Restorationism

For other uses, see Restorationism (disambiguation).
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Restorationism, also known as Restitutionism or Christian primitivism, is a religious perspective according to which the early beliefs and practices of the followers of Jesus were either lost or adulterated after his death and required a "restoration".[1][2][3] It is a view that often "seeks to correct faults or deficiencies, in other branches of Christianity, by appealing to the primitive church as normative model".[1]: 635 

Efforts to restore an earlier, purer form of Christianity are frequently a response to denominationalism. As Rubel Shelly put it, "the motive behind all restoration movements is to tear down the walls of separation by a return to the practice of the original, essential and universal features of the Christian religion."[4]: 29  Different groups have tried to implement the restorationist vision in a variety of ways; for instance, some have focused on the structure and practice of the church, others on the ethical life of the church, and others on the direct experience of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.[1]: 635–638  The relative importance given to the restoration ideal, and the extent to which the full restoration of the early church is believed to have been achieved, also varies among groups.

More narrowly, the term "Restorationism" is used as a descriptive term for unrelated Restorationist groups which were formed during the eras of the Great Awakenings, such as the Christadelphians (Greek: 'Brothers of Christ'), Swedenborgians (i.e., The New Church), Irvingians (the largest of which is the New Apostolic Church), Latter Day Saints (i.e., Mormonism), Jehovah's Witnesses (from the tetragrammaton for God), La Luz del Mundo (Spanish: 'the Light of the World'), and Iglesia ni Cristo (Tagalog: 'Church of Christ').[5][6][7][8] In this sense, Restorationism has been regarded as one of the six taxonomic groupings of Christianity: the Church of the East, Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Restorationism.[9][10] These Restorationist groups share a belief that historic Christianity lost the true faith during the Great Apostasy and that the Church needed to be restored.[11][12]

The term has been used in reference to the Stone–Campbell Movement in the United States,[2]: 225–226  and has been also used by more recent groups, describing their goal to re-establish Christianity in its original form, such as some anti-denominational Charismatic Restorationists, which arose in the 1970s in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.[13][14]

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Models of Restoration was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Routledge Companion was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, p.665, Samuel S. Hill, Charles H. Lippy, Charles Reagan Wilson, 2005: "An Anabaptist, Servetus believed what has always been basic to restorationism: ... the true, apostolic church .... Restorationists in the South include three churches of the STONE-CAMPBELL TRADITION."
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference I Just Want to Be a Christian was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Carson2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Lewis, Paul W.; Mittelstadt, Martin William (27 April 2016). What's So Liberal about the Liberal Arts?: Integrated Approaches to Christian Formation. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4982-3145-9. The Second Great Awakening (1790-1840) spurred a renewed interest in primitive Christianity. What is known as the Restoration Movement of the nineteenth century gave birth to an array of groups: Mormons (The Latter Day Saint Movement), the Churches of Christ, Adventists, and Jehovah's Witnesses. Though these groups demonstrate a breathtaking diversity on the continuum of Christianity they share an intense restorationist impulse. Picasso and Stravinsky reflect a primitivism that came to the fore around the turn of the twentieth century that more broadly has been characterized as a "retreat from the industrialized world."
  7. ^ Bloesch, Donald G. (2 December 2005). The Holy Spirit: Works Gifts. InterVarsity Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-8308-2755-8.
  8. ^ Spinks, Bryan D. (2 March 2017). Reformation and Modern Rituals and Theologies of Baptism: From Luther to Contemporary Practices. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-90583-1. However, Swedenborg claimed to receive visions and revelations of heavenly things and a 'New Church', and the new church which was founded upon his writings was a Restorationist Church. The three nineteenth-century churches are all examples of Restorationist Churches, which believed they were refounding the Apostolic Church, and preparing for the Second Coming of Christ.
  9. ^ Riswold, Caryn D. (1 October 2009). Feminism and Christianity: Questions and Answers in the Third Wave. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-62189-053-9.
  10. ^ Gao, Ronnie Chuang-Rang; Sawatsky, Kevin (7 February 2023). "Motivations in Faith-Based Organizations". Houston Christian University. Retrieved 22 November 2023. For example, Christianity comprises six major groups: Church of the East, Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism and Restorationism.
  11. ^ Molloy, Michael (6 April 2017). The Christian Experience: An Introduction to Christianity. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 366. ISBN 978-1-4725-8284-3. Like other Restorationists, Russell held the theory of the Great Apostasy, the belief that Christianity had fallen away from its original purity. To the simple early message of Christianity, he believed, later teachers and political leaders had added unwarranted beliefs and practices.
  12. ^ Buck, Christopher (2009). Religious Myths and Visions of America: How Minority Faiths Redefined America's World Role. ABC-CLIO. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-313-35959-0.
  13. ^ Evangelicalism in modern Britain: a history from the 1730s to the 1980s, David W. Bebbington, pub 1995, Routledge (UK), ISBN 0-415-10464-5, pg 230,231; 245-249
  14. ^ Alternative Religions: A Sociological Introduction, Stephen J. Hunt, pub 2003, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd; ISBN 0-7546-3410-8, pg 82,83