Restorationism, also known as Christian primitivism, is a religious perspective holding that the early beliefs and practices of the followers of Jesus were either lost or adulterated after the deaths of his apostles, and therefore require restoration.Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, p.665, Samuel S. Hill, Charles H. Lippy, Charles Reagan Wilson, 2005: "An Anabaptist, Servetus believed what has always been basic to restorationism: ... the true, apostolic church .... Restorationists in the South include three churches of the STONE-CAMPBELL TRADITION." It is a view that often "seeks to correct faults or deficiencies, in other branches of Christianity, by appealing to the primitive church as normative model".
Efforts to restore an earlier, purer form of Christianity are frequently a response to denominationalism. As Rubel Shelly put it, "the motive behind all restoration movements is to tear down the walls of separation by a return to the practice of the original, essential and universal features of the Christian religion." Different groups have attempted to implement the restorationist vision in various ways; for instance, some have focused on the structure and practice of the church, others on the ethical life of the church, and still others on the direct experience of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. The relative importance assigned to the restoration ideal, and the extent to which the full restoration of the early church is believed to have been achieved, also varies among groups.
The term has been used in reference to the Stone–Campbell Movement in the United States, as well as certain bodies of the holiness movement that emphasize that true believers are members of the "church of God" and thus use this locution in their name, such as the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana), Church of God (Holiness), and Church of God (Guthrie, Oklahoma); these denominations do not keep membership rolls. It has also been used by more recent groups describing their goal to re-establish Christianity in its original form, such as some anti-denominational Charismatic Restorationists, which arose in the 1970s in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.Evangelicalism in modern Britain: a history from the 1730s to the 1980s, David W. Bebbington, pub 1995, Routledge (UK), , pp. 230–231; 245–249Alternative Religions: A Sociological Introduction, Stephen J. Hunt, pub 2003, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd; , pp. 82–83
More narrowly, the term "Restorationism" is used to describe a number of unrelated non-Trinitarian movements, such as the Christadelphians (from the Greek for "Brothers of Christ"), Swedenborgians (also known as, The New Church), Irvingians (the largest of which is the New Apostolic Church), The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as Mormonism), Jehovah's Witnesses (from the tetragrammaton for God), (Spanish for "the Light of the World"), and (Tagalog for "Church of Christ"). In this sense, Restorationism has been regarded as one of the six taxonomic groupings of Christianity: the Church of the East, Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Restorationism. These Restorationist groups share a belief that historic Christianity lost the true faith during the Great Apostasy and that the Church needed to be restored.
Uses of the term The terms restorationism, restorationist and restoration are used in several senses within Christianity. "Restorationism" in the sense of "Christian primitivism" refers to the attempt to correct perceived shortcomings of the current church by using the primitive church as a model to reconstruct early Christianity,Douglas Allen Foster and Anthony L. Dunnavant, The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, Churches of Christ, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004, , 9780802838988, entry on Restoration, Historical Models of and has also been described as "practicing church the way it is perceived to have been done in the New Testament".
Restorationism is called "apostolic" as representing the form of Christianity that the Twelve Apostles followed. These themes arise early in church history, first appearing in the works of Iranaeus, and appeared in some movements during the Middle Ages. It was expressed to varying degrees in the theology of the Protestant Reformation, and Protestantism has been described as "a form of Christian restorationism, though some of its forms – for example the Churches of Christ – are more restorationist than others".David Lynn Holmes, The faiths of the founding fathers, Oxford University Press US, 2006, , 9780195300925, 225 pages
A number of historical movements within Christianity may be described as "restoration movements", including the Glasites in Scotland and England, the independent church led by James Haldane and Robert Haldane in Scotland, the American Restoration Movement, the Landmarkists and the Mormons.Erwin Fahlbusch and Geoffrey William Bromiley, translated by Geoffrey William Bromiley, The encyclopedia of Christianity, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005, 952 pages, , 9780802824165, entry on Restoration Movements A variety of more contemporary movements have also been described as "restorationist".Max Turner, "Ecclesiology In The Major 'Apostolic' Restorationist Churches In The United Kingdom", Vox Evangelica 19 (1989): 83–108.Elaine Milley, "Modern Theology of Restorationism", , Master's Thesis, Theological Studies Department, Tyndale College and Seminary Restorationism has been described as a basic component of some Pentecostal movements such as the Assemblies of God.Edith Waldvogel Blumhofer, Restoring the faith: the Assemblies of God, Pentecostalism, and American culture, University of Illinois Press, 1993, , 9780252062810, 281 pages The terms "Restorationism movement" and "Restorationist movement" have also been applied to the British New Church Movement.Stephen Hunt, Alternative religions: a sociological introduction, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2003, , 9780754634102, 268 pages
Capitalized, the term is also used as a synonym for the American Restoration Movement.Gerard Mannion and Lewis S. Mudge, The Routledge companion to the Christian church, Routledge, 2008, , 9780415374200, page 634See for example Cassandra Yacovazzi, "The Crisis of Sectarianism: Restorationist, Catholic, and Mormon Converts in Antebellum America, Masters Thesis, Department of History, Baylor University, May 2009 The term "restorationism" can also include the belief that the Jewish people must be restored to the promised land in fulfillment of biblical prophecy before the Second Coming of Christ.Anouar Majid, "The Political Geography of Holiness ", American Literary History, April 17, 2009 Christian restorationism is generally used to describe the 19th century movement based on this belief, though the term Christian Zionism is more commonly used to describe later forms.
The term primitive, in contrast with other uses, refers to a basis in scholarship and research into the actual writings of the Church Fathers and other historical documents. Since written documents for the underground first-century church are sparse, the primitive church passed down its knowledge verbally. Elements of the primitive Christianity movement reject the patristic tradition of the prolific extrabiblical 2nd- and 3rd-century redaction of this knowledge (the Ante-Nicene Fathers), and instead attempt to reconstruct primitive church practices as they might have existed in the Apostolic Age. To do this, they revive practices found in the Old Testament. The term apostolic refers to a nonmainstream, often literal, apostolic succession or historical lineage tracing back to the Apostles and the Great Commission. These restorationist threads are sometimes regarded critically as being Judaizers in the Ebionite tradition.
Historical models The restoration ideal has been interpreted and applied in a variety of ways. Four general historical models can be identified based on the aspect of early Christianity that the individuals and groups involved were attempting to restore. These are: Ecclesiastical Primitivism; Ethical Primitivism; Experiential Primitivism; and Gospel Primitivism.
Ecclesiastical Primitivism Ecclesiastical primitivism focuses on restoring the ecclesiastical practices of the early church. The didache, an early Christian treatise predominantly dated to the first century, describes a central role of central itinerant apostles, as well as community-based elders and deacons elected by the community.Draper, J. (2006). The Apostolic Fathers: The Didache. Expository Times, 117(5):177:182. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=1d24f4df95aec8072a54e2e8f2a424a728253611 Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin and the Puritans all advocated ecclesiastical primitivism. The strongest advocate of ecclesiastical primitivism in the United States was Alexander Campbell.
Ethical Primitivism Ethical primitivism focuses on restoring the ethical norms and commitment to discipleship of the early church. Ethical commitments and norms are described in first century primitive Christian writings: Pauline writings reject gentiles taking on the “yoke of slavery;” the didache of Syria does not require gentile Christians to keep the full law perfectly, but instructs them to “keep as much [of the law]… as they can ‘bear’.”
The movement often requires observance of universal commandments, such as a biblical Sabbath as given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and the Hebrew calendar to define years, seasons, weeks, and days. Circumcision, animal sacrifices, and ceremonial requirements, as practiced in Judaism, are distinguished from the Ten Commandments, Noahide lawsE.g., clean and unclean animals, . and High SabbathsE.g., the 's cutting covenant with Abraham on Quartodeciman Passover as inferred from as given to, and in effect for, all humanity. The Sermon on the Mount and particularly the Expounding of the Law warn against antinomianism, the rejection of biblical teachings concerning observance of the Law.
The Anabaptists, Barton W. Stone and the Holiness Movement are examples of this form of restorationism.
Experiential Primitivism Experiential primitivism focuses on restoring the direct communication with God and the experience of the Holy Spirit seen in the early church. Examples include the Latter Day Saint movement of Joseph Smith and Pentecostalism.
Gospel Primitivism Gospel primitivism may be best seen in the theology of Martin Luther. Luther was not, in the strictest sense, a restorationist because he saw human effort to restore the church as works righteousness and was sharply critical of other Reformation leaders who were attempting to do so. On the other hand, he was convinced that the gospel message had been obscured by the Roman Catholic Church of the time. He also rejected church traditions he considered contrary to Scripture and insisted on scripture as the sole authority for the church.
These models are not mutually exclusive, but overlap; for example, the Pentecostal movement sees a clear link between ethical primitivism and experiential primitivism.
Middle Ages
According to American Jewish historian Barbara Tuchman, beginning in about 1470 a succession of Popes focused on the acquisition of money, their role in Italian politics as rulers of the papal states and power politics within the college of cardinals. Restorationism at the time was centered on movements that wanted to renew the church, such as the Lollards, the Brethren of the Common Life, the Hussites, and Girolamo Savonarola's reforms in Florence.
While these pre-reformation movements did presage and sometimes discussed a break with Rome and papal authority, they also provoked restorationist movements within the church, such as the councils of Constance and Basle, which were held in the first half of the 15th century.