Presbyterian Polity

This chapter primarily analyzes the history of American Presbyterian polity from the eighteenth to twenty-first centuries, but it also gives some attention to Presbyterian polity outside the United States. It examines the Adopting Act of 1729 along with various denominational disputes and schisms. Presbyterianism was greatly affected by the First and Second Great Awakenings, which led to polarization. The schism between New Side and Old Side Presbyterians was the result of differing attitudes to conversion and issue of creedal assent. Presbyterians relationship with the Congregationalists also led to a weakening of Presbyterian polity and to differing attitudes toward evangelism. In 1837, Presbyterians split into Old School and New School parties, and thereafter Presbyterians became more reflective about their polity. The relationship between polity and theology has been a source of tension for Presbyterians, and in the twentieth century, polity was in the ascendency in American mainline Presbyterianism. Several significant twentieth-century PCUSA events reveal the dominance of polity and the resulting fracturing of American Presbyterianism.

A New-Age Search for Order

This chapter demonstrates that Americans felt alone, angry, alienated, and isolated in the 1990s, and that they marched with likeminded people to both express these feelings and to find ways to take personal responsibility for their healing and renewal. This chapter compares the late twentieth century to the early twentieth century search for order that historians Robert Weibe and TJ Jackson Lears discuss. It also looks at the periods of Great Awakenings for points of comparison. To show why Americans were so disquieted, this chapter discusses the 1990s and the dislocations that impacted Americans by defining the new reality of postmodernism. It concludes by explaining how the different marches relate to post-modernism and why marches matter.