Thomas Campbell (1 February 1763 – 4 January 1854) was a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...

minister who became prominent during the

Second Great Awakening The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States. The Second Great Awakening, which spread religion through revivals and emotional preaching, sparked a number of reform movements. R ...

of the United States. Born in

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to th ...

, he began a religious reform movement on the American frontier.Reid, D.G., Linder, R.D., Shelley, B.L., & Stout, H.S. (1990). Dictionary of Christianity in America. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. Entry on ''Campbell, Thomas (1763–1854)'' He was joined in the work by his son,

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

. Their movement, known as the "Disciples of Christ", merged in 1832 with the similar movement led by

Barton W. Stone Barton Warren Stone (December 24, 1772 – November 9, 1844) was an American evangelist during the early 19th-century Second Great Awakening in the United States. First ordained a Presbyterian minister, he and four other ministers of the Washingt ...

to form what is now described as the American

Restoration Movement The Restoration Movement (also known as the American Restoration Movement or the Stone–Campbell Movement, and pejoratively as Campbellism) is a Christian movement that began on the United States frontier during the Second Great Awakening (17 ...

(also known as the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement).

Early life

Campbell was born in

, Ireland (now Northern Ireland), and raised as an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

. He was ordained a minister in the Scottish Seceder Presbyterian Church sometime after graduating from the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

in 1786. Campbell left Ireland for the United States in April 1807. This move was prompted by the advice of his physician. Once in America, disagreement arose between Thomas and other

Presbyterians Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...

over certain points related to Calvinist doctrine and the administration of the

Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was institu ...

Role in the early Restoration Movement

The Campbell wing of the movement was launched when Thomas Campbell published the '' Declaration and address of the Christian Association of Washington'' in 1809. The Presbyterian Synod had suspended his ministerial credentials. In ''The Declaration and Address'' he set forth some of his convictions about the church of Jesus Christ, as he organised the

Christian Association of Washington The Christian Association of Washington was an organization established by Thomas Campbell in 1809 to promote Christian unity.Douglas Allen Foster and Anthony L. Dunnavant, ''The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Christian Church (Discip ...

, in

Washington County, Pennsylvania Washington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 209,349. Its county seat is Washington. Washington County is part of the Pittsburgh, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county is ...

, not as a church but as an association of persons seeking to grow in faith.McAlister, Lester G. & William E. Tucker (1975), ''Journey in Faith: A History of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)'', St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press; On 4 May 1811, the Christian Association reconstituted itself as a congregationally governed church. With the building it constructed at Brush Run,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, it became known as

Brush Run Church The Brush Run Church was one of the earliest congregations associated with the Restoration Movement that arose during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century. In 1811, a congregation of Christian reformers known as the Christian Assoc ...

. When their study of the New Testament led the reformers to begin to practice baptism by immersion, the nearby

Redstone Baptist Association The Redstone Baptist Association was an association of Baptist churches in Western Pennsylvania.Douglas Allen Foster and Anthony L. Dunnavant, ''The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Churc ...

invited Brush Run Church to join with them for the purpose of fellowship. The reformers agreed, provided that they would be "allowed to preach and to teach whatever they learned from the Scriptures."Davis, M.M. (1915)
''How the Disciples Began and Grew, A Short History of the Christian Church''
Cincinnati, Ohio: The Standard Publishing Company. Thomas and his son

worked within the Redstone Baptist Association during the period 1815 through 1824. While both the Campbells and the Baptists shared practices of baptism by immersion and

congregational polity Congregationalist polity, or congregational polity, often known as congregationalism, is a system of ecclesiastical polity in which every local church (congregation) is independent, ecclesiastically sovereign, or " autonomous". Its first articu ...

, it was soon clear that the Campbells and their associates were not traditional Baptists. Within the Redstone Association, some of the Baptist leaders considered the differences intolerable when Alexander Campbell began publishing a journal, ''The

Christian Baptist The ''Christian Baptist'', established in 1823 by Alexander Campbell, was the first magazine associated with the early Restoration Movement.Douglas Allen Foster and Anthony L. Dunnavant, ''The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Christian ...

'', which promoted reform. The Campbells anticipated the conflict and moved their membership to a congregation of the

Mahoning Baptist Association The Mahoning Baptist Association was an association of Baptist churches that was established in 1820 in Ohio's Mahoning Valley.Douglas Allen Foster and Anthony L. Dunnavant, ''The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Christian Church (Discip ...

in 1824.

Theological influences

Campbell was a student of the Enlightenment philosopher

John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism". Considered one of ...

.C. Leonard Allen and Richard T. Hughes, ''Discovering Our Roots: The Ancestry of the Churches of Christ,'' Abilene Christian University Press, 1988; While he did not explicitly use the term "essentials", in the ''Declaration and Address'', Campbell proposed the same solution to religious division as had been advanced earlier by Herbert and Locke: " duce religion to a set of essentials upon which all reasonable persons might agree." The essentials he identified were those practices for which the Bible provided "a 'Thus saith the Lord,' either in express terms or by approved precedent." Unlike Locke, who saw the earlier efforts by Puritans as inherently divisive, Campbell argued for "a complete restoration of apostolic Christianity." Thomas believed that creeds served to divide Christians. He also believed that the Bible was clear enough that anyone could understand it and, thus, creeds were unnecessary.Ron Rhodes, ''The Complete Guide to Christian Denominations'', Harvest House Publishers, 2005; Thomas Campbell combined the Enlightenment approach to unity with the Reformed and Puritan traditions of restoration. The Enlightenment affected the Campbell movement in two ways. First, it provided the idea that Christian unity could be achieved by finding a set of essentials that all reasonable people could agree on. The second was the concept of a rational faith that was formulated and defended on the basis of a set of facts derived from the Bible.

Life events

* Born 1 February 1763 in

, Ireland.Douglas Allen Foster and Anthony L. Dunnavant, ''The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, Churches of Christ'', Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004; , , 854 pages, entry on ''Campbell, Thomas'' * Immigrated to the United States in 1807, settling in western

. * In 1809, Campbell published ''The Declaration and Address of the Christian Association of Washington'', a document stating his ideas about how the Christian faith should be practised. It was a starting point for the Campbell–Stone Movement, which led to development of the

Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. The denomination started with the Restoration Movement during the Second Great Awakening, first existing during the 19th ...

, the

Churches of Christ The Churches of Christ is a loose association of autonomous Christian congregations based on the '' sola scriptura'' doctrine. Their practices are based on Bible texts and draw on the early Christian church as described in the New Testament. ...

and the

Christian churches and churches of Christ The group of churches known as the Christian Churches and Churches of Christ is a fellowship of congregations within the Restoration Movement (also known as the Stone-Campbell Movement and the Reformation of the 19th Century) that have no forma ...

. * In 1812, Campbell joined his son Alexander and began practising

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

by immersion.Douglas Allen Foster and Anthony L. Dunnavant, ''The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, Churches of Christ'', Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004; , , 854 pages, entry on ''Campbell, Alexander'' * Shortly after his oldest son, Alexander Campbell, was ordained in 1812, Thomas began playing a supporting role to Alexander. Thomas was generally less radical than his son, and was a stabilising influence on the movement. * Thomas died on 4 January 1854 in

Bethany, West Virginia Bethany is a town in southern Brooke County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 756 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Weirton–Steubenville metropolitan area. It is best known as the home of Bethany College, a private liberal ...

and was buried next to his wife in the Campbell family cemetery.

References

External links

* Thomas Campbell

at th
Restoration Movement Pages
at the

Memorial University of Newfoundland Memorial University of Newfoundland, also known as Memorial University or MUN (), is a public university in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, based in St. John's, with satellite campuses in Corner Brook, elsewhere in Newfoundland and ...