“Revivalism, Restorationism, and Reform in Antebellum America”

Document Type

Contribution to Book

Source Publication

Expanding Energy: The Dynamic Story of Christianity in North America

Publication Date

2-2024

Editor

Christopher H. Evans and Mark A. Lamport

Publisher

Cascade Books

City

Eugene, OR

ISBN

978-1-6667-3123-1

First Page

71

Last Page

86

Department

Religious Studies

Description

By the middle of the nineteenth century, white Protestants in America had many reasons to view their country as a substantially Christian nation. To be sure, the First Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1791, stipulated that the federal government could not legally “establish” any religion or particular church through providing it with unique recognition, privileges, or financial support. However, the First Amendment also promised that citizens possess the right to “free exercise” of religion. In an era of rapid geographic, demographic, and economic changes, white Christians across different denominations and sects—especially zealous evangelical Protestants—utilized this liberty and adopted new strategies not only to grow their respective churches but also to achieve their social and political goals. Their significant success resulted in antebellum America becoming a remarkably religious society. Both domestic and foreign observers regularly chronicled how the ideals of evangelical Protestantism seemed to dominant national culture. In the decades preceding the Civil War, the evangelical majority of white Protestants developed innovative tactics and exerted cultural power in their efforts to transform the United States into a broadly Christian civilization.

This chapter analyzes three primary, interconnected methods employed by these Protestants both to persuade individuals to become pious, passionate Christians and to Christianize American culture as a whole. First, leaders planned and promoted religious revivals. Evangelists inspired hundreds of thousands of conversions and commitments to Christianity, which fueled the massive growth of churches and other religious organizations that depended upon voluntary support as a result of disestablishment. In addition, despite denominational differences, recurrent waves of revivals in the first half of the nineteenth century reinforced common Protestant evangelical attitudes and experiences that helped to create a shared national culture. Second, many Protestants sought to restore aspects of early Christianity that seemed abandoned or forgotten. Those associated with the ecclesiastical restorationist movement championed church unity and doctrinal purity by calling all Christians to return to the primitive, ideal example of the New Testament church. The restorationist impulse also prompted other prominent leaders to insist that Christians can and should seek moral perfectionism through entire sanctification by the Holy Spirit. Third, Protestants created scores of benevolent societies and participated in reform movements that focused on a range of personal vices and social problems. While encouraging virtuous character and aiding individuals in need, these enterprises also enabled evangelical Christians to shape public affairs and politics according to their moral vision for the nation. Throughout the antebellum era, this moral vision often included millennial expectations that energized white Protestants’ revivalism, restorationism, and reform activities. They hoped and even anticipated that their efforts were preparing the way for Christ’s Second Coming and the inauguration of his thousand-year reign on earth.

Although evangelical Protestants had created the largest and most powerful subculture in the United States by the middle third of the nineteenth century, theological and political controversies undermined their dreams of establishing a thoroughly Christian America. The veneer of widespread consensus regarding the authority of the Bible, the importance of revivals, the need for social reforms, and millennial aspirations could not mask increasingly contentious differences. Debates concerning the legitimacy of slavery produced the greatest crises, fracturing the major Protestant denominations and revealing doubts concerning the efficacy of revivals and religiously based social reform. This chapter concludes by analyzing the limits and legacy of the combination of revivalism, restorationism, and reforms within antebellum American Christianity.

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