Dispensationalism seeks to address what many see as opposing theologies between the Old Testament and New Testament

Dispensationalism is a theological movement within evangelicalism stressing an apocalyptic understanding of history. Its peculiarities arise from an inter­pretation of the history of redemption which sees the Old and New Testaments united eschatologically in a way that is consistent with a historical-grammatical (sometimes referred to as 'literal') interpretation of Old and New Testaments, and consistent with the fulfilment of the Old Testament promises to national Israel of an earthly kingdom ruled personally by the Messiah, Jesus Christ. It is a philosophy of history, adherence to which encompasses diverse theologies in the evangelical tradition, [107] including the Calvinistic, Arminian, Pentecostal and charismatic.

Terminology

1 Dispensation (from the Greek oikonomia: management of a household): a distinguishable administration in the fulfilment of the divine purpose of creation, operative within history, during which God administers the world in a particular manner. The dispensations corre­spond historically to the successive stages of progressive revelation.

2 Imminence: the doctrine that Jesus Christ can return at any moment. No prophetic event must intervene before that return.

3 The rapture (Latin rapio: snatch, catch away): the church's expectation of being 'caught up in the clouds' to meet Christ at his return (1 Thess. 4: 15-17). The rapture is most commonly believed to be imminent (pre-tribulational), although some theologians argue that imminence need not necessarily imply a pre-tribulational rapture. Of these, some would place its timing at the middle of the tribulation, and a small but growing number see the rapture as post-tribulational.

4 The tribulation: a seven-year apocalyptic period of divine judgement upon the earth, delineated in the Books of Daniel and Revela­tion (interpreted futuristically). This period is also referred to as the seventieth week of Daniel. (This is based upon the prophecy of the seventy heptads ('weeks' in the Authorized Version) of Daniel 9: 24-7. The first sixty-nine heptads (interpreting each 'day' as signifying a literal year) are understood as having been completed at the first advent of Jesus Christ; the final heptad is viewed as being in the future, beginning when the Antichrist (the Beast of Revelation) signs a protective covenant with the nation of Israel, and culminating with the battle of Armageddon and the personal return of Jesus Christ).

5 Premillennialism: the teaching that Jesus Christ will return before the millennium and establish and reign over an earthly kingdom which will endure for one thousand years (Rev. 20: 1-6) in fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies, after which will occur the resurrec­tion of the wicked and the final judgement of the present order, followed by the eternal state.

6 The church as a 'parenthesis' (or 'intercalation') in God's prophetic programme: earlier dispensationalists viewed the church as a complete mystery, that is, not revealed in any way in the Old Testament. The prophetic material of the Old Testament dealing with national Israel is yet to be literally fulfilled. As taught historically, Israel's rejection of the Messiah caused God to put his 'prophetic clock' on hold until the end of the church age at the rapture, at which time his programme for Israel will again start 'ticking'. This teaching implied that the church age was unrelated to God's primary design for history. Although holding to a sense of newness in the mystery character of the church, most contemporary dispensational scholars see the church age as the next step forward in the working out of the divine plan rather than understand it as an interruption in the divine plan for human history, unrelated to the rest of the historical process.

7 Israel: Israel is understood as always having reference biblically to national Israel, ethnic Jews, never to the church or Gentiles.

8 Church: the church is seen as the spiritual body of Christ consisting of all those who since Pentecost have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Stress is placed upon the overarching unity of the body of Christ, while the practical manifestation is seen in ways which do not conflict with the concept of the local church.

Origins and development

John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), a former priest in the Irish church, abandoned its ranks due to the apostasy he perceived therein. Forsaking the established church, Darby joined the movement later known as the Plymouth Brethren, where he developed a distinctive ecclesiology. He believed that the church was not to be identified with any institution but was a spiritual fellowship. Darby's ecclesiology became the catalyst for dispensationalism as a system. He posited radical discontinuity be­tween the church and Israel, asserting that God had two separate peoples and two separate programmes which he was working out in history. This discontinuity made it incumbent to 'rightly divide the Word of truth' discerning which passages were addressed to Israel and which to the church. These features, coupled [108] with a futurist view of biblical prophecy and the doctrine of the pre-tribulational rapture of the church, gave coherence to incipient dispensationalism.

The views and ideas of the Brethren move­ment spread to North America. Darby and Brethren expositors and evangelists gained a wide hearing, particularly among Presbyterians and Baptists, significant numbers of which adopted the dispensational historiography although few left their established denomina­tional affiliations. In 1876 a group of prominent Presbyterian and Baptist preachers and educa­tors organized the annual Niagara Bible Con­ferences for prophetic study, which continued for a quarter of a century.

The Bible Conference movement, following the pattern of the Niagara Conferences, spread dispensationalism widely. Working out of this context, C.I. Scofield in 1909 published the Scofield Reference Bible, which became the largest single force in spreading dispensational teaching.

In the wake of the fundamentalist-modernist controversy of the early twentieth century (see fundamentalism), fundamentalists (most of whom were dispensationalists) found that they had lost control of their denominations and seminaries. In response, a plethora of new theological institutions dedicated to preserving orthodoxy arose. The dispensational perspective of the Scofield Reference Bible became the traditional framework of instruction in many of these institutions.

In succeeding decades the movement re­tained its apocalyptic perspective but a historicism, reminiscent of nineteenth-century adventism, modified the strict futurism of early dispensationalism in certain sections of the movement. Although strictly this historicist emphasis is not to be identified with dispensa­tionalism, in the minds of many it has been, due to best-selling popular works. The historicist emphasis has had its greatest impact in Pentecostal and charismatic circles, which from their inceptions have been characterized by vivid apocalyptic expectations.

Major representatives

Apart from John Nelson Darby (see above), the leading figures in the movement have been the following.

1 C.I. Scofield (1843-1921): his Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth set the agenda for much of American fundamentalism. Scofield's The Comprehensive Bible Correspondence Course, first issued in 1896, became the foundational curriculum for churches and Bible institutes. His most important work. The Scofield Reference Bible (1909), put dispensational teaching in the hands of the layman. Over two million copies of the Scofield Bible have been sold. A revised edition, The New Scofield Reference Bible, was published in 1967.

2 Lewis Sperry Chafer (1872-1952): Chafer was the first president of Dallas Theological Seminary. His eight-volume Systematic Theol­ogy of 1947 became the standard theology of the 'Scofieldian' period of dispensationalism.

3 Alva J. McClain (1888-1968): president of Grace Theological Seminary, he contributed The Greatness of the Kingdom of 1959, a major dispensational study of the kingdom of God.

4 John F. Walvoord (b. 1910): as second president of Dallas Seminary and author of numerous works, including The Millennial Kingdom of 1959, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation of 1976, Israel in Prophecy of 1962, Darnel of 1971 and The Revelation of 1966, Walvoord has been a leading spokesman for dispensational eschatology.

5 J. Dwight Pentecost (b. 1915): professor at Dallas Seminary, he penned Things to Come of 1958, a massive study of dispensational eschatology from the 'Scofieldian' perspective.

6 Charles C. Ryrie (b. 1925): a prolific writer, his major contributions to dispensational thought are Dispensalionalism Today (1965), which traced significant refinements in dispen­sational thinking since the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible, and the Ryrie Study Bible of 1978, which has replaced The Scofield and The New Scofield Bibles as the study Bible of choice among many dispensationalists. Ryrie's work marked the beginning of the attempt to define the essence of dispensational teaching, and also set the direction for dispensational self-definition over the last decades of the twentieth century.

Major institutions

1 Moody Bible Institute (independent): founded in 1886 before the fundamentalist-modernist controversies, it was led from the first [109] by dispensational leaders and publishes the Scofield Bible Correspondence Course.

2 Biola University/Talbot School of Theol­ogy (independent): founded in 1907 as the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, it published until the 1970s the periodical The King's Business, the successor to The Fundamentals.

3 Dallas Theological Seminary (independ­ent): founded in 1924, Dallas Seminary became synonymous with dispensationalism since its presidents and numerous faculty members published widely read volumes which cham­pioned dispensational themes. Its faculty have been major contributors to the development of dispensationalism from the older 'Scofieldian' perspective into the contemporary era of 'progressive dispensationalism'. Additionally, Bibliotheca Sacra, the oldest continuous theolo­gical journal in the USA, was acquired by Dallas Seminary in the 1930s and has functioned as the scholarly organ for the movement.

4 Grace Theological Seminary (Grace Brethren): founded in 1937, it publishes Grace Theological Journal, which has recently begun publishing the annual dispensational papers presented in conjunction with the Evangelical Theological Society, making available to the scholarly world current dispensational discus­sions.

5 Mission organizations: numerous mission organizations have arisen from the dispensa­tional tradition, including: Campus Crusade for Christ, Jews for Jesus, Friends of Israel, SIM (Sudan Interior Mission), CAM Int'l (formerly Central American Mission), AIM Int'l (formerly Africa Inland Mission), Africa Evangelical Fellowship, Baptist Mid-Missions.

Issues and tensions

Hermeneutics Earlier dispensationalists insisted upon a consistent literal interpretation of prophecy. This insistence upon a literal interpretation did not imply a denial of figurative language or symbols. Rather, the term 'literal' has been employed to insist that all Scripture is to be interpreted in accordance with received linguistic conventions. In par­ticular, the term is used in opposition to (1) older Covenant theologians' denial of a literal future fulfilment of the Old Testament prophe­cies concerning national Israel and the messianic kingdom; (2) the spiritual appropriation of those prophecies/promises by the church; and (3) the theologians' fusion of Israel and the church into one virtually indistinguishable entity.

Founded upon the epistemological presup­positions of Scottish common sense and employing Baconian inductivism as a method, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century dispensationalists approached the Bible as scientists, arranging the 'facts' in a literal fashion. Operating upon the assumption that the Bible teaches a single system, dispensationalism claimed to present the Bible's own view of itself.

A naive literalism seen in such slogans as 'if the plain sense makes sense seek no other sense' often characterized the earlier movement, particularly on the popular level. Such literal­ism often led early dispensational writers to see sharp distinctions between concepts such as the 'kingdom of God' and the 'kingdom of heaven', distinctions which contemporary dispensational scholars disavow. Early spokesman R.A. Torrey insisted, 'in ninety-nine out of one hundred cases the meaning the plain man gets out of the Bible is the correct one.' This insistence arose from the conviction that the Bible was God's message to the common man rather than to the scholar. Insistence on the 'literal' meaning of the text and upon common-sense interpretation opened the door for viewing the text apart from its historical context. In recent decades the Scottish common-sense epistemology has been supplanted by a critical realism, while the plain literal interpretation of earlier generations has been progressively supplanted by thorough­going historical-grammatical interpretation and coupled with increasing critical interaction and sensitivity to contemporary hermeneutical con­cerns, including the historical limitations of the interpreter.

Historiography Prior to the nineteenth century, Covenant theology had in practice denied the concepts of development and progressive revela­tion in Scripture. These issues of development and change in the Scriptures which gave birth to dispensationalism were the same issues which engaged higher criticism in the nineteenth century. In many respects dispensationalism represents the mirror opposite of higher criticism, confronting the same issues but solving them on totally different bases. Whereas modernism was optimistic concerning [110] the improvement of the human condition through the development of culture, dispensationalism was thoroughly pessimistic. Both focused upon an understanding of the relation of the Bible to history. But while modernism viewed biblical history through the evolutionary lens of universal history, with naturalistic forces at work in the development of religion, dispensationalism contemplated human history exclusively through the lens of the Bible and answered the problem of change by appealing to divine intervention in human affairs.

Dispensational historiography views the world as a stage upon which the drama of cosmic redemption is fought between the divine forces and those of Satan. Each dispensation functions as an act in that drama. Development in the modern sense of the term may take place within dispensations, but not between. Hope for improvement of the human plight is Christological, posited in the return of Christ, rather than anthropological, in progressive human development in history. The unifying principle of history is eschatological, with God revealing his character and glory in successive dispensa­tions.

While there is no universally agreed scheme of dispensations, the most commonly recog­nized scheme is that of C.I. Scofield: (1) innocence (encompassing humanity's pre-fall condition); (2) conscience (to the flood); (3) human government (until the call of Abraham); (4) promise (until Moses); (5) law (until the death of Christ); (6) church (the present post-Pentecost age); (7) the millennium. Each of these dispensations is inaugurated by God establishing a covenant with humanity which creates a relationship of responsibility between the covenanting parties. Normally the covenants are unconditional, based upon grace, whereby God binds himself to accomplish certain purposes despite any failure on the part of covenanted humanity. The significant exception is the conditional, bilateral Mosaic covenant which is replaced by the New Covenant.

The dispensational periodization of history has frequently been misunderstood as teaching different bases of salvation in different ages. This charge is vehemently denied. Salvation is always by grace and founded upon the atonement of Christ. The content of the revelation to be trusted by the individual in the various ages is what changes, not the means or basis of salvation.

Dispensational historiography has proved to have practical political implications. Dispensationalists have had a political bias towards the nation of Israel based upon God's promise to Abraham (Gen. 12: 3). A creeping historicism has led many dispensationalists to identify the founding of the nation of Israel in 1948 as a fulfilment of prophecy. This, in turn, has led to an often uncritical support for Israel, lest one be found working against the purposes of God.

Sine qua non Many regard the essence of dispensationalism as the periodization of his­tory. There have however been many through­out the centuries who have recognized such a need, but who cannot be considered dispensa­tionalists. Ryrie (1965) argued that the sine qua non of dispensationalism was its distinction between the church and Israel. As originally taught, dispensationalism posited a radical distinction between the church and Israel as two separate peoples with two radically separate destinies. The church was God's heavenly people; Israel, God's earthly people. The hope of the church was heaven; the hope of Israel, an eternal kingdom on the renewed earth. The radical distinction between Israel and the church has in recent decades been repudiated as most contemporary dispensational scholars argue for one eternal people of God but two distinct institutional organizations in history. Most contemporary dispensational scholars find Ryrie's sine qua non inadequate. While main­taining a distinction between the church and Israel, contemporary dispensationalists see so much continuity between Israel and the church that one critic has charged that on this issue dispensationalism and contemporary Covenant theology have become virtually indistinguish­able.

Cessation of the charismata? There is widespread confusion as to the dispensational position with reference to the charismatic renewal. Classical Pentecostalism is thoroughly dispensational, while representatives of non-Pentecostal dis­pensationalism have argued against the con­tinuation of the charismata. This opposition to the charismata however is not endemic to the dispensational system, but rather reflects an affinity of non-Pentecostal dispensationalists to the Calvinisric attitudes exemplified in B.B. [111] Warfield's Counterfeit Miracles of 1918.

Contributions of dispensationalism

Historically, in the USA it was a coalition of dispensational preachers, teachers and laymen that actively fought the modernistic attacks upon historic orthodoxy by (1) publishing works such as The Fundamentals, a twelve-volume paperback series of 1910-15 mailed to every pastor, missionary, theological professor, Bible teacher, Bible College and seminary student in the English-speaking world (over three million copies were distributed); (2) founding Bible institutes, colleges and semin­aries out of which has arisen contemporary American evangelicalism.

Theologically, in the USA dispensational ecclesiology de-institutionalized grace by its emphasis upon the church as the spiritual body of Christ. This attitude played a major role in fostering an evangelical ecumenism which spread far beyond cooperation in the revivals of nineteenth-century American evan­gelicalism. This recognition of spiritual broth­erhood de-emphasized denominational loyalties and gave cohesion to the evangelical world view. It has been suggested that the striking success of parachurch movements in the USA is due in measure to this de-institutionalization of grace which has characterized dispensationalism.

Another major contribution of the movement lies in its insistence upon an apocalyptic perspective, not only in understanding the Scriptures but also in accomplishing the present theological task. Ernst Käsemann has noted, 'Apocalyptic . . . was the mother of all Christian theology.' But institutional Anglo-American theology prior to the late nineteenth century was decidedly anti-apocalyptic in its perspective. George Ladd admitted, 'We must recognize our debt to dispensationalism ... to all intents and purposes it revived the doctrine of the second advent of Christ and made it meaningful in the churches.'

Biblically, with its emphasis upon progressive revelation and the discontinuity of the church and Israel, dispensationalism anticipated the conclusions of contemporary scholarship with reference to Paul and the law, recognizing a significant discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments regarding the Christ event. On this issue, dispensational scholarship is closer to contemporary critical conclusions than to the conclusions of Covenant theology.

Practically, from the earlier advocacy of a 'literal hermeneutic' to the contemporary insistence upon historical-grammatical interpre­tation, dispensationalism has asserted the primacy of the Scriptures and the ability of the layman to interpret and understand them. Its common-sense hermeneutic opened the Scriptures for the layman and fostered compre­hensive knowledge of and love for the Bible.

Due to apocalyptic expectations, a large number of early dispensationalists urged with­drawal from worldly occupations, politics and institutions, emphasizing instead evangelism and missions with the hope of saving as many as possible before the rapture. Thus, dispensa­tionalism provided an impetus to the explosion of missionary activity of the twentieth century. At the same time it largely abandoned the public forum to secularism, viewing such involvement as 'polishing brass on a sinking ship'. Many contemporary dispensational theologians have rejected the narrow interpretation of salvation/ redemption implicit in this mentality and its accompanying pessimism concerning the world, encouraging instead creative engagement with the social and political structures of society.

A tradition in transition

Since the 1970s a new era of development in dispensational thought has been underway. In recent decades its scholars have moved from the defensive posture of earlier years. Dispensa­tional exegesis has moved beyond the naive literalism of earlier years to a more consistent application of the historical-grammatical meth­od of interpretation. Contemporary dispensa­tional scholars are critically re-evaluating the system and significant development is occur­ring. Eschatologically, a significant and growing number are comfortable with an inaugurated eschatology as opposed to the strict futurism of previous generations, seeing the kingdom of God as having been already inaugurated at Pentecost but not yet fully manifested. Since the Scofield Bible has lost the confessional status it enjoyed earlier in the century, it is more accurate to speak of contemporary dispensa­tionalism as a tradition bound together by shared presuppositions (futurist premillennialism, a temporal distinction between the church and Israel with an accompanying national future for Israel in fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, and historical-grammatical interpre­tation) rather than a system.

Bibliography

Bass, Clarence [1960] 1977: Backgrounds to Dispensationalism. Grand Rapids: Baker reprint.

Blaising, Craig A., and Bock, Darrell, eds 1992: Israel and the Church. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Breshears, Gerry 1991: Dispensationalism bibliogra­phy, 1965-1990. Portland, Or.: Western Conser­vative Baptist Seminary.

Ehlert, Arnold D. 1965: A Bibliographic History of Dispensationalism. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

Fuller, Daniel P. 1980: Gospel and Law. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Johnson, Elliot E. 1990: Expository Hermeneutics: An Introduction. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Kraus, C. Norman 1958: Dispensationalism in America. Richmond: John Knox Press.

McClain, Alva J. [19591 1968: The Greatness of the Kingdom. Chicago: Moody Press.

Marsden, George M. 1980: Fundamentalism and American Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Poythress, Vern 1987: Understanding Dispensationalists. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Radmacher, Earl D. 1972: The Nature of the Church. Chicago: Moody Press.

Ryrie, Charles C. 1965: Dispensationalism Today. Chicago: Moody Press.

Sandeen, Ernest R. [1970] 1978: The Knots of Fundamentalism: British and American Millenarianism, 1800-1930. Grand Rapids: Baker reprint.

Weber, Timothy P. 1983: Living in the Shadow of the Second Coming: American Premillennialism 1875-1982, enlarged edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Source: McGrath, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Thought, pp. 106-112.

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Dispensationalism

Dispensationalism is a system of biblical interpretation popular with Protestant evangelicals and fundamentalists. Dispensationalists divide biblical history into different periods, called dispensations, in which God covenanted with humanity in particular ways. Although not all conservative Protestants hold dispensational views, as both a scheme of interpreting the Bible and a popular religious movement, dispensationalism is influential in the United States, where it helped define modern American evangelicalism.

Dispensationalism did not originate in the United States. Historically, Christians identified two dispensations of God's work: the Old Covenant and the New. In each testament, God unfolded a plan of salvation—through Moses or Jesus—effective for a given time. In the 1830s John Nelson Darby (1800–1882), a Church of England minister who founded the Plymouth Brethren, elaborated upon this notion to further [Page 189] decipher biblical history and prophecy. Instead of just two covenants, Darby identified numerous dispensations in the Bible.

Every dispensation follows the same pattern: God issues a command that tests human obedience, human beings fail the test, and God judges their failure. In the Adamic dispensation, for example, God forbade humans to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But Adam and Eve disobeyed and ate. Thus, God condemned humans to suffer and die and expelled them from Eden's bliss. Throughout Israel's history, this pattern of testing and judgment continues.

These failures should have prepared Israel to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. However, the Jews again disobeyed God by rejecting Jesus. Accordingly, God might have punished humanity with final destruction. Instead, God postponed judgment until the Jews repent and accept Jesus Christ. Hence, a great "pause" occurred in the biblical timeline. For an undetermined time, the church, God's New Israel, replaces ethnic Israel as the center of biblical history. When the church successfully completes its mission to evangelize the Gentiles, a seven-year tribulation will engulf the world, the Antichrist will deceive humanity, many Jews will finally believe in Jesus, the battle of Armageddon will occur, Christ will return and defeat Satan, and God will establish the kingdom on earth. Unique to dispensationalism is the doctrine of the "secret rapture," the belief that Christians will be snatched from earth by Jesus, who will "catch them up in the clouds" (1 Thessalonians 4:15–17). Although the majority of dispensationalists place the rapture before the tribulation, some locate it halfway through or at the end of the tribulation.

In the United States, influential ministers in the late nineteenth century advocated dispensationalism through revival meetings, Bible and prophetic conferences, and Bible institutes. Many American Protestants became convinced that dispensationalism was the key to unlock biblical prophecy. Even mainline denominations—including the Presbyterians and Episcopalians—had dispensational factions. In 1909 the new Scofield Reference Bible made dispensational theology widely accessible, and the book became a best-seller (expanded in 1917; revised in 1967). In 1924 dispensationalists founded the Dallas Theological Seminary to train pastors for their burgeoning movement.

Although dispensationalism experienced continued popularity with conservatives, it seemed to decline at midcentury with negative public perceptions of fundamentalism. In 1970 Hal Lindsey, a Dallas Seminary graduate, published The Late Great Planet Earth as an up-to-date explanation of dispensational teachings. By 1974 Lindsey's book had gone through forty editions and sold four million copies. His rendering of prophecy shaped the political views of the nascent Religious Right, despite dispensationalist pessimism regarding human institutions. Part of Ronald Reagan's appeal to the Religious Right came from his ability to synthesize prophetic concerns into Republican politics and foreign policy. Influential dispensationalists, such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, retained elements of the theology while adapting it to the politics of the 1980s and 1990s. As of 1999, The Late Great Planet Earth remained in print. However, as the century ended, it had been somewhat supplanted by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins's fictional Left Behind series, which repackaged dispensationalism in the guise of political-religious thrillers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carpenter, Joel A. Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism. 1997. Lindsey, Hal. The Late Great Planet Earth. 1970.

Marsden, George M. Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism, 1870 –1925. 1980.

Sandeen, Ernest R. The Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American Millenarianism, 1800 –1930. 1970.

Smith, Christian. American Evangelicalism: Embattled and Thriving. 1998.

Weber, Timothy P. Living in the Shadow of the Second Coming: American Premillennialism, 1875–1982. 1983.

Source Citation: Bass, Diana Hochstedt Butler. "Dispensationalism." Contemporary American Religion. Ed. Wade Clark Roof. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1999. 188-189.

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Peace Churches

"Peace churches" is the term commonly applied to the three oldest pacifist denominations in the United States—the Society of Friends or Quakers, the Church of the Brethren, and the Mennonites. None of these is a united body, embracing different and diverse organizational entities. Quakers, and Brethren and Mennonites to a lesser extent, run the gamut from fundamentalism to universalist liberalism.

Quakers

As the least ethnic and most acculturated of the peace churches, Quakers have been the most visible in peace activism in the United States over the past four decades. All persuasions of Friends remain formally committed, through doctrinal statements, to the support of conscientious objection, but their doctrinal differences otherwise manifest themselves in their attitudes toward war resistance and groups such as the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Liberal, unprogrammed Friends, largely affiliated with Friends General Conference or the small Conservative yearly meetings, have been most active in peace movements, draft resistance, and other forms of peace activism. Most American Friends, however, are in pastoral bodies. The most evangelical of these, Evangelical Friends International (EFI), makes conscientious objection a matter of individual conscience, and, while generally supportive of its members who embrace traditional Quaker pacifism, has had leaders who have been open in repudiating pacifism and supporting U.S. military actions. In the middle is Friends United Meeting (FUM), which embraces both pastoral and unprogrammed Friends. In its official statements it has remained committed to pacifism and has supported various programs to advance disarmament and a peace witness. But many individual members, including some leading Friends, and many affiliated congregations have openly broken with pacifism and peace activism.

These fractures, dating back to the Civil War, were clearly manifested during the Vietnam War. The AFSC was among the earliest religious groups to call for a halt to bombing and a negotiated peace settlement. A Baltimore Friend, Norman Morrison, attracted national attention in 1965 when he burned himself to death in front of the Pentagon as a protest. By 1967 the most radical Quaker peace activists had formed A Quaker Action Group for radical confrontation with U.S. policy. They chartered a ship, the Phoenix, and amid massive controversy took a shipment of artificial limbs to North Vietnam. For the rest of the war, the AFSC, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (CCCO), and numerous regional and local Quaker bodies and individuals were active in the antiwar movement. Some Friends actively resisted the draft, refusing induction and destroying draft cards. Others refused to pay certain taxes that they saw as supporting the war. The Quaker peace tradition also attracted antiwar activists who joined the society.

The activism of antiwar Friends, however, was not shared by all Quakers. President Richard Nixon remained a member in good standing in his California meeting group throughout his presidency. Most pastoral Friends of draft age were not conscientious objectors. And high-profile activism, like that of the Phoenix voyagers and draft resisters, drew fierce criticism from some Friends, who resented what they saw as unpatriotic actions.

These divisions have continued since the end of the Vietnam War. The AFSC and the FCNL have continued to back policies for disarmament, the end of the draft, and peaceful settlement of international conflicts. The Iranian crisis of 1979–1980, the Grenada invasion of 1983, the Gulf War of 1990–1991, and the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia have brought appeals from both groups, as well as from FUM and other Quaker bodies, against the use of force. And all of these conflicts saw support of the use of force by some Friends. The resumption of draft registration in 1980 again brought conflicts over draft resistance by some Friends.

The increasing commitment of the AFSC to support groups it perceived as oppressed, such as Nicaraguan and Salvadoran rebels and Palestinians in Israel, has brought charges that it was moving away from traditional Quaker pacifism. Well-known pacifist Kenneth Boulding engaged in a sit-in at AFSC headquarters in 1977 to protest what he saw as AFSC indifference to oppression by the Communist Vietnamese government.

Brethren

Like Quakers, the various groups with a German Baptist or Brethren heritage span the theological spectrum. [Page 526] The largest group is the Church of the Brethren; other Brethren groups include the Brethren Church, the Dunkard Brethren, the Old Order German Baptist Brethren, and the Grace Brethren. All trace their roots to Dunkard pacifists who emigrated from Germany in the eighteenth century. Their attitudes toward peace issues since 1960 have reflected their diversity.

The Church of the Brethren has remained officially committed to pacifism in a number of statements of its governing body, the Annual Conference. It has advised its membership against not only military service but also against noncombatant service. During the Vietnam War, many of its members were active in the antiwar movement. In 1970 the Annual Conference recorded its support for draft resisters as well as for registered conscientious objectors. The Annual Conference maintained the Peace Committee, which in 1978 was merged in the Social Concerns Committee, and has sponsored a series of peace seminars. Peace issues have been part of Brethren Sunday school curricula, and peace studies are part of the curricula of colleges affiliated with the church. Manchester College, for example, has maintained its Peace Studies Institute since 1948. On the other hand, acculturation has moved many Brethren away from pacifism. In this century a majority of members eligible for the draft have served in the armed forces in American wars, including Vietnam.

The position of the Brethren Church on peace issues has been similar to that of the larger Church of the Brethren. The Brethren Church remains officially committed to pacifism, and urges its members to register as conscientious objectors. Peace issues are promoted by its Social Concerns Committee and in its publications. Yet many members no longer support pacifism, and have served in the armed forces. Even some pastors have served as chaplains.

The positions of the most conservative Brethren groups, the Old Order German Baptist Brethren and the Dunkard Brethren, are similar. They enjoin pacifism on their members, most of whom registered as conscientious objectors during the Vietnam War. Yet these groups have resisted links with antiwar groups. In 1978, for example, the Old Order German Baptist Brethren officially condemned civil disobedience and antiwar demonstrations, enjoining instead subjection to civil powers.

The most fundamentalist of the Brethren groups, the Grace Brethren, have tended to follow the general course of other fundamentalist denominations on peace issues since 1960. A few older pastors still embraced pacifism, but such views were those of a small minority. Most Grace Brethren have more or less openly supported U.S. use of armed force in Vietnam, the Gulf War, and other conflicts.

Mennonites

Mennonites have seen the greatest change over the past four decades. In 1960 all of the various Mennonite groups in the United States were still largely committed to the traditional Anabaptist theology of the Two Kingdoms. This theology separates the kingdom of the believer, where people live in strict obedience to New Testament command to "resist not evil," from the world that is subject to human authorities ordained by God. Thus while a Mennonite could not bear arms or engage in violence, neither could a Mennonite criticize governments that did so.

Change has been most apparent in the most acculturated of Mennonite bodies, the Mennonite Church, the Mennonite Brethren, and the General Conference Mennonite Church. Many of its members have moved away from Two Kingdoms theology toward a vision that sees all the world bound by the commandments of Christ. Thus violence is never in accord with the will of God. Mennonites also became more open to joining with people of other faiths in work to promote peace and in political action. Mennonites, for example, were active participants in the civil rights movement, in the antiwar movement of the Vietnam era, in the nuclear freeze movement of the early 1980s, and in various groups that opposed the draft. Peace studies became part of the curriculum of Mennonite colleges. The Mennonite Central Committee, which coordinates the social witness of the various Mennonite bodies, includes a Peace Section, which has been active in holding conferences and publishing peace literature.

Still, sociologists studying Mennonites have found considerable diversity. The most conservative Mennonites, especially in various Amish groups, still embrace the Two Kingdoms theology. They see involvement with "worldly" people as a threat to the separateness of believers, and civil disobedience and draft resistance as an irreligious violation of the commandment to accept human authority. Other Mennonites, more comfortable with political action, have seen the various peace movements as too linked to leftist and pro-Communist groups.

In 1976 Mennonites, most Quakers, and the Church of the Brethren joined together in a new organization, New Call to Peacemaking. The proposal to form the group came from evangelical Friends who feared a loss of the biblical basis of pacifism. The organization's first national conference was held in Green Lake, Wisconsin, in 1978. The New Call group sponsored conferences and publications to attempt to extend [Page 527] the peace witness within the constituent bodies and in the larger American society.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barbour, Hugh, and J. William Frost. The Quakers. 1988.

Brethren Encyclopedia. 1982.

Brock, Peter, and Nigel Young. Pacifism in the Twentieth Century. 1998.

Bush, Perry. Two Kingdoms, Two Loyalties: Mennonite Pacifism in Modern America. 1998.

Durnbaugh, Donald F. Fruit of the Vine: A History of the Brethren, 1908 –1995. 1997.

Durnbaugh, Donald F., ed. On Earth, Peace. 1978.

Dyck, Cornelius J., and Dennis D. Martin. The Mennonite Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. 1990.

Source Citation: Hamm, Thomas D. "Peace Churches." Contemporary American Religion. Ed. Wade Clark Roof. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1999. 525-527.

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Confessional Family

a) Meaning and Usage. In the early 19th century the Catholic theologian J. A. Moehler (Symbolik 1832) gave the name “confessions” to the various church currents internal to Christianity, which until than had been called “religions,” “religious parties,” or “Christian societies.” “Confession,” which already had various complementary meanings in theology, has since then been the technical term used to designate a particular Christian tradition, a confessional family.

This usage can be explained historically and theologically against the background of the Reformation. Having challenged the magisterial and ministerial structures of the church, as well as the centralized exercise of authority, as being the glue and the expression of the unity of the church, most of the communities that came out of the Reformation defined themselves in relation to doctrinal references set out in confessions of faith. For example, the Augsburg Confession of 1530 became the common charter of the Lutheran churches; the Thirty-nine Articles that of the Anglican community; the Confession of Faith of La Rochelle (1559) that of the French Reformed churches. At their ordination, pastors committed themselves on the basis of these documents. Although their intentions were universal, these confessions defined the faith and identity of particular churches, and for that reason, when several of these churches made reference to a single document, they were called “confessions” or “confessional families”. In the late 19th century, geographical expansion led confessional families to organize themselves into world churches and to establish international structures. For example, in 1867 the Anglican Church organized the first meeting of the Lambeth Conference, which brought together all the bishops of that confessional family. In 1877, the Reformed churches founded the World Alliance of Reformed Churches; in 1881, the Methodist churches set up the World Methodist Council. The World Baptist Alliance was created in 1905, and the World Lutheran Federation in 1947.

Catholicism and Orthodoxy have always refused to be considered as confessional families. These churches do not see themselves as church traditions alongside others, but each one considers itself to be the sole full expression of the single Church of Jesus Christ. A more sociological approach to “confession” as the expression of a particular church identity would however lead to the inclusion of these churches within the group of confessional families. This notion is indirectly confirmed by the regular participation of the Orthodox patriarchate and the Pontifical Council for Unity (Vatican) in meetings of the leadership of confessional families, which, since 1979, have preferred the title World Christian Communities.

b) Character and Structure of Confessional Families. For confessional families, it is understood that the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church takes on concrete existence in this world in plural forms. Each confessional family sees itself as an expression of that one church. Many consider themselves as world churches and are structured accordingly. This is the case for the Anglican communion and the communion of Lutheran churches, who each, in this way, approach the self-understanding of the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Others, by contrast, emphasize their character as free associations or federations of churches. Within a single confessional family, participating churches are conscious of belonging to the same spiritual family sharing a single historical heritage. Forms of piety and liturgical celebrations, doctrinal references, church structures, as well as visions and priorities are the same, or at least very similar, for all. Member churches of a particular confessional family generally live in full church communion: communion in the celebration of the word of God and of the sacraments, as well as mutual recognition of ministries. Their international bodies have analogous structures (regular general assemblies, executive committees, presidents and secretaries-general, commissions for theology, mutual aid, and education, etc.). The authority of international structures, however, remains limited. Member churches, generally organized into regional or national communities, insist on their autonomy, giving them the power of decision. After a difficult period during which many considered the Ecumenical Council of Churches (ECC) as a place in which distinctions between confessional families would be overcome, solid cooperation has now been established between the ECC and confessional families, almost all of whose churches are members of the ECC. Confessional families are the privileged locations for theological dialogue among [567] Christian traditions. The reconciliation that has already taken place between various confessional families is essential for the unity of the whole church.

Bibliography

• H.E. Fey (1970), “Confessional Families and the Ecumenical Movement,” in id. (Ed.), A History of the Ecumenical Movement, vol. 2: 1948-1968, Geneva, 115-42 (2nd Ed. 1986).

Y. Ischida, H. Meyer, and E. Perret (1979), The History and Theological Concerns of World Confessional Families, LWF.R 14.

Source: Encyclopedia of Christian Theology. Volume 1. ed. Jean-Yves Lacoste - editor. Publisher: Routledge. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 2004. pp. 566-567.

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