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John Morgan and Finney were colleagues at Oberlin College and both embraced the doctrine of perfectionism. After graduating valedictorian from Williams College in 1826, Morgan became an instructor in Latin at Lane Theological School in Cincinnati, Ohio. During his time at Lane, the students formed an antislavery society. Morgan was the sole faculty member to support the student movement.

The trustees of the school—some of them slave-owners—were appalled at the student’s actions. In spite of opposition from the school’s president, Lyman Beecher, and from benefactors Arthur and Lewis Tappan, the trustees took action against the society. Among their actions were the banning of all extra-curricular student societies and the dismissal of John Morgan. The students, infuriated by this response, withdrew from Lane. Soon afterward, John Jay Shipherd met with these students to persuade them to enroll at a new school he hoped to establish at Oberlin.

The students agreed to come if several conditions were met; among them: John Morgan must be given a professorship. Shipherd agreed to all the student’s demands. Morgan accepted the invitation and in June 1835 began teaching New Testament exegesis and literature. At the same time Charles Finney became Oberlin’s professor of theology.

In the fall of 1836, several of the faculty members, including Morgan and Finney, began to stress the doctrine of perfection. Many prominent Christian leaders severely criticized Oberlin’s position. Morgan answered these attacks in the Oberlin Quarterly Review.

Throughout his 32 years at Oberlin, John Morgan, a versatile scholar, taught in every branch of the school. He corresponded with the traveling Finney several times seeking to influence him to return to his responsibilities at Oberlin.

Charles Finney was interested in the perfectionist ideas of J.H. Noyes. Noyes began to develop his unique theology while a student at Andover and Yale Divinity Schools. His theology contained two foundational ideas: first, Christ’s second coming had occurred in 70 A.D. when Jerusalem fell; the return was spiritual, and at this point in history, Noyes believed, the Christian Church had become “spiritualized.”

Secondly, based upon his interpretation of Romans 7, Noyes believed that at conversion all sin was cleansed from the believer; therefore, believers could reach a state of perfection in this life. Because of Finney’s increased interest in perfectionism, Noyes—who was receiving much public attention—hoped to include the famous evangelist in his cause. Finney wrote to Noyes, “I have often heard of you and your extravagances … I have learned not to be frightened if it is rumored that anyone has received any light which I have not myself.” After a meeting, Noyes was pleased that Finney did not consider him insane.

However, Finney changed his assessment of Noyes and his ideas. Followers of Noyes were often inclined to fanaticism. Then, in 1843, Noyes declared himself to be filled with the Holy Spirit and therefore entirely sinless. The result of his declaration was expulsion from Yale, alienation from professors and friends, and rejection by his sweetheart, Abigail Merwin.

Though discouraged, Noyes persevered, and in 1841 organized his followers into the Society of Inquiry, a utopian commune in Putney, Vermont. The goal was to usher in the Kingdom of God; among the means to accomplish this were: biblical communism, “theocratic democracy,” divine healing, male continence (sexual discipline) and complex marriage—whereby all members were married to each other. Six years after its inception, the Putney group proclaimed that the millennial kingdom had come to their community—they had achieved perfection.

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