Congregationalism | Protestant Church History & Beliefs (2024)

England

The “Congregational way” became prominent in England during the 17th-century Civil Wars, but its origins lie in 16th-century Separatism. Robert Browne has been regarded as the founder of Congregationalism, though he was an erratic character and Congregational ideas emerged independently of him. His beliefs were advanced by the Separatists (those advocating separation from rather than reform of the Church of England), many of whom were severely persecuted under Elizabeth I; three of them—John Greenwood, Henry Barrow, and John Penry—suffered martyrdom. A group of Separatists settled in Holland to escape persecution; some of its members later set sail for the New World on the Mayflower in 1620.

At the time of the Long Parliament (1640–53), many exiles returned to England, and the Independents, as they were then called, became increasingly active. They were particularly influential in the army because of their association with Oliver Cromwell. They moved away from the Presbyterians, with whom they had initially cooperated, drawing closer to the Baptists and the Fifth Monarchy Men (a Puritan millennialist sect). Their influence reached its peak during the Commonwealth in the 1650s, when their leaders, Hugh Peter, John Owen, and Thomas Goodwin, held positions of eminence. After Cromwell’s death in 1658, however, they were unable to hold the country together, and in the confused period before the recall of King Charles II in 1660 their political influence collapsed.

The advent of Charles II was a disaster for Congregationalists, and the Act of Uniformity of 1662 was the first of several attempts to root them out of English life. “Black Bartholomew”—St. Bartholomew’s Day, August 24, 1662, when some 2,000 Protestant ministers who denied the authority of the Church of England were ejected from their posts—was a great turning point in the history of English Dissent. Although Nonconformists were subjected to severe persecution, John Owen and others produced important works on Congregational belief; John Milton produced his greatest poems; and John Bunyan, though associated more with the Baptists, imprinted some of the characteristic religious attitudes of the Dissenters on the English consciousness.

The accession of William and Mary in 1688 and the consequent Toleration Act of 1689 assured the survival of Congregationalists, though they still faced civil disabilities. Their situation worsened during the reign of Queen Anne (1702–14). The Occasional Conformity Act (1711) forbade Dissenters from qualifying for public office by occasionally taking Communion at the Anglican parish church, and the Schism Act (1714) was directed against their schools. The death of Anne in 1714, before the Schism Act could be fully implemented, was considered providential by the Dissenters. They supported the new regime of George I (1714–27) and the Whig ascendancy, and for the next 50 years they enjoyed modest prosperity. Most of them belonged to the economically independent sections of society and lived in London and the older provincial towns.

In the 17th and 18th centuries Congregationalists were especially active in education. During the reign of Charles II (1660–85), Dissenters had been debarred from the universities, and many ejected ministers started small schools and colleges called academies such as Manchester Academy and New Hackney College. Their curricula, influenced by the educational theories of Francis Bacon and John Amos Comenius, were more in tune to the needs of everyday life than those of the universities, and they were the precursors of many later educational developments.

As the 17th century waned, religious zeal declined and rationalism became more influential. Deism and Arianism (a heresy denying the divinity of Christ) were widespread, the latter especially among the Presbyterians, some of whom adopted Unitarianism. Congregationalism did not go the same way, largely because of the influence of Philip Doddridge, minister of Northampton, who was a theologian, pastor, social reformer, educationist, and author of the devotional classic The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul (1745).

In the early 18th century, Congregationalism was profoundly influenced by the rise of Methodism and the Evangelical Revival (c. 1750–1815). Many ministers were deeply affected by the revival, and many people were inspired by Methodist preaching to join Congregational churches. Thus the great evangelist George Whitefield had close relations with Congregationalism, and many of the churches founded by Selina Hastings, countess of Huntingdon, a leading figure in the revival, have had a long-standing connection with Congregationalism. By 1815 Congregationalism had been reshaped by the Evangelical Revival, especially in the developing industrial areas of Lancashire and Yorkshire.

The outstanding result of the Evangelical Revival in Congregationalism was the founding of the Missionary Society (1795), later named the London Missionary Society (1818). Its purpose was not necessarily to spread Congregationalism but to proclaim “the glorious gospel of the blessed God,” leaving the new churches to determine their own form. Although it has always received support from Congregational churches, the London Missionary Society joined with two other missionary societies in 1977 to form the Council for World Mission of the United Reformed Church. These societies have established churches in Africa, Madagascar, India, China, Papua New Guinea, and on islands in the South Pacific. Many of these churches are now united in wider bodies, the most notable of which is the Church of South India.

The first half of the 19th century was a period of expansion and consolidation for Congregationalism. Many poorer people joined the churches, and a new political and social radicalism emerged. Voluntarism, which opposed state support of denominational education, and the Liberation Society, which advocated disestablishment, found widespread support. The Congregational Union of England and Wales, which linked the churches in a national organization, was founded in 1832, and the Colonial (later the Commonwealth) Missionary Society, which promoted Congregationalism in the English-speaking colonies, was established in 1836.

Congregational churches shared fully in the civil life and prosperity of the Victorian era. Many new buildings were erected, often in ambitious Gothic style. The churches’ association with the Liberal Party was greatly strengthened, and the restrictions against Dissenters were steadily removed. Thriving churches in new suburbs developed into hives of social, philanthropic, and educational activity, and their ministers deeply influenced public life. Although the picture of the philistine Dissenters drawn by the poet and critic Matthew Arnold in Culture and Anarchy (1869) contains a measure of truth, it underestimates the zeal for self-improvement and the desire for a richer life that existed in Victorian Congregationalism.

The Liberal victory of 1906 represented the peak of the social and political influence of Congregationalism. After that, Congregational churches shared in the institutional decline of most British churches, but they continued to show theological and cultural vitality. In October 1972 the majority of English Congregationalists and Presbyterians united to form the new United Reformed Church, which was joined in 1981 by the Churches of Christ, the small British counterpart of the American Disciples of Christ.