In the words of historian Kevin Starr, the state’s religious significance came down to a struggle between “California as Babylon, as hopelessly flawed, and California as Eden of the West, as continual recipient of special grace.” Entangled within the debate was California’s position as the jumping-off point for the Orient and thus as a vital hub for the westward march of American Protestantism—perhaps even giving it new life, since large areas and many people of the West had proven impervious to its summons. Among the non-Methodists who responded, Charles G. Finney and his colleagues at Oberlin were the most prominent. By challenging the universality of the evangelical appeal, the California experience set the stage for theological shifts later in the century. (Defunct) This “presbygational” hybrid was an innovative strategy for evangelizing the West, yet it had long-range consequences for both churches. Strategically located in the Southern backcountry and the Ohio River valley after the American Revolution, they were among the first to move westward, and they carried their native faith with them to new communities. Meanwhile the arrival of nearly 1.5 million Germans in the 1840s and 1850s also boosted the number of Catholics in the United States. Methodist minister William Taylor exhorted daily on San Francisco’s wharf, to ensure that the first words heard by arrivals would be the gospel. A Presbyterian missionary reported to the society that “Campbellism is the great curse of the West—more destructive and more injurious to the cause of religion than avowed Infidelity itself.” Church adherence may best illustrate the reaction of the West to being civilized by the East. During this time, … The area around Rochester, New York, was so inflamed by revivals that it became known as the “burnedover district.” Once again, revived Easterners turned their eyes to the West in missionary zeal, but with altered perception. In the East a new wave of revivals addressed urban anxieties in particular: the doubts and fears accompanying rapid economic growth, changing work patterns, widening gaps within society based on wealth, and incredible immigration. Beecher’s denomination was not the one sweeping the West, yet he emerged as the spokesman for the West’s role in the nation’s destiny, and, given his own profession, he visualized both the role and the destiny in religious terms. To Anglo-Americans in the nineteenth century the “West” was a migratory concept, continually being relocated as the next geographical region beyond white settlement. Conclusion. Denominational leaders were well aware of the potential for either good or ill in the areas of expanding settlement and reached out to the West with evangelizing programs. Spreading from Kentucky to Ohio to other states bordering the Mississippi, the number of Stone’s followers grew to more than twelve thousand by the late 1820s. Then the revivalists had seen the hand of Providence at work, heralding a divine dispensation. (December 21, 2020). Interdenominational associations, such as the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), at first concentrated on the Indian groups nearest to white centers of population: in the areas of the Old Northwest, the Southeast, and just beyond the Mississippi. Presbyterians. From both vantage points Cane Ridge remained a symbol of the age: looking forward in anticipation of the “new dispensation” and looking backward at the wreckage caused by human frailty. Taylor furnished an intellectual foundation for revivalism by softening Calvinist orthodoxy in order to place more emphasis on free will and thus human instrumentality. The spontaneous emergence of Baptist churches in newly settled areas distinguished the denomination from other groups. Cumberland Schism. In spite of the fact that evolutionary theory is accepted by all but a small number of scientists, it continues to be rejected by many Americans. The emergence of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was a direct response to the circumstances and needs of the frontier in the wake of Cane Ridge. religion Visit LDS.org to read a story about a young pioneer girl. In his book, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region,… Overview The spectacular experience was the stuff of legends. In institutional terms the Presbyterians’ more aggressive structure tended to absorb the Congregational churches, but in doctrine the Congregational infusion served to weaken Presbyterianism’s Calvinist orthodoxy. The religious influence of the Union was formidable since its teachers were essentially missionaries and its instructional materials were mostly Bible stories. Indeed, in contrast to other religious outsiders in California, including the Chinese Buddhists and the Mormon polygamists, Jewish religious differences seemed tame, placing them from the start on a better footing in relation to the Protestant majority. The Methodist preacher was an ordinary person who had been raised up from a class and had proven his dedication and abilities before a conference of fellow itinerants. Church attendance and membership remained discouraging, and the situation seemed to call into question the efficacy of revivalism itself. Cultivation of the character through formal education had to go hand in hand with care of the soul. These acquisitions, combined with Texas state hood in 1845, presented the Catholic Church with a Southwestern population of nominal Catholics, possibly 25,000 in New Mexico and 10,000 in Texas, as well as the remnants of the Franciscan mission system in California. By 1820 Methodist membership had reached 250,000, and by 1844 the Methodist Episcopal Church was the largest denomination in the nation. The self-sacrifice of good Catholic parents and religious brothers and sisters who labored for little, under a vow of poverty, made the Catholic school system possible. The Calvinist theology of Presbyterianism, spelled out in the Westminster Confession, declared that the salvation of the elect was achieved by grace alone, not by any effort on the part of the individual. They claimed the privilege of interpreting Scripture and organizing churches for themselves. The Catholic Church had quickly added an institutional branch to its hierarchy to cover the new nation, but the number of communicants was modest until the 1830s. By 1850 the census recorded 961,000 Irish in the United States, with 200,000 immigrating in that year alone. To Anglo-Americans in the nineteenth century the “ West ” was a migratory concept, continually being relocated as the next geographical region beyond white settlement. The Western religious experience during the first decades of the nineteenth century was thus an addendum to the revolutionary story, as Euro-Americans tested certain radical implications of freedom in matters of faith—such as the extent of tolerance in a regimen of religious liberty and the proper means to a harmonious society. … Iowans, in common with residents of other states, would have considered themselves “religious” as long as they could individually define what that meant. Fears of corruption led conservative Presbyterians to question the benefits of all interdenominational programs and set the stage for a later division. The religion of the new American republic was evangelicalism, which, between 1800 and the Civil War, was the "grand absorbing theme" of American religious life. Religion has also been an arena for American women activists. Methodism had originated as a reform movement within the Church of England, but with American independence, the Methodist Episcopal Church had ventured out as a distinct denomination. The Rappites’ third settlement in Economy, Pennsylvania, became renowned for its woolen manufacture, but after the death of Father Rapp in 1847 the spiritual character of the communitarian project faded. A schoolteacher then a lawyer in New York, Finney abandoned both and turned to evangelism in the 1820s. Methodists. Isolated, the Mormons prospered and expanded, at the same time outraging the East by the practice of polygamy and by claiming a vast “empire” under their control. Plan of Union. This did not, however, result in a wholesale decline in religiosity among Americans. Iowa boasted a church for every 711 residents; by comparison, the national high was Ohio, with one for every 449 people, while California bottomed out with one church for every 1,103 people (Euro-Americans). The corporate life of American Jews in the West took shape with the gold-rush immigrations in the 1850s. The Mormons eventually made their way to the Salt Lake Valley in Utah, where they settled in peace. Combined with different opinions over slavery, the result was explosive. Although achieving the second goal would facilitate the first, it was the particular concern with Indian “uplift” that initially drew missionaries into the field. The Presbyterians, the first to enjoy the harvest of the camp meeting, were also the first to suffer schism. ." experiment. . Followers of a religious movement whose definition and date of origin cannot be given with precision. By the Civil War, religion in the Trans-Appalachian West had assumed many features of its Eastern fountainhead and was affected by the same trends, but it was never a replica. It was particularly unfortunate for immigrant Catholics that anti-Catholic feeling was strongest in New England where old Puritan fears were still strong. Kids Facts about American Religious Reform in The 1800's. Communities, however dispersed, could use the churches as reference points for the assertion of behavioral norms. In that respect, the evolution of New Harmony was somewhat analogous to the drift of antebellum religion overall. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. As many as 20,000 people would gather at “camps” to listen. In answer to a direct query from the Alabama Baptists, the convention’s executive committee replied that it would never certify a slave owner as a missionary. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. Finally, New School boldness pushed conservatives and moderates together, and the General Assembly of 1837 took decisive action. In New Mexico, Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian representatives charged into the territory soon after its acquisition, and one by one they abandoned their efforts to convert the Hispanic-Catholic population, not to return until after the Civil War. The most universal consequence of the missionary impulse for native peoples was factionalism within communities, as Indians individually and corporately struggled to comprehend within a religious framework the changes provoked by westward-expanding settlements. Nor were they as strict about how closely new converts adhered to the Westminster Confession. Consequently, though Finney’s theology emerged from an urban landscape that was alien to the West, his prescriptions harmonized with a Western milieu. The absence of organizational controls beyond the local church gave the Baptists flexibility as they planted new congregations, but they submitted to voluntary discipline and oversight through regional associations. The Denominations Divide. A number of class readings describe this process and the religious forms that resulted. As Finney declared, “If the church will do her duty, the millennium may come in this country in three years.” However, Finney’s new measures were also a telling sign of the religious change since Cane Ridge. Earlier 19th century groups had sought holiness by revivals. The nineteenth century awakened to scattered signs of revival in New England, but it was a camp meeting in Cane Ridge, Kentucky, in 1801 that became the symbol and standard of religion in the early republic. People believed that they could create a better society, based on Christian morals and culture. The Catholic population burgeoned from 300,000 to over 3 million. Such diverse ethnicities, and the linguistic hurdles they posed, placed an even greater strain on American Catholicism in this period. Catholicism in the Southwest. . Religion In a town like St. Petersburg in the 1800's, there was one church and everyone attended it on Sunday, wearing their best clothing, much like those who go to churches today. Yet the primary purpose of New Harmony was to accumulate wealth for Christ’s use when He returned, and Rapp considered his congregation to be the bride of Christ, as described in Revelation. The confrontation between the belief systems of indigenous peoples and Euro-Americans was a clash of sacred worlds: an encounter not initially of conquest and domination but of interaction and eventual alienation. As the decades passed, some came to view Cane Ridge as an uncontrolled explosion. Diversity sprang from the soil of religious freedom: the state was home to Dutch Reformed, Quakers, Swedenborgians, and Mennonites. Of the three major groups in the early republic—the Presbyterians, the Methodists, and the Baptists—the Presbyterian Church was the oldest and most established, and those attributes often made it attractive to people seeking stability in the midst of very uncertain conditions. “If this work be done, and well done, our country is safe, and the world’s hope is secure … nation after nation, cheered by our example, will follow in our footsteps, till the whole earth is free.” The West had become the testing ground for the entire America!) Western Judaism. His was a familiar language of activism (especially regarding temperance reform), of pragmatism, and of millennialism. By 1860 membership in the combined churches totaled two hundred thousand and was concentrated west of the Appalachian Mountains. Christian African-Americans melded traditional African practices with Christianity. "1800-1860: Religion: Overview Kids Facts about American Religious Reform in The 1800's ." The structure of the church allowed local control through the elders, who handled the daily affairs of the congregation, while the regional presbyteries and synods ensured that the scattered flocks maintained order and orthodoxy. He and his brother Hiram were murdered. Its ministers were also subject to less-rigid educational demands. By deciding to accept God’s invitation, the convert set out on a rigorous journey of “sanctification,” which could lead the faithful toward the ultimate Methodist goal of perfection—perfect in love and perfect in understanding. The Community of True Inspiration, a movement originating in Germany, moved westward from New York in 1855 and established the Amana Colonies in east-central Iowa, practicing a form of communal theocracy. Yet in other respects the church displayed democratic elements. Pushed relentlessly from place to place by opponents, the church attracted increasing numbers of adherents, apparently answering the longings of many for reassurance and purpose in troubled times. Important People: Dorothea Dix: A reformer and pioneer in the movement to treat the insane as mentally ill, beginning in the 1820's, she was responsible for improving conditions in jails, poorhouses and insane asylums throughout the u.s. and canada. Sectional Prejudice. Given its minimal presence, the primary role played by Catholicism in the West was in the fertile imagination of Protestant leaders. Most of them traveled by covered wagon or pulled a handcart and walked across the plains, a journey that took between 75 and 95 days on average. Moreover, after a decade of labors amid the bewildering religious variety in California, evangelical missionaries were forced to admit that the tried-and-true strategies of revivalism had failed to work. © 2019 Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. Since then, the…, PROTESTANTISM Andover student Samuel Mills toured west of the Alleghenies from 1812 to 1814 and galvanized concerned Christians with his stories of distressed frontier communities lacking ministers, churches, or Bibles. The meetinghouse, which served secular functions as well as religious, was a small wood building located in the center of town. later, the persecutors created a political party against immigration After the Cane Ridge camp meeting, denominational leaders had rejoiced that revivals in the West had encouraged the spread of churches, but they soon discovered that such an intense release of religious energy was hard to contain. These “fact-finding” expeditions were extremely influential in an age of limited communication, and they inspired local churches and regional organizations to engage in mission projects. In 1853 Catholicism officially extended from shore to shore with the organization of the archdiocese of San Francisco. The result was not necessarily libertarian, since sometimes thinking for oneself meant choosing to submit to authority. Missionary Impulse. An angry mob covered him with hot tar and feathers, a painful and humiliating ordeal. Oberlin then became the focus for his “new measures” in revivalism, which included carefully planned methods to win converts and a postconversion commitment to Christian reform. Beginning withthe Second Great Awakening(a sudden evangelical movementthat started around the turn of the nineteenth century), this renewed interestin religion arose primarily as a backlash against the Enlightenmentand so-called “age of reason” that had inspired thinkers such asBenjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine. Although Baptists in the Northern states often claimed a Calvinist heritage, confirmed by subscription to a shared confession, many Baptists in the Upper South had emerged from the revolutionary fires with less patience for binding creeds or Calvinist uniformity. Finney’s conviction that people chose the way of Christ and the way of holy living—that “perfection” meant the potential for unlimited moral improvement—had both sacred and secular implications. Encyclopedia.com. From 1830 to 1860 the nation’s population grew from 13 million to 31.5 million (two and one half times). People believed that they could create a better society, based on Christian morals and culture. These meeting houses became bigger and much less crude as the population grew after the 1660s. For the first three decades of the nineteenth century, its distinctive characteristics included a consuming zeal to reform the world and a millennial conviction that the United States was singularly poised to realize, as Alexander Campbell wrote, “that ultimate amelioration of society proposed in the Christian Scriptures.” The feverish burst of religiously motivated activity was the product of hope as well as fear. At the turn of the century the “uninhabited” frontier—though home to some 120,000 Native Americans—was the area between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. In an attempt to secure their position, the Mormons created a state they called “Deseret.” The federal government instead designated the area a territory in the Compromise of 1850. the concentration of Christians was being spread out and diluted because of all the new religions being introduced into America History.com says that the Irish "experienced discrimination for their religious beliefs." The Iowa Example. (The Congregational Union of Canada no longer exists as a separate entity. (In fact, this shift in attitude echoed the debate over “Christianization or civilization” of the Native Americans.) Religion in America in the 1800s Colonial Religions Puritans came to America for religious freedom Established theocracy Not The Lessons of California. 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