Other 19th Century American religions

The 19th Century was a time of religious revivalism in the United States. Considering this happened in an ethnic and cultural melting pot, with huge changes afoot in the world, it seems odd that only one big new religion came out of it (Mormonism).

I'd like to see people's suggestions for other new, successful religions in this period. Who would they be created by and how would they go?
 
Well, you could research topics relating to the "Burned-over district". That could help.


Thanks -this is great. Any idea why Western New York was more fertile ground for these sorts of things than other frontier regions?

I suppose taking one of those communal utopian societies and tempering them with a bit of common sense might work.

A big appeal of my own religion was that it specifically wanted to go back to New Testament-styles of Christianity, with Twelve Apostles and such. Millenialism in any form is usually also a good bet for the initial period of your hypothetical church's existence.

Claiming to be a messiah or to have prophetic powers usually works initially as well. The messiah bit is tricky though; your religious leader is bound to have some flaws and habits that shake his follower's faith in him. Prophets are better for the long run, as they don't claim that they are perfect, but simply that they speak with God's authority on earth.

The real challenge in any case though is getting your religion to get past the first leader. My faith, Mormonism, nearly shattered after Joseph Smith's death, and for good reason too. There were several claimants to his authority. In fact, one or two of the splinter churches still exist. Regardless, your religion's second leader needs to be as charismatic and authoritative as the first, but must be pragmatic enough to hold together his followers.

All useful. What are the belief differences between the main LDS church and the other big ones? (Polygamists aside.)
 

Zioneer

Banned
Thanks -this is great. Any idea why Western New York was more fertile ground for these sorts of things than other frontier regions?

No idea. You'd have to ask someone with more knowledge then I have.

All useful. What are the belief differences between the main LDS church and the other big ones? (Polygamists aside.)


Big ones as in Catholic and Protestant, or big ones as in fellow 1800s churches?

Well, as you know, the LDS Church has separate scriptures from the Bible. Catholicism, and most mainstream Protestant churches, only have their own interpretation of the Bible. Very few churches have considered the Americas specifically in their teachings. Even less had the doctrine of the belief that Jews came to the Americas. I don't think anybody but the Mormons taught that the Jews that came to America believed in Jesus Christ.

Polygamy was actually a fairly common teaching in the utopian churches, as was the New Testament style of doing things (Though it was not publicly known that polygamy was practiced until Joseph Smith's death). Oh yeah, and the "miracles have been restored" bit was common too.

While having missionaries wasn't uncommon, the sheer amount of missionary work that the LDS church did was a big difference from most of the utopian churches, which tended to stick to themselves.

I suppose the big difference of Mormonism was that we combined all of those teachings. That, and the fact that Joseph Smith received/claimed he had visions at age 13 probably lead to the massive persecutions of Latter-Day Saints, which lead the church to have something to define itself against.

Non-doctrinal-wise, the LDS church tended to have a lot of former preachers from other churches of that time period. And quite a few well-educated people.
 
The 19th Century was a time of religious revivalism in the United States. Considering this happened in an ethnic and cultural melting pot, with huge changes afoot in the world, it seems odd that only one big new religion came out of it (Mormonism).

The Millerites spawned quite a few groups, including the Seventh-Day Adventists. I believe they also influenced the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Modern New Age religions have their roots in the Spiritualism movement, including Theosophy. These groups aren't exactly large organized religions, but in both cases it's somewhat against their ideals to have an organized hierarchy.

The Burned Over District has its roots in a rapid growth of population in Western New York due to the Erie Canal, combined with a scarcity of professional clergy, although there are probably a lot more complications as well.
 

Zioneer

Banned
Sorry, I meant between other churches in the LDS movement and the main one.

Oh, that's easy; there's the Fundamentalist LDS church (FLDS), who as you noted, still have polygamy. They also still don't allow blacks to have the priesthood, and IIRC, they have had problems with hate crimes against blacks. Occasionally, they get one-man off-shoots of themselves, self-declared "One Mighty and Strong" sort of fellows, like the Elizabeth Smart kidnapper.

Back in the past, a few of the split-offs didn't agree with polygamy (or denying blacks the priesthood), and one of them became the Community of Christ group (also known as the RLDS). Community of Christ even has women priests, if I recall correctly.

The Ridgonite/later Bickerton split off has a president, but not prophet of their church. I don't know much about them, but they apparently believe that Jesus and God are one person, unlike the main church. They also don't believe in the Holy Ghost. They don't believe in the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price, but they DO believe in the Book of Mormon. They do feet washing as well, which the main church doesn't do.

Oooh, and there's the Strangites. Lead by James Strang, who was a complete nutcase. Made his own ancient records (and I think that they're still around, so you can tell that they're his own), declared himself King of his church, and essentially lorded over Beaver Island. Strang later was shot by members of his own Church because he was being a tyrannical loon.

All of these groups are still around today, but the biggest is Community of Christ, about 250,000 members strong. Next biggest is the Bickerton offshoot with about 12,000 members. The FLDS have about 6-10,000 members, with the number fluctuating through the years. The Strangites are the smallest, according to Wikipedia, they've got about 50-300 people.
 
Thanks for all this. So now that the main church accepts blacks and has abandoned polygamy, is there much still differentiating it from the Community of Christ?
 

Zioneer

Banned
Thanks for all this. So now that the main church accepts blacks and has abandoned polygamy, is there much still differentiating it from the Community of Christ?

Well, Community of Christ is very egalitarian, with women in the priesthood, and having had blacks in the priesthood from the very beginning (though seeing racial attitudes around that time, they likely just did it to differentiate themselves from and tick off Brigham Young). They've got a larger section of the Doctrine and Covenants as well.

On the more negative side, the Community of Christ has an affinity for father-son prophethoods; they began under the leadership of Joseph Smith III after all.

Also, this is shameless advertising, but if you're looking at alternate LDS groups, I've just started up my Independent Deseret TL, which will feature some of these kinds of groups.
 
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