The term "Restoration Movement" is losing ground to
"Stone-Campbell Movement," which has almost completely
superseded "Campbell-Stone Movement," too. The Campbells
are losing some ground to Barton Stone right now, since Stone is
currently perceived by many Disciples scholars, and several leading
church history scholars among Churches of Christ, as the more irenic and
more pneumatologically attractive person. The
Scottish-enlightenment rationalism of the Campbells has taken a beating
in the last decade for being the root of rationalism, exclusivism,
polemics, and resistance to certain doctrinal shifts about the work of
the Holy Spirit.
Similarly, the term "Restoration
Movement" is one the openly ecumenical Disciples now eschew as
expressing a naive radicalism. The most important historian of
Churches of Christ in the last generation, Earl Irvin West, author
of Search for the Ancient Order (4vv), is still a
dyed-in-the-wool restorationist. So are some among the
"Christian Churches and Churches of Christ" in the upper
midwest. However, newer historians such as Richard Hughes (CofC),
Leonard Allen (CofC), Doug Foster (CofC), Tony Dunnavant (DofC) and Mark
Toulouse (DofC) understand the restorationist ideal as a frontier
illusion, naive in today's religious climate. Hughes and Allen's
book on the subject is called "Illusions of Innocence."
Hughes and Allen both did doctoral study at Iowa with the Puritan
scholar up there, and became convinced in the process that primitivism
was an American theme.
I remain convinced that Restoration Movement
(Christianity) is an excellent way to describe works on the churches of
the 19th and early 20th century. Whether it will remain
helpful in the 21st is another question. At what point LC may see
fit to reflect the shift in the research by a shift in subject heading,
who knows. I like it the way it is. By the way, in our catalog, I use
the following local headings for the Restoration Movement
progeny:
Disciples of Christ
Christian Churches
Churches of Christ
My heading for Disciples is non-LC, of course, but we really don't
need more things in the "Christian Church" drawer. In
our spoken word used around here, we call the groups
"Disciples," "Independents" and "Churches of
Christ." The first schism came at the turn of the century
between Disciples and Churches of Christ over the use of instrumental
music in worship assemblies, over German higher criticism, and over the
use of missionary societies. In the 1930's the Independent
Christian Churches (or Christian Churches and Churches of Christ) (which
also often use the name Church of Christ in the upper Midwest) parted
company with the Disciples over German higher criticism and
denominational organization. Geographically the Disciples are more
northern and urban; the Independents rural and upper midwestern; the
Churches of Christ southern, both rural and urban. Since I did my
doctoral dissertation on one of the Campbells, i.e., Alexander, I would
prefer "Campbell-Stone" over "Stone-Campbell," but I
think I'm in the minority. You will see it both ways.
The following website is masterminded by Hans
Rollman, who as a first-generation convert may still be able to view the
Restoration principle as a powerful life-changing concept rather than as
an embarrassing source of divisive quarreling.
Restoration Movement
