The Encyclopedia of World Religions

386 S restoration movement

other may interpret it as a sense of the presence of God, based on prior beliefs about God and how and where he may be felt. Only the second would, strictly speaking, be a religious experience. For religious beliefs can induce religious experience, but they also are what interprets experience as religious. At the same time, religion without expe rience would be a paltry thing and probably not long endure. restoration movement A movement in the early 1800s among Protestants in the United States that led to the formation of the Christian Church (Dis ciples of Christ), the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, and similar churches. It is sometimes called the “Stone-Campbell movement” after the last names of its instigators, Barton W. Stone and Thomas Campbell. Barton Stone was a Presbyterian minister who sponsored the Cane Ridge Revival in Cane Ridge, Kentucky (1801). Afterward, he became convinced that Christians should abandon the CREEDS that they had formulated and follow only the B IBLE as authoritative. He and a small number of fellow ministers who shared his ideas formed what they called the Springfield Presbytery. In 1809, how ever, they dissolved the Presbytery and issued a document titled “The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery.” It is an important mile stone in the history of the restoration movement. From that point on, Stone and his associates called themselves “Christians.” They saw themselves as in unity with all Christians everywhere. Thomas Campbell had come to the United States from Scotland and served as a Presbyterian minister in western Pennsylvania. Like Stone, he rejected all creeds. In 1808 he and like-minded followers founded the Christian Association of Washington, Pennsylvania. It took as its motto, “Where the scriptures speak, we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent.” At first Camp bell aligned himself with Baptists in the area, but eventually differences forced them to separate. In 1830 he and his fellow believers became known as Disciples.

may have from religious music, art, or poetry; it is not in itself unity with God, though it can lead to that and in any case have a significant impact one one’s life. Conversion experiences are those of any nature, though often highly emotional, that produce a major change in one’s religious outlook and commitment. A sense of divine guidance, though perhaps not always intensely felt, can be regarded as expe riential religion, especially when it occurs at criti cal moments in one’s life. So is an overall steady sense of divine presence. Experiences of the pres ence of religious entities, less than the Ultimate, such as ANGELS or SAINTS , may also be religious experiences, for they partake in the sacred world and such beings certainly share in the divine power. Visionary experiences, which appear to be given to some people, are religious experiences presented before the eyes, and perhaps also the ears if one hears sacred or divine voices. Usu ally they are accompanied by strong feelings of wonder and awe as well. (Terrifying visions from within the religious world view, as of demonic figures or the fires of HELL , are also possible and may have a strong admonitory effect.) Miracles, whether “psychic” phenomena like telepathy or clairvoyance (seeing things far away) or precogni tion (seeing the future), or physical miracles like healings or the biblical walking on water, are often regarded as divine gifts. They can evoke a sense of wonder and gratitude, which certainly is religious experience as well as is the confirmation of divine reality. (They are also, however, sometimes taken to be deceptive lures of the devil.) Most religions would insist that a truly authentic religious experi ence, in contrast to one that is deceptively induced by psychological factors or the wiles of demonic forces, must result in both true belief and a moral and godly way of life. It must finally be noted that religious experi ence is an interpretive category, not necessarily one built into the experience itself. Two people may have very similar experiences of rapture and joy while walking in the woods. One may interpret it in a quite natural way, as a psychological response to the beauty and peace of the surroundings. The