The Stone-Campbell Movement was created in 1832 when Barton Stone’s “Christ-ians” from the West merged with Alexander Campbell’s “Reforming Baptists.” By the beginning of the Civil War it was the sixth largest religious movement in the United States, and in the twentieth century the movement split into the three main branches that exist today. In recent years, scholars from these branches have worked to better understand their nineteenth-century roots, creating the historical sub-field “restoration history” in which historians and other scholars debate the influence of Stone and Campbell on specific characteristics of the existing branches.

Bringing new insight into that debate, Jim Cook uses the writings of both Stone and Campbell to show that Stone was not a viable leader of the movement after 1832 and that his ideas were not part of what influenced the twentieth-century branches of the movement. This study demonstrates that the debates going on between “restoration historians” are thus predicated on the false assumption that Stone influenced people within his movements and proves that Stone was an outsider in the movement that bears his name.

Cook (history, California State Univ., Stanislaus) closely examines of the origins of the Stone-Campbell movement, also known as the American Restoration movement, an attempt to achieve unity among US Protestants in the 19th century. The movement—which eventually gave birth to three major US denominations (Disciples of Christ, Churches of Christ, and the independent Christian Church)—was created in 1832, when Barton Stone (1772–1844) and Alexander Campbell (1788–1866) brought together their two movements. Both their movements opposed creeds, appealed to the authority of the Bible only, and sought to avoid creating denominational structures, leaving each local church independent. Cook’s major argument is that the Stone-Campbell movement was never a merger of two equals. Cook contends that Stone had little influence on the movement. In addition Cook argues that the Restoration denominations today would have been far better positioned to achieve Christian unity had they followed the spirit and thought of Stone rather than Campbell. This original study is a solid contribution to the historiography of one of the major traditions of American Protestantism. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. * Choice Reviews *

Jim Cook is professor of history at California State University.