Full Text for American Religious Scene- Volume 28 - U.S. Denominations (Video)

No. 28. >> A colleague and I were talking the other day about all of the different churches in America. Here in New Jersey it sometimes seems that there are more than I can count. How did we get so many different denominations in the United States? >>DR. LAWRENCE R. RAST, JR.: Eric, that's a very good question to consider as we start our discussion of the American religious scene. Afterall, one of the things that really makes the American experience unique is the presence of so many different religious traditions. Now, in the early history of our nation and even before it was a nation, that meant mostly Christian traditions. So a variety of different Christian denominations have been on the scene from the beginning of the European conquest of North America. But in more recent years we've seen Asian religions. We've seen some from the Middle East. Islam. Buddhism. Confucianism. A variety of different traditions have had a significant impact on the American religious scene. And sometimes it can be hard to make sense out of all of the different groups. In fact, I was a pastor in Tennessee for five years. And on the road on which our church existed, Old Hickory Boulevard on the north side of Nashville, there were at least 18 separate Christian denominations represented. It could really make one's head spin trying to make sense out of all of these different groups. So what we'll try to do over the course of this particular class is make some sense out of this very complex picture. And to that end where I would like to start is to talk about the growth of the various denominations in the first place. We tend to talk about the development of organized religion here in the United States in terms of the colonizing efforts of western European countries, especially beginning in the early part of the 17th Century. Jamestown, for example, formed in 1607, was an official colony of the English state. And as such had a religious component to its formation. It was part of the Church of England. It was Anglican. Today we would call that part of the Episcopal communion here in the United States. But the Anglican communion worldwide has its roots in the English Reformation. We'll talk about that a little bit later in this course. But that's just one instance of one of these traditions being present here in America very early on. There are others, of course, as well. Most familiar to many people are the efforts of the pilgrims and the Puritans in New England. The pilgrims arriving in 1620 and starting their Plymouth colony. The Puritans coming a little later, 1628, and establishing the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Now, sometimes we conflate the two of those groups. We put them into one. But when they were first formed, they were very, very different from one another. The pilgrims were separating dissenters, that is they said there was no hope for the Church of England and they separated themselves entirely from it. In fact they believed in order to be part of the church, one could not be a participant in any of the Church of England's activities. The Puritans, on the other hand, were dissenters but they were non-separated. What they tried to do was to purify the English church. So they approached things a little bit differently. Now, it's true, later on the two groups did, in fact, merge into one. And Massachusetts itself was largely characterized by the latter perspective, namely, that of the Puritans. But note what we have already. Down in Jamestown already from the early 1600s the Church of England is present. In New England we see the presence of groups like the Puritans and pilgrims. Both with roots in England, as well. You go deeper into the south, Georgia, the Carolinas, the Church of England was also very strong there. Although, it grew in strength only later on with the establishment of such sittings as Savanna and Charleston. Where things really began to get interesting is in what are called the middle colonies: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New York. There you had a great variety of different Christian churches beginning to emerge already in the 1600s. In what was originally called New Netherland, you had the Dutch Reformed Church. In New Sweden, which was formed in 1637-38 you had a Lutheran colony. In Maryland there was a thriving Roman Catholic community. So a significant variety already in the 1600s of different Christian traditions were present. As time went by, that just became more and more the case. In fact, as you moved into the 1700s, it was actually the case that others joined in this and created what we today think of as the melting pot of American religion. And that was nowhere more true than in the middle colonies. Right about the year 1690 things began to change in an important way. Significant numbers of Germans began to make their way to the middle colonies, especially in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. And the effects would be profound. The German Reformed Church emerged. The Lutheran Church grew significantly. And over the course of the 1700s, that continued to be the case. So already before the American Revolution there were significant populations of a variety of different Christian groups. In fact, in one very important volume by Edwin Scott Gaustad, "Historical Atlas of Religion In America," he actually counted the number of congregations that were existing in various points in American history. And the picture that emerges is really rather fascinating. For example, in the year 1660 he gives the following numbers: The congregational church had 75 churches. Local congregations at that point in time. The Anglican or Church of England communion had 41. The Dutch Reformed in New Netherland, 13. The Roman Catholics, 12. The Presbyterians, 5. Lutherans, 4. And Baptists, 4. By the time the year 1700 rolled around, the neighbors had changed. Congregationalism had grown significantly now numbering 146 separate churches. The Church of England had 111. The Baptists, 33. The Presbyterians, 28. The Dutch Reformed, 26. Roman Catholics, 22. And the Lutherans, 7. That's right on the cusp of the beginning of Lutheran growth and I often ask people: Do you see the glass half empty or half full? That is Lutherans had only grown modestly during this time. But if you looked at the larger picture, they had almost doubled in size. It would be in the year 1700 to 1740 that Lutherans would begin to grow very significantly once again. Now, what does this tell us? I think it tells us a few things about the growth of the Christian traditions here early in the colonial period. That is there are a variety of people who are making their way to the American scene. But within that variety, there is a significant dominance of English speaking Christians. The Lutherans as a result are a little bit on the outside having their German background primarily. Though, there are some Swede's and some Dutch who are present, as well. The German Reformed Church strong in Pennsylvania is limited in its scope. So in Pennsylvania, lots of Germans. Beyond that, not so many. And thus, Lutheran and German Reformed strength tended to be located in those particular areas. In much of the rest of the emerging colonies, things tended to have their roots in some part of the English tradition. And that would have a tremendous impact as the denominations developed. Over the course of the 1700s we saw that pattern repeat itself. The congregational church continuing to grow. The Anglican communion continuing to grow at least through the Revolution and then also some emerging churches beginning to have an impact. Namely, the Baptists, the Presbyterians. And then in the very latter part of the 1700s, the Methodists, as well. Still through the American Revolution the old colonial pattern held fast. The one significantly growing church was the Lutheran Church. And it was populated largely by Germans. It's only after the Revolution into the early national period that things really take off and take on an entirely new character. As a matter of fact, Methodism as a movement merges as a formally organized independent church in the year 1784 just after the Revolution and explodes onto the scene becoming the largest church in America in it terms of number of congregations by the year 1820. It's followed by the Baptists. And by then also the Presbyterians have grown. Congregationalists, Episcopalians as they are now called. No longer the Church of England continued to grow. But not as rapidly as the other church bodies. And then a whole slew of other church traditions begin to make their way onto the scene. Some have their roots in the great revivals we'll talk about later on in this course. Groups like the Disciples of Christ. Other groups like the Baptists will grow and explode in terms of their numbers. Largely due to specific ways of addressing the challenges and opportunities of the American frontier. And create a pattern for many other churches to follow as they develop during the 1800s. Still by the end of the 1800s, the pattern has been largely set. The Methodist Church being largest. Followed by Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and others. It's only with the later part of the 1800s that Roman Catholicism begins to develop once again and to grow in significant numbers as immigrants make their way to the United States. Finally resulting in Roman Catholicism being the largest Christian church body here in the United States. But again among the Protestants, the Baptists and the Methodists continuing vying for that 1 and 2 spot. It's a fascinating process. And one that I think we have to take into account if we're going to be effective in ministry in our given circumstances in the places where God has led us. Afterall, as I often have said, growing up in the Midwest, going to seminary here in Ft. Wayne, you could pick up a rock, throw it and you had a pretty good chance of hitting a Lutheran. When I moved down to Tennessee to be a pastor, you could turn over all of the rocks you could find and struggle to find a Lutheran. Why was that so? Why were there so many Baptists in the south and so few Lutherans? Why did the patterns play out the way they did? Did they have to be this way? Or were there immigration patterns? Transportation patterns? And above all, theological issues that contributed to the way things developed. Then toss into the mix the basic reality of American freedom and the reality of a democratized setting and you have great opportunities for new church bodies to emerge, develop and in some cases, come to dominate. The Methodists coming to mind once again. America has a very unique character in this respect. And knowing about that unique character will help us to about more effective ministers of the Gospel as we proclaim Christ crucified and risen again for a world in need. It is a complex, yet a fascinating story. And I hope you'll find it an interesting one.