Common Sense Regeneration: Alexander Campbell on Regeneration, Conversion, and the Work of the Holy Spirit*

Alexander Campbell (1788-1866), a controversialist and prolific writer, often addressed his theological opponents with an acid-tipped pen. Early in his career, few topics received as much attention as regeneration, conversion, and the role of the Holy Spirit. Campbell and his coreligionists on the f...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Waers, Stephen (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge Univ. Press [2016]
In: Harvard theological review
Year: 2016, Volume: 109, Issue: 4, Pages: 611-636
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Campbell, Alexander 1788-1866 / Rebirth / Conversion / Holy Spirit / Locke, John 1632-1704 / Scottish School / Common sense
IxTheo Classification:CB Christian life; spirituality
KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history
KBQ North America
KDG Free church
NBG Pneumatology; Holy Spirit
VA Philosophy
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
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Summary:Alexander Campbell (1788-1866), a controversialist and prolific writer, often addressed his theological opponents with an acid-tipped pen. Early in his career, few topics received as much attention as regeneration, conversion, and the role of the Holy Spirit. Campbell and his coreligionists on the frontier were hardly the only theologians who focused on these doctrines during the first half of the nineteenth century. Campbell's early polemics make it clear that he had substantially modified or rejected many of the major tenets of the Presbyterianism of his youth regarding these topics. His early writings find his literary resources arrayed against such doctrines as human inability and metaphysical regeneration that his Reformed opponents held. Campbell's biographer even tells us that Campbell's views of regeneration and conversion shifted. In this paper, I argue that one of the major factors driving Campbell's rejection of these widely held Reformed doctrines was his appropriation of the thought of John Locke and Scottish Common Sense Philosophy (SCSP). More specifically, I argue that Alexander Campbell's understanding of testimony, firmly rooted in the thought of Locke and SCSP, was the sine qua non of his conception of regeneration, conversion, and the work of the Holy Spirit.
ISSN:1475-4517
Contains:Enthalten in: Harvard theological review
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S0017816016000304