Congregationalism in the United States
[10] According to historian James F. Cooper Jr., Congregationalism helped imbue the political culture of Massachusetts with several important concepts: "adherence to fundamental or 'higher' laws, strict limitations upon all human authority, free consent, local self-government, and, especially, extensive lay participation.
[11] To help achieve unity, Puritan clergy would often meet in conferences to discuss issues arising within the churches and to offer advice.
[12] The colonists developed a system in which each community organized a gathered church of believers (i.e., only those who were thought to be among the elect and could give an account of a conversion experience were admitted as members).
The Cambridge Platform was completed by the synod in 1648 and commended by the General Court as an accurate description of Congregational practice after the churches were given time to study the document, provide feedback, and finally, ratify it.
While the Platform was legally nonbinding and intended only to be descriptive, it soon became regarded by ministers and laypeople alike as the religious constitution of Massachusetts, guaranteeing the rights of church officers and members.
[29] The decline of conversions and the division over the Half-Way Covenant was part of a larger loss of confidence experienced by Puritans in the latter half of the 17th century.
[37] Ultimately, the formation of Brattle Street Church spurred Congregationalists to modify their polity and strengthen the role of associations in order to promote greater uniformity.
The second feature was the creation of "standing councils" of ministers and lay representatives to supervise the churches within a geographical area and to act as counterparts to the ministerial associations.
The most famous sermon preached during the Great Awakening, for example, was "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", delivered by Edwards at Enfield, Connecticut, in July 1741.
Many in the congregation were affected by Edwards's sermon, with minister Stephen Williams reporting "amazing shrieks and cries" caused by the heightened religious excitement.
Uneducated men and women began to preach without formal training, and some itinerant preachers were active in parishes without the approval of the local pastor.
[49] A notable example of revival radicalism was James Davenport, a Congregational minister who preached to large crowds throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut.
The faculties of Harvard and Yale issued statements critical of his methods, and ministerial associations throughout the region spoke against allowing him to preach in their churches.
[55] Under the influence of Enlightenment thought, liberals rejected the Calvinism of their Puritan heritage, particularly the doctrines of total depravity, unconditional election, and double predestination.
[62] In the two decades after the First Great Awakening, the tone of Congregational thought was set by New Light theologian Jonathan Edwards and his followers, the most notable being Joseph Bellamy and Samuel Hopkins.
The New Divinity, as the Edwardsean school of thought, became known, sought to answer Arminian objections to Calvinism and to provide a theological basis for the revivalism that had been unleashed by the Great Awakening.
This had been proposed as a practical measure; American bishops could ordain Anglican priests in the colonies without requiring candidates for ordination to travel to England.
[66] Congregational churches had been present in eastern New York prior to the Revolution, but expansion into the central and western parts of that state took place in the 1790s as emigration increased from Massachusetts and Connecticut.
When this approach proved unworkable, the society shed its opposition to itinerant ministry and began ordaining young men to serve as full-time evangelists.
Its most widely circulated publication was the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, which provided coverage of revivals and missions around the world and which was read as far south as Georgia.
[72] In 1810, a group of students at Andover Theological Seminary, led by Samuel John Mills and Adoniram Judson, convinced the Massachusetts General Association to support the creation of a foreign missionary society.
Through the American Board, Congregational churches supported missionaries in India, Ceylon, South Africa, Turkey, and the Hawaiian Islands.
[74] The challenge of building churches and providing ministers for western settlements motivated many Congregationalists to engage in closer cooperation with the Presbyterians.
This shared heritage and the necessity of evangelizing the west led them to form united Presbyterian-Congregational institutions and churches in areas where ministers and resources were in short supply.
[78] Since the 17th century, Congregationalists had managed to maintain unity despite disagreements over the role of man and God in salvation and the adoption by liberals of nontrinitarian theological ideas.
[80] The "orthodox" or evangelicals, as they came to be known, were united around the omnipotence of God, the necessity of conversion, a converted church membership, and the literal truth of the Bible.
[81] The Unitarian controversy was initiated when conservatives, led by Yale-educated geographer and Boston-area minister Jedidiah Morse, opposed the appointment of liberal Henry Ware to the Hollis Chair of Divinity at Harvard University in 1805.
William Ellery Channing, pastor of the Boston's Federal Street Church, responded by accusing conservatives of instigating theological controversy.
Yale professor Nathaniel William Taylor carried this further in what became known as the New Haven theology, which essentially claimed that humans could reject sin and choose God.
Some congregations opposed liberalizing influences that appeared to mitigate traditional views of sin and corollary doctrines such as the substitutionary atonement of Jesus.
