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In this issue, we’ve looked at how Christianity influenced the Revolutionary War. Now we turn to the next question, How did the war influence the American church? And where do we see its impact still today? To help us think about these questions, Christian History spoke with Mark Noll, professor of history at Wheaton College (Illinois). He is the author of many books, including A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada (Eerdmans, 1992) and Christians in the American Revolution (Eerdmans, 1977).

Christian History: In the 1760s and 1770s, Christian faith infused the cause of independence with religious meaning and helped justify war with Britain. Did this religious atmosphere boost people’s devotion? For example, did more people start going to church after July 4, 1776?

Mark Noll: In general, the war hurt religious practice even though prominent patriot Christians lent moral and religious support for the war. Believers’ energy went toward the war effort, not toward building up the local church. In some areas, like New York, Boston, and some places in the South, arguments between loyalists and patriots split congregations.

Where fighting took place, of course, congregations were disrupted and some people killed. New Jersey, South Carolina, New York, and Philadelphia suffered most from warfare. (New England, surprisingly, did not; after the Battle of Bunker Hill, it was pretty much spared.)

One possible exception to religious decline was found on the frontier, in non-established churches. For example, Henry Alline, “the George Whitefield of Nova Scotia,” sparked a revival among colonists in that province who remained neutral in the war. But overall church membership probably declined throughout the 1770s and 1780s.

Which denominations were particularly hard hit?

The Anglican Church, which became the Protestant Episcopal Church, was devastated. On the eve of the Revolution, along with the Congregationalists and Presbyterians, it was one of the three most important denominations in America. It was the established church in New York City and several southern colonies. Because of its association with England, the new Episcopal Church struggled and survived only as a small, relatively insignificant denomination.

More surprisingly, the Congregationalists of New England suffered. In 1775 they were the largest denomination in North America, and given their support for the war, you would have thought they would have taken off.

That did not happen. Congregationalists, because of their Puritan roots, were more comfortable with social harmony and unity, and even insisted upon some degree of religious conformity. This did not suit them well in the new hurly-burly individualism of American life after the Revolution.

Which denominations did well after the war?

Two groups did spectacularly. First, the Baptists: They had existed in relatively small, out-of-the-way groups in the colonial period. After the war, particularly in the mid-South, the South, and on the frontier of the Middle Colonies, the fiercely independent Baptists exploded.

Second, the Methodists, who grew even faster: Methodists were a movement within Anglicanism before the war and had only a handful of members when the war started. Most Methodist ministers, like Francis Asbury, were, in effect, sequestered during the war. Afterwards, the Methodist combination of firm leadership and pioneering attention to ordinary life led to spectacular growth. By 1830 they were the largest denomination in the U. S.

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