Restoration (Stone-Campbell) Movement

There is one body and one Spirit just as also you were called with one hope of your calling. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" (Eph 4:4-6). 1 Today, this unity of which the apostle Paul wrote in the first century seems illusory. From the single root of the apostolic faith many branches have emerged. Among these branches the singular aspect that most visibly distinguishes the varieties of multiple ecclesiastical traditions and theological systems seems to be baptism. It is lamentable that the body of Christ is fissured, particularly over this issue. Yet, from Paul's questions to the Corinthians, it seems that baptism was partially a source of division even among the earliest Christians, at least in Corinth. Paul asks, "Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified on your behalf? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?" (1 Cor 1:13). His expression of gratitude that he personally baptized few of the Corinthians confirms that Paul recognizes that some in Corinth are inclined to attribute to baptism a significance that Christ did not give it (1:14-15). To correct their sacerdotal-born factionalism, Paul subordinates baptizing to preaching the gospel (1:17) and makes clear that sacerdotal power resides neither in baptism itself nor in the hands of the baptizer. Nevertheless, Paul regards baptism as significant and not a bare symbol, for in his letter to Christians in Galatia he declares, "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ you have clothed yourselves with Christ" (Gal 3:27). He seems to equate all who have put on Christ with all who are baptized into Christ, as though the two were fused as one.

Undoubtedly, Churches of Christ were not as significantly active in foreign missions before World War II as were many other Christian bodies. Certainly, some members did serve outside the boundaries of the United States, but on the whole, the commonly accepted narrative that the early noninstrumental branch of the Stone-Campbell Movement focused evangelistic efforts at home in North America and did not become a significant force of cross-cultural missionary effort until after 1945 is in fact true. Among the relatively small number of early voices in Churches of Christ that did advocate foreign missions endeavors, few recognized the need for specialized missionary training.1 Little evidence exists that pre-World War II Churches of Christ supported focused missions training or pointed missionary candidates to the emerging missions literature from other missions-sending organizations and denominations at that time.2 Indeed, before 1936 (the generally accepted beginning point of Churches of Christ missionary training by George Benson at Harding College), Churches of Christ paid scant attention to missions training and specialized preparation for the overseas missionary.3 Yet one very early example of sophisticated and energetic missionary training, one that predates the 1936 Harding College effort by nearly two decades, represents the earliest example of missionary preparation among Churches of Christ. This grand experiment at Abilene Christian College provides a glimpse into the growing missionary consciousness of pre-World War II Churches of Christ. Early Missions Training in Churches of Christ For the most part, Churches of Christ in the earliest part of the twentieth century were unaware of the growing discipline of missiology and missions studies and 1 Shawn Z. Daggett, "The Lord Will Provide: James A. Harding, J. M. McCaleb, William J. Bishop, and the Emergence of Faith Missions in the Churches of Christ 1892-‫״,3191‬ DTh diss., Boston University School of Theology 2007. Daggett notes that Churches of Christ have produced many missionaries "who have been very strong on faith, devotion, and dedication, but weak in preparation, cultural training, and strategy‫״‬ (12-13).

Alexander Campbell (1788-1866) was certainly familiar with constitutional language. In one of his periodical publications, The Millennial Harbinger (1830-1870), and in the second edition of his systematic theology, The Christian System (1839), Campbell would use an extended governmental metaphor to describe the kingdom of God that reached back to the “type” of the kingdom of Israel and forward to the millennial reign of God that Campbell believed would soon be ushered in as a result of the combination of political and spiritual progress. Although most proponents of a post-millennial view would abandon this cause in the midst of the Civil War, near this end of his life Alexander Campbell’s favorite metaphor for the kingdom of God was still governmental. In this article I explore how Campbell developed this metaphor and what implications might be drawn for Christians in a more contemporary context.

This is a reproduction of W. F. Cox's Register of Baptisms, Marriages and Funerals, with the inclusion of photos, remarks, analysis, and an appendix concerning his ministry on the campus of Harvard University during preaching trips to Cambridge, MA. W. F. Cox was a well-known preacher in the Church of Christ. He was born at Cape Rich, near Meaford, and attended Nashville Bible School.

Weekly gatherings around the communion table, church dinners, harvest thanksgiving services and lamington drives were essential to Churches of Christ in Australia in the second half of the 20th century. The community cookbooks that were created in this food-rich environment reflect their particular theological, moral and social context. This article examines the material evidence of five cookbooks produced by the Bayswater Church of Christ between 1962 and 1990, reading them anew for what they reveal about both social bonds and gender roles in changing times and, in particular, for their unique role as women’s religious literature. They are presented here as religious artefacts and empirical evidence for further study. Arguably, their authors’ inclusion of many verses and poems set these community church cookbooks apart from similar secular offerings of the time.

When Jacob Creath Jr. arrived in Mississippi he was an ordained Baptist preacher with deep loyalty and significant ties to the Baptists. When his time in Mississippi ended, having experienced intense opposition from leaders of various denominations and at the hands of his own denomination and having nearly died from illness, he journeyed directly to Alexander Campbell. After he left Mississippi, he became an unwavering life-long supporter and promoter of Campbell’s original vision of the “restoration of the ancient order of things.” My previous article covered the spiritual and ministerial preparation of Creath. This article reconstructs the next phase of Creath’s life, which entails his mission to Mississippi from 1826 to 1828.

In 1964, Firm Foundation editor Reuel Lemmons, for decades one of the most powerful voices in Churches of Christ, created something never before seen in the United States – a public battle over whether a state should adopt textbooks that accept evolution as fact. Although mentioned briefly in several accounts of the history of the American creationist movement, a full accounting of the 1964 Austin, Texas, textbook controversy has not taken place before now.

This paper shows that although other figures more commonly associated with broader American fundamentalism eventually became national representatives of the Texas anti-evolution movement, Lemmons and the Churches of Christ in fact led the charge in this groundbreaking moment. The paper shows how Lemmons provided the infrastructure to mount a statewide, and eventually national, campaign against the adoption of new science texts, and how his supporters leveraged resources from the newly established Creation Research Society to articulate a series of then-novel arguments describing creationism as a scientifically supported notion deserving equal time with evolution in public schools.

This paper describes the history of this rural congregation in St. Vincent Twp., Ontario, from its beginning in 1870 until its closure in 1942 after the entire area was expropriated for a Tank Range. Makes a contribution to the history of St. Vincent Twp. and rural Ontario religious life. Photos; sources; links.

At the time I wrote this paper, I was going to a Christian Church which was part of the Restoration Movement.  Since I grew up Lutheran, I didn't know much about how the Restoration Movement came into being.  This paper is about one of the founders of the Restoration Movement, Thomas Campbell.

​The self-diagnosis of " identity crisis " is long-standing among theologians in Churches of Christ, yet the explanations of this condition's causes and solutions are varied and seemingly unable to effect a resolution. This paper considers the historical symptoms of identity crisis, a more specific diagnosis with the aid of Paul Ricoeur's philosophical work, and a hermeneutical prescription suitable for this diagnosis. In order to move beyond identity crisis, Churches of Christ must embrace a missional hermeneutic of the biblical text that entails the embodiment of God's justice as an interpretive agenda. We must, in short, do justice​ to the text.

Preview available for download. This history was commissioned by the Christian Women's Fellowship (Vic/Tas) for its members and Churches of Christ in Australia. It is available in paperback via Churches of Christ Vic-Tas Conference office. Email [email protected] or phone +61-03-9488 8800.

Harvest Thanksgiving rests at the junction of liturgy, nature and memory. From the late-nineteenth century it was a major event on Nonconformist church calendars, drawing crowds well beyond regular attendance. Yet it was the Nonconformist churches’ uneasy relationship with icons, visual display and imagery of all sorts that made the spectacular displays of fruit and vegetables associated with Harvest Thanksgiving so memorable, so marvellously out of the ordinary. Photographs were taken and treasured and these offer a glimpse into a rich and peculiar world of food and display that is at once consonant and disconsonant with Nonconformity’s professed and assumed theological stances on the use of imagery. In this time of celebration and thanksgiving, of spectacle and transformation, how were Nonconformist prohibitions on display, materiality and excess so extravagantly overcome? How was the divide between the sacred and profane so colourfully rearranged? This article explores the histor...

This essay offers a succinct case for the full participation of women in the assemblies gathered for prayer, praise, and mutual edification. I do not entertain the potential objections and alternative perspectives in this brief text. My book "Women Serving God: My Journey in Understanding Their Story in the Bible" contains more detail and fuller argumentation. This is my contribution to the ongoing discussion of traditional, complementarian, and egalitarian perspectives in the contemporary church in North America.

As the Teacher bemoaned, "The people of long ago are not remembered " (Eccl 1:11), too many times the important figures of one era are quickly forgotten in the next. Such could be said in the case of Henry Varley, who played a pivotal role in the history of British Churches of Christ in the late 1800s, though always as an outsider. The purpose of this article is to detail the important evangelistic work done by Varley, his cooperation with Restoration Movement leaders in Britain, and the ultimate reasons for his failure to fully associate with the Disciples of Christ.

From the Stone-Campbell Journal website: Editors D. Newell Williams, Douglas A. Foster, and Paul M. Blowers offer their second substantial contribution to Stone-Campbell historiography with The Stone-Campbell Movement: A Global History (Chalice, 2013), an unprecedented global survey. (1) A core of thirteen scholars collaboratively wrote this unique narrative that highlights groups of people (women, African Americans, global Christians, and others) often neglected in traditional histories. In this review essay, three Stone-Campbell Movement historians each review roughly one-third of the volume.

This essay considers the ecclesiology of William Robinson (1888–1963), a British theologian from the Stone-Campbell Movement. It surveys some of the distinctive features of his thinking on sacraments, theological ethics, and the nature of the church. It demonstrates that he sought to embody a “free church catholic” spirit. The conclusion brings Robinson’s ecclesiology in conversation with the present situation of the Stone-Campbell Movement, especially the Christian Churches (Independent) in America.

If you are a non-creedal Christian, how do you faithfully confess faith in God? If you seek to be biblical in your theology, what do you do with the doctrine of the Trinity? The Stone Campbell Movement is non-creedal, and has been ambivalent about the Trinity. Alexander Campbell was trinitarian in his theology, but eschewed the language of Trinity. Barton Stone wouldn't accept the designation of Unitarian, but he also rejected the Trinity. That ambivalence has stayed with the movement, but is there need for deep conversation about the Trinity? This is my belief, as developed in what I expect will be a small book/booklet.

While the author cannot speak for churches of Christ, common among them are unique ways of understanding sacred scripture, believed to have been written by apostles and prophets of the Lord before the destruction of Jerusalem (70 A.D.) and circulated among the early Christian communities (e.g. A letter called First Clement in about 95 A.D., refers to at least ten New Testament books), then collected as a volume by the self-identified Christian community of the second century A.D. or earlier, e.g. the list of Marcion (140 A.D.)

Also see MEANING THERAPY here
https://issuu.com/collegeofmentalhealth/docs/meaning_therapy3

A heavy duty gas turbine rotor operates in a highly nonlinear environment. It is often taken to thermal transients and over-speed events. The source of excitations often excites the blades during in-service life. Various stresses generated in the turbine rotor are not only due to centrifugal forces but also due to wake forces generated during the flow through airfoil, which later generates fatigue, Vibratory and creep loads. Structural failures may occur due to various uncertainties involved in the operation of gas turbines such as speed loads, over-speeding and component manufacturing deviations. If catastrophic rotor failures occur, they commonly result in lengthy forced outages and severe economic penalties to the affected utilities. In the present work, assessment of structural integrity of Integrated bladed rotor assessment is accomplished through conduction of an Finite Element analysis blended with classical theories. The structural analysis results of IBR is compared with Bladed Disc assembly to highlight the effect of Contact at Blade Butting zone on frequency response along with Integrated Model(IBR) for a given flow conditions and airfoil. In addition to evaluation of structural strength in the rotor disc components, failures due to vibrations are also quite apparent in the Gas turbine blades. An attempt is made to investigate the resonance points at operating speeds, disk mode participations if any and retrieve excitation frequency modes, Campbell, SAFE (Singh's Advanced Frequency Evaluation Diagram) are generated and analyzed to evaluate the separation margins for Blade and disk integrity.

In the introduction of his book, On Liturgical Theology, Aidan Kavanagh speaks of himself, an author, professor, and Christian practitioner whose specialty is symbolic liturgical expression. He speaks in third person, perhaps to create a space where readers hear themselves.
In light of all this, the author is a living paradox. The creature of a deeply sacramental tradition…he tries to affirm and commend the embrace of the world which that tradition and its liturgical expression would convey to others of Christian faith met for worship. Simultaneously, however, his own monastic engagement must be taken not with reluctance but with a certain wariness…. While he lives happily in this earthly city, he realized that it does not abide and that his true enfranchisement is in another city which does abide but whose presence is not yet wholly consummated in space and time.

I must admit to my own occupation of his “living paradox”—with a twist. It is this twist, both wrenching and freeing, that I will attempt to trace in my connections between scholarship and experiences of the Church of Christ. Unlike, Aidan Kavanagh, I do not have an ecclesial role or deep liturgical commitments as my foundation for doing “secondary theology.” He begins with a love of worship that then implies a love for the world. Lex orandi founds lex credendi, which leads to lex agendi. Right worship gives birth to belief, which then bears the fruits of spirit-filled action in the world. Correspondingly, what we believe (lex credendi) affects what we ask of God (lex supplicandi).  According to Kavanagh, the statuat of orthodoxy undergirds these moves: a standard of praise shapes the canonicity of belief and behavior.
My aim is not an exposition of his liturgical theology, so much as the recognition that for Kavanagh, worship informs how the Christian derives meaning. And liturgy does not often derive meaning in ways that the systematic theologian would expect. Kavanagh claims that liturgical structures manifest meaning in ways not readily accessible to those outside the structures.  While it would seem tautological that those who engage in the structures of worship best derive its meaning—Kavanagh draws us to two paradoxes. First, the liturgical calls him to embrace the world, however he prizes the ‘deeper structures’ that lie outside space and time. And the second paradoxical reality: several of this colleagues and students have long been outside the church, embracing the world to determine the value of liturgical structures. The first paradox is his own; the second is now mine.
My paper will chart the interaction between my academic training in performance studies (Aristotle’s mimesis, method acting’s anamnesis), literary theory (Derrida’s exegesis of the Rabbi versus the poet), sacramental theology (mysterion v. Tertullian’s sacramentum), and finally, hermeneutical phenomenology (Levinas’ Infinite, Lacoste’s liturgical ontology). In each of these academic disciplines, I learned more about what it means to ‘be the church’ than I learned properly within ecclesial roles afforded me.

An often-overlooked personality in the American Restoration Movement, Abner Jones left behind the Baptist name, creed, and doctrines in a desire to simply be a "Christian."  He was one of the prime movers in the creation of the "Christian Connexion" in New England.  This paper traces his religious thoughts and actions from a child to finally forsaking all to become a minister of Jesus Christ, and also looks at the damage done to the Connexion by the Millerite movement of the 1840s.

This book was commissioned for members of the Women's Ministries-Churches of Christ in Australia at the organisation's closure in 2012.. 'With My Sister Beside Me' critically examines the nationwide work of Women's Ministries-Churches of Christ in Australia. For over 70 years they supported, networked, resourced and guided women in Churches of Christ. With a distinctively collaborative approach to leadership they encouraged and affirmed one another.

The essays collected in Revelation and Leadership in the Kingdom of God intend to honor Professor Ian Arthur Fair, a distinguished biblical scholar and leader in Christian education, known for his groundbreaking research on the Book of Revelation and church leadership. Scholarly contributions included in the Festschrift mirror Fair’s own scholarly interests, including biblical studies, with particular attention to the New Testament apocalyptic traditions, philosophy of missions, theology of worship, history of the Restoration movement, and modern theology. The content of the Festschrift thus closely follows Fair's own spiritual and scholarly journey and also reflects the breadth and scope of his influence on the church and the academy. 
https://www.gorgiaspress.com/revelation-and-leadership-in-the-kingdom-of-god-2

Restorationists are specially gifted to advance missional communities in North America. The fellowship was formed in rural regions and carries within patterns of holistic wisdom which can be adapted to a fragmented urban world. The emphasis on biblical “costly discipleship” has primed members for life together. Elements latent within the Restoration Movement such as ecumenism and pacifism provide further support for communities to unite believers from different traditions and to distinguish them from the dominant culture. Moreover, as autonomous congregations, Restorationists can adopt new practices more quickly than mainlines. Even sectarianism, if transformed, offers the basis for a robust countercultural identity.

"In a religious culture shaped by a history of patriarchy, [Kathy] Pulley combined prophetic and pastoral rhetoric to lead organizational change in an egalitarian direction. This paper analyzes her sermon through lenses of prophetic and feminist rhetoric, integrates literature from rhetoric and homiletics to develop the concept of pastoral rhetoric, and presents implications for ecclesial engagement with social controversies.

The family history of Richard Cox (1811–1891) and Eliza Levina Smith (Schmidt) (1815–1890), pioneer settlers at Cape Rich, St. Vincent Twp., Ontario. This history intersects with the local history of the Disciples of Christ / Church of Christ, in the village of Cape Rich, nearby Meaford, and beyond.

2008 marks a hundred years since Victorian (Aust.) women gained the right to vote.  But which radical women campaigned for this right? A small but luminous fragment of history provides us with a new way of looking at Churches of Christ women. This short article for a broad readership describes how several seasoned Temperance campaigners, signed the Women's Suffrage Petition in 1891.

John Mulkey was one of Barton Stone's earliest pioneer preachers. Mulkey's notoriety arose from the 1809 split that happened at the Mill Creek Church; however, Mulkey's full impact within the Stone-Campbell Movement has not been fully examined. Noting Mulkey's contribution to Stone's reform will allow Mulkey recognition within Stone-Campbell Movement history.

At the turn of the 20th century, Churches of Christ had less than a nominal level of missionary activity. With few missionaries abroad and fewer churches willing to support them along with no denominationally baptized mechanism for conducting a missionary enterprise, the prospect of a viable missions program that covered the denomination seemed bleak for Churches of Christ. Don Carlos Janes (1877-1944) would find himself in this difficult situation in 1911 as he began his work as a missionary promoter. In this essay, I examine the work of an unfamiliar, but indispensable figure to the history of Churches of Christ mission efforts. I show that through his work, Janes helped establish and maintain a missionary consciousness among the congregations of Churches of Christ in addition to recruiting and supporting a majority of missionaries of the denomination between 1911 and 1944.

The Stone-Campbell Movement, of which the Disciples of Christ is one branch, takes pride in being a non-creedal faith community. We've made use of slogans that speak this noncreedal identity, declaring that We have "No Creed but Christ, No Book but the Bible." Another slogan we have used comes from Rupertus Meldenius: "In essentials unity, in nonessentials liberty, in all things charity." While that is a worthy statement, it begs the question as to what is essential. What is the basis for deciding what is essential? Many Disciples assume we know what those essentials are, but do we? Stephen Sprinkle notes that "we dwell in a world in which the words 'religion' and 'faith' are increasingly understood as 'emotive' terms, synonyms for 'personal,' 'private,' 'subjective,' and finally 'arbitrary.'" Therefore, "the theological center of gravity has shifted from unity on core assertions about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to liberty about them, and then on from liberty, that