement) is a ChristianChristian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
movement that began on the American frontier during the Second Great Awakening
Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was a Christian revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1800, had begun to gain momentum by 1820, and was in decline by 1870. The Second Great Awakening expressed Arminian theology, by which every person could be...
of the early 19th century. The movement sought to restore the church and "the unification of all Christians in a single body patterned after the church of the New Testament."
The Restoration Movement developed from several independent efforts to return to apostolic Christianity
Apostolic Age
The Apostolic Age of the history of Christianity is traditionally the period of the Twelve Apostles, dating from the Crucifixion of Jesus and the Great Commission in Jerusalem until the death of John the Apostle in Anatolia...
, but two groups, which independently developed similar approaches to the Christian faith, were particularly important to the development of the movement. The first, led by Barton W. Stone
Barton W. Stone
Barton Warren Stone was an important preacher during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century. He was first ordained a Presbyterian minister, then was expelled from the church after the Cane Ridge, Kentucky revival for his stated beliefs in faith as the sole prerequisite for salvation...
, began at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, and called themselves simply Christians. The second began in western Pennsylvania and Virginia (now West Virginia) and was led by Thomas Campbell and his son, Alexander Campbell; they used the name Disciples of Christ. Both groups sought to restore the whole Christian church on the pattern set forth in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
, and both believed that creed
Creed
A creed is a statement of belief—usually a statement of faith that describes the beliefs shared by a religious community—and is often recited as part of a religious service. When the statement of faith is longer and polemical, as well as didactic, it is not called a creed but a Confession of faith...
s kept Christianity divided. In 1832 they joined in fellowship with a handshake.
Among other things, they were united in the belief that Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
is the Christ, the Son of God; that Christians should celebrate the Lord's Supper
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
on the first day of each week
Sunday
Sunday is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. For most Christians, Sunday is observed as a day for worship of God and rest, due to the belief that it is Lord's Day, the day of Christ's resurrection....
; and that baptism of adult believers
Believer's baptism
Believer's baptism is the Christian practice of baptism as this is understood by many Protestant churches, particularly those that descend from the Anabaptist tradition...
by immersion in water is a necessary condition for salvation
Salvation
Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...
. Because the founders wanted to abandon all denominational labels, they used the biblical names for the followers of Jesus. Both groups promoted a return to the purposes of the 1st century churches as described in the New Testament. One historian of the movement has argued that it was primarily a unity movement, with the restoration motif playing a subordinate role.
The Restoration Movement has since divided into multiple separate groups. There are three main branches in the United States: the Churches of Christ, the Christian churches and churches of Christ, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
The Christian Church is a Mainline Protestant denomination in North America. It is often referred to as The Christian Church, The Disciples of Christ, or more simply as The Disciples...
. Some see divisions in the movement as the result of the tension between the goals of restoration and ecumenism
Ecumenism
Ecumenism or oecumenism mainly refers to initiatives aimed at greater Christian unity or cooperation. It is used predominantly by and with reference to Christian denominations and Christian Churches separated by doctrine, history, and practice...
, with the Churches of Christ and Christian churches and churches of Christ resolving the tension by stressing restoration, while the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
The Christian Church is a Mainline Protestant denomination in North America. It is often referred to as The Christian Church, The Disciples of Christ, or more simply as The Disciples...
resolved the tension by stressing ecumenism. A number of groups outside the U.S. also have historical associations with this movement. In Canada, this includes the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Canada, the Churches of Christ, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, and Christian churches and churches of Christ. In Australia, among Churches of Christ in Australia
Churches of Christ in Australia
The Churches of Christ in Australia is a Christian movement in Australia. It is part of the Restoration Movement with historical influences from the United States of America and the United Kingdom....
there are congregations that identify with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
The Christian Church is a Mainline Protestant denomination in North America. It is often referred to as The Christian Church, The Disciples of Christ, or more simply as The Disciples...
and those who identify with the Christian churches and churches of Christ.
Adventism
Adventism is a Christian eschatologicalChristian eschatology
Christian eschatology is a major branch of study within Christian theology. Eschatology, from two Greek words meaning last and study , is the study of the end of things, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, or the end of the world...
belief that looks for the imminent Second Coming
Second Coming
In Christian doctrine, the Second Coming of Christ, the Second Advent, or the Parousia, is the anticipated return of Jesus Christ from Heaven, where he sits at the Right Hand of God, to Earth. This prophecy is found in the canonical gospels and in most Christian and Islamic eschatologies...
of Jesus to inaugurate the Kingdom of God
Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven is a foundational concept in the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.The term "Kingdom of God" is found in all four canonical gospels and in the Pauline epistles...
. This view involves the belief that Jesus will return to receive those who have died in Christ and those who are awaiting his return, and that they must be ready when he returns.
The Millerites
Millerites
The Millerites were the followers of the teachings of William Miller who, in 1833, first shared publicly his belief in the coming Second Advent of Jesus Christ in roughly the year 1843.-Origins:...
, the most well-known family of the Adventist movements, were the followers of the teachings of William Miller
William Miller (preacher)
William Miller was an American Baptist preacher who is credited with beginning the mid-nineteenth century North American religious movement now known as Adventism. Among his direct spiritual heirs are several major religious denominations, including Seventh-day Adventists and Advent Christians...
, who, in 1833, first shared publicly his belief in the coming Second Advent
Second Coming
In Christian doctrine, the Second Coming of Christ, the Second Advent, or the Parousia, is the anticipated return of Jesus Christ from Heaven, where he sits at the Right Hand of God, to Earth. This prophecy is found in the canonical gospels and in most Christian and Islamic eschatologies...
of Jesus Christ
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
in roughly the year 1843. They emphasized apocalyptic teachings anticipating the end of the world, and did not look for the unity of Christendom
Christendom
Christendom, or the Christian world, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity...
but busied themselves in preparation for Christ's return. Millerites sought to restore a prophetic immediacy and uncompromising biblicism that they believed had once existed but had long been rejected by mainstream Protestant and Catholic churches. From the Millerites descended the Seventh-day Adventists and the Advent Christian Church. The Millerites
Millerites
The Millerites were the followers of the teachings of William Miller who, in 1833, first shared publicly his belief in the coming Second Advent of Jesus Christ in roughly the year 1843.-Origins:...
were part of the wave of revivalism in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
known as the Second Great Awakening
Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was a Christian revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1800, had begun to gain momentum by 1820, and was in decline by 1870. The Second Great Awakening expressed Arminian theology, by which every person could be...
.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church
Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...
is the largest of several Adventist
Adventist
Adventism is a Christian movement which began in the 19th century, in the context of the Second Great Awakening revival in the United States. The name refers to belief in the imminent Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It was started by William Miller, whose followers became known as Millerites...
groups which arose from the Millerite movement of the 1840s. Miller predicted on the basis of and the day-year principle
Day-year principle
The day-year principle, year-day principle or year-for-a-day principle is a method of interpretation of Bible prophecy in which the word day in apocalyptic prophecy is symbolic for a year of actual time. It is used principally by the historicist school of prophetic interpretation...
that Jesus Christ would return to Earth on October 22, 1844. When this did not happen
Great Disappointment
The Great Disappointment was a major event in the history of the Millerite movement, a 19th-century American Christian sect that formed out of the Second Great Awakening. Based on his interpretations of the prophecies in the book of Daniel The Great Disappointment was a major event in the history...
, most of his followers disbanded and returned to their original churches.
A small number of Millerites came to believe that Miller's calculations were correct, but that his interpretation of Daniel 8:14 was flawed. Beginning with a vision reported by Hiram Edson
Hiram Edson
Hiram Edson was a pioneer of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, known for introducing the investigative judgment doctrine to the church.-Early life:Edson's first wife died in 1839, leaving him to care for three children...
on October 23, these Adventists (as this group of Millerite believers came to be known) arrived at the conviction that Daniel 8:14 foretold Christ's entrance into the "Most Holy Place" of the heavenly sanctuary rather than his second coming
Second Coming
In Christian doctrine, the Second Coming of Christ, the Second Advent, or the Parousia, is the anticipated return of Jesus Christ from Heaven, where he sits at the Right Hand of God, to Earth. This prophecy is found in the canonical gospels and in most Christian and Islamic eschatologies...
. Over the next decade this understanding developed into the doctrine of the investigative judgment
Investigative judgment
The investigative judgment is a unique Seventh-day Adventist doctrine, which asserts that a divine judgment of professed Christians has been in progress since 1844. It is intimately related to the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and was described by the church's prophet and pioneer...
: an eschatological
Eschatology
Eschatology is a part of theology, philosophy, and futurology concerned with what are believed to be the final events in history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world or the World to Come...
process commencing in 1844 in which Christians will be judged to verify their eligibility for salvation and God's justice will be confirmed before the universe. The Adventists continued to believe that Christ's second coming would be imminent, although they refrained from setting further dates for the event.
Holiness movement
The Methodists of the 19th century continued the interest in Christian holiness that had been started by their founder, John Wesley, and in 1836, two Methodist women, Sarah Worrall Lankford and Phoebe PalmerPhoebe Palmer
Phoebe Palmer was an evangelist and writer who promoted the doctrine of Christian perfection. She is considered one of the founders of the Holiness movement in the United States of America and the Higher Life movement in the United Kingdom.- Early life :Palmer was born Phoebe Worrall in New York...
, started the Tuesday Meeting for the Promotion of Holiness in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. A year later, Methodist minister Timothy Merritt founded a journal called the Guide to Christian Perfection to promote the Wesleyan
Wesleyanism
Wesleyanism or Wesleyan theology refers, respectively, to either the eponymous movement of Protestant Christians who have historically sought to follow the methods or theology of the eighteenth-century evangelical reformers, John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley, or to the likewise eponymous...
message of Christian holiness.
In 1837, Phoebe Palmer experienced what she called entire sanctification. She began leading the Tuesday Meeting for the Promotion of Holiness. At first only women attended these meetings, but eventually Methodist bishops and other clergy members began to attend them also. In 1859, she published The Promise of the Father, in which she argued in favor of women in ministry, later to influence Catherine Booth
Catherine Booth
Catherine Booth was the wife of the founder of The Salvation Army, William Booth. Because of her influence in the formation of The Salvation Army she was known as the 'Army Mother'....
, co-founder of the Salvation Army
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
. The practice of ministry by women is common but not universal within the denominations of the holiness movement.
At the Tuesday Meetings, Methodists soon enjoyed fellowship with Christians of different denominations, including the Congregationalist
Congregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....
Thomas Upham. Upham was the first man to attend the meetings, and his participation in them led him to study mystical
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
experiences, looking to find precursors of holiness teaching in the writings of persons like German Pietist Johann Arndt
Johann Arndt
Johann Arndt was a German Lutheran theologian who wrote several influential books of devotional Christianity...
and the Roman Catholic mystic Madame Guyon
Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon
Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon was a French mystic and one of the key advocates of Quietism...
. Other non-Methodists also contributed to the holiness movement. Asa Mahan, the president of Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, and Charles Grandison Finney
Charles Grandison Finney
Charles Grandison Finney was a leader in the Second Great Awakening. He has been called The Father of Modern Revivalism. Finney was best known as an innovative revivalist, an opponent of Old School Presbyterian theology, an advocate of Christian perfectionism, a pioneer in social reforms in favor...
, an evangelist
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
, promoted the idea of Christian holiness. In 1836, Mahan experienced what he called a baptism with the Holy Spirit
Baptism with the Holy Spirit
Baptism with the Holy Spirit in Christian theology is a term describing baptism in or with the Spirit of God...
. Mahan believed that this experience had cleansed him from the desire and inclination to sin.
The first distinct "holiness" camp meeting
Camp meeting
The camp meeting is a form of Protestant Christian religious service originating in Britain and once common in some parts of the United States, wherein people would travel from a large area to a particular site to camp out, listen to itinerant preachers, and pray...
convened in Vineland, New Jersey, in 1867 and attracted as many as 10,000 people. Ministers formed the National Camp Meeting Association for the Promotion of Holiness, and agreed to conduct a similar gathering the next year. Later, this association became the Christian Holiness Partnership
Christian Holiness Partnership
The Christian Holiness Partnership is an international organization of individuals, organizational and denominational affiliates within the holiness movement. It was founded in 1867 as the National Camp Meeting Association for Christian Holiness, later changing its name to the National Holiness...
. The third National Camp Meeting met at Round Lake, New York
Round Lake, New York
Round Lake is a lake and a village in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 604 at the 2000 census. The name is derived from a circular lake adjacent to the village...
. This time the national press attended and write-ups appeared in numerous papers. Robert and Hannah Smith were among those who took the holiness message to England, and their ministries helped lay the foundation for the now-famous Keswick Convention
Keswick Convention
The Keswick Convention is an annual gathering of evangelical Christians in Keswick, in the English county of Cumbria.- History :The Keswick Convention began in 1875 as a catalyst and focal point for the emerging Higher Life movement in the United Kingdom. It was founded by an Anglican, Canon T. D....
.
In the 1870s, the holiness movement spread to Great Britain, where it was sometimes called the Higher Life movement
Higher Life movement
The Higher Life movement was a movement devoted to Christian holiness in England. Its name comes from a book by William Boardman, entitled The Higher Christian Life, which was published in 1858...
after the title of William Boardman’s book, The Higher Life. Higher Life conferences were held at Broadlands
Broadlands
Broadlands is an English country house, located near the town of Romsey in Hampshire, England, United Kingdom.-History:The original manor and area known as Broadlands has belonged to Romsey Abbey since before the time of the 11-century English Norman Conquest.After the Dissolution of the...
and Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
in 1874 and in Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
and Keswick
Keswick, Cumbria
Keswick is a market town and civil parish within the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England. It had a population of 4,984, according to the 2001 census, and is situated just north of Derwent Water, and a short distance from Bassenthwaite Lake, both in the Lake District National Park...
in 1875. The Keswick Convention soon became the British headquarters for the movement. The Faith Mission
Faith mission
Faith mission is a term used most frequently among evangelical Christians to refer to a missionary organization with an approach to evangelism that encourages its missionaries to "trust in God to provide the necessary resources" These missionaries are said to "live by faith."Most faith...
in Scotland was one consequence of the British holiness movement. Another was a flow of influence from Britain back to the United States. In 1874, Albert Benjamin Simpson read Boardman’s Higher Christian Life and felt the need for such a life himself. He went on to found the Christian and Missionary Alliance
Christian and Missionary Alliance
The Christian and Missionary Alliance is an evangelical Protestant denomination within Christianity.Founded by Rev. Albert Benjamin Simpson in 1887, the Christian & Missionary Alliance did not start off as a denomination, but rather began as two distinct parachurch organizations: The Christian...
.
Latter Day Saints
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of restorationist religious denominations and adherents who follow at least some of the teachings and revelationsTeachings of Joseph Smith, Jr.
The teachings of Joseph Smith, Jr. include a broad spectrum of religious doctrines as well as political and scientific ideas and theories, many of which he said were revealed to him by God. Joseph Smith, Jr. is the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement...
of Joseph Smith, Jr., publisher of the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...
in 1830. Throughout his life Joseph Smith shared and later wrote of an experience he had as a boy having seen God the Father and Jesus Christ
First Vision
The First Vision refers to a vision that Joseph Smith, Jr. said he received as a youth in a wooded area in Manchester, New York, which his followers call the Sacred Grove. Smith described it as a personal theophany in which he received a forgiveness of sins...
, as two separate beings, who told him that the true church had been lost and would be restored through him, and he would be given the authority to organize and lead the true Church of Christ. Smith and Oliver Cowdery
Oliver Cowdery
Oliver H. P. Cowdery was, with Joseph Smith, Jr., an important participant in the formative period of the Latter Day Saint movement between 1829 and 1836, becoming one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon's golden plates, one of the first Latter Day Saint apostles, and the Second Elder of...
also said that the angels John the Baptist
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
, Peter
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
, James, and John
John the Apostle
John the Apostle, John the Apostle, John the Apostle, (Aramaic Yoħanna, (c. 6 - c. 100) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of James, another of the Twelve Apostles...
had visited them in 1829 and given them authority to reestablish the Church of Christ.
The first Latter Day Saint church was formed in April 1830, consisting of a community of believers in the western New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
towns of Fayette
Fayette, New York
Fayette is a town in Seneca County, New York, United States. The population was 3,643 at the 2000 census.The Town of Fayette is on the western border of the county and is southeast of Geneva, New York.- History :...
, Manchester
Manchester (town), New York
Manchester is a town in Ontario County, New York, USA. The population was 9,258 at the 2000 census. The town was named after one of its villages, which in turn was named after the original Manchester in Greater Manchester, England....
, and Colesville
Colesville, New York
Colesville is a town in Broome County, New York, United States. The population was 5,441 at the 2000 census.The Town of Colesville is in the northeast part of the county and is northeast of Binghamton.- History :...
. They called themselves the Church of Christ. On April 6, 1830, this church formally organized into a legal institution under the name Church of Christ. By 1834, the church was being referred to as the Church of the Latter Day Saints in early church publications, and in 1838 Joseph Smith announced that he had received a revelation from God that officially changed the name to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
In 1844, William Law
William Law (Mormonism)
William Law was an important figure in the early history of the Latter Day Saint movement, holding a position in the early church's First Presidency under Joseph Smith, Jr...
and several other Latter Day Saints in church leadership positions publicly denounced Joseph Smith's secret practice of polygamy in the controversial Nauvoo Expositor
Nauvoo Expositor
The Nauvoo Expositor was a newspaper in Nauvoo, Illinois that published only one issue, which was dated June 7, 1844. Its publication set off a chain of events that led to the death of Latter Day Saint movement founder, Joseph Smith, Jr....
, and formed their own church. Following Smith's death
Death of Joseph Smith, Jr.
The death of Joseph Smith, Jr. on June 27, 1844 marked a turning point for the Latter Day Saint movement, of which Smith was the founder and leader. When he was attacked and killed by a mob, Smith was the mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois, and running for President of the United States...
by a mob in Carthage, Illinois
Carthage, Illinois
Carthage is a city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. The population was 2,725 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Hancock County. Carthage is most famous for being the site of the murder of Joseph Smith in 1844.- History :...
, some prominent members of the church claimed to be Smith's legitimate successor resulting in a succession crisis, in which the majority of church members followed Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
's leadership; others followed Sidney Rigdon
Sidney Rigdon
Sidney Rigdon was a leader during the early history of the Latter Day Saint movement.-Baptist background:...
. The crisis resulted in several permanent schisms as well as the formation of occasional splinter groups, some of which no longer exist. The largest group, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), migrated to Utah Territory
Utah Territory
The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah....
. Other groups originating within the Latter Day Saint movement followed different paths in Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, and Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. The largest of these other groups, the Community of Christ
Community of Christ
The Community of Christ, known from 1872 to 2001 as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , is an American-based international Christian church established in April 1830 that claims as its mission "to proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love, and peace"...
(originally known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), was formed in Illinois in 1860 by several groups uniting around Smith's son, Joseph Smith III
Joseph Smith III
Joseph Smith III was the eldest surviving son of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and Emma Hale Smith...
.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has 14 million members.
Bible Student movement and the Jehovah's Witnesses
The Bible Student movement emerged from the teachings and ministry of Charles Taze RussellCharles Taze Russell
Charles Taze Russell , or Pastor Russell, was a prominent early 20th century Christian restorationist minister from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, and founder of what is now known as the Bible Student movement, from which Jehovah's Witnesses and numerous independent Bible Student groups emerged...
, also known as Pastor Russell. Members of the movement generally referred to themselves as Bible Students
Bible Student movement
The Bible Student movement is the name adopted by a Millennialist Restorationist Christian movement that emerged from the teachings and ministry of Charles Taze Russell, also known as Pastor Russell...
or Independent Bible Students. A number of schisms developed within the congregations of Bible Students associated with the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania is a non-stock, not-for-profit organization headquartered in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, United States. It is the main legal entity used worldwide by Jehovah's Witnesses to direct, administer and develop doctrines for the religion...
between 1909 and 1932. The most significant split began in January 1917 after the election of Joseph Franklin Rutherford
Joseph Franklin Rutherford
Joseph Franklin Rutherford , also known as "Judge" Rutherford, was the second president of the incorporated Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, and played a primary role in the organization and doctrinal development of Jehovah's Witnesses, which emerged from the Bible Student movement established...
as the president of the Society about two months after Russell's death, and Rutherford's subsequent replacement of four directors of the Watch Tower Society. Thousands also left in the years following 1925, prompted in part by failed predictions for 1925 and disillusionment with Rutherford's doctrinal changes and his campaign for centralized control of the Bible Student movement. William Schnell, author and former Witness, has claimed that three-quarters of the Bible Students who had been associating in 1921 had left by 1931; in 1934, Rutherford himself wrote that "of the great multitude that left the world to follow Jesus Christ only a few are now in God's organization".
The "Jehovah's Witnesses" emerged from the Bible Student movement
Bible Student movement
The Bible Student movement is the name adopted by a Millennialist Restorationist Christian movement that emerged from the teachings and ministry of Charles Taze Russell, also known as Pastor Russell...
. Following a schism in the movement, the branch that maintained control of the Society underwent significant organizational changes, bringing its authority structure and methods of evangelism under centralized control. The name Jehovah's witnesses was adopted in 1931. Several factions formed their own independent religious fellowships, such as the Dawn Bible Students Association
Dawn Bible Students Association
The Dawn Bible Students Association is a legal entity used by a branch of the Bible Student Movement.It was founded with the intention of becoming a publishing house to begin printing and distributing the first six volumes of the Studies in the Scriptures series that were written by Charles Taze...
(which continues to print and advertise the first six volumes of Russell's Studies in the Scriptures
Studies in the Scriptures
Studies in the Scriptures is a series of publications, intended as a Bible study aid, containing seven volumes of great importance to the history of the Bible Students, and the early history of the Jehovah's Witnesses.-Origin and author:...
series and others of his writings), the Standfast Movement, the Paul Johnson
Paul S. L. Johnson
Paul Samuel Leo Johnson was an American scholar and pastor, the founder of the Laymen's Home Missionary Movement. He authored 17 volumes of religious writings entitled Epiphany Studies in the Scriptures, and published two magazines from about 1918 until his death in 1950...
Movement (later called the Laymen's Home Missionary Movement), the Elijah Voice Movement, the Eagle Society, and the Pastoral Bible Institute
Pastoral Bible Institute
The Pastoral Bible Institute was founded by a small group who were part of the Bible Student movement, a Christian denomination following Millerite Adventist notions guided by principles expounded by Pastor Charles Taze Russell...
of Brooklyn. These groups range from those who are more conservative, claiming to be Russell's true followers, to those who are more liberal and claim that Russell's role is not as important as once believed. Rutherford's faction of the movement retained control of the Watch Tower Society and adopted the name Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
in 1931.
The current total membership amongst the various Bible Students fellowships is unknown; worldwide membership among Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
exceeds 7 million.
Third Great Awakening: Resurgence
The Third Great Awakening was a period of religious activism in American history from the late 1850s to the 20th century. It affected pietistic Protestant denominations and had a strong sense of social activism. It gathered strength from the postmillennial theology that the Second ComingSecond Coming
In Christian doctrine, the Second Coming of Christ, the Second Advent, or the Parousia, is the anticipated return of Jesus Christ from Heaven, where he sits at the Right Hand of God, to Earth. This prophecy is found in the canonical gospels and in most Christian and Islamic eschatologies...
of Christ would come after humankind had reformed the entire earth. The Social Gospel
Social Gospel
The Social Gospel movement is a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the early 20th century United States and Canada...
Movement gained its force from the Awakening, as did the worldwide missionary movement. New groupings emerged, such as the Holiness
Holiness movement
The holiness movement refers to a set of beliefs and practices emerging from the Methodist Christian church in the mid 19th century. The movement is distinguished by its emphasis on John Wesley's doctrine of "Christian perfection" - the belief that it is possible to live free of voluntary sin - and...
and Nazarene
Church of the Nazarene
The Church of the Nazarene is an evangelical Christian denomination that emerged from the 19th century Holiness movement in North America with its members colloquially referred to as Nazarenes. It is the largest Wesleyan-holiness denomination in the world. At the end of 2010, the Church of the...
movements, and Christian Science
Christian Science
Christian Science is a system of thought and practice derived from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible. It is practiced by members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist as well as some others who are nonmembers. Its central texts are the Bible and the Christian Science textbook,...
. Significant names include Dwight L. Moody
Dwight L. Moody
Dwight Lyman Moody , also known as D.L. Moody, was an American evangelist and publisher who founded the Moody Church, Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts , the Moody Bible Institute and Moody Publishers.-Early life:Dwight Moody was born in Northfield, Massachusetts to a large...
, Ira D. Sankey
Ira D. Sankey
Ira D. Sankey , known as The Sweet Singer of Methodism, was an American gospel singer and composer, associated with evangelist Dwight L...
, William Booth
William Booth
William Booth was a British Methodist preacher who founded The Salvation Army and became its first General...
and Catherine Booth (founders of the Salvation Army
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
), Charles Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a large British Particular Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is still known as the "Prince of Preachers"...
, and James Caughey. Hudson Taylor
Hudson Taylor
James Hudson Taylor , was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China, and founder of the China Inland Mission . Taylor spent 51 years in China...
began the China Inland Mission
China Inland Mission
OMF International is an interdenominational Protestant Christian missionary society, founded in Britain by Hudson Taylor on 25 June 1865.-Overview:...
and Thomas John Barnardo
Thomas John Barnardo
Thomas John Barnardo was a philanthropist and founder and director of homes for poor children, born in Dublin. From the foundation of the first Barnardo's home in 1870 to the date of Barnardo’s death, nearly 100,000 children had been rescued, trained and given a better life.- Early life :Barnardo...
founded his famous orphanages. The Keswick Convention
Keswick Convention
The Keswick Convention is an annual gathering of evangelical Christians in Keswick, in the English county of Cumbria.- History :The Keswick Convention began in 1875 as a catalyst and focal point for the emerging Higher Life movement in the United Kingdom. It was founded by an Anglican, Canon T. D....
movement began out of the British Holiness movement
Higher Life movement
The Higher Life movement was a movement devoted to Christian holiness in England. Its name comes from a book by William Boardman, entitled The Higher Christian Life, which was published in 1858...
, encouraging a lifestyle of holiness
Sacred
Holiness, or sanctity, is in general the state of being holy or sacred...
, unity, and prayer.
Mary Baker Eddy
Mary Baker Eddy
Mary Baker Eddy was the founder of Christian Science , a Protestant American system of religious thought and practice religion adopted by the Church of Christ, Scientist, and others...
introduced Christian Science
Christian Science
Christian Science is a system of thought and practice derived from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible. It is practiced by members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist as well as some others who are nonmembers. Its central texts are the Bible and the Christian Science textbook,...
, which gained a national following. In 1880, the Salvation Army
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
denomination arrived in America. Although its theology was based on ideals expressed during the Second Great Awakening
Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was a Christian revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1800, had begun to gain momentum by 1820, and was in decline by 1870. The Second Great Awakening expressed Arminian theology, by which every person could be...
, its focus on poverty was of the Third. The Society for Ethical Culture, established in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1876 by Felix Adler, attracted a Reform Jewish clientele. Charles Taze Russell
Charles Taze Russell
Charles Taze Russell , or Pastor Russell, was a prominent early 20th century Christian restorationist minister from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, and founder of what is now known as the Bible Student movement, from which Jehovah's Witnesses and numerous independent Bible Student groups emerged...
founded a Bible Student Institute now known as the Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
.
With Jane Addams
Jane Addams
Jane Addams was a pioneer settlement worker, founder of Hull House in Chicago, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in woman suffrage and world peace...
's Hull House
Hull House
Hull House is a settlement house in the United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located in the Near West Side of , Hull House opened its doors to the recently arrived European immigrants. By 1911, Hull House had grown to 13 buildings. In 1912 the Hull...
in Chicago as its center, the settlement house movement and the vocation of social work were deeply influenced by the Tolstoy
Tolstoy
Tolstoy, or Tolstoi is a prominent family of Russian nobility, descending from Andrey Kharitonovich Tolstoy who served under Vasily II of Moscow...
an reworking of Christian idealism. The final group to emerge from this awakening in North America was Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism is a diverse and complex movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has an eschatological focus, and is an experiential religion. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek...
, which had its roots in the Methodist, Wesleyan, and Holiness movement
Holiness movement
The holiness movement refers to a set of beliefs and practices emerging from the Methodist Christian church in the mid 19th century. The movement is distinguished by its emphasis on John Wesley's doctrine of "Christian perfection" - the belief that it is possible to live free of voluntary sin - and...
s, and began in 1906 on Azusa Street
Azusa Street Revival
The Azusa Street Revival was a historic Pentecostal revival meeting that took place in Los Angeles, California and is the origin of the Pentecostal movement. It was led by William J. Seymour, an African American preacher. It began with a meeting on April 14, 1906, and continued until roughly 1915...
, in Los Angeles. Pentecostalism would later lead to the Charismatic movement
Charismatic movement
The term charismatic movement is used in varying senses to describe 20th century developments in various Christian denominations. It describes an ongoing international, cross-denominational/non-denominational Christian movement in which individual, historically mainstream congregations adopt...
.
Oxford Movement in the Anglican communion
Shortly after the Oxford MovementOxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...
began to advocate restoring Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
faith and practice to the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
(see Anglo-Catholicism
Anglo-Catholicism
The terms Anglo-Catholic and Anglo-Catholicism describe people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm the Catholic, rather than Protestant, heritage and identity of the Anglican churches....
), there was felt to be a need for a restoration of the monastic life. Anglican priest John Henry Newman established a community of men at Littlemore
Littlemore
Littlemore is a district of Oxford, England. It has a parish council that also represents parts of Rose Hill. It is about southeast of the city centre of Oxford, between Rose Hill, Blackbird Leys, Cowley, and Sandford-on-Thames.-History:...
near Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
in the 1840s. From then forward, there have been many communities of monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s, friar
Friar
A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders.-Friars and monks:...
s, sisters, and nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
s established within the Anglican Communion
Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is an international association of national and regional Anglican churches in full communion with the Church of England and specifically with its principal primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury...
. In 1848, Mother Priscilla Lydia Sellon founded the Anglican Sisters of Charity and became the first woman to take religious vows within the Anglican Communion
Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is an international association of national and regional Anglican churches in full communion with the Church of England and specifically with its principal primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury...
since the Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....
. In October 1850, the first building specifically built for the purpose of housing an Anglican Sisterhood
Sisterhoods (Modern Anglican)
Modern Anglican Sisterhoods are Orders of Nuns within the Anglican Church.-Dissolution:The dissolution of religious houses in England under Henry VIII swept away more than 140 convents, and the Anglican Church was left without sisterhoods for three centuries...
was consecrated at Abbeymere in Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
. It housed several schools for the destitute, a laundry, printing press, and a soup kitchen. From the 1840s and throughout the following hundred years, religious orders for both men and women proliferated in the UK and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, as well as in various countries of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and the Pacific.
Some Anglican religious communities are contemplative, some active, but a distinguishing feature of the monastic life among Anglicans is that most practice the so-called "mixed life", a combination of a life of contemplative prayer with active service. Anglican religious life closely mirrors that of Roman Catholicism. Like Roman Catholics, Anglicans also take the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Religious communities live together under a common rule, reciting the Divine Office
Canonical hours
Canonical hours are divisions of time which serve as increments between the prescribed prayers of the daily round. A Book of Hours contains such a set of prayers....
and celebrating the Eucharist
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
daily.
Roman Catholicism
On February 7, 1862, Pope Pius IXPope Pius IX
Blessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal...
issued the papal constitution
Apostolic constitution
An apostolic constitution is the highest level of decree issued by the Pope. The use of the term constitution comes from Latin constitutio, which referred to any important law issued by the Roman emperor, and is retained in church documents because of the inheritance that the canon law of the...
entitled Ad Universalis Ecclesiae
Ad Universalis Ecclesiae
Ad Universalis Ecclesiae is a papal constitution dealing with the conditions for admission to religious orders of men in which solemn vows are prescribed. It was issued by Pope Pius IX on 7 February 1862.-History:...
, dealing with the conditions for admission to religious orders of men in which solemn vows
Simple vow
In Roman Catholic canon law, a simple vow is any vow, public or private, individual or collective, concerned with an action or with abstaining from an action, if that vow has not been recognized by the Church as a solemn vow....
are prescribed.
First Vatican Council
The doctrine of papal primacy was further developed in 1870 at the First Vatican CouncilFirst Vatican Council
The First Vatican Council was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864. This twentieth ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, held three centuries after the Council of Trent, opened on 8 December 1869 and adjourned...
, which declared that "in the disposition of God the Roman church holds the preeminence of ordinary power over all the other churches". This council also affirmed the dogma of papal infallibility
Papal infallibility
Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, by action of the Holy Spirit, the Pope is preserved from even the possibility of error when in his official capacity he solemnly declares or promulgates to the universal Church a dogmatic teaching on faith or morals...
, (declaring that the infallibility of the Christian community extends to the pope himself, when he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church), and of papal supremacy
Papal supremacy
Papal supremacy refers to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church that the pope, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ and as pastor of the entire Christian Church, has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered: that, in brief,...
(supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary jurisdiction of the Pope).
The most substantial body of defined doctrine on the subject is found in Pastor Aeternus
Pastor aeternus
Pastor aeternus is the incipit of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ, issued by the First Vatican Council, July 18, 1870. According to The Modern Catholic Dictionary, Pastor aeternus defines four doctrines of the Catholic faith: the apostolic primacy conferred on Peter, the...
, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ of Vatican Council I. This document declares that “in the disposition of God the Roman church holds the preeminence of ordinary power over all the other churches.” This council also affirmed the dogma of papal infallibility
Papal infallibility
Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, by action of the Holy Spirit, the Pope is preserved from even the possibility of error when in his official capacity he solemnly declares or promulgates to the universal Church a dogmatic teaching on faith or morals...
, deciding that the “infallibility” of the Christian community extended to the pope himself, at least when speaking on matters of faith.
Vatican I defined a twofold Primacy of Peter, one in papal teaching on faith and morals (the charism of infallibility), and the other a primacy of jurisdiction involving government and discipline of the Church, submission to both being necessary to Catholic faith and salvation.
Vatican I rejected the ideas that papal decrees have "no force or value unless confirmed by an order of the secular power" and that the Pope’s decisions can be appealed to an ecumenical council "as to an authority higher than the Roman Pontiff."
Paul Collins argues that "(the doctrine of papal primacy as formulated by the First Vatican Council) has led to the exercise of untrammelled papal power and has become a major stumbling block in ecumenical relationships with the Orthodox (who consider the definition to be heresy) and Protestants."
Forced to break off prematurely by secular political developments in 1870, Vatican I left behind it a somewhat unbalanced ecclesiology. "In theology the question of papal primacy was so much in the foreground that the Church appeared essentially as a centrally directed institution which one was dogged in defending but which only encountered one externally."
Before the council, in 1854, Pius IX, with the support of the overwhelming majority of Roman Catholic Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
s, whom he had consulted between 1851 and 1853, proclaimed the dogma
Dogma (Roman Catholic)
In the Roman Catholic Church, a dogma is an article of faith revealed by God, which the magisterium of the Church presents to be believed. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the basic truth from which salvation and life is derived for Christians. Dogmata regulate the language, how the truth of...
of the Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...
. Eight years earlier, in 1846, the Pope had granted the unanimous wish of the bishops from the United States, and declared the Immaculata the patron of the US.
During the First Vatican Council
First Vatican Council
The First Vatican Council was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864. This twentieth ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, held three centuries after the Council of Trent, opened on 8 December 1869 and adjourned...
, some 108 council fathers requested to add the words “Immaculate Virgin” to the Hail Mary
Hail Mary
The Angelic Salutation, Hail Mary, or Ave Maria is a traditional biblical Catholic prayer asking for the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Hail Mary is used within the Catholic Church, and it forms the basis of the Rosary...
. Some fathers requested the dogma of the Immaculate Conception to be included in the Creed
Creed
A creed is a statement of belief—usually a statement of faith that describes the beliefs shared by a religious community—and is often recited as part of a religious service. When the statement of faith is longer and polemical, as well as didactic, it is not called a creed but a Confession of faith...
of the Church, which was opposed by Pius IX. Many French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Catholics wished the dogmatization of Papal infallibility
Infallibility
Infallibility, from Latin origin , is a term with a variety of meanings related to knowing truth with certainty.-In common speech:...
and the assumption of Mary
Assumption of Mary
According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglicanism, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life...
by the ecumenical council. During Vatican One
First Vatican Council
The First Vatican Council was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864. This twentieth ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, held three centuries after the Council of Trent, opened on 8 December 1869 and adjourned...
, nine mariological petitions favoured a possible assumption dogma, which however was strongly opposed by some council fathers, especially from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. In 1870, the First Vatican Council
First Vatican Council
The First Vatican Council was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864. This twentieth ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, held three centuries after the Council of Trent, opened on 8 December 1869 and adjourned...
affirmed the doctrine of papal infallibility
Papal infallibility
Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, by action of the Holy Spirit, the Pope is preserved from even the possibility of error when in his official capacity he solemnly declares or promulgates to the universal Church a dogmatic teaching on faith or morals...
when exercised in specifically defined pronouncements. Controversy over this and other issues resulted in a very small breakaway movement called the Old Catholic Church
Old Catholic Church
The term Old Catholic Church is commonly used to describe a number of Ultrajectine Christian churches that originated with groups that split from the Roman Catholic Church over certain doctrines, most importantly that of Papal Infallibility...
.
Social teachings
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
brought many concerns about the deteriorating working and living conditions of urban workers. Influenced by the German Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von Ketteler, in 1891, Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...
published the encyclical Rerum Novarum
Rerum Novarum
Rerum Novarum is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on May 15, 1891. It was an open letter, passed to all Catholic bishops, that addressed the condition of the working classes. The encyclical is entitled: “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labour”...
, which set in context Catholic social teaching
Catholic social teaching
Catholic social teaching is a body of doctrine developed by the Catholic Church on matters of poverty and wealth, economics, social organization and the role of the state...
in terms that rejected socialism but advocated the regulation of working conditions. Rerum Novarum argued for the establishment of a living wage and the right of workers to form trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s.
Veneration of Mary
Son of God
"Son of God" is a phrase which according to most Christian denominations, Trinitarian in belief, refers to the relationship between Jesus and God, specifically as "God the Son"...
.
Since the 19th century, they were highly important for the development of mariology to explain the veneration of Mary
Blessed Virgin Mary (Roman Catholic)
Roman Catholic veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary is based on Holy Scripture: In the fullness of time, God sent his son, born of a virgin. The mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God through Mary thus signifies her honour as Mother of God...
through their decisions not only in the area of Marian beliefs (Mariology) but also Marian practices and devotions
Prayer
Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...
. Before the 19th century, Popes promulgated Marian veneration by authorizing new Marian feast days, prayer
Prayer
Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...
s, initiatives, and the acceptance and support of Marian congregations. Since the 19th century, Popes began to use encyclicals more frequently. Thus Leo XIII, the Rosary Pope, issued eleven Marian encyclicals. Recent Popes promulgated the veneration of the Blessed Virgin with two dogma
Dogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
s: Pius IX with the Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...
in 1854, and the Assumption of Mary
Assumption of Mary
According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglicanism, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life...
in 1950 by Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
. Pius XII also promulgated the new feast Queenship of Mary celebrating Mary as Queen of Heaven
Queen of Heaven
Queen of Heaven is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary by Christians, mainly of the Roman Catholic Church, and also, to some extent, in the Anglican, Lutheran, and Eastern Orthodox churches, to whom the title is a consequence of the Council of Ephesus in the fifth century, where the Virgin...
, and he introduced the first ever Marian year
Marian year
Marian years are decided on and declared exclusively by the Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. In Church history, only two Marian years were pronounced by Pope Pius XII and Pope John Paul II....
in 1954; a second one was proclaimed by John Paul II. Pius IX, Pius XI, and Pius XII facilitated the veneration of Marian apparitions such as in Lourdes
Lourdes
Lourdes is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in south-western France.Lourdes is a small market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees, famous for the Marian apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes occurred in 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous...
and Fátima
Fatima
-People:* Fatima , a female given name of Arabic origin* Fatima bint Muhammad, daughter of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad* Fatima Jinnah, the younger sister of Muhammad Ali Jinnah...
. Later Popes such from John XXIII to Benedict XVI promoted the visit to Marian shrines (Benedict XVI in 2007 and 2008). The Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
highlighted the importance of Marian veneration in Lumen Gentium
Lumen Gentium
Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, is one of the principal documents of the Second Vatican Council. This dogmatic constitution was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on November 21, 1964, following approval by the assembled bishops by a vote of 2,151 to 5...
. During the Council, Paul VI proclaimed Mary to be the Mother of the Church
Mother of the Church
Mother of the Church is a title, officially given to Mary during the Second Vatican Council by Pope Paul VI. The title was first used by Saint Ambrose of Milan and rediscovered by Hugo Rahner, the brother of Karl Rahner.- Ambrose and Hugo Rahner :...
.
Anti-clericalism and atheistic communism
In many revolutionary movements the church was associated with the established repressive regimes. Thus, for example, after the French RevolutionFrench Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
and the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
there was a distinct anti-clerical
Anti-clericalism
Anti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes religious institutional power and influence, real or alleged, in all aspects of public and political life, and the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen...
tone in those countries that exists to this day. Communism in particular was in many cases openly hostile to religion; Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
condemned religion as the "opium of the people
Opium of the People
"Religion is the opium of the people" is one of the most frequently paraphrased statements of Karl Marx. It was translated from the German original, "Die Religion .....
" as he considered it a false sense of hope in an afterlife withholding the people from facing their worldly situation. Based on a similar quote ("opium for the people"), Lenin believed religion was being used by ruling classes as a tool of suppression of the people. The Marxist-Leninist
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...
governments of the 20th century were generally atheistic. All of them restricted the exercise of religion to a greater or lesser degree, but only Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
actually banned religion and officially declared itself to be an atheistic state.
In Latin America, a succession of anti-clerical
Anti-clericalism
Anti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes religious institutional power and influence, real or alleged, in all aspects of public and political life, and the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen...
regimes came to power beginning in the 1830s. The confiscation of Church properties and restrictions on people's religious freedoms generally accompanied secularist, and later, Marxist-leaning, governmental reforms. One such regime emerged in Mexico in 1860. Church properties were confiscated and basic civil and political rights were denied to religious orders and the clergy. More severe laws called Calles Law
Calles Law
The Calles' Law, or Law for Reforming the Penal Code, was a reform of the penal code in Mexico under the presidency of Plutarco Elias Calles. The code reinforced strong restrictions against clerics and the Catholic Church put forth under Article 130 of the Mexican Constitution of 1917. Article 130...
during the rule of atheist Plutarco Elías Calles
Plutarco Elías Calles
Plutarco Elías Calles was a Mexican general and politician. He was president of Mexico from 1924 to 1928, but he continued to be the de facto ruler from 1928–1935, a period known as the maximato...
eventually led to the "worst guerilla war in Latin American History", the Cristero War
Cristero War
The Cristero War of 1926 to 1929 was an uprising and counter-revolution against the Mexican government in power at that time. The rebellion was set off by the strict enforcement of the anti-clerical provisions of the Mexican Constitution of 1917 and the expansion of further anti-clerical laws...
.
Jesuits
During this period, the Church faced colonial abuses from the Portuguese and Spanish governments. In South America, the Jesuits protected native peoples from enslavement by establishing semi-independent settlements called reductions
Jesuit Reductions
A Jesuit Reduction was a type of settlement for indigenous people in Latin America created by the Jesuit Order during the 17th and 18th centuries. In general, the strategy of the Spanish Empire was to gather native populations into centers called Indian Reductions , in order to Christianize, tax,...
. Pope Gregory XVI
Pope Gregory XVI
Pope Gregory XVI , born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari, named Mauro as a member of the religious order of the Camaldolese, was Pope of the Catholic Church from 1831 to 1846...
, challenging Spanish and Portuguese sovereignty, appointed his own candidates as bishops in the colonies, condemned slavery and the slave trade in 1839 (papal bull In Supremo Apostolatus
In Supremo Apostolatus
In Supremo Apostolatus is a papal bull issued by Pope Gregory XVI regarding the institution of slavery. Issued on December 3, 1839 as a result of a broad consultation among the College of Cardinals, the bull resoundingly denounces both the slave trade and the continuance of the institution of...
), and approved the ordination of native clergy in spite of government racism.
Africa
By the close of the 19th century, new technologies and superior weaponry had allowed European powers to gain control of most of the African interior. The new rulers introduced a cash economy which required African people to become literate, and so created a great demand for schools. At the time, the only possibility open to Africans for a western education was through Christian missionaries. Catholic missionaries followed colonial governments into Africa, and built schools, monasteries, and churches.Russian Orthodox Church in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, expressed in the motto, Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Populism, of the late Russian Empire. At the same time, it was placed under the control of the Tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
by the Church reform of Peter I
Church reform of Peter I
The Church reform of Peter I introduced what some believe was a period of Caesaropapism in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, when the church apparatus effectively became a department of state.-Background:...
in the 18th century. Its governing body was the Most Holy Synod
Most Holy Synod
The Most Holy Governing Synod was the highest governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church between 1721 and 1918, when the Patriarchate was restored. The jurisdiction of the Most Holy Synod extended over every kind of ecclesiastical question and over some that are partly secular.The Synod was...
, which was run by an official (titled Ober-Procurator) appointed by the Tsar himself.
The church was involved in the various campaigns of russification
Russification
Russification is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attributes by non-Russian communities...
, and accused of involvement in anti-Jewish pogroms. In the case of anti-Semitism and the anti-Jewish pogroms, no evidence is given of the direct participation of the church, and many Russian Orthodox clerics, including senior hierarchs, openly defended persecuted Jews, at least from the second half of the 19th century. Also, the Church has no official position on Judaism as such.
The Church, like the Tsarist state, was seen as an enemy of the people by the Bolsheviks and other Russian revolutionaries.
See also
- History of ChristianityHistory of ChristianityThe history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, its followers and the Church with its various denominations, from the first century to the present. Christianity was founded in the 1st century by the followers of Jesus of Nazareth who they believed to be the Christ or chosen one of God...
- History of ProtestantismHistory of ProtestantismThe Protestant Reformation of the early 16th century was an attempt to reform the Catholic Church.German theologian Martin Luther wrote his Ninety-Five Theses on the sale of indulgences in 1517. Parallel to events in Germany, a movement began in Switzerland under the leadership of Ulrich Zwingli...
- History of the Roman Catholic Church#Industrial age
- History of the Eastern Orthodox ChurchHistory of the Eastern Orthodox ChurchThe Eastern Orthodox Churches trace their roots back to the Apostles and Jesus Christ. Apostolic succession established the seats of Patriarchy...
- History of Christian theology#Modern Christian theology
- History of Oriental OrthodoxyHistory of Oriental OrthodoxyOriental Orthodoxy is the communion of Eastern Christian Churches that recognize only three ecumenical councils — the First Council of Nicaea, the First Council of Constantinople and the Council of Ephesus. They reject the dogmatic definitions of the Council of Chalcedon...
- Timeline of the English Reformation
- Timeline of Christianity#19th century
- Timeline of Christian missions#1800 to 1849
- Timeline of the Roman Catholic Church#19th century
- Chronological list of saints and blesseds in the 19th century
- 19th century19th centuryThe 19th century was a period in history marked by the collapse of the Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Holy Roman and Mughal empires...
- Timeline of 19th century Muslim historyTimeline of 19th century Muslim history-19th century :* 1803: Shah Abdul Aziz bin Muhammad bin Saud assassinated by a Shi'a fanatic. Shah Shuja proclaimed as King of Afghanistan.* 1805: Saud bin Abdul Aziz captured Medina defeating the Ottoman Empire garrison....
External links
- History of Christianity Reading Room: Extensive online resources for the study of global church history (Tyndale Seminary).
- Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Christianity in History
- Church History in the 1911 Encyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
- Historical Christianity, A time line with references to the descendants of the early church.
| History of Christianity History of Christianity The history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, its followers and the Church with its various denominations, from the first century to the present. Christianity was founded in the 1st century by the followers of Jesus of Nazareth who they believed to be the Christ or chosen one of God... : Modern Christianity |
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| Preceded by: Christianity in the 18th century Christianity in the 18th century -Revivalism:Revivalism refers to the Calvinist and Wesleyan revival, called the Great Awakening, in North America which saw the development of evangelical Congregationalist, Presbyterian, Baptist, and new Methodist churches.... |
19th Century 19th century The 19th century was a period in history marked by the collapse of the Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Holy Roman and Mughal empires... |
Followed by: Christianity in the 20th century Christianity in the 20th century Christianity in the 20th century was characterized by an accelerating secularization of Western society.Christian ecumenism grew in importance, beginning at the Edinburgh Missionary Conference in 1910, and accelerated after the Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church, The Liturgical... |
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