Alexander Campbell and the dilemma of Republican millennialism

Abstract

When Alexander Campbell migrated from his native Northern Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1809, he found himself immediately immersed in the Jacksonian Era's market revolution, a phenomena that altered every aspect of America society. In the context of cultural change, Campbell and his contemporaries struggled to define the American identity, one that necessitated merging of the Deism and rational thought of the founding fathers with the older and powerful strain of Calvinistic contract theology grounded in the Puritan strains of colonial New England.^This legacy and the assertions of the American Revolution deeply influenced American intellectual development producing a distinctive worldview and engendering an American identity which allowed the citizenry instinctively to claim an unparalleled position in the world, inculcating them with a profound belief in a Millennial Republic.^Millennialist thought, both worldly and sacred, comfortably accommodated the emerging American psyche linking religion and national identity. This ideology --^Republican Millennialism --^formed the core of the American animus and the basis of a national secular and religious mission. Alexander Campbell was uniquely positioned to internalize, participate in and help shape the developing American character. A successful businessman, revered evangelist, educator, publisher and speaker who issued pronouncements on both religious and social issues to his adherents, as well as a larger American audience, Campbell epitomized the possibilities of the American dream, a belief in the unique God-given destiny of the United States, and a deep abiding love of God and country.^His assimilation into American society reflected the larger issues of American character as he wrestled with pressing social issues and struggled to synthesize sacred and secular elements into a holistic and viable personal and national identity.^As with Americans in general, however, Campbell's blending of the profane and the divine fell tragically short as the crucible of slavery and the resulting conflict ultimately destroyed Campbell's millennial optimism. The Civil War fractured the country and cast deep doubt on both Campbell's and America's vision of itself as the harbinger of the new millennium.