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Forgotten Legacy: the Historical Theology of the "Christian" Component of the United Church of Christ by Willis Elliott

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Forgotten Legacy: the Historical Theology of the 2344 25 July 89 ELLIOTT THINKSHEETS FRAGMENT OF AMERICAN CHURCH HISTORY: 309 L.Eliz.Dr., Craigville, MA 02636 Phone 508.775.8008 Noncommercial reproduction permitted THE "CHRISTIAN" CAMPMEETING ASSOCIATION_OF THE "CHRISTIAN CONNECTION" CHURCHES, FOUNDER-HOLDER OF CRAIGVILLE (MA) As from time to time I'm called on to talk about our Craigville origins & provide a memento of the occasion, here's an article on the thinking behind this one of the many campmeetings that sprang up in America before, & especially after, the Civil War. The article first appeared in the Fall, 1.984, HISTORICAL INTELLIGENCER, The Historical Journal of the United Church of Christ. HISTORICAL NOTE: The article was a speech at the opening event of the first annual Craigville Theological Colloquy, the other speaker on that occasion being Avery Post, president of the United Church of Christ. Forgotten Legacy: The Historical Theology of the "Christian" Component of the United Church of Christ by Willis Elliott eing, it seems, the only animals in this solar system My assignment is a brief exposition of the theological B who can and therefore should think historically and (i.e., conceptual) effluence from the "Christian" move- futurally, we are gathered here, for the glory of God, to ment, specifically from the "Christian Connection" honor the ancestors and bless our descendants as well as strand of that movement. But since thought is dialectical to illumine and inspire ourselves and our contemporaries. with life, and since it is this dialectic rather than only the In this panorama of tasks, I have been assigned a small intellectual pole of this dialectic that can illuminate our bit of ancestor-worship, namely, to memorialize, among life and thought, life-and-thought vitally touching the four denominational strands so far in the United thought-and-life, it was obvious that I must give some at- Church of Christ, the smallest and the farthest away in tention to the life out of which that theology sprang and time,—the component that bore the simple name, "Chris- to which it ministered,—to what in ecumenese are called tian." "non-theological factors." And at the deepest level of Is anyone here a descendant or a member of a "Chris- preparation, I was aware that I must let God's Spirit tian" church, i.e., one of the churches of the "Christian touch my spirit through the living witness of those folk, Connection" merging in 1931 with the Congregationlists the "Christians," who are now the least visible of the and thus in 1957 with the Evangelical and Reformed to four folk who, historically, make up the United Church form the United Church of Christ?' of Christ. I was in for a surprise! I'd accepted this task without enthusiasm but obedient to our common purpose in this three-day forum. I'd planned to give two days to the Willis Elliott is presently Professor at Large at New York work: it turned out to be closer to two weeks by the time (City) Theological Seminary. His career has been a mingling I'd felt, thought, lived my way back into the Christian of pastoral service, seminary teaching and administration, Connection's life and thought. I'm eager to share my dis- and denominational responsibilities (especially on the United coveries with you, beginning with a few historical notes. Church Board for Homeland Ministries). Since 1980 he has been a free lance spiritual director, retreat leader, interim 1. I go with the wag who said that America is the only pastor, lecturer and author. His paper was originally pre- nation founded on a good idea. Political protestantism sented at the Craigville (Massachusetts) Colloquy on "The was half the good idea: it was a good idea, at that mo- United Church of Christ as a Confessing Church Today," ment in the development of European civilization, to be- May 14-16th, 1984. gin afresh,—as our Great Seal says, with "a new order 9 of the ages," free of the trammels of traditional hier- scholar-educator-administrator, Austin Craig,' who had archic political power and authority. The other half of the already founded a number of colleges (including Antioch, good idea was religious protestantism: it was a good idea where he succeeded Horace Mann as president) as well to release and foster the spirit of independency from both as a seminary, now defunct, which Craig also served as theological dogmatism and ecclesiastical tyranny and for the first president. both equal access to the word of God in interpreting and 5. Why did the churches loyal to the Christian Connec- living leveler or democratic church-government. So, soon tion refuse to join with the Disciples? The reasons consti- after our American Constitutional Convention, the fierce tute a negative definition of their conceptual independency of the country, and especially of the fron- ("theological") stance: tier, showed itself south and west of the Puritan center of a. They saw Alexander Campbell as a sectarian both in Americanism (viz., New England) and west of the En- spirit and in effect, and thus a violator of "Christian" lightenment center of Americanism (viz., the Mid-Atlan- inclusivism. tic region). b. The Disciples were seen as corrupters of the restora- 2. Four movements, independent of one another, re- tionist or primitivistic vision, as re-adders of 'the tradi- fused any other self-designation than "Christian": tions of men.' a. In 1792, James O'Kelley led a breakaway from the c. They claimed that Alexander Campbell distorted Methodists. The issues: the power of bishops and the Scripture, destroying (in favor of the New Testament) use of creeds and disciplines. (For a year, they called the Puritan-Pilgrim Old Testament/New Testament bal- themselves "Republican Methodists.") ance, and on that basis creating what he called a b. In 1801, Abner Jones broke away from the Baptists, "law" for Christian thinking, worshipping, and living. probably because their Calvinism was inimical to re- d. They claimed that the Disciples read legalistically vivalism but also because their self-designation as their hermeneutical principle, "Where the Scriptures "Baptist" was inimical to the primitivistic insistence speak, we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we that only "Christian" be used as the self-designation of are silent." Thus, the Disciples allowed no musical in- Jesus-followers. struments in worship, for such are not mentioned in the c. In 1803, Barton W. Stone led the "New Light" re- New Testament, and for the same reason forbade mis- volt out away from the Presbyterians over both doc- sionary societies. trine and discipline. e. They argued that the Disciples were doubly rigoris- d. In 1809, Thomas Campbell (rebel Presbyterian from tic on baptism, insisting both that it be of believers Scotland) began what became first "The Christian As- only and by immersion only, and that it is necessary sociation" (to be distinguished from the "Christian for the remission of sins. Connection," roughly a merger of the first three move- f. They objected that the Disciples were at that time ments) and then in 1832 "The Disciples of Christ." (1832) radically laicistic, insisting that the ordained Campbell's son, Alexander, when he arrived from ministry was in no sense above the laity and not to Scotland, took over and pushed the movement into a bear the title "reverend." denomination, in contradiction of his father's vision. g. They objected to the Disciples' insistence that the This fourth movement, while at the beginning agreeing Lord's Supper be served each Lord's Day (never using with the other three that there should be no designation the word "Sabbath" for Sunday, for "Sabbath" was other than "Christian," yielded finally to the optional the term used in the Old Testament dispensation). term "Disciples" (and subsequent splinters off the Dis- h. Under the domination of Alexander Campbell, who ciples, especially many individual congregations, re- as an Edinburgh University student became a rationalist verted to "Christian" only, or chose "The Church of in the tradition of John Locke and the Scottish philoso- Christ," a name often now confused—horrendously!— phers, the Disciples were intellectualistic, a mental with "the UNITED Church of Christ"). condition to which the Christian Connection churches, 3. In 1820, the first three of these movements co- with their latitudinarianism, were allergic. For the alesced. In 1832, many of their congregations joined (and Christian Connection folk, faith was a merger of feel- disappeared into) the Disciples. Most of the others in ing and reason, not just the mind's assent to plausible- 1931 joined with (and disappeared into) the Congrega- credible testimony (this latter a rationalism which led tionalists to become the "Congregational and Christian Disciples increasingly to look with caution at the phe- Churches" or just the "Congregational Christian nomenon of American-frontier revivalism). 3 Churches." i. The Christian Connection folk disagreed with the 4. In 1871, the churches loyal to the "Christian Con- Disciples' theology, especially its trinitarianism, be- nection" founded a camp meeting, first called "Camp cause it was cast in the mold of eighteenth century Christian." Then in 1882, when it got a post office, the Christian rationalism. The teaching accepted by the camp was renamed "Craigville" after the eminent saint- churches of the Connection was that Father, Son, and 10 Spirit should be interconnected according to the free- 2. The sufficiency of Scripture as literary authority for dom of the New Testament, and not rigidified a la the faith and practice, without the addition of any other liter- ancient creeds, which reflected the polemic-apologetic ature, comprises the second principle. The first sentence needs of the Hellenistic context but which, with the of our U.C.C.
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