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Conservative Versus Progressive Orthodoxy in Latter 19th Century Congregationalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

David Everett Swift
David Everett Swift
Affiliation:
Lincoln University, Pennsylvania
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Extract

During the 19th century a concept, in itself neither religious nor anti-religious, modified the thought of a great number of Americans. This was the concept of gradual development. One application of this concept, which had a profound effect upon Congregational thought, was the assumption that insight into religious truth comes only gradually. This view seemed to threaten all formulations of tradition and all embodiments of revelation which had been assumed to be final and complete. Another concept, closely related to that of development, also gravely disturbed the New England theology of the latter 19th century. There was a revival of stress on the immanence of God within the created world. For certain Congregationalists, divine influence upon man came to be viewed as working wholly through the channels of natural law and natural growth, rather than by sudden invasion from without. To conservatives, this stress seemed to blur a central truth in evangelical theology, the perilous chasm between sinful men and the holy, judging God.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , March 1947 , pp. 22 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1947

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References

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