The History of Christianity in America

Transcription

1 The History of Christianity in America CH503 LESSON 10 of 24 John D. Hannah, PhD, ThD Experience: Professor of Historical Theology at Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas This is the tenth in our series on American Christianity. As of number nine, we have begun to consider the national period of American Christianity. This is a period that runs roughly from the end of the great era of the American Revolution to the end of the reconstruction era, which is dated in the 1870s. What I would like to do in our time together is this: First, I d like to comment further on the rise of the theological seminaries, because the names will be important to us as we come into more recent American Christianity. Secondly, I d like to take up the important topic of the second of the Great Awakenings that will sweep now the birth of a new nation. The first topic is something additional about the theological seminaries. I first tried to say at the end of our lecture last time something about theological training preparation for the ministry before the advent of our seminaries. I said that there were really four avenues that were available. For some, there were colleges that would prepare a person to go on and specialize. Second, there was private training that a person could avail themselves of; third, European training, or more practical work training that would be countenanced by Baptist, Methodists, Mennonites, and Dunkers. The need for the rise of theological seminaries coincides with the birth of the nation and the independence and patriotism that swelled up. So the need for theological seminaries boiled down to things, as you can see in your notes, such as the severing of old-world connections as a result of independence. The Dutch Reformed found their first seminary in 1784, which is called New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Jersey. The Moravians found Moravian Seminary in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, in These were formed largely, in part, because Americans wanted to be trained for the ministry within their denominations within their country. 1 of 12

2 There was also the problem of the secularization of the established schools. The forces that fomented the American Revolution, the reaction to monarchy, a host of factors also mitigated against the traditional training schools in secularizing them. One of the reasons for the rise of the Second Great Awakening was a paranoia, a fear of the clergy, as they saw the encroachment of the Enlightenment. Thirdly, there was also a shift from church schools to the emergence of the state colleges. As I argued in our study at the American Revolution, the birth of our nation coincides with the birth of a great secular state. There is no established religion in America which would make the heart of a Baptist cheer; but there are some subtle difficulties with that, particularly as deep secularization sets upon the nation. However, I am saying at this point that, as the schools are founded in the national period, many of them are state colleges which do not afford the rigorous religious curricula that was invoked in the Colonial period. University of Vermont was founded in 1791, North Carolina in 1795, University of Georgia in 1801, South Carolina in 1805, and the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in These were, by and large, secularized educational institutions, so that intense preparation for the ministry could not be had as it once was within the colleges. Of course, other factors include an increased demand for ministers and the westward flow of the nation, so schools would have to be founded in the West: Western Seminary at Pittsburgh; Lane Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio; McCormick in Chicago; Oberlin in Oberlin, Ohio. Now there was an increasing need for educational facilities that would be close at hand for young men to receive their training. Some seminaries emerged because of theological differences and schisms and polarizations within denominations. For instance, we have already said that Andover Seminary really one of the great seminaries of the nineteenth century and deeply influential in religious life was founded because of the perceived Unitarian defection that occurred at Harvard College. Hartford Theological Seminary in 1834 was a seminary founded in part by Asahel Nettleton, a Revivalist preacher, because of a protest of the theology emanating from Yale Divinity School called Newhaven Theology. There were also seminaries that emerged to continue certain theological emphases. Oberlin College was founded 2 of 12

3 eventually to perpetuate the distinctives of the teachings and passions of Charles Grandison Finney. Now you see, I trust, the chronology of the seminaries. What I have simply done is put some of the major influential seminaries in a list chronologically with the denominations that supported and buttressed them. For instance, the first seminary in America was New Brunswick Theological Seminary (Dutch Reformed), Moravian, Andover in 1808 (Trinitarian Congregationalism), Princeton Seminary (Presbyterian), Harvard Divinity School in 1815 (Congregational/Unitarian), and then a variety of others. Notice that some of these seminaries have an asterisk by them: Auburn Theological Seminary; Western Theological Seminary; McCormick; Lane; Oberlin; Union Theological Seminary, New York. We will explain the reason for that asterisk in detail later, but these Presbyterian schools are what are called New School Presbyterian Institutions. The Presbyterian community would divide in 1837 or 1838, polarized over theological issues into what is called an old school which will try to maintain traditional orthodoxy; and a new school, which will try to insert profitable innovations so as to enhance the acceptability of traditional Calvinism. Those schools that have the asterisk are what are called New School Presbyterian Schools. And, as I said, we will come upon them. I d like now to make a transition to the essential topic of our time together, and that is the second of the Great Awakenings that swept America. The Second Great Awakening, in terms of dates, can roughly be said to span the period from 1787 to maybe 1805 or It is a massive, profoundly deep, religious awakening that would sweep through the American nation. My thesis about the Second Great Awakening is that certainly the American Revolutionary period was a radical period. So how is it that if the American Revolution was so deeply radical, or at least radical, that the nineteenth century was a century in which Christianity was triumphant in the new American nation? What I would like to assert is that the Second Great Awakening was such a profound movement, a movement stirred up by the clergy because of certain fears they experienced that they felt threatened the very life of the new nation. The Awakening s fruit was such that those movements that the clergy feared that would threaten the nation were put aside. 3 of 12

4 By the end of the Second Great Awakening, the triumph of Christianity in America is so deep that, in effect, what you have is a binding of Christianity and state together into a unity that will last for approximately a century. So I perceive the Second Great Awakening to be a profoundly deep movement that has significant results, as we will say. Now before we delineate the parts of the Great Awakening, let me say something about the context of the Awakening, or perhaps subtitled, The Perception of Danger. My argument and thought is that the American clergy, as they saw events transpiring in French Europe meaning the great French Revolution, the great Reign of Terror under Robespierre began to despair of the forward progress of the new nation as a Christian hospitable environment. And that sense of danger is what will catapult the clergy into an earnest exercise of their spirituality, which will exercise them to try to bring about change. What I m saying is that in the American Revolution, as seen, perhaps, in the outstanding figure of Timothy Dwight, there was a lot of enthusiasm and positive assessment by the clergy that the Revolution would rid us of tyranny and bring in a solid Christian society. However, those dreams began to shatter in the 1790s as the American clergy saw the events of Europe transpiring before their eyes. In Europe, a revolution fought on the enlightened principles that spawned ours produced not a reign of peace and joy, but an era of bloodbaths leading to a dictatorship, to an extreme revolt against religion, to the elevation of a goddess of reason (the Parisian prostitute). And clergy who were always prone, obviously, to a bit of paranoia in their preaching began to feel that, instead of the Revolution producing a new nation if the forces of evil were not aborted, it would bring an era of tyranny and dictatorship. That s the background for my discussion. For instance, let me read a quote. Keller, in his book on the Great Awakening in Connecticut, says this: When formidable innovations in Europe threaten destruction to morals and religion, we perceive with pain and fearful apprehension a general dereliction of religious principles and practices among our fellow citizens. (He is actually quoting the General Assembly minutes of the Presbyterian Church of 1798.) A visible and prevailing impiety in contempt of laws and institutions of religion and an abounding infidelity, which in many instances tends to atheism itself, the profligacy and corruption of the public morals have advanced with a progress proportioned to our declension in 4 of 12

5 religion. And then Keller himself says: The advance of irreligion and indifference must be checked, the champions of orthodoxy chorused. The forces of religion met the challenge, with the result that from one end of the United States to the other, in all denominations, evangelical Protestantism appeared during the closing years of the eighteenth and early years of the nineteenth century in what may be called the Second Great Awakening. That brings me to discuss a few of the causes of the American Revolution. First is the reevaluation of Calvinism. The American clergy looked upon the rise of Unitarianism, the infiltration of rationalism, as particularly frightening. William Warren Sweet says that This era was the dark age of American church history. Religion was at a low ebb. Devereux Jarrett, an Anglican Revivalist in Virginia in 1796 said, The prospect is gloomy and truly suspicious and discouraging. Arminianism, Unitarianism, and Universalism is taking its toll. The American clergy began to fear that somehow all the effort involved in the birth of a new nation would be despoiled. As a result of this fracturing in the coming of what they thought was Atheism Thomas Paine in The Age of Reason, and the harsh criticism of orthodox Christianity there was great despair by the clergy. Another fundamental, perhaps, illustration of what I m trying to say is a Frontier Camp Meeting song that appeared entitled, The Methodist, in the songbook Hymns & Spiritual Songs of The essence of the words of this song express, I think, the fear of the clergy that catapult them into prayer and preaching. This song goes this way: The world, the Devil, and old Tom Paine have tried their force, but all in vain. They can t prevail, the reason is, the Lord defends the Methodists. They pray, they sing, they preach the best, and do the Devil most molest. If Satan had his vicious way, he d kill and damn them all today. They are despised by Satan s train, because they shout and preach so plain; I m bound to march in endless bliss and die a shouting Methodist. Obviously, it was written by the Methodists. Secondly, the impact of the American Revolution. We have already alluded to this, but I think it s the most fundamentally important factor if we are to talk about the emergence of the Great Awakening. As the American Federalist clergy in New 5 of 12

6 England saw the events of the 1790s, they perceived a grave danger. You must understand that the Federalist clergy were afraid of democracy. They were afraid of the power of the masses. They wanted to create a Republican form of government, not a democracy itself. As they saw the events of the 1790s, they saw things like the Whiskey Rebellion, a popular uprising in Western Massachusetts which the new president had to put down. They saw Democratic Clubs emerging in Philadelphia and Boston. They saw the frightful XYZ Affair in which a bribe was demanded of our delegates to get a hearing in the courts of France, and the Alien and Sedition Acts. Not only were events occurring that frightened the clergy, but a fundamentally important book emerged that the clergy seemed to up and read. It was by John Robison, a Scotsman, entitled, Proofs of a Conspiracy Against all the Religions and Governments of Europe. And this book, which was imbibed by such New England divines as Jedidiah Morse, advocated the notion of a secret, universally global conspiracy which he identified as the Bavarian Illuminati, or he identified as Freemasonry, of which Mr. Washington was a member; but little is said of that. The essence of this is that they attached because of the convincing scholarship of Robison s book, if not their own passions that the French Revolution was a sadistic movement that purposed to disrupt, overshadow, and abolish Christianity. So the American clergy had a great fear that the French Revolution was going to be duplicated in America, unless there could be some huge upswelling of attack upon Deism and Unitarianism and free thinking. The rise of natural rights philosophy, in part, really goes without saying. There was a great fear of the masses. There was a great fear of the re-publication of the works of Thomas Paine. These were all viewed as a danger. There was a fear of the people themselves that might rise up. Obviously, the masses increasingly had an intense anti-clericalism, particularly as the New England clergy seemed to fumble along. The New England clergy greatly feared Thomas Jefferson. They viewed him as a lover of the French, and his election to the presidency in 1800 created great consternation in New England. They greatly feared that the worst could possibly happen because of this French lover. Obviously, Mr. Jefferson proved to be one of the most outstanding presidents that we would have in that office. 6 of 12

7 Stress on liberty and individuality the clergy would view as a contempt of authority, both in the Scriptures and in the clerical office. Fifthly, the moral and spiritual state of the colleges. The essence of what I would argue at this point is that the spiritual life of many of the colonial colleges that were erected not so much merely as religious training centers, but were certainly deeply religious in the orientation of its curriculum by the end of the eighteenth century had become secularized. For instance, at Hampden- Sydney College, which had a capacity of eighty students, only one student had any religious affections. One writer, Thompson, a historian of Presbyterianism, says, There was not one who was known to be any way serious and thoughtful on religion. The students treated religion and religious persons with great contempt and ridicule. At William and Mary, an Anglican school, William Warren Sweet suggests to us that there was nudeness and infidelity streakers in that day, if you would. At Princeton College in this era, many complained of lax immorality. The greatest example, perhaps, of the decline of the colonial colleges and, in this sense, under the sweep of what they called French Infidelity, is the example of Yale College. Now it is at Yale and at Hampden-Sydney and at Princeton that there will be major religious revivals that will catapult those institutions as religious training and sending centers in the nineteenth century., But there was a student at Yale College in this time. Later the very famous Lyman Beecher records in his journal these telling sentences. He says during his day, College was in a most ungodly state. The college church was almost extinct. Most of the students were skeptical, and rowdies were plenty. That was the day of the infidelity of the Tom Paine school. Boys that dressed flax in the barn, as I used to, read Tom Paine and believed him. Most of the class before me were infidels and called each other Voltaire and Rousseau. The colonial college system was disintegrating into secularity, and at Yale, Lyman Beecher informs us, was the growing cloud of the influence of Thomas Paine. Keller says, for instance, The champions of orthodoxy in Connecticut felt that they had ample grounds for viewing the spread of infidelity as a plague and as a disaster for society. The Deistic concept of God as a Creator who let creatures move and have their being in accordance with natural law was offensive to belief that God was Judge and Father a Supreme Being who was always close to His creatures. 7 of 12

8 What I am trying to say is that as you read your textbook, I think it will become clear that as the clergy viewed the events of the 1790s, the optimism, the light buoyancy of the Revolutionary Era, shattered as a crumbling glass before their feet. And they perceived a horrible danger to the religious life and the continuance of the nation. That could be captured in declining morals, in infidelity, Atheism, Deism, and Unitarianism. They utterly fear for the life of the nation. Because of that moving concern, these clergy will be about the abilities of defense when they are dispossessed of political power. They will turn to prayer, and they will turn to preaching. The upshot of their deep concern will be a rather marvelous movement, deep and penetrating, with lasting prolific results, in what is called the Second Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening, as you can tell in the notes, is divided into two parts. So let me just briefly say something about an overview, and then I ll come back and give you some of the basic details of the Great Awakening. By way of a pattern for the Awakening, this Awakening is essentially divided in most of the books into two parts. There is what is called an Eastern Phase of the Awakening, and there is what is called a Western Phase of the Awakening. The Eastern Phase of the Great Awakening occurs in those colonial colleges that were becoming secular in their makeup: places like Hampden-Sydney (where the Awakening will actually begin); Yale and Princeton, for instance. So there is an Eastern Phase, which will begin in the colleges, and then there is a Western and deeply Southern Phase, which will be confined to what is called the Frontier Camp Meeting. If you look at the two transparencies, they will illustrate what I am saying. If you take a look at the two phases an Eastern Phase in the colleges, a Western Phase in the great camp meetings that will be the basic division, though that is simplistic. So the Great Awakening will begin in the colleges, and it will begin at a Presbyterian school founded in 1775 called Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. The essence of it is that in the summer of 1787 a college rowdy by the name of Carey Allen attended a revival meeting. And, lo and behold, he was so overtaken with religion that he fell prostrate on the floor, something of a faint or a swoon; and as a result of that event, he found peace and true evangelical religion. When Carey Allen returned to Hampden-Sydney College, he testified to the effect of the events to William Hill and James Blythe who both (apparently because of his testimony) came to 8 of 12

9 faith in Jesus Christ. A fourth young man was added to the group, and the four of them began a prayer meeting. When noise was made about the prayer meeting and people became aware of it, a humorous event occurred, in that the students not affected by the prayer meeting tried to break it up. This is the account given by Thompson, one of the scholars of Southern Presbyterianism. He says, quoting the direct source: Although we sung and prayed with suppressed voices, not wishing it should be made known what we were about, we were overheard by some of the students. A noisy mob was raised, which collected in the passage between our door and began to thump at the door and whoop and swear and threaten vengeance if they did not forbear and cease all such exercises in the college for the future. Information of this riot was given to Mr. Smith Mr. Smith is James Blair Smith, the college president at that time.. In the evening the college was run to prayers. So this is a religious school, but it had very few religious professors and many who were hostile to evangelical religion. When the prayers were ended, Mr. Smith demanded the cause of the riot. Some of the most prominent leaders stepped forward and said, There were some of the students who had shut themselves up in one of the rooms of the college and began singing and praying and carrying on like Methodists, and they were determined to break it up. President Smith realized that God apparently was doing something, so he began to preach and earnestly press the students to religious conviction. The result of that was the beginning of the Second Great Awakening. Now in the context of the Awakening at Hampden-Sydney College came a very pivotal young man for the Awakening in the West, who was either deeply impressed by the Awakening at Hampden-Sydney or brought to religious conversion or commitment as a result of seeing the events at Hampden-Sydney. His name was James McGready. We will come back to James McGready, because this dear man is the father of the Camp Meeting Approach to religion, which will be a vehicle for the dissemination of the gospel throughout the West in very prolific ways. The point I m trying to make here is that the Awakening began at Hampden-Sydney College when a relatively obscure young student attended a Methodist meeting and found peace and grace in Christ. 9 of 12

10 He told his friends, they met for prayer, some objected to it, but the college president sided with these few students. Through his preaching, a general awakening swept this Presbyterian school. In that context, James McGready was deeply impressed with the efficacy of revivalism, and this young Presbyterian minister, on his way to North Carolina from Pennsylvania, would eventually carry the evangelical message to Kentucky. And there he will invent the Great Frontier Camp Meeting technique. The Awakening then began to mushroom at Hampden-Sydney and, with ever-widening concentric circles, reached out into the environment, spreading from county after county. It appeared in Lexington. It appeared in Liberty Hall under the preaching of William Graham and thence through the valley and into southwestern Virginia. And from Virginia it will leap over the mountains into the West, the trans-appalachian West, under the pivotal preaching of this young man, James McGready. But before we go out West, I want to give you another example of a college that was deeply moved in the Great Awakening, and that college was Yale. Yale, in the nineteenth century, will have a profound record of missionary activity. There is still at Yale a hall called Dwight Hall, named after Timothy Dwight, who was the President of Yale College during the Second Great Awakening. Yale College as the testimony of Lyman Beecher seems to indicate while it was founded as an intensely religious institution, had become infected with the poison of the Enlightenment and secularization at the turn of the nineteenth century. An example in the South is the Presbyterian college, Hampden- Sydney. An example now in the northern states on the Eastern Seaboard is Yale College. The coming of Timothy Dwight, a massive figure in American religious history, begins our story of the Second Great Awakening. Timothy Dwight was the scholarly grandson of Jonathan Edwards, born in 1752 and dying in This man was a Yale graduate and later a tutor at the college. During the American Revolution he was involved in the Patriotic movement. He was a leader, and then after involvement in the pastorate, he came in 1795 to Yale College, where he was immediately impressed with the secularization of the college. He viciously attacked infidelity, which he felt resulted from contacts with European soldiers during the French and Indian War and the Revolution. Lyman Beecher gives us insight into what Timothy Dwight did. 10 of 12

11 Beecher says: They thought that is, the student body They thought the faculty was afraid of open discussion, but when they handed Dr. Dwight a list of subjects for class disputation, to their surprise, he selected this: Is the Bible the Word of God? and told them to do their best. He heard all they had to say, answered them, and there was an end. He preached incessantly for six months on the subject, and all infidelity sulked and hid its head. And that marked the beginning of the Great Awakening, which occurs in several surges in Yale College from 1797 through What I would argue is that the Awakening at Yale was a massive, deep, long-lasting movement that will turn Yale College away from its secular path to becoming a vibrant center for evangelical home and foreign missions in the nineteenth century. And from Yale College, the influence of the Awakening will spread throughout Connecticut and throughout New England. This story can obviously be repeated again and again and again on the Eastern Seaboard. In fact, at Princeton College, for instance, the Awakening was spawned under the able direction of Ashbel Green, the president of the college, coming there in He found the school in grave moral condition. Through his strong preaching, the enactment of discipline, and forced Bible study, a revival began to occur at Princeton in 1814 after Green and four students had prayed over a year for a work of God on their behalf. The result of the Awakening at Princeton was literally a massive awakening of religious interest. Perhaps another example of the Awakening is one that occurred at Williams College. Williams College was a Congregational school. A group of students from Williams College and Andover Theological Seminary met for prayer. The result of those prayer meetings was a great event in missionary history, which we call the famous Haystack Prayer Meeting. We will say more about that later, but all that I want you to understand is that the Great Awakening was a movement that began in part from the perception of the clergy in America that as they saw events transpiring in France, plus they sensed the rise of infidelity, Atheism, Unitarianism, immorality in the new nation if something was not done there would be grave dark days ahead for the new nation. The result of that perception was earnest prayer that God would visit them. The Great Awakening began first in the colleges on the Eastern Seaboard colleges like Hampden-Sydney, Yale, Princeton, 11 of 12

12 Williams and through that influence into the environs. The second phase of the Awakening, though not technically chronological, is called the Western Phase. This phase emerges in Kentucky under the ministry of James McGready. In the few moments that I have left, let me just say something brief about the Awakening in Kentucky, and then we will continue the story in our next lesson. The Awakening in Kentucky occurs actually in two counties; Logan County which is southwestern Kentucky, and Bourbon County, Kentucky, which is northeastern Kentucky. The key pivotal figure in Logan County is James McGready, this young man that was encouraged into the ministry by viewing the Awakening that occurred at Hampden-Sydney. The key figure in Bourbon County, Kentucky, was Barton Stone. The Awakening will begin in Logan County in 1798, when this young Presbyterian preacher from North Carolina, James McGready, was called to congregations out in the Cumberland region of Logan County: Red River, Muddy River, Gasper River. He realized that because the population is so thinly scattered in order to be able to preach to the people, he must gather them together. He will invent the Frontier Camp Meeting technique. I will explain that in the next lesson. I will summarize by saying the Great Awakening is in two parts; an Eastern Phase and a Western Phase. It will begin in the East in the colleges and spread to the environs and then into the West through the Frontier Camp Meetings. Christ-Centered Learning Anytime, Anywhere 12 of 12