Waiting For Sunday

I just finished reading Illusions of innocence: Protestant Primitivism in America, 1630-1875 by Richard T. Hughes and C. Leonard Allen (1988, University of Chicago Press). This is an excellent book that most of you won’t want to read (unless you’re really into history) because it is so technical. But it is valuable especially to those of us in the independent Christian churches who approach our faith with a “restorationist” mindset - meaning that our goal is to restore the pure faith and practices of New Testament times.

Here are some of the major points of the book:

1. Our vision of restoring primitive and purer times is by no means unique. On the contrary, few things were more common in the years following the American Revolution. The desire to reconnect with primordial purity drove the New England Puritans, primitive Baptists, and Mormons as well as Alexander Campbell and our Christian churches (which Hughes and Allen insist on calling “Christians”, using the quotation marks not to question our sincerity but to distinguish us from other Christian movements). In fact, this mindset drove Thomas Jefferson and the founders of our republic, so the intellectual soil of the early 1800s was fertile for producing primitive religious movements.
2. Restorationist movements tend to follow a predictable path from liberty to exclusivism to coercion. Most movements begin with an emphasis on free thought because they are formed in reaction to older movements which restrict freedom. Campbell, for example, began his movement in opposition to the “human creeds” of the established Presbyterian church of his youth, creeds which he found restrictive. It doesn’t take long, however, for such movements to arrive at the conclusion that they have reestablished the true way and that all others are in error - hence exclusivism. Then, when the movement gains strength in numbers, it usually resorts to coercion to enforce the “right thinking” it has rediscovered. Our Christian churches in many regions are certainly known for this attitude of “we’re the only true Christians”, though Campbell himself didn’t take this journey with his movement. In a real sense, our branch of the Christian churches was stolen out from under Campbell by others. Hughes and Allen show that this trajectory of thought can be seen in our nation’s foreign policy. Our birthright of freedom of conscience has often been translated into a doctrine of enforcing “freedom” on other nations by military power. More often than not, America’s stated desire to spread freedom serves as a cloak for other national interests.
3. The key to breaking free from our failures (if there is such a key) lies in being aware of our “illusions of innocence”. The last paragraph of the book begins with these words: “Awareness of our own failures and appreciation of the traditions of others will not likely occur, however, so long as the luxuriant growth of pretentions to innocence remains unpruned.”

I’m enough of a product of America and our Restoration Movement to find a lot of value in the truths which both rediscovered. But I have long been troubled about the exclusivism and coercion I have seen in both. Illusions of Innocence is valuable in that it gives a name to and a comprehensive description of these failings.

PS - I got my copy of Illusions used and at a good price from Amazon, but now I see that it lists for almost $45! I wish I hadn’t marked mine up!

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