Reviving the Ancient Faith: The Story of Churches of Christ in America (Richard Hughes & James Gorman) -- A Review
REVIVING THE ANCIENT FAITH: The Story of Churches of Christ in America. Third Edition. By Richard T. Hughes and James L. Gorman. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2024. Xviii +462 pages.
During the early years of the new
American republic, as the Second Great Awakening was breaking forth, several
religious movements emerged. Among them were movements connected to Alexander
Campbell and Barton W. Stone that arose on what was then the American frontier
of western Pennsylvania, western Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky. Both movements
were influenced by their frontier context as well as the Enlightenment
philosophical perspectives of John Locke and Scottish Common Sense Realism.
Both movements sought to restore the original foundations of Christianity as
found in the New Testament, minus the encrustations of history. Both envisioned
their work leading to unity among Christians. While the Stone and Campbell
movements emerged separately, over time, despite differences of perspective on
certain things, they coalesced in the 1830s to form one movement. In time, this
movement that included in its ethos a commitment to Christian unity would
divide, following different trajectories present in the founding visions of
Alexander and Thomas Campbell, Walter Scott, and Barton Stone (among others).
The result is at least three streams of that merged movement continue to exist
today, each with its own identity. Reviving Ancient Faith tells the
story of one of those streams, a story that illuminates aspects of American
Christianity. Thus, this is a “denominational” history that is worth pondering
whether one is part of that tradition or not.
This is the third edition of Richard
Hughes’s in-depth history of the Churches of Christ which was originally published
in 1996 and has now been fully revised and updated by James Gorman. As was true
of the original edition of Reviving the Ancient Faith, this edition is
worthy of a close read by anyone interested in American Christianity. The
original author, Richard Hughes, has taught at several Churches of Christ
institutions and now serves as a scholar in residence at Lipscomb University.
James Gorman has a Churches of Christ background but currently serves as
associate professor of history at Johnson University (Tennessee), which is
aligned with what some speak of as the middle stream, the Christian
Churches/Churches of Christ. As for me, the reviewer of this volume, I am a
minister within the third stream of the Stone-Campbell Movement—Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ). While I come from a different stream in the
movement, I believe that this volume is worth a close read even by those of us
who live outside the stream.
The Churches of Christ
“denomination” is known for its embrace of non-instrumental music and its
restorationist vision of the church. This restorationist vision involved
attempts to restore what the founders believed was the New Testament pattern of
church life. While restorationism continues to be prominent within the
movement, no movement, even a restorationist one is immune from change. Thus,
there have been significant changes in the nearly thirty years since Hughes
wrote that original volume. It is these changes in perspectives and emphases
that led James Gorman to work with Hughes in revising Hughes’s history for a
new generation. While I have the original volume on my shelf and have read it
over the years, in reviewing this volume I did so without reference to the
original edition. Though I will not be comparing the two, I can say that the
revision is seamless. Gorman has done an excellent job of making Hughes
original his own.
In revising Hughes’s volume, Gorman
does so with three goals in mind. First, he wanted to bring the volume up to
date, at least up to 2022, what must be considered the definitive history of
the Churches of Christ. Secondly, he brought in new scholarship that was unavailable
to Hughes, and third, he sought to reduce the overall word count. While he
reports not changing the major arguments from the original, he added nuance
from more recent scholarship. He also trimmed the notes and reduced the number
of images by half from the first edition, with most of the images being new. Although
Hughes's original edition had fourteen chapters divided into two parts, Gorman
reduced the number of chapters (merging some of Hughes' chapters) and added a
third section with three chapters that he framed as "Fragmentation of the
Denomination." While Hughes addressed the role of Black Churches of Christ
in the original volume, Gorman has expanded that discussion into a new chapter
(Chapter 6). The chapters in the third section explore the fragmentation of the
movement that began to take place in the 1960s and takes the story up to the
2020s. Chapter nine, which explores the story of the Churches of Christ in the
twenty-first century is, understandably, completely new, while Gorman updated
and expanded Hughes’s perspective on the period running from the 1960s to 1990s
(Chapter 8).
While I read and reviewed Reviving Ancient Faith from the perspective of being a Disciples of Christ minister,
I have had significant interaction with Churches of Christ folk, though mostly
persons from the more progressive portion of the movement. The histories of the
different streams often tell different stories, by attending to these different
histories we can get a fuller picture of the larger Stone-Campbell Movement and
its place within American Christianity. So, while Disciples historians tend to highlight
the movement's focus on unity and downplay restorationism, a history such as
Hughes-Gorman provides the reader with a different vantage point for
understanding the larger Stone-Campell movement. Gorman and Hughes remind us
that while the Disciples and Churches of Christ streams officially divided in
1906 when David Lipscomb asked that the census list the two separately, the
divisions had been in place long before that. While the divisions have often
centered on the sectional divides centered on the Civil War, the movement had
begun splintering even before that, though the war did exacerbate the tensions.
In part, this splintering can be traced
to the evolution of Alexander Campbell's thought and the different emphases of
Barton Stone’s theology and ministry.
According to Gorman/Hughes the
churches that became the Churches of Christ tended to draw from Campbell's
earlier writings, especially the narrower restorationist perspective found in
the Christian Baptist years, rather than the broader, more ecumenical,
post-millennial perspective that emerged later, especially as Campbell let go
of his more sectarian views and drew closer to mainstream Protestantism. At the
same time, Barton Stone offered a more apocalyptic, separatist vision of the
church, and by separatism, I mean culturally not denominationally. Thus, people
such as David Lipscomb drew from Stone's views, arguing against participation
in civil government, including voting. This stream embraced a strong pacifist component
of thought that became more prominent during and after the Civil War. Then
there was also the sociological dimension that contributed to the divide since
the Churches of Christ were centered in the border states, especially middle
Tennessee, as well as places like Texas that experienced the devastating
consequences of the war. While there were a few northern leaders of this
emerging movement, including Ben Franklin and Daniel Sommers, most of the
churches and leaders such as Lipscomb, came from the south. The authors point
out the issue of poverty that contributed to the divide as well. As a result, what
became the Churches of Christ tended to reject instruments and even the idea of
an educated ministry. This stood in
contrast to the churches in the north that were identified as Disciples
churches that embraced instruments, especially organs, and an educated
ministry. Part One, "The Making of a Sect,” focuses on these
nineteenth-century developments that laid the groundwork for the
"official" divide at the beginning of the twentieth century. I
believe that this take on the early history will prove quite valuable not only
to members of the Churches of Christ, but those outside as well, especially
Disciples.
Part Two of the Reviving the
Ancient Faith focuses on "The Making of a Denomination." Here we
have chapters that show how Stone’s apocalypticism which Lipscomb and others had
embraced lost favor within the churches especially as many in the movement
began to reject premillennialism and began to embrace postmillennialism. With
this embrace of postmillennialism came a growing interest among Churches of
Christ folks in the idea of a Christian America, something Lipscomb strongly
opposed. Thus, around the turn of the twentieth century, we see a coalescing of
the conservative, rationalist, theology of the Churches of Christ, with
conservative political streams. In doing so, these churches set aside the
influence of Stone and more fully embraced the early Campbell. In this section,
Gorman/Hughes also explore the emergence of grace as an element within the theology
of some within these churches. With rationalism having been a strong emphasis
within the movement from the beginning, when it came to the role of grace in salvation
the leaders tended to lean in a Pelagian direction, thereby taking a more
limited view of the role of grace in salvation. One can find this emphasis in
Campbell's Christian Baptist. However, even though the movement still
leaned in a rationalist direction, there was an emerging portion of the
movement that discovered grace and sought to bring it into the center of the
movement’s theology. This trajectory contributed to further fragmentation
within the movement. Added to this, as they discussed in Chapter 4, there were
competing styles of journalism. It has been said that this movement had editors
rather than bishops. This was even truer for the Churches of Christ than for the
Disciples since these churches had fewer institutional structures. Thus, the
editors of journals such as the Gospel Advocate, Firm Foundation, and
others exercised significant influence, drawing followers to their perspectives,
and influencing preachers and churches. The twentieth century saw fights over
what in the larger religious world is called Modernism. While the
modernist/fundamentalist divide was different in scope, there were differences
of opinion as to how the culture influenced the churches, especially in terms
of institutions and buildings. While the leaders of the Churches of Christ
largely rejected missionary societies, they were not necessarily on the same
page when it came to buildings and the use of property.
In the revised edition, Gorman expands
on Hughes’s discussion of race and segregation, creating an entirely new chapter
focusing on the Black Churches of Christ and the realities of segregation
(Chapter 6). Gorman notes that the main body of the Churches of Christ was
completely white, with many of its leaders tending to be highly racist, which
fits with its location in the South. Nevertheless, there was a significant
number of Black Churches of Christ. While these churches embraced the highly
conservative theology that emerged from the early Campbell they resisted and
rejected the racist views of the White churches. For that reason, there was
less theological interaction between the two, such that over time the two
streams, Black and White, became more separated from each other. Within these
Black churches, there were significant preachers and leaders, including
Marshall Keeble, though Keeble was known to be more accommodating to white
church leaders than some others. Thus, some sought to accommodate their racist
siblings, and other preachers strongly resisted the racist perspectives of the White
churches. It was a point of contention, especially in the 1960s, when most of
the Churches of Christ colleges, including Lipscomb and Abilene Christian
University, remained closed to non-white students and faculty (Pepperdine was
almost alone in its welcome of non-white students). It is important to note
that among Black church leaders was Fred Gray, a lawyer who represented many
civil rights leaders and was an important figure within the Civil Rights
Movement.
Part Three, which focuses on
"The Fragmentation of a Denomination," contains a significant amount
of largely new material. Therefore, it is quite helpful in navigating the
current situation among the Churches of Christ, and thus addresses some of the
stereotypes that many outside the stream have of the Churches of Christ. While
for a time the Churches of Christ were a fast-growing movement, they like many
other traditions have suffered a significant decline in recent decades, thus
the authors explore what this means for this stream going forward. There are
very different perspectives on this matter, with some calling for a return to a
narrower vision of the church while others seek to move in a more progressive
direction. The section begins in Chapter 7 with a discussion of the left/right
fragmentation that took place in the 1960s and 1970s. While churches had
separated from each other over segregation, premillennialism, and
institutionalization, during these years liberal/conservative theological and
political divides emerged. While the Churches of Christ lean rightward, during
this period we see the emergence of a more progressive wing that centered on
figures in the academic world with people such as Don Haymes, Thomas Olbricht,
and Abraham Malherbe, among others. Many of these more progressive leaders had
gone to elite universities and perhaps even took up teaching posts at
universities such as Yale and Harvard. At the same time, new more scholarly publications
emerged, such as the Restoration Quarterly, as well as publications such
as Mission that pushed social, cultural, and theological boundaries,
including addressing race relations. This wing tended to draw from the
apocalyptic/ethical heritage of Stone rather than the narrower early Campbell.
At the same time, a more conservative wing emerged, which drew from a
radicalized version of Campbell's Christian Baptist perspective. They
focused on biblical authority, rationalism, and law. The folks in this group
were concerned about what they viewed as the degeneracy and decay of the 1960s.
What separated them from more mainstream Churches of Christ was context. The
mainstream tended to be more urban and often more evangelical in their views.
The conservatives for the most part resisted developments from the twentieth
century. They created new journals and new schools, mostly preacher schools.
Added to this was controversy over the role of the Holy Spirit. Many within the
movement were convinced that the Spirit acted only through the Bible and not
outside it, but things changed in the 1960s and 1970s as some took a broader
perspective and even embraced elements of the charismatic movement. Thus, this
was a season of dramatic change and more division. Among the emerging issues in
this period was the role of women in leadership. While many Churches of Christ
women were at the forefront of resisting change, other women, such as D'Esta
Love (whom I have come to know over the past decade and a half), sought to open
new opportunities for women in the churches. Love would go on to earn an M.Div.
degree and become the chaplain at Pepperdine. In the 1990s a few churches even
opened their pulpits to women, though the road forward was rough and continues
to be so.
The completely new Chapter 9 explores
the story of the Churches of Christ in the twenty-first century. In this
chapter of Reviving the Ancient Faith, James Gorman focuses on the identity
crisis that has accompanied the decline in membership numbers. He takes note of
the fragmentation and diversity of perspectives that have emerged during this
period, focusing on seven influences on the Churches of Christ identity that
run the gamut from traditionalist to progressive. While some suggested returning
to the old ways as a solution to the challenges of the moment others sought to
find new pathways. There were influences from within the tradition and from
outside, especially the trend among mainstream churches to draw closer to
evangelicalism, a trend that has included a tendency to embrace Christian
nationalism. As for the Progressive wing, the focus has been on social justice,
though most of these progressives have remained relatively conservative. In
other words, they have not embraced a low Christology or lower views of the authority
of the Bible. Thus, Progressives sought to find support for their views in the
Bible to support their views on social justice, human rights, and the inclusion
of women in leadership. While most Churches of Christ congregations maintain
male leadership/patriarchy, there is a growing number of churches open to women
leaders, including preachers. Among those churches that have turned toward
evangelicalism, we might highlight the ministry of Max Lucado, whose books have
gained a wide audience far beyond the Churches of Christ. His church even removed
the words "of Christ" from its name and added instrumental music to
their worship. While the Churches of Christ are known as non-instrumental, other
congregations besides Lucado’s have added musical instruments to at least some
of their services. This has contributed to the questioning of the identity of
these churches. As noted, there is the attraction among some in a movement that
once sought to separate itself from the socio-political life of the nation to
an embrace of Christian nationalism. White Churches of Christ members/leaders
are largely Republican in their political leanings, while Black Churches of
Christ tend toward the Democratic party. Then, on matters of gender and
sexuality, most Churches of Christ folk skew toward traditional views, though
there are a few who are open and affirming when it comes to LGBTQ
rights/inclusion. As for the role of women, their inclusion is moving much
faster. Gorman draws on conversations with several women, as well as books
authored by women, that speak to this growing trend. Most of the women Gorman
mentions are people I know personally, including D'Esta Love and Sarah Barton. While
there are women who remain within the movement, seeking to expand
opportunities, other women including Katie Hays, whose story Gorman shares, ended
up being pushed out of the Churches of Christ. Hays ended up with the
Disciples, where she has championed not only the role of women but LGBTQ
inclusion.
As a Disciples of Christ minister
who has developed strong friendships with people within the Churches of Christ,
as well as having family members who are graduates of Churches of Christ
universities—Pepperdine (my wife and her mother) as well as Rochester
University (my son)—I am of course quite interested in the history of this
movement, even if I live within a different stream. While the primary audience of
Reviving the Ancient Faith, written by Richard Hughes and James
Gorman, might be members of the Churches of Christ, the fact that the first and
third editions of this important denominational history have been published by
Eerdmans, not a denominational press, suggests that this is a history meant to
have a much wider audience than simply the Churches of Christ. There is much
here for all of us, whether we are Churches of Christ members or not, to learn
from, especially regarding the role that the American context has played in the
development of not only the Churches of Christ but the larger Stone Campbell
Movement. Speaking to my Disciples friends, I believe you will be well served
in reading this volume as it will contribute to a better understanding of our
own stream. Reviving the Ancient Faith is truly a model history of a denomination;
thus, the authors need to be commended for their commitment to telling the full
story—warts and all—of a community they inhabit and love.
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