The Christian System

by Alexander Campbell

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Genres: Theology

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1839

About the author

1786-1866

Reviews

[James Bond · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book to dive deep into what A. Campbell believed. This is more of a systematic theology for the movement, but I found it helpful to wrestle with some of his ideas on baptism (although he tweaks them latter on) and his idea of church leadership.

[Cannon Roberts · Rating 2 out of 5]

It explains a lot while actually saying very little.

[Chris Eppler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Campbell was a highly intelligent man who understood many religious things that many did not. This early effort at a systematic theology is good, though it does not read like modern efforts.

[Jeremy Crump · Rating 2 out of 5]

A point of contention between Alexander Campbell and fellow restorationist Walter Scott was that Scott claimed to have rediscovered the systematic teaching of the New Testament with his 1836 work, The Gospel Restored, while Campbell resisted the idea that he himself ever made such a bold claim of his ministry. However, Campbell’s 1835 book The Christian System comes the closest to representing what was the “systematic theology” of the first generation of restorationist thinkers. What sets this work apart from systematic theologies in other Christian traditions is the relative lack of theology present within it. Indeed, the work—really, little more than a collection of essays drawn from his newspapers The Christian Baptist (1823-1830) and The Millennial Harbinger (1830-1835)—gives very little attention to the wider scope of the biblical narrative or common topics like Christology, pneumatology, angelology, hamartiology, or eschatology. Its main purpose is to define the process of conversion and to describe the identifying features of the NT church without reference to any creeds or confession of men. It is a systematic work of religious doctrine from a man skeptical of religious systematization.

Though Campbell sets his movement in contrast to other movements of his day (6-11), in many ways, his understanding of broader theological issues as referenced in the text does not differ much from what was standard fare in the Arminian-dominated evangelical environment of the Second Great Awakening. He does reject the popular doctrine of original sin that man has an “invincible necessity to sin” (45) but concedes that man’s nature is in fact disposed to sin by Adam’s fall (44-45). Likewise, he resists any role for the Holy Spirit prior to conversion as was commonly taught by evangelicals of his day (96). Still, his cessationist view of the Holy Spirit, tying the work of the Holy Spirit to the Bible was not unique (96). Throughout the text, his (elitist?) concern to defend God as a God of systematic order (25) and the Bible as a “book of facts” that is similarly ordered corresponding to God’s character (29) is never far from the surface in his efforts to elucidate the facts of the gospel or the ecclesiastical “pattern” (197, 202, 424) he seeks to promote. Campbell, no doubt influenced by the ethos of early republican America (6), prefers to speak of the primitive church as providing a “constitution” for his adherents to restore (196). Provided this constitutional perspective, Campbell has confidence that the “Bible alone” is the foundation for widespread unity and true reform of the church begun by the Protestant Reformers but which by his time had devolved into division and strife due to creeds, confessions, and sectarian prejudices (10).

For Campbell, unity is a simple matter of Christians dropping their denominational allegiances and with an honest and rational mind submitting to the “principles” which he and other restorationists have “clearly and fully developed” (13). Ironically, by the second edition of this book (1839), Campbell already felt compelled to write a new preface addressing “continual misrepresentation and misconception of our views on some very fundamental points of the Christian system” (20). Apparently, the “simple original form of Christianity” (15) that he believed he was espousing was not quite as simple as he supposed. A telling example of this comes from his discussion of the church in Chapter XXIV. Here Campbell maintains that the universal body of Christ is compelled to “co-operate with one another” and connects this obligation to the orderliness of God’s design of the world: “The necessity of co-operation is felt everywhere and in all associations of men. It is a part of the economy of Heaven. What are mountains, but grains of sand! What are oceans, but drops of water!” (111). Campbell finds scriptural support for congregational cooperation in references to co-operating churches of Judea and Galatia (109). Yet, the sanction of cooperation which Campbell found so obvious has not been as obvious to his descendants in Churches of Christ, as evidenced by the post-WWII “missionary society controversy” which split Churches of Christ into two rival factions (“institutional” and “non-institutional”) which still exist today. Indeed, among “non-institutional” congregations today, any form of co-operation with other Churches of Christ is deemed anathema on the basis that it does not fit the simple pattern or “constitution” of the NT church. This is at least partially an indictment of the limits of his hermeneutical method (26-30) as well as his rationalistic approach to restoration which tends to regard the Bible as an intellectual puzzle to be solved rather than as a testament to the activity of a Triune God among his people.

[Graham Bates · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good look into Alexander Campbells theology. It can be tedious, so don't expect to read it all at once. It's an interesting read for members of the Churches of Christ to see how much we have changed since.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Recommended read in college.

[Daniel Crouch · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s sad almost that my exposure to the father of my own movement has been so limited. I’m grateful for this introductory work, and fascinated by the workings of Campbell’s theology.