57. Chapter 52: The Church in a Time of Turmoil

CHAPTER 52 The Church in a Time of Turmoil

1. Presbyterian Calvinists Sepa­rate from Liberals

Under the Plan of Union of 1801 a large number of churches were organized in Central New York, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. As you will remem­ber, these churches were made up of two entirely different elements: New England Congregationalists and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. Most of the Presbyterians held to a strict Calvinism; but the Con­gregationalists, influenced by New England liberal theology (ch. 47, sec. 4), were moving more and more away from historic Calvin­ism. The orthodox group was known as the Old School, while the more liberal group was the New School. In 1837 the clash between these two groups brought about a split in the Presbyterian Church. Both groups kept the same name and claimed to be the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Both had the same Confession and form of gov­ernment. This separation of Pres­byterians lasted for thirty-two years.

Lyman Beecher, who once de­fended the Christian faith against the new Unitarian doctrine in Boston, had gone to Cincinnati as president of the newly established Lane Seminary. He was also pastor of a Presbyterian church there. He began to sympathize with the New School, and after the split he be­came a leader among the liberals. Albert Barnes was another New School leader. On the other side was Charles Hodge, a professor at Princeton Seminary and a strong and able defender of the Reformed faith. A year before the two groups divided, the liberals established Union Seminary in New York City. This school has remained a fountainhead of liberalism in our country.

2. The Episcopal Church Expands and Divides

Because of its divided loyalty during the War for Independence, the Episcopal Church was for a time under a cloud (ch. 48, sec. 3; ch. 49, sec. 4); but by the close of the War of 1812 it was no longer looked upon with suspicion. Under the leadership of Bishop William White the Low Church element held for many years a strong and influential position in this church. You will remember from our study of the Episcopal Church in Eng­land (ch. 43, sec. 5) that the Low Church party was evangelical in spirit and favored simplicity in the church service. Its members had turned away from the elabo­rate, formal ritual of the Roman Catholic Church.

Early in the nineteenth century the work of four outstanding American bishops gave rise to a remarkable growth in the Protest­ant Episcopal Church. In 1811 John Henry Hobart was conse­crated bishop of New York. He was a member of the High Church party, and through his leadership this party was to gain in influence. Bishop Hobart greatly extended the Episcopal Church in his area. When he began his work there were twenty-eight clergymen in the diocese of New York; when he died in 1830 there were 127.

Three other outstanding bishops were Alexander V. Griswold of New England, Richard Manning Moore of Virginia, and Philander Chase, who spent his period of service on the frontier. Under Bishop Griswold in New England and Bishop Moore in Virginia the Protestant Episcopal Church grew rapidly, as it did in New York under Bishop Hobart. But unlike Hobart these two men were not of the High Church party. Griswold was strongly Low Church, a man of deep and simple piety and a force­ful preacher. Moore was warmly evangelical. Of these four outstanding leaders, Bishop Chase had un­doubtedly the most varied and colorful career. He was of pure New England stock and a Congre­gationalist by training. But while a student at Dartmouth College he became an Episcopalian through study of the Prayer Book. Upon graduation he was ordained and became a missionary in what was then called the western country. His first parish was on the New York frontier. From there he went to New Orleans, where he organ­ized the first Episcopal church in that region. When his health broke down he returned to New Eng­land, but as soon as he recovered he set out, in the middle of winter, for the Western Reserve of Ohio. He found only a few Episcopalians on this frontier, and the people of the other churches were hostile to them; but Bishop Chase knew how to overcome their prejudices. As a result of his pioneering work, there were in due time five Episcopal clergymen in Ohio. A diocese was organized and Chase was elected bishop. On a beautiful ridge in the midst of the Ohio forests Bishop Chase established Kenyon College. It was at the time of its founding a theo­logical seminary; later it became both a college and a seminary. Chase went to England to raise funds for this new school. It is his finest monument. From 1831 to 1835 he carried on mission work in Michigan; then he was called to serve as bishop in Illinois. While there he founded Jubilee College.

During the time that the Prot­estant Episcopal Church was fast expanding—in Kentucky and Ten­nessee, in Indiana, Iowa, Minne­sota, and Wisconsin, as well as in the areas previously mentioned, the gap between the high and low church parties was growing wider and deeper. The High Church party in America was strengthened by the Oxford Movement in Eng­land (ch. 43, sec. 5), and the Low Church party became genuinely alarmed. They feared that their church would be led back into the fold of Rome. It began to look as if the Episcopal Church would divide. The man who did more than any­one else to prevent this was Wil­liam A. Muhlenberg, great grand­ son of the first American Muhlen­berg (ch. 46, sec. 8). He stood for a broader system of organization, and for a larger freedom of opinion within the Church. At the General Convention of 1853 these views were accepted by both parties, and a division in the Church was for a time prevented. From that time on the Low Church party lost influence more and more. There was dissatisfac­tion, and about thirty years after the Convention of 1853 a number of the members of this party se­ceded and organized the Reformed Episcopal Church.

3. Immigration Strengthens the Orthodox Lutheran Position

Among the German Lutherans a conflict broke out on two points: one group stood for the Ameri­canization of the Lutheran Church and a more liberal interpretation of the Augsburg Confession (ch. 25, sec. 5); the other group wished to maintain the German language and hold closely to orthodox Lu­theranism. The leader of the first group was Samuel S. Smucker. His ideas might have prevailed were it not for the great wave of German im­migration which began about 1830 and continued until about 1870. More than a million Germans came to America in the ten years just before the Civil War. While many of these German immigrants were Catholic, and others were hostile to religion of any kind, the majority were Lutherans. They greatly strengthened the conservative element in the Lutheran Church. Their leader was C. F. W. Walther, who had come from Sax­ony. At this time a number of strictly orthodox synods were or­ganized, among them the well-known Missouri Synod.

Walther became pastor of the Lutheran Church in St. Louis in Missouri. In his German periodi­cal Der Lutheraner he ardently in­structed his readers to hold fast to orthodox Lutheranism. He also recommended the establishment of parochial schools for the Christian education of the children. A fine system of Lutheran schools in the Missouri Synod stands today as a monument to Walther and other leaders. The memory of this great Lutheran is preserved in the name of the Walther League — the yout organization among the Missouri Synod Lutherans. In the time preceding the Civil War there was also a large immi­gration of Norwegian and Swedish Lutherans. The latter organized the Augustana Synod and Augus­tana College at Rock Island, Illi­nois. This group was also strictly orthodox.

4. Doctrine and Language Divide the German Reformed

Among the German Reformed, also, the language question caused difficulty, especially in Philadel­phia. Those who insisted upon the use of the English language finally withdrew and organized churches of their own.

More severe was the controversy about the so-called "Mercersburg Theology." In 1840 Dr. John W. Nevin was appointed a professor in the German Reformed Seminary at Mercersburg. Four years later Dr. Philip Schaff, a young Swiss scholar, was chosen as professor of exegesis and Church history. Both these men were well ac­quainted with the new liberal theo­logical views in Germany (ch. 43, sec. 2), and this was reflected in their teaching. The strictly ortho­dox became greatly disturbed. They attacked the "Mercersburg Theology" in the church papers. The conflict resulted in a secession; but the number of those who with­drew was small.

Schaff is remembered for his brilliant and scholarly work on the history of the Church. It is written in a very interesting style, and consists of several large volumes.

5. Immigration Swells the Rolls of the Catholic Church The enormous wave of immigra­tion from 1830 to 1870 caused not only the Lutheran but also the Catholic Church to grow. One third of the German immigrants were Roman Catholic. During these years thousands of Irish as well as German immigrants poured into our country. And the Irish were practically all Roman Catholic. The Irish Catholics were poor. They had all they could do to pay for their transportation across the Atlantic. When they arrived their purses were empty, and they had to settle down where they landed. Consequently Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore be came great Catholic centers. The German Catholics had a little more money, and they were able to travel inland. Most of them settled in the new western country north of the Ohio or west of the Mississippi. Missouri and Wisconsin became great German centers. A large number of Germans settled in Cin­cinnati, Ohio. This was the period during which the Roman Catholic Church became a significant body in the United States. In 1830 the number of Catholics was somewhat over half a million. Thirty years later the number had increased to four and a half million, and nearly every important city in the country had a Catholic bishop. From that time on the Roman Catholic Church has remained a powerful influence in America. It is esti­mated that there are over 25 mil­lion Catholics in the United States today.