Total Truth Session 10 – How We Lost Our Minds or When America met Christianity – Guess who won?
James River Community Church David Curfman February – April 2014 History of evangelicalism in America
Feedback from Movie last week? Anyone seen “God’s Not Dead”?
Ever hear of George Whitfield? http://youtu.be/-z_aFD-EgbU Outline 1. Introduction – Truth 2. Two Worlds – Post Modernism 3. Other Worldviews 4. Ancient Worldviews 5. Cultural Mandate - Work 6. Morality, Ethics, and Religion 7. The case for God 8. The case for the Creator (Part I) 9. The case for the Creator (Part II) 10. How We Lost our Minds or When America Met Christianity – Guess who won? 11. The truth of Jesus (Palm Sunday) 12. What Next? Living it Out (Easter) Review: Goals of the study
Identify the secular/sacred divide Understand the worldview paradigms of most Americans ◦ Truth ◦ Morality ◦ Faith vs. Fact Encourage us to craft a biblical worldview ◦ Everyone knows the truth of God ◦ Critical importance that God is creator ◦ Word of God is TRUTH Liberate Christianity from its cultural captivity Develop questions to create an openness to the Gospel Unleash the power of the truth to transform lives How can we divide modern Protestantism into 2 groups? Populist or evangelicalism ◦ Strongest in the Southern states ◦ Baptists, Methodists, and Restoration churches (e.g. Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ) ◦ More Armenian and dispensational Rationalist or scholarly ◦ Strongest in the Northern states ◦ Congregationalists, Presbyterian, Lutherans, and Episcopalian churches ◦ More Calvinist and covenantal 1. Southern Baptist Convention: 16.2 million members 2. The United Methodist Church: 7.8 million members 3. The Church of God in Christ: 5.5 million members 4. National Baptist Convention: 5.0 million members 5. Evangelical Lutheran Church, U.S.A.: 4.5 million members 6. National Baptist Convention of America: 3.5 million members 7. Assemblies of God: 2.9 million members 8. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): 2.8 million members 9. African Methodist Episcopal Church: 2.5 million members 10. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America: 2.5 million members 11. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS): 2.3 million members 12. The Episcopal Church: 2.0 million members 13. Churches of Christ: 1.6 million members 14. Pentecostal Assemblies of the World: 1.5 million members 15. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church: 1.4 million members
In the last 70 years, what has happened to church attendance? Over the last 230 years, what has happened to church membership?
From Finke and Stark, “The Churching of America: 1776-1990” – How has state sponsored religion changed over the last 400 years? Puritan Calvinist Protestants State Churches ◦ Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, New Haven, and New Hampshire Church of England (Anglicans/Episcopalians) as State Church ◦ New York, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia Catholicism as State Church ◦ Maryland (officially neutral). In 1701, the Church of England was proclaimed Catholic colonies ◦ New France (also Huguenots) ◦ East and West Florida Colonies with no established church ◦ The Province of Pennsylvania was founded by Quakers ◦ The Province of New Jersey, without official religion, had a significant Quaker lobby, but Calvinists of all types also had a presence. ◦ Delaware Colony had no established church, but was contested between Catholics and Quakers. ◦ The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, founded by religious dissenters forced to flee the Massachusetts Bay colony Baptists, Seekers/Quakers and Jews made this colony their home. How has state sponsored religion changed over the last 400 years? How did we split into two groups of evangelicals?
First (1730-1745) and Second (1790-1840) Great Awakenings Emphasized personal conversion (“new birth’) Focused on enlivening the faith of nominal believers – brought individuals to a subjective experience of the savings truths of the gospel Now, the largest most active component of religious life in America Fastest growing Christian groups in Africa, Asia, and Latin America Which churches grew the most during the Great Awakenings? From Finke and Stark, “The Churching of America: 1776-1990” – Some denominations decline others grew rapidly. Catholicism grew mainly due to immigration What was the First Great Awakening (1730-1755)? Liberalism and complacency were prevalent Charles and John Wesley laid the foundation Jonathan Edwards - “Our people do not so much need to have their heads stored, as to have their hearts touched” (one of the few preachers who maintained a balance between piety and rationalism) George Whitefield Revivalist style of preaching Created a nationalism that fueled the American Revolution, anti-Catholicism, & covenantal contracts between people and institution What was the First Great Awakening (1730-1755)? What was the First Great Awakening (1730-1750)?
During the 1st and 2nd Great Awakening, liberal clergy firmly opposed them – Reason vs Religion of the hearts Most of American history can be mapped as gradual westward movement of the frontier People moved toward the Mississippi river faster than social institutions could keep up (no schools, no churches, no local governments, not many families). Many were fleeing lawbreakers Evangelical preachers broke with tradition and began to press listeners to convert with little training in the faith What was the First Great Awakening (1730-1750)?
Preachers tended to redefine religion in terms of emotion, while neglecting theology and doctrine Pastors were no longer teachers but celebrities “Christianity is a felt thing. If I were converted I would feel and know it” – preacher James McGready Focus on individual choice and experience would eventually contribute to the idea that Christian belief is a non-cognitive, upper-story, phenomenon. Who was George Whitefield? Actor as a child New preaching style – “actor preacher” rather than “scholar preacher” He raised his arms, stamped his feet, acted out Bible stories, and wept aloud Best publicized events in Colonial America First modern celebrity – His ability to move a crowd based on personality Despite the overall positive legacy of the First Great Awakening, the seeds of anti- intellectualism were being planted. What was the Second Great Awakening (1790-1840)? God was not part of everyday life only eternity Charles Finney Richard Allen (founder of AME Church) Lyman Beecher and children ◦ Henry Ward Beecher ◦ Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852) American Bible Society (1816) American Missionary Society (1826) Strengthened abolitionist, temperance, and suffrage movements What was the Second Great Awakening (1790-1840)? What was the Second Great Awakening (1790-1840)?
Eventually led to the Civil War (1861), National Women’s Suffrage Association (1863) Led to more separation between feelings and knowledge Church authority denounced as “tyranny” Creeds and liturgy were “popery” and “priestcraft” Charles Finney denounced the Westminster Confession as a “paper pope” How was the society affecting the church (1790-1840)?
Many argued that the American Revolution was not complete. We had cast off civil tyranny; now we need to cast off ecclesiastical tyranny. Priesthood of believers meant “religion of the people, by the people, and for the people” Many African-Americans turned to the gospel as well due to simple, colloquial preaching. “Other denominations were so high-flown that we were not able to comprehend the doctrine” – Richard Allen, founder of AME Church How was the society affecting the church (1790-1840)?
John Leland took the concept of “self- government” from Jefferson and applied it to personal autonomy in religion “We will be free, we will rule ourselves” – Leland Christianity was not shaping culture, culture was shaping Christianity Language of the revolution began to be applied to the churches How did becoming a church member change? Traditionally, a long process: ◦ Learning scripture, creeds, the Lord’s prayer, Ten Commandments, and the catechism; ◦ Examination by the elders ◦ Submitting a written narrative of conversion ◦ Investigation by the elders who questioned townspeople Revivalists assured salvation on the spot Doctrine of election by Calvinists (God chooses them). didn’t fit with individuals self-determination in other areas of life. The Arminian message fit their “Americanism” better. Self sacrifice to self interest What was the Second Great Awakening (1790-1840)? Opponents of the revival movement were orthodox Calvinists or Unitarians, tended to be Federalists
Supporters of the revival movement were Methodists, Baptists and tended to be Jeffersonian sharing an aversion to the elite. They supported Jefferson for President in 1800
Finney insisted that revivals had to be carefully staged “A revival is not a miracle but the result of the right use of appropriate means” (long meetings, good ventilation, good music) What were the results of the Great Awakenings? In every aspect of religious life, American faith has met American culture – and American culture has triumphed Evangelicalism has largely given in to the two story division that renders religion a matter of individual experience with little or no cognitive content John Wesley was followed by D.L. Moody, Billy Sunday and Billy Graham Presbyterians followed by starting “pastor training” universities that eventually became liberal, then secular, universities What were the impacts of the Great Awakenings?
First Awakening – ◦ 50,000 new church members in New England (pop. 300,000) ◦ 150 new churches started in New England
◦ In Philadelphia, Ben Franklin noted, "It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless and indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk thro' the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street.“
◦ A Baptist church in Guilford County, NC, grew from 16 to 606.
◦ Dartmouth established to train missionaries to the Indians. The motto on their seal was "the voice of one crying in the wilderness”. What were the impacts of the Great Awakenings? Second Great Awakening ◦ Saw the birth of Mormonism, 7th Day Adventists, and Church of Christ ◦ Attempted to reform society via abolishing slavery, encouraging temperance, sexual abstinence before marriange, and women’s rights ◦ Mostly new believers in south and southwest What were the impacts of the Great Awakenings?
The churches ◦ withdrew from intellectual encounters with the secular world, ◦ gave up the idea the religion is a part of the whole life of intellectual experience, and ◦ Often abandoned the field of rational studies on the assumption that they were the natural province of science alone Prepared the church to receive “Darwinism” Darwin’s effect on the truth
Darwin caused a shift from “religion as knowledge to religion as faith” “Science strives to explain the nature of the cosmos while religion seeks to give the cosmos and the life within it a purpose”- Arkansas Science Teachers Association (2001) “Biological phenomena, including those seemingly designed, can be explained by purely material causes, rather than by divine creation” – Evolutionary Biology (1998) Homework Examine how you think about your salvation and relationship with God as it relates to your experience and your knowledge.
Next Week The Truth of Jesus