An American Religious Movement : A Brief History of the Disciples of ChristGarrison, Winfred Ernest
History
An American Religious Movement : A Brief History of the Disciples of Christ
Garrison, Winfred Ernest
Disciples of Christ -- History
It was largely due to Isaac Errett and the _Christian Standard_ that the
Disciples did not become a legalistic and exclusive sect. The paper was
founded at Cleveland in 1866—its first issue carried the news of
Alexander Campbell’s death—and it was moved to Cincinnati in 1869.
Errett was already a man of power and distinction. He had been pastor,
author, co-editor of the _Millennial Harbinger_, corresponding secretary
of the American Christian Missionary Society, and president of the
convention. In starting the _Christian Standard_ he had the active
support of General Garfield and three of the Phillips brothers of
Newcastle, Pennsylvania. The new journal at once threw its influence
boldly on the liberal side of all the controversial issues that have
been mentioned. The _Gospel Advocate_ already was, and the _American
Christian Review_ was soon to be, arrayed against all “innovations.” To
complicate the picture, the _Apostolic Times_ was established with an
impressive list of editors—Lard, Graham, Hopson, Wilkes, and
McGarvey—who aimed to heal the incipient division by taking what they
considered a middle-of-the-road position, against the organ but for the
missionary society.
The service of Isaac Errett would have been less significant than it was
if it had been only the championing of the progressive side in certain
controversies. What was more important was the breadth of his spirit,
the depth of his religious life, and the power of his leadership away
from a cramping legalism and toward a broader spiritual culture. In an
article entitled “What Is Sectarianism?” in the _Christian Quarterly_,
January, 1871, Mr. Errett restated the aim of the Disciples of Christ as
union upon Christ, not upon our own interpretation of the Bible or on an
exact pattern of the “ancient order of things.” J. J. Haley later called
this article “the Declaration and Address brought down to date.”
CHAPTER IX
RENAISSANCE, 1874-1909
After the dark ages of controversy and organizational stagnation—which
were by no means so dark in other respects—came a renaissance in which
the Disciples gained a clearer view of their central purpose and a
better command of the resources for realizing it. They began to make
more intimate contacts with the social and intellectual currents of the
time and to escape from the cultural isolation into which they had
fallen. Those who thought of this as apostasy from the true faith tended
to withdraw, and ultimately did withdraw, into a separate and
noncooperating group. The main body no longer took interest in what now
seemed trivial disputes about organs, pastors, and the legitimacy of
missionary organizations. The new issues which arose were such as were
shared by the whole Christian world, so that even their dissensions
related them to the main currents of religious thought.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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