# The summarized history of the Christian church 10: The Protestant Romantic Era

The Second Great Awakening came between the 1790s and 1840s. It was an even *further* emotional appeal that prioritized supernatural experience and rejected values from the [Age of Reason](philosophy.md) (e.g., skepticism, deism, rationalism). The focus was to renounce understanding in the pursuit of a more [meaningful](meaning.md) experience.

Almost all the denominations from before this time culturally froze somewhere in the mid-1800's:

- The Stone-Campbell/Restoration Movement arose from Barton Stone (which eventually became the **Churches of Christ**) and Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander (who eventually became the **Disciples of Christ**). They were hyper-restorationist and tried to reproduce the original New Testament Church.
- The Advent movement was led by people such as William Miller, who focused heavily on [Jesus' second coming](theology-end.md), which developed after 1840 into the **Millerites**, who spent a *lot* of time setting timetables for when He was coming back.
- The English Separatist movement in the late 1600s had created a group theologically similar to the Reformed, and they officially became the **Baptists** during the Second Great Awakening.
- The **Plymouth Brethren** formed from Anglicans in the late 1820s as a coalition of like-minded believers grounded on [sola scriptura](theology-solae.md). They're so loosely connected that they still see themselves more as a network than a proper denomination.
- The [Latter Day Saints](people-conflicts-christian-why.md) (**Mormons**) also arose during the Second Great Awakening, preaching a different Gospel that drew from an entirely new set of Scriptures.
- Around this time, the Anabaptists created the **Apostolic Christian Church**, who practice adult baptism, members-only communion, greeting other Christians with a kiss, worship with limited or no musical instruments, women wearing head coverings during services. There are at least 5 divisions, with one of them in the early 1900s coming over whether some European customs were acceptable (specifically, having a mustache).

During the Second Great Awakening, the Methodists started the Holiness Movement that advanced "second work" theology (that the baptism of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in [Acts 2:1-4](https://biblehub.com/acts/2.htm) is a uniquely different work for believers from God than [salvation](https://theologos.site/gospel/)). A secondary effect of "second work" theology is the belief of Christian perfectichurch-creeds.mdon (that Christians could become perfect in this life with the correct spiritual treatment). The consequences of this theology added a performative aspect to Christian traditions, the most sensational of the time coming from camp meetings:

1. In places like the unsettled USA, many people would move into an area but wouldn't have any religious community.
2. On a religious festival day, a Christian denomination would hold an event where people could arrive and listen to someone preach.
3. The service would start with a solemn and ceremonious approach, with a preacher delivering a homily mixed into it.
4. As the preacher grew tired after a few hours, another preacher would swap out with them.
5. Over the days of the ceremony, the message and its attitude would become increasingly impassioned as they depicted dramatically scaling, vivid demonstrations of the Christian life and afterlife (especially [hell](theology-heavenhell.md)).
6. Eventually, the congregants would start screaming during the sermon, sobbing uncontrollably, grabbing their neighbors and begging them desperately to repent, or running in terror throughout the crowd.

The Church of Scotland experienced the Disruption of 1843, which was a conflict over whether the Church of Scotland or the British government could control clerical positions in the church. The group that believed the church had its own sovereignty became the **Free Church of Scotland**.

The Millerites [predicted](theology-end-prophecies.md) Jesus was coming back on October 22, 1844, after a few other recent false predictions. That didn't really work out for them, and created the Great Disappointment, but the **Seventh-Day Adventists** were strengthened to believe in the "shut-door" concept (that Jesus *had* come, and had "shut the door" to the foolish believers like the Parable of the Virgins in [Matthew 25:1-13](https://biblehub.com/matthew/25.htm)).

The South African Revival of 1860 brought plenty of Christian culture to Africa, with Andrew Murray being a significant influence on it, as well as David Livingstone traveling *all over* the continent.

The Welsh Revival of 1904-1905 was the largest Christian revival in Wales, and was Pentecostal in nature. It has been traced to the first formation of the modern megachurch. They insisted on 4 axioms:

1. Confess all known sin.
2. Put away all doubtful things and forgive everyone.
3. Obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
4. Publicly confess Christ as your savior.

Roman Catholic Ecumenical Council #20 in 1869-1870 - The First Vatican Council feat. Pope Pius IX w/ 6 archbishop-princes, 49 cardinals, 11 patriarchs, 680 archbishops/bishops, 28 abbots, and 9 generals of orders

- Decreed important canons relating to the Faith and the constitution of the Church
- Decreed the pope is infallible when speaking "ex cathedra" (from "the chair")