Highlights
in Restoration History . . .
RESTORATIONISM
Students
of English history will associate the term restoration with the
return of the Stuarts to the British throne in 1660 in the person of
Charles II. Charles I was executed in 1649 and Oliver Cromwell, a
Puritan, ruled, not as a monarch, but as Lord Protector of the
Commonwealth. It was not like England to be without a king, and it
did not last long. Historians refer to the reign of the Stuarts,
Charles II and his brother James II, following the Cromwellian
rebellion, as the Restoration, a reference to the revival of
the monarchy. It was a turning point in English history in that it
settled an issue that had caused civil disorder for nearly a century:
there was no way to convert the Church of England to Puritanism.
This
motif in English history has nothing to do with the use of the term
restoration, or its Latin equivalent restitution, in church
history, for religionists made use of the concept long before the
time of Charles II. There was even a book written on the subject,
entitled The Restitution of Christianity, as early as the
1550’s by Michael Servetus, who was executed for heresy by John
Calvin’s court in Geneva.
An
Anabaptist, Servetus believed what has always been basic to
restorationism: that the true, apostolic church went into apostasy,
that all existing churches are false, and that the only way to have
the true church again is by a restoration of primitive Christianity.
This is also known as primitivism, which implies that the New
Testament provides a detailed pattern for the church, so that in any
age the true church can be reproduced by faithful adherence to the
New Testament pattern, irrespective of how far the church may go into
apostasy in the intervening centuries.
Servetus
was joined by other Anabaptists who rejected the Reformation churches
because they were not sufficiently apostolic and primitive, and
because, like the Roman church, they were not divorced from the
state. John Campanus, William Postel, and Bernard Rothmann all wrote
books on restorationism in the sixteenth century, charging that the
true church had fallen away and calling for a restoration or
restitution of the primitive order. All four of the men called for a
restoration of the apostolic ordinances of baptism and communion,
with Servetus setting forth an elaborate theology of baptism, in
which he insisted that only believer’s baptism by immersion is
scriptural. To be saved, he contended, one must both believe and be
baptized. While Campanus had a broader view as to where truth might
be found, calling as he did for a “Catholic restitution”
that sought truth “among the sects and all the heretics,”
he nonetheless revealed an attitude that usually characterizes
restorationists: that what they have “restored” is the
true church, while others are sects and heretics.
This
“restoration motif,” as historians identify it, was so
prevalent among the Anabaptists that Harvard historian George H.
Williams, after extensive research in what he calls the radical
reformation, concluded: “So widespread was restorationism
(restitutionism) as the sixteenth-century version of primitivism that
it may be said to be one of the marks of the Radical Reformation.”
Franklin Littell, another authority on the underground Reformation,
has suggested that the best term to describe the movement is “the
Restitution.” The Anabaptists have many heirs in the modern
church, such as the Amish, Mennonites, Quakers, Plymouth Brethren,
and Church of the Brethren, who stress various motifs of primitivism,
whether pacifism, footwashing, holy kiss, or austere means of dress
and transportation. But restorationism has also made its way in
varying degrees across a large section of Protestantism. One
historian counts 176 restorationist sects, each claiming to be the
true “restored” church, and asks the embarrassing
question, “What kind of book is our Bible that it could yield
176 different conceptions of the Church of Christ, each deemed of
such importance that it required a separate church to be founded upon
it.”
Prominent
restorationists in the South are three churches of the same historic
origin: Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Churches
(Independent), and Churches of Christ (often distinguished as being
noninstrumental music, another primitivism). The Disciples of
Christ have in recent years all but discarded the restoration ideal
in lieu of ecumenicity, believing that unity and restoration are
inimical to each other, though both motifs are admittedly a part of
their heritage. The other two churches, being more conservative
theologically, are adamantly restorationist, insisting that the
restoration of primitive Christianity is the means to unity. But even
these two churches are not in fellowship with each other, disagreeing
on what constitutes restoration, such as the question of instrumental
music. This is typical of restorationism, which tends to be
polarizing, as was evident with the various sects of the Anabaptist,
who would not even ride together on the same boat when they came to
the new world.
Alexander
Campbell, the principal founder of these churches that identify
themselves as “the Restoration Movement,” was actually
within the reformed tradition rather than the restorationist, calling
his unity movement the “New Reformation,” which he saw as
a continuation of the work of Luther and Calvin. Unlike the
Anabaptists and restorationists generally, who believe the church
ceased to exist, Campbell believed in the inviolability of the
church, even though it may always need reform. It was typical of him,
therefore, to say, “Let us see a reformation in fact -- a
reformation in sentiment, in practice -- a reformation in faith and
manners.” While he spoke of restoration, especially “the
restoration of the ancient order,” it was in reference to
restoring to the church, which he believed existed in his
time, things he thought were neglected, rather than restoring the
church itself, as if it did not exist, which is a basic premise of
restorationism. - Leroy Garrett
(This is a contribution to the Dictionary of Southern Religion, edited by Samuel S. Hill, to be published soon by Mercer University Press. We thought it would interest our readers. - Ed.)
Oh Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace!
Where hate is, may I bring love;
Where offence has been given or taken, may I bring pardon;
Where there is discord, may I bring fellowship;
Where there is error, may I bring truth;
Where there is doubt, may I bring faith;
Where there is despair, may I bring hope
Where there is darkness, may I bring light;
Where there is sadness, may I bring joy;
Master, let me seek rather to console than to be consoled;
To understand than to be understood;
To love rather than to be loved;
For it is in giving that I receive,
In forgetting myself that I find myself;
In pardoning that I receive pardon;
In dying
that I am born again to the life eternal. -- St. Francis of Assisi