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Church History: American Restoration Movement

Church History: American Restoration Movement. Surveying 1500 Years March 5, 2014. Rome. Introduction: understand the development of thought patterns as background for understanding the European Reformation Roman thinking was shaped by Greek thinking

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Church History: American Restoration Movement

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  1. Church History: American Restoration Movement Surveying 1500 Years March 5, 2014

  2. Rome • Introduction: understand the development of thought patterns as background for understanding the European Reformation • Roman thinking was shaped by Greek thinking • The absolute, universal value system of the Christians was a threat • Constantine, 313 A.D., 381 A.D. • Rome fell because it lacked a sufficient base upon which to build society

  3. Middle Ages • ~500 A.D. to 1400 A.D. • Social, political and intellectual turmoil • Developing concept of spirituality set aside realism • Distortions of biblical teaching, increasing humanistic elements • Mixing of the secular and the Christian, integration of church and state • Questions of authority (state, church, Bible) • Church-state conflicts led to limited, responsible government • Syncretism of thought

  4. Renaissance • Renaissance, “rebirth,” reached height in 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, but roots are earlier • Philosophical changes with Aquinas (b. 1225) • Plato and Aristotle contrasted • Plato: absolutes-ideals, separated from the real • Higher, God, grace, unseen, unity of universals • Aristotle: real-particulars, individual • Lower, created, natural, visible, diversity • Faith in man as capable of solving everything

  5. Summary of Unresolved Questions • The possibility of an absolute, objective value system not based on the ability to think, observe, or experience • The relationship between church and state • The separation or integration of the spiritual (including the Bible) and the secular (including humanistic elements) • The nature of the authority of the Bible (must it be mediated? through the church, or through human thought and analysis?) • The alliance or conflict between philosophy and theology • The church was slow to study itself and develop an ecclesiology • The capacity or incapacity of humankind, and the related question of whether or to what extent human being participate or cooperate in salvation.

  6. Church History: American Restoration Movement The European Reformation: A Survey March 12, 2014

  7. Summary of Unresolved Questions • The possibility of an absolute, objective value system not based on the ability to think, observe, or experience • The relationship between church and state • The separation or integration of the spiritual (including the Bible) and the secular (including humanistic elements) • The nature of the authority of the Bible (must it be mediated? through the church, or through human thought and analysis?) • The alliance or conflict between philosophy and theology • The church was slow to study itself and develop an ecclesiology • The capacity or incapacity of humankind, and the related question of whether or to what extent human being participate or cooperate in salvation.

  8. Reformation • Renaissance OR Reformation? Two answers to same problem—capable or incapable man? • Contributions of Wycliffe, Huss, Luther • Positives of the Reformation • Bible has authority • Cannot begin with or depend on mankind • Some awareness of biblical distortions • Negatives of the Reformation • Reformation branches: Luther, Calvin (Zwingli, Knox), Anglicans, Radical-Anabaptists, Spiritualists)

  9. Politics • Return to Bible brought political freedom • A moral base provided freedom without chaos • Government is not arbitrary • Samuel Rutherford, Lex Rex • John Witherspoon • John Locke • Society is judged by an external, objective standard

  10. Enlightenment • Merriam-Webster: “a movement of the 18th century that stressed the belief that science and logic give people more knowledge and understanding than tradition and religion”

  11. Church History: American Restoration Movement Early U.S. church history Early Restoration longings and efforts March 26, 2014

  12. Summary of Unresolved Questions • The possibility of an absolute, objective value system not based on the ability to think, observe, or experience • The relationship between church and state • The separation or integration of the spiritual (including the Bible) and the secular (including humanistic elements) • The nature of the authority of the Bible (must it be mediated? through the church, or through human thought and analysis?) • The alliance or conflict between philosophy and theology • The church was slow to study itself and develop an ecclesiology • The capacity or incapacity of humankind, and the related question of whether or to what extent human being participate or cooperate in salvation.

  13. The Early American Context • An English settlement • Predominantly Protestant • Transplanted churches • Increasing importance of the laity • Breakdown of parish system • Increasing focus on preaching

  14. The Great Awakening • Locally autonomous churches • Revivalism naturally conflicts with Calvinism • Head/heart: changed beliefs or changed lives • Challenges to authority • Unity valued—distinctions renounced

  15. Second Great Awakening • “Civic” religion • Great waves of revivals • The theological dividing point • Presbyterian secessions

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