New - Old School Controversy

The following comes from a variety of web pages and no extensive research on my part.

In response to the Second Great Awakening, Presbyterians split once again over revivals and the Primacy of the Westminster Standards. See https://reformproject.wikispaces.com/Second-Great-Awakening-7

In the early 1800's 4 synods in Ohio and western New York began to work with Congregationalist to advance Christian evangelism. They had all been formed under the Plan of Union (An an agreement between the Congregational churches of New England and the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America for mutual support and joint effort in evangelizing the American frontier). They were hybrid Presbyterian-Congregational churches), 28 presbyteries, 509 ministers, and about 60,000 communicants.

At the General Assembly of 1837 in Philadelphia, representatives of these 4 synods were refused entry. They left to hold a separate assembly nearby, constituting the New School.

In "The Evangelical Mind and the New School Presbyterian Experience (1970)", George Marsden identified three New School themes rejected by the Old School.

* A nationalistic outlook that blended a concern for society with the promotion of revivals (Revivalism here refers to the restoration of the church itself to a vital and fervent relationship with God after a period of moral decline not revival meetings) .. New School Presbyterians, as part of the New England Puritan tradition, believed that the health of America depended upon its spiritual well-being.

* The use of voluntary associations--tract and Bible societies, nondenominational missions agencies, organizations to promote moral reforms such as temperance and the abolition of slavery--to spread the benefits of Christian civilization. * The New School modified Calvinist theology by developing doctrines that would support both revivals and moral reform.

The old School expelled from the church 4 synods in Ohio and Western New York

In . 1840, the Morristown Presbyterian Church divided over this and some members established the South Street Presbyterian Church. Albert Barnes, the pastor of Morristown Presbyterian Church (1825-1830) was a leader in the New School movement and served as moderator of the General Assembly to the New School branch in 1851. He is quoted as saying: "There is no power out of the church that could sustain slavery an hour, if it were not sustained in it."

Believing slavery to be divinely-ordained, ministers separated from both New School and Old School to form the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America in 1861.

With the southern churches gone, ecclesiastical and theological differences were ultimately trumped by the national division over slavery The the New and Old schools merged back together in 1869.