DOCSLIB.ORG

Theology in America

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Theology in America Theology in America E. BROOKS HOLIFIELD Theology in America CHRISTIAN THOUGHT FROM THE AGE OF THE PURITANS TO THE CIVIL WAR Yale University Press New Haven & London Published with assistance from the Annie Burr Lewis Fund and Emory University. Copyright ∫ 2003 by Yale University. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Set in Sabon type by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Printed in the United States of America by Sheridan Books, Ann Arbor, Michigan The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Holifield, E. Brooks. Theology in America: Christian thought from the age of the Puritans to the Civil War / E. Brooks Holifield. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0-300-09574-0 (alk. paper) 1. Theology, Doctrinal—United States—History. I. Title. bt30.u6h65 2003 230%.0972—dc21 2003042289 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. isbn 0-300-10765-x (pbk. : alk. paper) 109876543 Contents Preface vii 1 Introduction: Theology in America 1 Part 1. Calvinist Origins 2 The New England Calvinists 25 3 Rationalism Resisted 56 4 Nature, the Supernatural, and Virtue 79 5 Jonathan Edwards 102 6 Fragmentation in New England 127 Part 2. The Baconian Style 7 The Deists 159 8 Evidential Christianity 173 9 Unitarian Virtue 197 10 Universal Salvation 218 vi Contents 11 Episcopal Theology and Tradition 234 12 Methodist Perfection 256 13 The Baptists and Calvinist Diversity 273 14 Restoration 291 15 Roots of Black Theology 306 16 The Immediacy of Revelation 319 17 Calvinism Revised 341 18 ‘‘True Calvinism’’ Defended 370 Part 3. Alternatives to Baconian Reason 19 Lutherans: Reason, Revival, and Confession 397 20 Catholics: Reason and the Church 415 21 The Transcendentalists: Intuition 434 22 Horace Bushnell: Christian Comprehensiveness 452 23 The Mercersburg Theology: Communal Reason 467 24 Orestes Brownson and Isaac Hecker: Transcendental Catholicism 482 25 The Dilemma of Slavery 494 26 Afterword 505 Notes 513 Index 597 Preface My intention in this book is to argue that one important feature of Christian religious life in early America was an extensive tradition of theologi- cal reflection and that this tradition engaged American writers from multiple religious backgrounds in a vast conversation that linked them to a trans- Atlantic world. I do not propose to reveal the meaning of America, to insist that theology preoccupied ordinary Americans, or to suggest that theological texts unlock the meaning of American religious experience. I try simply to show that Christian theology in America was part of a community of dis- course that stretched back to the first century and across the Atlantic to Eu- rope and that certain persisting themes and questions created a set of issues that reappeared for more than three centuries, drawing theologians from the nineteenth century into a conversation not only with each other but also with their predecessors. Among those questions, none was more important than that of the reasonableness of theology and of Christianity itself. More than forty years ago, my graduate school mentor, Sydney Ahlstrom, surveyed the history of Christian theology in America from the seventeenth to the mid-twentieth century in about a hundred pages of subtle interpretation. My book has a more restricted temporal range, from about 1636 to around 1865, but it expands considerably the scope, drawing mainly from 282 North American writers who represented more than twenty-five movements, tradi- vii viii Preface tions, and schools of thought. Like Ahlstrom, I underscore the trans-Atlantic context, but in my emphasis on evidential Christianity, rationality, practical- ity, ethics, denominations, persistent Calvinism, and the distinction between populist and academic theologians, I go in different directions from those Ahlstrom traveled. In his brief survey, Ahlstrom declined quite appropriately to explore what he called a ‘‘folk-theology’’ that he recognized as part of the nineteenth- century scene. In my account, ‘‘populist’’ theologians of various kinds promi- nently enter the picture. The historian must take them seriously because they created for themselves a place at the theological table and forced the academic theologians to take them seriously in order to counter their influence. While the term ‘‘populist’’ suggests for American readers a later nineteenth-century political and social movement, its appearance in this book recalls a usage current as early as the eighth century, when Alcuin, adviser of Charlemagne and abbot of Tours, cautioned against the proverb that the ‘‘vox populi’’ was the ‘‘vox Dei.’’ The appeal to the ‘‘people’’ as a source of authority became entangled with the medieval ‘‘plowman’’ tradition—praise of the religious insight of the simple uneducated plowman. The two themes helped form the theological landscape in America.∞ Even more prominent in this account, however, are the trained theologians who prevailed in the schools and in the early American denominations. I have written this book during an era in which most students of American religion have turned their attention away from literate elites, the history of ideas, the abstractions of intellectuals, and the activities of leaders. This turn has pro- duced a rich bounty of knowledge about lived religion, women in American religious communities, African-American Christianity, and ethnic diversity. It has virtually redefined American religious history. Yet knowledge of the theo- logical heritage can still inform readers interested in American history, early American religion, American literature, intellectual history, the theological disciplines, and religious studies. Rare was the discourse in early America in which theology had no role. Theological ideas have always had multivalent meanings and functions. They have expressed social impulses and group tensions, they have manifested the psychological dynamics of their authors, and they have provided slogans for maintaining group identity. The same language can change in force and meaning from one context to another, and no synoptic overview can excavate the multiple levels operative even in a local religious community. But theolo- gians have also brought to expression ancient yearnings to know the truth about mysteries that have puzzled the greatest intellects. They have tried to interpret the text of the Christian and Jewish scriptures accurately, to repre- Preface ix sent traditions consistently, and to rethink the language of a past era in chang- ing historical times. Even when I have noted how theological ideas embodied tensions with social and economic dimensions, I have read them as the ideas of people who were attempting to clarify the rationality of what they usually took to be a unique revelation. During the years in which I have labored over this manuscript, I have ac- cumulated more debts than I can ever hope to repay. I am grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities for research fellowships that en- abled me to spend two sabbatical years working on the book. The Pew En- dowment and the Louisville Institute for the Study of American Religion pro- vided funding for a third year of research and writing. Emory University gave me leave time to complete the manuscript. The staff of the Pitts Theology Library at Emory was consistently helpful. Eerdmans Publishing Company granted me permission to use portions of my chapter on Charles Hodge in Charles Hodge Revisited: A Critical Appraisal of His Life and Work, edited by John W. Stewart and James Moorhead. I am grateful, as well, to readers who have generously given their time to the reading and criticism of earlier drafts. David D. Hall offered both encourage- ment and incisive criticism at a crucial stage. I am indebted to the criticisms and insights of Robert Bruce Mullin, Conrad Cherry, Mark Noll, Jonathan Strom, Glenn Hinson, Kim Boykin, Ted Smith, Paula Shakelton, Michael Turner, Hendrikus Boers, Stephen Gunter, Gregory Wills, Philip Thompson, Stacia Brown, Paul Thompson, Liberty Stewart, Remalian Cocar, Tom Burke, and my colleagues in the Historical Studies program of the Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University. 1 Introduction: Theology in America For more than a century in early colonial America, theologians ruled the realm of ideas. America’s first learned class consisted largely of Protestant clergy, and the relatively small number of pastors who published books of theology, or ‘‘divinity,’’ attained the status of the most learned of the learned. Until almost the dawning of the American Revolution, theologians exercised a singular authority in American print culture. Until late in the eighteenth cen- tury, they were, in each decade, the most-published authors in America. Their position of eminence faded after the Revolution, but even throughout the early nineteenth century, theology continued to command respect in American in- tellectual circles at the same time that it provided a vocabulary that informed the lived religion of ordinary Americans. When the Presbyterian minister Robert Baird interpreted American religion for European readers in 1843, he could boast of ‘‘a vast number of publications in every department of Chris- tian theology,’’ and he might have added that American theological journals were the most scholarly publications in the culture.∞ Theologians were the keepers of a language that flowed over into other fields of discourse. Confident that philosophy, rightly construed, supported theologi- cal truth, they crafted most of the early American philosophical texts. They were the primary expositors of the new discipline of ‘‘mental science,’’ the chief proponents of ‘‘moral science,’’ and avid participants in the formation of ‘‘natu- 1 2Introduction ral philosophy,’’ which would eventually transform itself into natural science.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Excerpts from the Color of Compromise Jemar Tisby Chapter
    Excerpts from The Color of Compromise Jemar Tisby Chapter 1 THE COLOR OF COMPROMISE Four young girls busily prepared for their big day. It was September 15, 1963, the day of the “Youth Day” Sunday service at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and the girls, along with the other young people of the congregation, would spend the next few hours singing songs, reciting poems, praying, and giving encouraging messages in front of hundreds of beaming parents. The girls— Addie Mae Collins (14), Denise McNair (11), Carole Robertson (14), and Cynthia Wesley (14)—had just finished Sunday school and were in the church basement making final adjustments to their white dresses when the bomb exploded. The blast, which killed all four girls and injured at least twenty others, left a hole in the floor five feet wide and two feet deep. It decapitated Cynthia. Her parents could only identify her body by her feet and by the ring she was wearing. A newspaper report at the time indicated that all of the church’s stained-glass windows had been destroyed except one. That window depicted “Christ leading a group of little children. The face of Christ was blown out.” [* * *] Before the funeral, on the day after the bombing, a young, white lawyer named Charles Morgan Jr. delivered a lunchtime speech at Birmingham’s all-white Young Men’s Business Club. Of course, he had heard about the tragedy in his city, and this lifelong southerner jotted down some words about racism and complicity that would prove to be a turning point in his life.
    [Show full text]
  • United Methodist Bishops Page 17 Historical Statement Page 25 Methodism in Northern Europe & Eurasia Page 37
    THE NORTHERN EUROPE & EURASIA BOOK of DISCIPLINE OF THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH 2009 Copyright © 2009 The United Methodist Church in Northern Europe & Eurasia. All rights reserved. United Methodist churches and other official United Methodist bodies may reproduce up to 1,000 words from this publication, provided the following notice appears with the excerpted material: “From The Northern Europe & Eurasia Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church—2009. Copyright © 2009 by The United Method- ist Church in Northern Europe & Eurasia. Used by permission.” Requests for quotations that exceed 1,000 words should be addressed to the Bishop’s Office, Copenhagen. Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. Name of the original edition: “The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church 2008”. Copyright © 2008 by The United Methodist Publishing House Adapted by the 2009 Northern Europe & Eurasia Central Conference in Strandby, Denmark. An asterisc (*) indicates an adaption in the paragraph or subparagraph made by the central conference. ISBN 82-8100-005-8 2 PREFACE TO THE NORTHERN EUROPE & EURASIA EDITION There is an ongoing conversation in our church internationally about the bound- aries for the adaptations of the Book of Discipline, which a central conference can make (See ¶ 543.7), and what principles it has to follow when editing the Ameri- can text (See ¶ 543.16). The Northern Europe and Eurasia Central Conference 2009 adopted the following principles. The examples show how they have been implemented in this edition.
    [Show full text]
  • Defining Moments A
    Furman Magazine Volume 45 Article 4 Issue 1 Spring 2002 4-1-2002 Defining Moments A. V. Huff, Jr. Furman University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/furman-magazine Recommended Citation Huff, Jr., A. V. (2002) "Defining Moments," Furman Magazine: Vol. 45 : Iss. 1 , Article 4. Available at: https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/furman-magazine/vol45/iss1/4 This Regular Feature is made available online by Journals, part of the Furman University Scholar Exchange (FUSE). It has been accepted for inclusion in Furman Magazine by an authorized FUSE administrator. For terms of use, please refer to the FUSE Institutional Repository Guidelines. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Richard Furman (1755-1825) James C. Furman, son of Richard becomes a leading Baptist minister Furman, is the dominant figure in and envisions an academy that, in university history from 1844 to 1879 time, will "grow into a fully organized and becomes the institution's first college should wise and liberal president in 1859. measures be pursued." Reflections on the people and events that have forged Furman's identity through the university's 175-year history. By A.V. Huff, Jr. 2 Furman closes during the Civil War, although the female college remains open. ROM THE VANTAGE POINT OF 175 YEARS OF FURMAN'S HISTORY, TWO CONCLUSIONS EASILY COME TO MIND. THE PROGRESSIVE VIEW OF THE PAST IS THE MOST COMMON AT CELEBRATORY MOMENTS LIKE THIS. LOOK HOW FAR WE'VE COME, WE MIGHT SAY, FROM THAT LITTLE ACADEMY IN EDGEFIELD. AREN'T WE - AND OUR FOREBEARS - GREAT TO HAVE MADE SO MUCH OUT OF SO LITTLE? THE OTHER CONCLUSION IS A MORE TRAGIC, DETERMINIST VIEW: WE ARE VICTIMS OF OUR HISTORY, NO MORE THAN PAWNS OF FORCES WE CANNOT CONTROL.
    [Show full text]
  • The Inauguration of Thomas H. Kean As Tenth President
    THE INAUGURATION OF THOMAS H. KEAN AS TENTH PRESIDENT OF DREW UNIVERSITY FRIDAY, THE TWENTIETH OF APRIL NINETEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY TWO O'CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON ON THE CAMPUS MADISON, NEW JERSEY D R E W UNIVERSITY: A P E R S P E C T I V E Built by renowned scholars, supported by people of vision, nurtured by dedicated leaders, and located on a beautiful tract of land long known as The Forest, Drew University is uniquely poised in its history become a national leader in higher education, for in recent decades Drew has made innovation and distinction the watch- words of its identity. Drew's innovative streak may stem from its birthright. Founded in 1866 as a seminary for the Methodist Epis- copal Church in America, the school was endowed by Daniel Drew with what was at the time the largest gift to American higher education. The financier, whose early cattle dealings gave birth to the original meaning of " watered stock," managed the school's endowment through stock manipulations and speculation until in 1875 his practices nearly bankrupted the young seminary. That crisis necessitated administrative resourcefulness and faculty sacrifice to keep the school open. However uncertain its beginnings, Drew has since grown into a university whose programs--from the Bachelor of Arts to the Master of Divinity to the Doctor of Philosophy--are distinguished by an emphasis on intimate learning and teaching. Drew's three schools--the College of Liberal Arts (1,500 students), the Graduate School ( 350), and the Theological School (350)--share an insistence on academic rigor and a student-centered philosophy that has educated nearly 14,000 living alumni and alumnae.
    [Show full text]
  • Horn's Creek Baptist Church
    The Early History of Horn’s Creek Baptist Church By Bettis C. Rainsford Historian of the Edgefield County Historical Society Published upon the Occasion of the Initiation of the Restoration of the Church Property April 13, 2014 2014 The Early History of Horn’s Creek Church © Bettis C. Rainsford By: Bettis C. Rainsford Horn’s Creek is a tributary of Stevens Creek in Edgefield County, South Carolina. Its headwaters are near the Pine House and it runs and This publication is dedicated in loving meanders in a westerly and southwesterly direction some sixteen miles to its mouth at Stevens Creek. From its mouth it is approximately seven memory of: miles to the mouth of Stevens Creek where Stevens Creek runs into the Savannah River. Approximately four miles below its headwaters and twelve miles above its mouth, on a ridge on the north side of the creek, stands an ancient church which will soon celebrate the 250th anniversary of its founding. Founded in 1768, Horn’s Creek Church soon became the center of religious activity for a sparsely-populated area that stretched for nearly ten miles in every direction. It was one of two churches in the region, both of which had been founded by the “New Light” or “Separate” or “Irregular” Baptist movement which was a part of the “Great Awakening” of the mid- eighteenth century. When President George Washington passed through this county on his Southern Tour in 1791, the Church had already been serving the religious needs of the people for nearly a quarter of a century. In the decades following its founding, the population of the Horn’s Creek neighborhood grew rapidly.
    [Show full text]
  • VOICES from the PAST; VOICES for the PEW: History of Support of the Direct Linkage Between Trustees and the SBC Churches
    Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry Vol. 2 No. 1 (Spring 2004): 6-21 VOICES FROM THE PAST; VOICES FOR THE PEW: History of Support of the Direct Linkage Between Trustees and the SBC Churches Ergun Mehmet Caner Associate Professor of Theology and Church History Liberty University 1971 University Blvd. Lynchburg, VA 24502 Outsiders often assume that the president of the Southern Baptist Convention sits at the top of a denominational hierarchy, supervises a vast denominational bureaucracy, and directs the work of the Convention by a command-and-control system of authority. This is a natural assumption, for this would be the case in hierarchical systems of denominational polity. But the Southern Baptist Convention is not a hierarchical system, and no individual sits at the top of a denominational flowchart.1 In his forward to the author’s book on the lives of the fifty-two Southern Baptist Convention presidents, Dr. R. Albert Mohler adroitly notes the clear distinction of polity between the Free Church movement, in which Southern Baptists are found, and all other forms of external and internal ecclesiastical authority. We have no ruler. We have no owner. We are a voluntary cooperation of local churches, which have the singular authority to maintain their autonomy. As shall be seen, the trustee system was a systematic and conscious choice by Southern Baptist forefathers to maintain explicitly the direct linkage between the institutions we own and the local churches. As shall be further noted, any violation of the direct linkage between trustees and churches is a direct violation of Southern Baptist’s historical stance on polity.
    [Show full text]
  • Theo Spirit Vol. 5, No. 2
    TheoNEWSLETTER OF THE DREW UNIVERSITY THEOLOGICALSpiritSCHOOL VOL. 5, NO. 2, WINTER 2006-07 TIPPLE-VOSBURGH ‘06 EXPLORES DIVERSE CHRISTOLOGIES Photo by Shelley Kusnetz by Photo "Christology: Christ Across Confessions and Cultures." Four plenary speakers offered varied and insightful understandings of the implications of the life and work of Jesus based from their own social locations. Dwight Hopkins, professor of theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School, spoke on “Christologies from the Margins”; Catherine Keller, professor of constructive theology at Drew discussed “Jesus, Christ and the Politics of Love”; Schubert Ogden, distinguished professor of theology emeritus at Southern Christology Through Dance. The Ellis Wood Dance offered a dynamic interpretation of the Christological Methodist University, talked about themes being examined at the Tipple-Vosburgh Lectures through their “Hurricane Flora: Inferno.” “Christology and the Emergence of hristology, a subject that has this year’s Tipple-Vosburgh Lectures. Plurality”; and Anantanand stirred intense interest Held October 17-19, it explored Rambachan, professor of religion, Cthroughout church history diverse perspectives on the meaning philosophy and Asian studies at St. and popular media, was the focus of of Christ as it carried the theme, (continued on page 4) DREW LAUNCHES CENTER FOR Inside CHRISTIANITIES IN GLOBAL CONTEXTS From the Dean 2 Theo Admissions Summary 2 hose of us who continue to see Transdisciplinary Colloquium 3 TChristianity as a religion of the Jim Pain: Dr. Bread 5 “West” would probably never guess The Birth of Drew Seminary 6 that, in fact, its vitality has shied Remembering 140 Years 6 eastward to Africa, Latin America Drew Alumnae Break Bread 8 and Asia, as an increasing number of Continuing Education at Drew 9 scholars claim in recent years.
    [Show full text]
  • Textframe: Cosmopolitanism and Non-Exclusively Anglophone Poetries
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2019 TextFrame: Cosmopolitanism and Non-Exclusively Anglophone Poetries Michael N. Scharf The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3447 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] TextFrame: Cosmopolitanism and Non-Exclusively Anglophone Poetries by Michael Scharf A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2019 MICHAEL SCHARF, 2019 Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) ii TextFrame: Cosmopolitanism and Non-Exclusively Anglophone Poetries by Michael Scharf This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in English in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ______________________ _________________________________________ Date Ammiel Alcalay Chair of Examining Committee ______________________ _________________________________________ Date Kandice Chuh Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: _________________________________________ Ammiel Alcalay __________________________________________ Matthew K. Gold __________________________________________
    [Show full text]
  • The Role of Wesley in American Methodist Theology Randy L
    Methodist History 37 (1999): 71–88 (This .pdf version reproduces pagination of printed form) Respected Founder / Neglected Guide: The Role of Wesley in American Methodist Theology Randy L. Maddox Methodists in North America struggled from nearly the beginning with the question of how they should understand their relationship to John Wesley. There was always a deep appreciation for him as the founder of the movement in which they stood. However there was also a clear hesitance to grant Wesley unquestioned authority on a span of practical and theological issues such as the legitimacy of the American Revolution, the structure for the newly independent Methodist church, and the preferred form for regular Sunday worship. One of the surprising areas where such hesitance about the role of Wesley’s precedent for American Methodist developments emerged was in theology. While Wesley clearly understood himself to be a theologian for his movement, American Methodists increasingly concluded that—whatever his other attributes—Wesley was not a theologian! The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamics that led to this revised estimate of Wesley’s status as a theologian and to note the implications that it has had for American Methodist theology. In particular I will consider progressive changes in assumptions about what characterized a theological position or work as “Wesleyan,” when American Methodists acquiesced to the judgment that Wesley himself was not a theologian. I As background to the North American story it is helpful to make clear the sense in which Wesley considered himself a theologian (or a “divine” as eighteenth-century Anglicans were prone to call them).
    [Show full text]
  • South Carolina Historical Markers by Time Period
    South Carolina Historical Markers This list of historical markers is divided into the time periods as written in the South Carolina Social Studies Standards. Each time period lists the name of the historical marker, organized alphabetically by county. To read the full text of the historical marker, visit the South Carolina Historical Markers database at: http://www.scaet.org/markers/. South Carolina has over 1,400 historical markers, and new markers are added to this list twice a year. Colonial (Precontact-1763): Boonesborough Township (1763) (Abbeville) Broom Hall Plantation (Berkeley) Long Cane Cemetery (Abbeville) Crowfield Plantation (Berkeley) Savannah Town/Fort Moore (Aiken) Early Indian Trading Paths/The Goose Creek Silver Bluff Baptist Church (Aiken) Men (Berkeley) Beaufort (Beaufort) Goose Creek Bridge (Berkeley) Chapel of Ease (Beaufort) The Yamasee War at Goose Creek (1715) Ruins of Old Sheldon/Prince William’s Parish (Berkeley) Church (Beaufort) Berkeley County (Berkeley) Hilton Head (Beaufort) Medway (Berkeley) Pinckney Island (Beaufort) French Huguenot Plantation (Berkeley) St. Helena’s Church (Beaufort) First Land Granted in Calhoun County Area Old Monck’s Corner (Berkeley) (Calhoun) Mulberry Plantation (Berkeley) St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church/Parent Goose Creek Church (Berkeley) Lutheran Church of this Area (Calhoun) Biggin Church (Berkeley) Savany Hunt (Calhoun) Pompion Hill Chapel (Berkeley) Old Wappetaw Church (Charleston) St. Thomas Church (Berkeley) St. Paul’s, Stono/St. Paul’s Churchyard (Charleston) Old Jamestown
    [Show full text]
  • The Book of Discipline
    THE BOOK OF DISCIPLINE OF THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH “The Book Editor, the Secretary of the General Conference, the Publisher of The United Methodist Church and the Committee on Correlation and Editorial Revision shall be charged with edit- ing the Book of Discipline. The editors, in the exercise of their judgment, shall have the authority to make changes in wording as may be necessary to harmonize legislation without changing its substance. The editors, in consultation with the Judicial Coun- cil, shall also have authority to delete provisions of the Book of Discipline that have been ruled unconstitutional by the Judicial Council.” — Plan of Organization and Rules of Order of the General Confer- ence, 2016 See Judicial Council Decision 96, which declares the Discipline to be a book of law. Errata can be found at Cokesbury.com, word search for Errata. L. Fitzgerald Reist Secretary of the General Conference Brian K. Milford President and Publisher Book Editor of The United Methodist Church Brian O. Sigmon Managing Editor The Committee on Correlation and Editorial Revision Naomi G. Bartle, Co-chair Robert Burkhart, Co-chair Maidstone Mulenga, Secretary Melissa Drake Paul Fleck Karen Ristine Dianne Wilkinson Brian Williams Alternates: Susan Hunn Beth Rambikur THE BOOK OF DISCIPLINE OF THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH 2016 The United Methodist Publishing House Nashville, Tennessee Copyright © 2016 The United Methodist Publishing House. All rights reserved. United Methodist churches and other official United Methodist bodies may re- produce up to 1,000 words from this publication, provided the following notice appears with the excerpted material: “From The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church—2016.
    [Show full text]
  • Untitled Sermon, “June 1, 1800,” Abiel Holmes Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society
    ABSTRACT Gospel of Liberty: Antislavery and American Salvation by Ben Wright Americans understood and sought to solve the problem of slavery in terms strongly colored by understandings of religious conversion. In the early-eighteenth century, Great Awakening revivals fueled a new belief in the transformative nature of religious conversion. By the antebellum era, theological changes – coupled with democratization and sectionalism – prompted greater direct confrontation with social reform. Historians have chronicled the role of religion in motivating antislavery thought, but by privileging political action over religious sentiment, earlier work misses non-political manifestations of early antislavery. If we take religious belief seriously and seek to understand antislavery motivations, the question is not whether reformers were gradualist or immediatist in political action, but whether or not they ascribed to the expectations of conversionist or purificationist causation. While conversionists sought to destroy slavery through the millennial expansion of salvation, other Christians looked within, laboring to purify their own communities through coercive action. Imperatives of conversion drove ministers to consolidate religious authority in new national denominational bodies. Forming these bodies had the unintended side effect of pushing denominationalists toward social reform. This process added organized social reform as an additional religious solution, alongside that of conversionist millennialism, to the era’s social problems. In the early 1830s, the conversionist consensus cracked, and a new coercive, sectionalist antislavery took its iii" place. Conversionist appeals continued, but the antislavery of men and, increasingly, women challenged the causation of conversion and began to look to political agitation as a means of reform. Each stage of this progression shaped the worlds of American antislavery.
    [Show full text]