Standing Against the Whirlwind : Evangelical Episcopalians in Nineteenth-Century America (Religion in America)

287 Pages·1995·2.31 MB·English

by  Diana Butler Bass

STANDING AGAINST
THE WHIRLWIND
RELIGION IN AMERICA SERIES
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STANDING AGAINST
THE WHIRLWIND
Evangelical Episcopalians in
Nineteenth-Century America
Diana Hochstedt Butler
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1995
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
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Copyright © 1995 by Diana Hochstedt Butler
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Butler, Diana Hochstedt, 1959-
Standing against the whirlwind : evangelical Episcopalians in
nineteenth-century America / Diana Hochstedt Butler.
p. cm. — (Religion in America series)
Revision of thesis (doctoral)—Duke University.
"The Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer prize essay of the American
Society of Church History for 1993."
Includes biographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-508542-6
1. Evangelicalism-Episcopal Church-History-19th century.
2. Episcopal Church-History-19th century. 3. Interdenominational
cooperation-United States-History-19th century. I. Title.
II. Series: Religion in America series (Oxford University Press)
BX5925.B84 1995
283'.73-dc20 93-34323
135798642
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For my parents,
J. Robert and MarciaHochstedt,
who gave me two gifts: a love of learning
and the freedom to find my own faith
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Preface
While a graduate student at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, I
attended an Episcopal church convulsed by controversy. Instead of brawling over
inclusive language liturgies, women's ordination, or homosexual unions, these
particular Episcopalians waged war over evangelical religion. Once a sleepy "coun-
try club" parish, they had called a new minister from a large, well-known,
Evangelical Episcopal congregation in Pittsburgh. Within weeks of his arrival, the
church split into pro- and antievangelical factions. The war for the soul of the
parish had begun.
The proevangelical group argued that evangelical religion enriched the Epis-
copal Church through youth ministry, Bible preaching, and evangelistic outreach.
The antievangelical faction identified evangelical religion with Jim Bakker and
Jimmy Swaggart and accused its proponents of enthusiasm and hypocrisy. At
the height of parish tension, I painstakingly tried to explain to one woman
that she misunderstood the nature of evangelicalism. Historically, evangelical
religion had long found a place within the Episcopal Church. She protested
violently, "Oh no, it hasn't. We've always stood against those Baptists and
Methodists! Just show me one history of the Episcopal Church which has any-
thing good to say about evangelicals." Unable to resist a challenge, I scurried to the
library to find a book defending my position. From my own study of nineteenth-
century American religion, I knew the Episcopal Church once comprised a large
Evangelical party. Much to my surprise, I found very little written about Evangeli-
cal Episcopalians-and what existed was often biased, negative, misleading, or
simply wrong.
To some people, the term Evangelical Episcopalian seems odd if not downright
oxymoronic. Evangelical connotes being born again, dramatic conversion testi-
monies, unambiguous morality, soul-winning television preachers, pulpit-centered
Bible preaching, conservative theology, and, more often than not, conservative
politics. Episcopal conjures up images of infants in christening gowns, decorous
liturgy, sherry on the church lawn, trendy prelates, short homilies followed by
ancient eucharistic prayers, and liberal views on theological, social, and political
issues. In spite of such apparent contradictions, in recent years Evangelical Episco-
palianism reemerged as a tradition within the Episcopal Church.
In the 1970s and 1980s, a new burst of evangelical enthusiasm made its way
into America's mainstream Protestant denominations-including, to the surprise
viii Preface
of many, the Episcopal Church. In the last two decades, charismatic and evangeli-
cal renewal organizations have proliferated, and recently "renewed" parishes have
multiplied in size. A new Evangelical Episcopal seminary has enjoyed "remarkable
success" in both student enrollment and financial contributions.1 These develop-
ments occurred at a time when the Episcopal Church suffered one of the most
dramatic membership declines in its history. In spite of its having brought new
people into the church, not all Episcopalians have welcomed evangelical enthusi-
asm. Many have severely criticized such renewal movements. "There is an at-
tempt," wrote one Episcopal theologian worried about contemporary evangelical
encroachments, "to bring to this country a brand of English Evangelicalism which
has never really found much acceptance here before."2
American Episcopalians do recognize a tradition of evangelical Anglicanism in
their sister communion, the Church of England, but they persist in believing that
evangelicalism is alien to their church. George Carey, an overt Anglican Evangeli-
cal, now archbishop of Canterbury, seems to epitomize this fundamental differ-
ence between the two churches. In contrast to British Anglicanism, American
Episcopalianism recognizes little or no heritage of evangelical religion. Such beliefs
illustrate an inexcusable case of historical blindness. In the nineteenth century, the
American Episcopal Church (then called the Protestant Episcopal Church) con-
tained a sizable Evangelical party deeply indebted and closely related to both
Anglican and early American interdenominational evangelicalism. Throughout
the church's first century of existence, evangelical religion contributed to the
shape of Episcopal piety, theology, and mission.
I could not prove all this in the midst of the Durham church controversy.
From my own research in primary materials, I knew of a long heritage of Evangeli-
cal Episcopalianism. In 1988, however, nobody believed me. After eighteen
months of ecclesiastical warfare, the Evangelical Episcopal rector capitulated and
retreated from Durham to find a new ministry. Defeated and confused, many of
his supporters left the parish as well—a number left the Episcopal Church alto-
gether. I changed parishes but remained an Episcopalian. Still bewildered by this
unpleasant experience, I decided to write the book I could not find in the library—
a history of the Evangelical party in the Episcopal Church.
To explore the vicissitudes, successes, and tribulations of nineteenth-century
Evangelical Episcopalianism, I have chosen to look at the life and ministry of one
of the party's great leaders, Charles Pettit Mcllvaine, the second bishop of Ohio.
Born in 1799, Mcllvaine served the Episcopal Church for fifty-three years, from
the early days of the Ohio frontier through the Civil War to the growth of urban
America. He was an extremely complex person: a powerful and dynamic preacher,
a capable theologian, a forceful and authoritarian bishop, an obdurate controver-
sialist, a sentimental husband and father. He was deeply emotional, meditative
and pious, and rigorously logical and committed to, above all else, what he
believed to be truth. "Gentle, kindly and affectionate in his private intercourse,"
remarked one of his friends, "where truth and principle were concerned he was
unyielding as a rock."3 A man of intense activity, he also suffered from a lifelong
struggle with nervousness, anxiety, and depression, which forced him to rest
Preface ix
periodically from his duties by traveling to Europe.4 He inspired great loyalty and
devotion among those who admired and agreed with him. He was a formidable
opponent to those with whom he disagreed.
Nearly everyone in the nineteenth century agreed on one thing, regarding
Mcllvaine, however: he stood above all others as the leader of the Episcopal
Church's Evangelical party. Alfred Lee, a fellow bishop, wrote:
Among the men thus honored by God to revive his work in this branch of his
Church-a radiant constellation, whose record is in heaven-no name shines with
greater lustre than that of Charles Pettit Mcllvaine. No one was more widely
known. No one did more to overcome unfriendly prejudices, command univer-
sal respect, and conciliate favor from those without his own Communion.5
Although Lee's affection was unbounded, Mcllvaine's critics were equally
impressed by the bishop's influence. Writing in 1890, William Wilberforce New-
ton recalled his "commanding social influence" and spoke of bishops Hobart and
Mcllvaine as having "guarded different sides of the citadel of the church."6
"Amongst all evangelical enthusiasts," admitted one of his most hostile cri-
tics, "especially ladies, Bishop Mcllvaine was a hero, a sort of apostolic divin-
ity ... though most violent and bitterly evangelical, with his high talents and
fine elocution, was something superhuman."7 He counted among his friends
many of the great evangelical leaders of the day: Phillip Schaff, Charles Hodge,
Henry Ward Beecher, Henry Boynton Smith, the Earl of Shaftesbury, Charles
Simeon, Edward Bickersteth, J. B. and Charles Sumner, and Daniel Wilson. He
was politically well connected as well; Salmon P. Chase, Abraham Lincoln,
Jefferson Davis, the British royal family, and a number of military leaders were his
personal friends. In his forty years as bishop of Ohio, his diocese grew from 17 to
106 clergy, 116 parishes, 9,745 communicants, and a missionary budget of over
$200,000.8 He published over seventy works in his lifetime. When he died in
1873, he was honored by the archbishop of Canterbury with a funeral service held
at Westminster Abbey. In the nineteenth century, when someone wanted to
know the thoughts, beliefs, or activities of American Evangelical Episcopalians,
they asked Charles Pettit Mcllvaine.
This study, however, is not a biography of Charles Mcllvaine.9 It tells the
story of a party that Mcllvaine led. At the height of its influence in the 1840s and
1850s, Evangelicals made up slightly less than half of the House of Bishops,
approximately a third of the clergy, and an indeterminate number of laypeople.10
In the mid-1830s, Mcllvaine urged Evangelical Episcopalians to "stand" against
"the whirlwind" of American revivalism and forge an orderly, decorous, church-
oriented evangelicalism that would provide stability and promote the gospel in a
rapidly changing world. As one of the chief architects of the Evangelical Episcopal
vision, Mcllvaine's career serves as a sort of window through which to view
evangelical religion in the Episcopal Church.11
In the nineteenth century, the Episcopal Church was dominated by two great
parties-the Evangelicals and the High Churchmen. Each vied for control of the
church and offered competing versions of Episcopalianism. Each had a distinct
agenda for the church, and their conflict centered on a very important issue for