Restorationism

==First Great Awakening==
{{Main|First Great Awakening}}

'''<big>Methodism</big>'''

[[Methodism]] began in the 1700s as a Christian Primitivist movement within the Church of England. John Wesley and his brother Charles, the founders of the movement, were high church Anglican priests in the vein of the Caroline Divines, who had a deep respect for the Primitive Church, which they generally defined as the Church before the Council Of Nicea.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Snyder |first=Howard |date=2016-05-02 |title=Restoring Primitive Christianity in America |url=https://seedbed.com/restoring-primitive-christianity-in-america-2/ |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=Seedbed |language=en-US}}</ref> Unlike many other Christian Primitivists, the Wesleys and the early Methodists did not subject Scriptural interpretation to individual human reason, but rather to the hermeneutical consensus of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, holding to a view of authority more akin to Prima Scriptura rather than Sola Scriptura.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hammond |first=Geordan |date=2009 |title=High Church Anglican Influences on John Wesley's Conception of Primitive Christianity, 1732-1735 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42612802 |journal=Anglican and Episcopal History |volume=78 |issue=2 |pages=174–207 |jstor=42612802 |issn=0896-8039}}</ref> Furthermore, they did not hold to the separatist ecclesiology of many primitivist groups, but rather saw themselves as working within the historic established church to return it to its foundation in Scripture and the tradition of the pre-Nicene Church.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hammond |first=Geordan |url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198701606.001.0001/acprof-9780198701606 |title=John Wesley in America: Restoring Primitive Christianity |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-870160-6 |location=Oxford |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198701606.001.0001}}</ref> John Wesley very regularly asserted Methodism's commitment to the Primitive Church, saying, "From a child I was taught to love and reverence the Scripture, the oracles of God; and, next to these, to esteem the primitive Fathers, the writers of the first three centuries. Next after the primitive church, I esteemed our own, the Church of England, as the most Scriptural national Church in the world."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hammond |first=Geordan |date=2009 |title=High Church Anglican Influences on John Wesley's Conception of Primitive Christianity, 1732-1735 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42612802 |journal=Anglican and Episcopal History |volume=78 |issue=2 |pages=174–207 |jstor=42612802 |issn=0896-8039}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Collins |first=Kenneth J. |date=2017-06-01 |title=The Method of John Wesley's Practical Theology Reconsidered |url=https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/wms/article/9/2/101/198017/The-Method-of-John-Wesley-s-Practical-Theology |journal=Wesley and Methodist Studies |language=en |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=101–122 |doi=10.5325/weslmethstud.9.2.0101 |issn=2291-1723}}</ref> And, "Methodism, so called, is the old religion, the religion of the Bible, the religion of the primitive Church, the religion of the Church of England."<ref>{{Cite web |title=John Wesley, Sermon 132: ON LAYING THE FOUNDATION OF THE NEW CHAPEL, NEAR THE CITY-ROAD, LONDON |url=http://wbbm.org/john-wesley-sermons/serm-132.htm |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=wbbm.org}}</ref> On his epitaph is written, "This GREAT LIGHT arose (By the Singular providence of GOD) To enlighten THESE NATIONS, And to revive, enforce, and defend, The Pure Apostolical DOCTRINES and PRACTICES of THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH…"<ref>{{Cite web |title=What we can learn from the words on John Wesley's tomb |url=https://www.umc.org/en/content/what-we-can-learn-from-the-words-on-john-wesleys-tomb |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=The United Methodist Church |language=en}}</ref>

'''<big>Separate Baptists</big>'''[[File:JamesRobinsonGraves.jpg|thumb|100px|left|James Robinson Graves]]During the First Great Awakening, a movement developed among the [[Baptists]] known as [[Separate Baptists]]. Two themes of this movement were the rejection of [[creed]]s and "freedom in the Spirit."<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988" />{{Rp|65}}  The Separate Baptists saw scripture as the "perfect rule" for the church.<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988" />{{Rp|66}} While they turned to the Bible for a structural pattern for the church, they did not insist on complete agreement on the details of that pattern.<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988" />{{Rp|67}}  This group originated in [[New England]], but was especially strong in the [[Southern United States|South]] where the emphasis on a biblical pattern for the church grew stronger.<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988" />{{Rp|67}}  In the last half of the 18th century it spread to the western frontier of [[Kentucky]] and [[Tennessee]], where the Stone and Campbell movements would later take root.<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988" />{{Rp|68}} The development of the Separate Baptists in the southern frontier helped prepare the ground for the [[Restoration Movement]], as the membership of both the Stone and Campbell groups drew heavily from among the ranks of the Separate Baptists.<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988" />{{Rp|67}} Separate Baptist restorationism also contributed to the development of the [[Landmarkism|Landmark Baptists]] in the same area at about the same time as the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement. Under the leadership of [[James Robinson Graves]], this group looked for a precise blueprint for the primitive church, believing that any deviation from that blueprint would keep one from being part of the true church.<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988" />{{Rp|68}}