Presbyterianism in the United States
Christianity • Protestantism Presbyterianism has had a presence in the United States since colonial times and has exerted an important influence over broader American religion and culture.
Latin was abandoned as a liturgical language in favor of the vernacular, and preaching (rather than celebration of the Mass) became the main emphasis of church services.
According to presbyterian polity, rather than rule by bishops, congregations are governed by a representative body of elders called a session.
[8] In the late 1600s, economic problems and religious persecution prompted many Scotch-Irish to migrate to America, and most settled in the Middle Colonies.
The Scotch-Irish party stressed a dogmatic adherence to confessional standards, professional ministry, and orderly, centralized church government.
[15] The presbytery had avoided divisive theological controversies, and the synod followed suit in its early years, as it functioned without any official confessional statement.
The Church of Scotland and the Irish Synod of Ulster already required clergy to subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith, but not the Larger or Shorter Catechisms.
Drawing from the Scotch-Irish revivalist tradition, ministers such as William and Gilbert Tennent emphasized the necessity of a conscious conversion experience and the need for higher moral standards among the clergy.
[19] Gilbert Tennent was personally influenced by the ministry of Jacob Frelinghuysen, a Dutch Reformed pastor in Raritan, New Jersey.
At the time, there were no Presbyterian colleges in America, and candidates for the clergy were forced to attend either Harvard and Yale (both Congregational institutions), or study in Britain.
Revivalists objected to this restriction, noting that itinerant preaching helped to spread the gospel and alleviate clergy shortages.
The Old Side retained control of the Synod of Philadelphia, and it immediately required unconditional subscription to the Westminster Confession with no option to state scruples.
[28] The united Synod required unqualified subscription to the Westminster Confession, but clergy candidates would also be examined for their "experimental acquaintance with religion" (i.e. their personal conversion experiences).
[27] Meanwhile, a group of Presbyterians in Pennsylvania were dissatisfied with the Adopting Act, which allowed qualified subscription to the Westminster Confession.
A dispute over exclusive psalmody and whether to use Isaac Watts' or Francis Rous' psalter led one congregation to leave the Synod of New York and join the Associate Presbytery.
"[33][34] Some Presbyterians supported the revivals of the Second and Third Great Awakenings in the nineteenth century, including Lyman Beecher and Charles G. Finney.
[37] In December 1861, following the outbreak of the Civil War and the Gardiner Spring Resolutions, the Old School Southern Presbyterians, which included men such as James Henley Thornwell and R.L.
In 1922, Harry Emerson Fosdick, a Baptist serving as pastor of a Presbyterian church in New York City, delivered a sermon entitled "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?
At Princeton Theological Seminary, a New Testament professor J. Gresham Machen, who stood in the tradition of earlier Princetonians such as Charles Hodge and B.
A group within that body, led by men such as Carl McIntire and J. Oliver Buswell, broke away to form the Bible Presbyterian Church in 1937.
In the 1970s, the trial of Walter Kenyon, a minister who refused to participate in women's ordinations, lead to a ruling that UPCUSA churches must ordain female officers.
In 1942, the Presbyterian Church in the United States began to experiment with confessional revision, prompting PCUS conservatives, such as L. Nelson Bell, father-in-law of Billy Graham, to begin renewal efforts.
"[38] In 1966, conservatives founded Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi to educate students along Old School Presbyterian lines.
Following merger discussions with the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., in 1956 a proposal was passed by the PCUS general assembly, but rejected by the presbyteries.
In 1981, theological controversy in the UPCUSA, most notably the General Assembly's affirmation of the National Capitol Union Presbytery's reception of a United Church of Christ minister who allegedly denied the deity, sinless nature and bodily resurrection of Christ, led to the formation of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a denomination that puts greater emphasis on their "Essentials of the Faith," a brief statement of evangelical theology, rather than the Westminster Standards.
With the strongest conservatives gone from both the UPCUSA and the PCUS, the denominations moved closer to merger and united in 1983 to form the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Historically, along with Lutherans and Episcopalians, Presbyterians tend to be considerably wealthier[39] and better educated (having more graduate and post-graduate degrees per capita) than most other religious groups in United States,[40] and are disproportionately represented in the upper reaches of American business,[41] law, and politics.
