The Disciples of Christ was organized formally in 1832, but the denomination's essential doctrines and practices first appeared in eighteenth-century Scotland among Restorationists—Christians who undertook to restore the faith and practice described in the New Testament, casting aside ideas and practices developed both by the Catholic Church and by the most powerful churches formed by the Protestant Reformation. The Scottish leaders of this movement were John Glas (1695-1773); Robert Sandeman (1718–1771); and later, the Haldane brothers, Robert Alexander (1764–1842) and James Alexander (1768–1851).
The two most important founders of the Disciples, Barton W. Stone (1772–1844) and Alexander Campbell (1788–1866), developed their views independently. Stone, a native of Maryland, was converted in North Carolina by the Presbyterian revivalist James McGready (1763–1817), whom he followed to Kentucky. After participating in McGready's Logan County Camp Meeting in 1800, Stone became principal organizer of the legendary Cane Ridge Meeting near Lexington in 1801, perhaps the single most important event in the history of American Christianity. Operating mainly outside the rules and regulations of the Kentucky Presbytery, Stone and his allies formed the secessionist Springfield Presbytery in 1803, only to disband it the following year. Calling themselves simply "Christians," they spread their independent congregations throughout Kentucky and eastern Ohio.
Alexander Campbell was, like his father, Thomas (1763–1854), a native of northern Ireland. Thomas arrived in Pennsylvania in 1807; he was preparing to secede from the Presbyterian Church when Alexander joined him in 1809, fresh from theological studies in Scotland. Father and son led in the formation of the Christian Association of Washington, Pennsylvania, affirming congregational independence, baptism by immersion, and insistence on the Christian scriptures (the New Testament) as the sole guide to belief and practice: "Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent" (Ahlstrom, Religious History, p. 447). From 1813 to 1827 the Campbells affiliated with a Baptist Association and Alexander, a prolific writer and spirited controversialist, reached a wide audience as editor of the Christian Baptist (1823–1829). One of the many gifted preachers drawn to the Campbellites was Walter Scott (1796–1861), another immigrant from Scotland who converted to Haldanean principles while teaching in George Forrester's academy in Pittsburgh. By 1830 the Disciples were fully committed to revivals, the equality of congregational members with their ministers, and a straightforward scheme of salvation—affirmation of faith, repentance, and baptism by immersion. Many of them were taking a lively interest in the supposed approach of a millennial Second Coming.
Conceived as a movement to restore original Christianity and thereby unite all Christians under a single banner, the Disciples of Christ nevertheless learned that some organization above the congregational level was necessary. Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell, recognizing that their purposes were virtually the same, drew their followers together in 1832; thus, an antidenominational movement formed another denomination. The American frontier proved especially hospitable to the formation of new religious organizations, and America's pursuit of egalitarian democracy especially favored congregational independence and self-government. But also essential to the religious efflorescence of the early nineteenth century was the Second Great Awakening, which began in the long-settled eastern states, with theological ideas imported and adopted from Britain and especially Scotland.
Ahlstrom, Sidney E. A Religious History of the American People. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1972.
Harrell, David Edwin, Jr. A Social History of the Disciples of Christ. Vol. 1: Quest for a Christian America: The Disciples of Christ and American Society to 1866. Nashville, Tenn.: Disciples of Christ Historical Society, 1966.
Robert McColley