Congregationalists Encounter the Other:

1
Congregationalists Encounter the Other

• New England and Four Waves of Immigration

2
Thesis

• The Encounter With The Other Has Deeply
  Influenced the Development of Congregationalist
  theology.
  
• The Encounter With Four Waves of Immigrants
  Illustrates This Thesis

3
The Four Waves

• 1. The Anglicans And Scotch-Irish
• 2. Irish and French Canadian Catholics
• 3. Italians, Jews, and Slavs
• 4. Asians, Latin Americans, Islam, and New
  Religions.

4
Who Were the Puritans ?

• 1. More Reformation
• 2. Dutch Relations
• 3. The Federal or Covenant Theology
• 4. Visible Saints
• 5. Gathered Churches

5
Patterns of Puritan Intolerance

• 1. Sharing the Mission
• 2. Every Town Has A Church
• 3. Taxation

6
Anglicans, Scotch-Irish, and War

• 1. First Experience As A Minority
• 2. The Scotch-Irish Take Over Princeton
• 3. The Revolution
• 4. The Humiliation of Kings Chapel

Kings Chapel, Boston
7
Individualism and Social Responsibility

• The Congregationalist Understanding of Religion
  That Was Informed by the Revolution
  
• Religion Is A Matter of Personal Decision
• All Religious Decisions Have Social And Political
  Consequences

8
The Second Encounter

• Irish and French Catholicism
• The Conditions for Mass Immigration
• Cheap Passage
• Good Information

9
The Irish Arrived in Great Poverty
Irish Arriving in New York
Irish Famine Memorial Boston
10
New Englanders as Immigrants in the West

• Economic Conditions Force Many New Englanders to
  Move West
  
• Left Behind Social and Economic Vacuum

11
At the Civil War

• Increased Tensions With The Irish
• Rejection of the Great Crusade

• Catholics Are Now The Largest Religion In The
  United States.

12
Societies to Do Good

• The Gospel to All the World
• The Average Congregationalist Knew More About The
  World Than The Average American

13
A Great Victory

• The Most Diverse Society In The Pacific
• Work With The Japanese

14
A Fateful Failure
American College, Beirut
Roberts College, now Bogazici University.
15
The American Missionary Association
16
Renewing Congregational Immigrants to the West

• Many Migrating Congregationalists Needed
  Ministry
  
• Basic Techniques for Reaching Immigrants Were
  Developed In The West.

Laura Ingalls Wilders Cabin. The Little House
on the Prairie
17
Germans and Congregationalists
18
The First World War

• Temporary Closing of the Gates
• The Americanization Debate

19
Theological Changes

• The Social Gospel
• Christian Racism
• Josiah Strong
• Second Probation

Charles Shelton WWJD
20
Judaism

• Dwight L. Moody The Mission To The Jews
• H. Paul Douglas
• The Ending of Formal Missions to the Jews

21
First Asian Immigrants

• Congregationalists knew these religions from the
  ABCFM
  
• Became Aware of Hindu and Buddhist Americans At
  The World Parliament of Religions
  
• Often Found Common Ground

Swami Vivekananda
22
The Unsolvable Question

• Congregational Theology Had Difficulty Not
  Regarding Unchurched People From Other
  Traditions As Suitable Objects Of Evangelism.
  
• Is Religion Primarily A Matter of Consent Or
  Primarily A Matter of Heritage?

23
More Recent Immigration

• Heavily from Latin America
• Asian Traditions
• Most Asian Immigrants are Christians
• The Trend Is Towards More Buddhist, Hindu

24
Islamic Immigrants

• Islam is the Fastest Growing Non-Christian Faith
• The Test of Tolerance After 9-11?

25
Three Primary Congregational Affirmations

• Religion Is A Private Matter With Public
  Consequences
  
• A Confidence In Relative Absolutes.
• The Experience of the Other Changes Theological
  Affirmations

26
Four Areas For Theological Reflection

• 1. What About Those With No Apparent Religious
  Affiliation?
  
• What Are Religious Organizations?
• What Are the Implications of Monotheism In A
  World In Which All People Are Not Monotheists?
  
• What About New Religions? Are We Living In A
  Time of Religious Creativity?
  

27
A Bill and Glenn Production
Copies of this paper and its documentation can be
acquired by emailing gmiller_at_bts.edu