Related articles and links |  1 of 3

With the threat of denominational schism looming, the theologically conservative American Anglican Council recently gathered in Dallas to discuss a possible realignment of the global Anglican Communion. Earlier this year when the Episcopal Church U.S.A. confirmed the appointment of Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson as bishop of the New Hampshire diocese, conservatives were outvoted by liberals, who control many of the denomination's leadership positions.

In the constellation of American denominations, the Episcopalians are far from alone in facing this doctrinal controversy. Similar questions about biblical authority and interpretation threaten the unity of the United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, each of which harbors frequently antagonistic conservative and liberal factions.

Nor are Episcopalians alone in the annals of history, especially in the "Land of the Free." In America's open marketplace of religion, church splits are a frequent reality. In fact, the vigor of denominational debate today is reminiscent of the contentious mid-nineteenth century schisms, when the Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists split over slavery along predominantly regional lines.

Yet the starkest historic precedent for Episcopalians may lie with New England's Congregational-Unitarian divide during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. From radically different theological stances, the Congregationalists and Unitarians engaged in vitriolic fights over the legacy and inheritance of their predecessor—New England Puritanism.

Post-1776, Congregationalism suffered the social, political and economic aftereffects of the war. Political frenzy supplanted religious fervor as New Englanders contributed more of their time and money to secular causes. In addition, the free spirit of the era siphoned off a considerable number of Congregationalist adherents in favor of other religious sects, including the Free Will Baptists, the Shakers, and—a group rising within their own ranks—the Unitarians.

Among these groups, the Unitarians posed the greatest threat. Heavily influenced by German biblical criticism, Unitarians rejected doctrines such as Christ's divinity, the necessity of conversion, and original sin. Instead they encouraged adherents to cultivate their innate spiritual resources, which they argued would lead to an enlightened life. This rationalism had many secular supporters, most notably Revolution hero Thomas Paine.

For Congregational leaders, who adopted the traditional Puritan view of America as a "city on a hill," the grave situation in post-revolutionary New England threatened to corrupt the soul of their sacred nation and church. Seeing their nation floundering in its infancy, Congregationalists sprang into action. Though many elements of the far-flung Second Great Awakening did not take hold until at least 1830, the revival fires already burned in New England during the late 1790s and early 1800s. Congregationalism reclaimed its vitality through numerous education, missionary, and tract societies, whose two-fold purpose was to evangelize the frontier and revive wayward New Englanders

This Congregational movement's early leader was Jedidiah Morse, who relentlessly attacked the Unitarian rebellion-from-within. Still, despite revival and missionary advances, Congregationalists lost Harvard College, their primary training ground for clergymen, in 1805 when the school appointed a Unitarian to the school's critical faculty position. Considering the appointment a critical bellwether of the university's theological drift, Morse and other conservatives increasingly disassociated themselves from the Unitarians. They began leaving Unitarian-saturated churches in the hands of their opponents to found their own. They also founded an orthodox school, Andover Theological Seminary, to provide young pastoral aspirants an alternative to Harvard.

next page... |  1 of 3

October (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47