Presbyterian Church History
The earliest Christian church consisted of Jews in the first century who had known
Jesus and heard his teachings. It gradually grew and spread from the Middle East to other parts of the world, though
not without controversy and hardship among its supporters.
During the 4th century, after more than 300 years of persecution under various Roman emperors, the church became
established as a political as well as a spiritual power under the Emperor Constantine. Theological and political
disagreements, however, served to widen the rift between members of the eastern (Greek-speaking) and western (Latin-speaking)
branches of the church. Eventually the western portions of Europe, came under the religious and political authority
of the Roman Catholic Church. Eastern Europe and parts of Asia came under the authority of the Eastern Orthodox
Church.
In western Europe, the authority of the Roman Catholic Church remained largely unquestioned until the Renaissance
in the 15th century. The invention of the printing press in Germany around 1440 made it possible for common people
to have access to printed materials including the Bible. This, in turn, enabled many to discover religious thinkers
who had begun to question the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. One such figure, Martin Luther, a German
priest and professor, started the movement known as the Protestant Reformation when he posted a list of 95 grievances
against the Roman Catholic Church on a church door in Wittenburg, Germany in 1517. Some 20 years later, a French/Swiss
theologian, John Calvin, further refined the reformers' new way of thinking about the nature of God and God's relationship
with humanity in what came to be known as Reformed theology. John Knox, a Scotsman who studied with Calvin in Geneva,
Switzerland, took Calvin's teachings back to Scotland. Other Reformed communities developed in England, Holland
and France. The Presbyterian church traces its ancestry back primarily to Scotland and England.
Presbyterians have featured prominently in United States history. The Rev. Francis Mackemie, who arrived in the
U.S. from Ireland in 1683, helped to organize the first American Presbytery at Philadelphia in 1706. One of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence, the Rev. John Witherspoon, was a Presbyterian minister. The Rev. William
Tennent founded a ministerial "log college" in New Jersey that evolved into Princeton University. Other
Presbyterian ministers, such as the Rev. Jonathan Edwards and the Rev. Gilbert Tennent, were driving forces in
the so-called "Great Awakening," a revivalist movement in the early 18th century.
The Presbyterian church in the United States has split and parts have reunited several times. Currently the largest
group is the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which has its national offices in Louisville, Ky. It was formed in 1983
as a result of reunion between the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (PCUS), the so-called "southern branch,"
and the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (UPCUSA), the so-called "northern branch." Other Presbyterian
churches in the United States include: the Presbyterian Church in America, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and
the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. |
