Perfectionism generally states that through individual restraint and good actions one can obtain increasing levels of religious perfection. The concept negates the Calvinist belief in original sin and its pervasiveness in the daily lives of men that was formerly a prominent idea in early America. Perfectionists thought that more perfect world could be obtained with the conversion and religious exercise of all people, therefore great efforts were put forth to bring great numbers of people into the movement. The reverberations of the perfectionist movements where felt as far as China and brought about numerous political changes in America. The Finneyites are an example of a perfectionist movement.

Charles Grandison Finney was a lawyer and president of Oberlin College and later a leader in the religious revival movement of the 19th century. It was through his law studies of Mosaic institutions that Finney developed an interest in the Bible. In 1821 after he underwent a religious conversion he dropped his law practice and became an evangelist licensed by the Presbyterian Church. His "new measures" of revival brought incredible success in the cities and opposition from more orthodox leaders in the church such as Lyman Beecher. In 1834 he left his position as Presbyterian minister of the Second Free Congregational Church in New York, to lead his own church the Broadway Tabernacle. In 1837 he left New York all together, went back to Oberlin where he became the minister of Oberlin's First Congregational Church and the president of Oberlin College again.

Finney and his followers believed that saving souls for Christ and building a better world were inseparable. These generally middle class people rejected the concept of sin and believed that they could remake their own hearts in the image of Christ through repentance, prayer and submission. Therefore if a person could be converted through such easy personal means then it is logical that the world could triumph over sin one person at a time.

Finneyites shirked the old patriarchal pattern of society and developed egalitarian households. They believed that good moral choices were the basis of their lives and these choices would quicken the one thousand-year period of Christian social perfection that was supposed to precede the Second Coming of Christ. The group concluded that poverty and social disorder didn’t result from sin but from ignorance, vice, and bad moral choices. Through aggressive movements they established various outreach programs, missionary services, Sunday schools, and rehabilitation programs. They made great strides in women’s rights, abolition of slavery, and temperance.

The extremist in the Finneyite tradition believed that if perfection began in individual autonomy then all coercive relations were sinful. Therefore existing sexual relationships that were male dominated and procreation centered were considered unholy.

For more info, click on these:

http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9410/briefly.html
http://www.healing.simplenet.com/Resources/finneymaster.htm
http://www.maranatha.net/firefell/
http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0537_Christian_Abolitioni.html

Bibliography:

"Finney, Charles Grandison," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1977 ed.

Johnson, Paul E., and Sean Wilentz. The Kingdom of Matthias. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Email the Webmaster, Dusty Kelly.

Return to the AMS 355 Class Site

Go to the American Studies Department