(3), (4)

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2nd Awakening Movement

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Prior to the first Awakening period, Christianity existed principally amongst educated upper classes in New England and Virginia and was on the decline falling victim to secularization, enlightenment, and rationalist thought.  The beginning of the awakening movement during the colonial period revived Christianity amongst the upper classes but also started to spread the new evangelical message to lower class and rural people, not well served by the established churches, where it eventually became grounded and self sustaining with generally bi-vocational clergy that were not produced and trained by the college seminary system.

 

During the Late 18th and early 19th centuries most historians are of the opinion that Christianity again began to fall off especially amongst the educated upper class in the Northeast to be replaced by deism and rationalism.  This was inferred largely from the writings of Lyman Beecher and other academic sources reflecting a largely Puritan perspective (1 p. 58). Murray Rothbard summarizes this view of the era as follows:

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“The emergence of different forms of the Christian religion as the key to political conflicts lends an ironic twist to American history. For twice in the history of America, Christianity had virtually died out. The first time was in the early decades of the 18th century, when Calvinism had given way to the new Enlightenment trends of liberalism and rationalism. But orthodox Christianity revived in the 1730s and 1740s with the Great Awakening—a new form of pietist Christianity which swept the colonies through the revivalist and evangelical methods of intensely emotional and frenzied conversions. But then, late in the 18th century, Christianity began to die once more—to be replaced by the rationalist deism of the Enlightenment. By the time the United States was founded, it was clear that Christianity was giving way across the board—among the upper classes and among the general public.

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For the second time, however, Christianity made a remarkable comeback—and once again through a series of frenzied revivals that took place throughout the country in the 1820s and 1830s. These revivals, of course, were necessarily pietist, and pietism’s emotional and crusading tone and thrust began with this final upsurge of the early 19th century. Apart from a few Anglicans, there had been very few liturgicals in the America of the 1790s. Essentially, native WASPs were pietist; the ranks of the liturgicals were to be fed, during the 19th century, by Catholic and Lutheran immigrants from Europe (5 pp. 120-21).”

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He later went on to describe the protestant transformation during the 1820’s in contrast to Calvinism and High Church creeds, which he in both political and religious terms clearly holds in higher esteem:

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“Perhaps the most fateful of the events giving rise to and shaping the welfare state was the transformation of American Protestantism that took place in a remarkably brief period during the late 1820s. Riding in on a wave from Europe, fueled by an intense emotionalism often generated by revival meetings, this Second Great Awakening conquered and remolded the Protestant churches, leaving such older forms as Calvinism far behind. The new Protestantism was spearheaded by the emotionalism of revival meetings held throughout the country by the Rev. Charles Grandison Finney. This new Protestantism was pietist, scorning liturgy as papist or formalistic, and equally scornful of the formalisms of Calvinist creed or church organization. Hence, denominationalism, God’s Law, and church organization were no longer important. What counted was each person’s achieving salvation by his own free will, by being “born again,” or being “baptized in the Holy Spirit.” An emotional, vaguely defined pietist, non-creeded, and ecumenical Protestantism was to replace strict creedal or liturgical categories." (5 pp. 327-28)

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Alternatively it is possible that religious participation through the late 1700’s didn’t decline but just appeared to from the perspective of those who recorded their history. Rothbard uses the term “pietest” as being essentially synonymous with evangelical and makes the observation that the awakenings were necessarily pietest or evangelical, which is true as in liturgical protestant traditions coming to faith is more of a process. He also provides an assessment of evangelism that is from someone outside that faith which someone who is a Baptist or Methodist would tend to take issue with at least in tone.

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At this point with the impending growth of differing forms of Protestantism along with the expanding Catholic presence, it is important to try to define accurately but concisely what the major differences are. Although all Christians agree that believers are saved or made right with God in faith through Jesus, significant differences exist in person’s role in the process. Catholics believed that grace was received through the sacraments. Orthodox and Liturgical or High Church Protestants see coming to faith as a gradual process that may be but typically isn’t associated with a specific moment or event and, while not having sacraments, have relatively structured worship.  Evangelicals see coming to faith as less of an intellectual acceptance and more of a life changing personal commitment associated with a specific decision in someone’s life.  All require intellectual acceptance of certain core doctrinal beliefs but these are heavily emphasized in Catholicism and Liturgical Protestant traditions and those coming to faith must show a fairly deep understanding of this before being accepted into the body of believers. In Evangelicalism the salvation experience is emphasized and development of deeper doctrinal understanding is more associated with a discipleship process after coming to faith. The role of works with faith, largely associated with the book of James, is emphasized by Catholics and Liturgical Protestants but to a lesser degree by Evangelicals (6). While Catholicism and Orthodox and Liturgical forms of Protestant Christianity are well suited to be passed generationally within a family or a clan or culture, they do not present well to mass audiences of unchurched or unbelievers making them poorly suited for a revivalist type presentation. Evangelicalism, on the other hand, is very well suited to simple and concise presentation that is ideal for mass evangelism. 

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The ongoing revival process drove religious expansion in recurring outbursts.  Large numbers of enslaved people turned to Christianity which then became linked to their culture.  Women usually made up the solid majority of the attendees at revivals but there were some urban revivals that were predominantly male (2 pp. 55-57).  A consistent statistic throughout the history of the church is that women have always been and remain the dominant gender.

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While the Congregationalists, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians eventually adapted to the Awakenings, their initial responses were similar to established competitors in a market reacting to new emergent threats to their dominance. Adam Smith observed in 1776 in England that, “the Anglican establishment slept, the Calvinist dissenters dozed, and only the "Methodists" had fire in their bellies and brimstone on their minds. (1 p. 54)” This was true on both sides of the Atlantic and possibly more so in America due to the widely dispersed population.  While the clergy were educated, generally from Harvard or Yale, and were well established in elite society, they had little motivation to gain converts. The Methodists however did.

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One of the more basic methods used by the major denominations to deal with the Methodists was to block them from using public buildings to deny them a place to meet especially for revivals.  The more involved strategies involved creation of Religious cartels like the 1801 Plan of Union between the Presbyterians and Congregationalists. The plan called for unified missionary efforts in the west the Congregationalists would have sole rights to New England as an exclusive market area and the Presbyterians would have the area south of New England as their market region (1 p. 64). This, of course, failed because it didn’t address the real threats which were the Methodists and the Baptists.

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Methodism in Britain eventually slowed and barely kept up with population growth as a denominational bureaucracy developed around it (1 p. 68). In America, Methodists avoided these sorts of formalities and constraints and continued to grow at a remarkable rate and the key elements of this growth were the itinerants and the camp meetings. A notable itinerant preacher of the era was Peter Cartwright who was twice elected to the Illinois legislature. He recounted a story about his interaction with a Presbyterian minister that illustrates the cultural differences between the two groups. When he arrived in a new community he was asked by the local Presbyterian minister that he make no attempt to form a church in the neighborhood because it was in the bounds of his congregation.  Notably, he didn’t take issue with his preaching.  Cartwright’s response was "I told him that was not our way of doing business; that we seldom ever preached long at any place without trying to raise a society” (1 p. 64). The Presbyterian minister then said that he would preach opposing itinerancy and Methodism which had the effect of creating a vast crowd for Cartwright.  While the established churches, even after adapting to the awakening movement, never gained as a result of it, they indirectly influenced its direction in the North by shaping it as a political and social movement.

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The most famous evangelist and revivalist of the period was Charles Finney but he wasn’t as important a singular individual as Whitefield had been in the colonial period as the movement was largely self-sustaining at that point. Finney had been a schoolteacher and then a lawyer in New York when he had a dramatic religious conversion.  He closed his law office, became an evangelist, and by the mid-1820’s his revivals in western New York were nationally renowned events. Due to his education and background he stood out from the other itinerants.  Finney is seen as being a bridge between the older Calvinist high church culture and the upstart Methodists and Baptists.  In 1835 Finney accepted a position of Theology at Oberlin College which was newly established at that time (2 pp. 58-59). Oberlin would become a key institution in the development of progressivism.

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The area in Western New York that Finney was associated with, known as the burnt-over district, was the point of origin for some of the notable cults, communes, and other fringe organizations that grew out of the awakening. Mormonism, Adventism, Shakerism, Spiritualism, and the Oneida community all originated there (2 p. 59).  Adventism isn’t necessarily seen as a cult by mainstream Christians but other groups that came from it like Jehovah’s Witness are.  This area in New York was populated by Yankees overflowing from New England who mixed with other groups and the name was given it by evangelists who eventually concluded the area was fully evangelized and no longer a good market.

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A belief or teaching that came out of the awakenings and has survived largely to this day (although possibly waning) is that the new Evangelical churches were the true heirs to the early church and religion since that time had been corrupted. The church therefore was to go back to the practices of the early Christians before the faith became legalized and then generally accepted (2 p. 64). This is referred to “primitivism” and was sometimes supported by fanciful historical interpretations that attempted to create a continuous legacy to modern times.  This was unfortunate in a couple of respects.  First it effectively threw away a rich cultural legacy that created Western Civilization and served the interests of secular forces that had long sought to delegitimize and erase the Christian cultural heritage. It also further divided the different competing Christian groups who tended to see each other as their greatest enemies as opposed to recognizing a far greater threat.  The idea of freeing oneself from all history and tradition parallels closely the history of Marxism and statism.

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Christian Restoration

 

In 1784 John Wesley called Francis Ashbury and Thomas Cooke to establish and lead the American Methodist Church. Ashbury was the only officially recognized Methodist minister to remain in America during the Revolution and under his leadership the denomination grew from 1,200 to 214,000 with 700 ordained ministers. Ashbury established the Bethel Academy in the Allegany Mountains of western Kentucky which is about three and half miles away from present day Wilmore, Kentucky. Ashbury generally implemented a hierarchal organization structure in which he tried to implement more centralized control than some of his followers would accept.  With specific regard to the circuit he tried to control where they could and could not preach as well as managing their scheduling. This led to a conflict with one of the circuit riders, James O’Kelly that eventually would establish two different courses of American Methodism that remain very relevant into modern times.

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O’Kelly was born in 1736 in Meklenberg County, Virginia to a lower gentry family.  He and his wife and two children moved to Catham County, North Carolina in 1787 where he lived the remainder of his life. He was Anglican by birth but converted to Methodism around 1775 following Ashbury’s teaching and identified with Ashbury’s Methodist Society (7). O’Kelly rose quickly in the Methodist ranks going from an apprentice (minister on trial) in 1778 in the New Hope Circuit in North Carolina to a district elder over Tidewater Virginia and North Carolina by 1780 (7).

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O ‘Kelly’s conflict with Ashbury and the Methodist denomination started when he put forth legislation that would have allowed a preacher to apply to be transferred to a location of his choosing if he was assigned to a location he didn’t want (8).  Ashbury rejected this proposal and in response O’Kelly developed a position that it was against the will of God for one man to have authority over the churches.  On December 25th 1792, he walked out of the Methodist Conference and took about half the attendees with him in what became known as the O’Kelly Schism (7). This initiated a “pamphlet war” between O’Kelly and Ashbury and his surrogates.  O’Kelly and his followers referred to themselves as “Republican Methodists” with the term “Republican” meaning freedom which eventually led to the name, “Free Methodists” (8). In 1794 Rice Haggard, who was another preacher in the area, suggested at a conference in Surry County Virginia that the denominational name be dropped entirely and that they simply refer to themselves as “Christians” and various forms of this stuck (8) .

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O ‘Kelly’s theology was generally fairly mainstream for Methodists and American evangelicalism in a broader sense. He practiced communion on the Sabbath, held free-will offerings, and followed an order of service that generally followed the evangelical model derived from a Congregationalist tradition. He did not, however, insist on immersion baptism holding that sprinkling would suffice and he himself was never immersion baptized (8).  He was a fairly prolific writer although he wasn’t necessarily seen as a good writer. He also was an early Southern abolitionist writing “Essays on Negro Slavery” which were the earliest anti-slavery tracts written by an American clergyman (8). O’ Kelly’s major writings were An Appeal to Law and Testimony in 1820, Letters from Heaven Consulted in 1822, and An Address to the Christian Church under the Similitude of an elect Lady and Her Children (date unknown) (7).   He was wrongly accused of having Unitarian leanings   and his last work, The Prospects before Us in 1824, warned against the dangers of secularization and Unitarianism.

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During this general time period there were other similar breakaway churches in Kentucky under the leadership of Alexander Campbell and in New England under Abner Jones. Other notable figures in the movement included Barton Stone who was born in Maryland and ministered in Kentucky and Ohio, and “Raccoon” John Smith also in Kentucky.  While there was some association with dissident groups from New England, the restoration movement was generally concentrated in Kentucky, Georgia, and Tennessee forming the Southern Christian Convention in 1856. While it’s somewhat difficult to accurately count those affiliated with the restoration movement during this time period because the frequent name changes and loosely associated groupings, it was clearly smaller than the Methodists and the Baptists and was somewhat regional. Tracing the restoration movement through American history, it is largely associated with the Church of Christ. It is significant not so much due to its numbers but because it came to represent a separate strain of the evangelical tradition that frequently had different political and social views from other evangelical groups that, in time, came to be more closely tied to Christian fundamentalism and specific prophetic interpretations in the early 1900’s.

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Secularization and Collectivism

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The de-establishment of religion in America created a dynamic market place where organizations or providers of religious services had to actively market themselves to potential consumers and adapt to the needs, wants, and expectations of their market.  The biggest opportunity proved, as is normally the case in a market that is not well penetrated by an industry, to be those who were not already consumers of the product. The established churches had to learn how to function in a dynamic market place and were slow in doing this while the upstarts, who developed without state support, functioned as agile enterprises and low cost providers whether they consciously charted this strategic direction or not. Most would agree that de-establishment was probably the best and most important characteristic of American religion. Speaking from the time period, renown Presbyterian and Congregationalist (depending on the exact time period) minister Lyman Beecher, whose family members are spread across the pages of history for the next hundred years, observed the de-establishment was “the best thing that ever happened to the state of Connecticut.” Putting Puritan churches “on their own resources and on God” and brought about increased influence “by voluntary efforts, societies, missions, and revivals.” (9 pp. 252-3)”

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Yet religion is not entirely the same as for other goods and services.  It is intended to represent eternal truth which may, but doesn’t necessarily, align with changing expectations of economic markets.  Markets are naturally segmented, which, in a general sense, is the basis for a fundamental division in churches documented by Stark and Finke in The Churching of America as Sects vs. Churches. This is characterized by the degree of tension between a religious group and the surrounding culture and environment which the authors describe as follows: “To the degree that a religious body sustains beliefs and practices at variance with the surrounding environment, tension will exist between its members and outsiders. In the extreme case, well illustrated by the sad tales of Quakers persecuted in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, tension is so high that the group is hunted down by outsiders. When a religious body has no beliefs or practices setting it apart from its environment, no tension will exist. Churches are religious bodies in a relatively low state of tension with their environments. Sects are religious bodies in a relatively high state of tension with their environments (1 pp. 43-44).” The relationship of the members of a religious group to their environment will frequently change significantly through time, in part simply due to the life cycle of their membership, which then creates a tendency for there to be a sect to church cyclical process. Put another way, sects, if they are successful, tend to evolve into churches. This can be generally described as the process of secularization.

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Sects tend to thrive even in the worst of circumstances while churches tend to fall into decline. Cotton Mather observed: "Religion brought forth prosperity, and the daughter destroyed the mother."  Citing the danger of prosperity to the Congregationalists he went on to say, "Enchantments of this world make them forget their errand into the wilderness” (1 p. 46) (10 p. 215). Secularization follows two principal paths. In the first scenario, people who are offered little worldly hope within their society are drawn to the sect as providing a deeper understanding of reality and a hope beyond the seemingly certain hardship and death of this life. This appeal is to the outcast, the persecuted, and the poor but can also draw people from middle and upper classes who are in search of a deeper meaning or understanding and both these are featured in the Biblical accounts and documented history of the early church. In time, however, sects that do not die off will tend to become more accepted in their society and certain members of the sect will achieve some degree of prominence and material wealth within the society. This, in turn, diminishes the perceived value of what the sect offered in contrast to “things of this world” and the economic opportunity encourages conformance with society or, more specifically, the ruling class of that society (1 p. 47). This progression can frequently proceed in generational steps with the fervor of one generation falling to passive apathy on the part of the next and then to broad abandonment.

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A second path of secularization s through academia. This process can proceed extremely rapidly as churches, and sects that are in the process of becoming churches, will get clergy from seminaries, which are relatively few in number, and will establish common teachings, thought, and even cultural tendencies in churches.  For example, the teaching of a single instructor will be passed to hundreds of ministers in training which is then disseminated to tens of thousands of church goers all within a single generation.  Academia rightfully attempts to understand all aspects of the world around us but, in so doing, also tends to downplay the miraculous and this was an especially important point during this time period. Educational recognition further tends to recognize and stoke ego. This is specifically what happened at Harvard and Yale starting in the late 1700’s where the ministers produced by these institutions, who in turn became the supply of Congregationalist ministers, were effectively Unitarian and drove dramatic changes not only in that denomination but in the broader society (1 p. 47).

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The change in focus from a sect to a church can to some extent be explained by changes in market demand.  The followers of a sect may seek little more than otherworldly hope while the followers of a church are more focused on what the church has to offer their lives in this world. In that sense, the sect to church process is inherent to any time and would tend to be naturally repetitive. Yet this particular time period had some specific challenges. Secular forces in Europe, as opposed to developing within the church and related educational institutions, were external to it and represented in the developing Marxist philosophy which was largely built on enlightenment philosophers who protestants had frequently found a good deal of common ground with in opposing the Catholic church. Over time the increasingly secular and progressive American Protestant church in the North in particular would gradually adopt elements of this thinking. Closely related to this point, religion was increasingly being eroded by scientific discoveries that were appearing to support a highly mechanical universe without a need for God. Scientists were not necessarily anti-religious, in fact most were not, but discoveries in any discipline that would call into question scripture were readily consumed by those who would use it to advance a philosophical and political agenda. Most, but not all of these types, were not technical people but had academic humanities backgrounds. Although the topics change with time the process was similar to modern times where collectivists politicians, academics, and media opportunistically refer to academic science citing “experts” that are favorable to their cause while labeling those who stand against them as being ignorant and anti-science. The preferred experts either are initially or over time become tainted with agency and bias through social pressure and economic reward.

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The blending of secularism, modern science, and Marxism that was taking shape throughout the 19th century was reflected in the Communist Philosophy of Nature which was one of several foundational concepts of Marxism. Author W. Cleon Skousen in The Naked Communist explains the Communist Philosophy of Nature as follows:

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“To begin with, the basic Communist idea is that everything in existence can be explained by one thing—matter. Beyond matter there is nothing. Matter is the total explanation for atoms, solar systems, plants, animals, man, psychic consciousness, human intelligence and all other aspects of life. Communist philosophy maintains that if science can get to know all there is to know about matter, we will then know all there is to know about everything. Communism has therefore assigned to science the monumental task of making man totally omniscient—of knowing all truth—but has limited the investigation to one reality—matter. Matter is conclusively accepted as the beginning and the end of all reality. Communist philosophy then sets forth to answer three questions: What is the origin of energy or motion in nature? What causes galaxies, solar systems, planets, animals and all kingdoms of nature to constantly increase their numerical quantity? What is the origin of life, the origin of species and the origin of consciousness and mind? Marx and Engels answered all of these questions with their three laws of matter.” (11 p. 73)

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While secularism exists as a process, the events and conditions in the western world in the 1800’s acted as an accelerant.

 

Bibliography

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1. Stark, Rodney and Finke, Roger. The Churching of America 1776-2005 - Winers and Losers in Our Religious Economy. Piscataway, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, 2005.

2. Marsden, George M. Religion & American Culture. Grand Rapids Michigan : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1990.

3. Bureau, United States Census. 1850 Census: Statistics of the United States. Washington, DC : United States Census Bureau, 1853.

4. —. 1850 Census: Statistics of the United States. Washington, DC : United States Census Bureau, 1866.

5. Rothbard, Murray. The Progressive Era. Auburn Alabama : The Misses Institute, 2017.

6. Wagner, Richard Wagner, Kurt. dummies - A Wiley Brand. [Online] [Cited: September 6, 2020.] https://www.dummies.com/religion/christianity/understanding-salvation-by-faith/.

7. Allen, J. Timothy. James O'Kelly. North Carolina History Project. [Online] John Locke Foundation, 2016. https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/james-okelly-1736-1826/.

8. Harp, Scott. James O'Kelly. History of the Restoration Movement. [Online] Scott Harp, 2021. https://www.therestorationmovement.com/_states/nc/okelley,james.htm.

9. Beecher, Lyman. The Autobiography of Lyman Beecher. Cambridge Mass : Harvard University Press, 1961.

10. Ahlstrom, Sydney E. A Religious History of the American People. Garden City, New York : Image Books, 1975.

11. Skousen, W. Cleon. The Naked Communist Exposing Communism and Restoring Freedom. Salt Lake City Utah : Izzard Inc., 1958.