Alexander Campbell (1788-1866), like
many American Protestants (including Joseph Smith), sought to return to the
primitive church of the New Testament. Although possibly to separate himself
from Smith, Campbell never called himself a “restorer” and opposed the claim
that he “restored the gospel.” But he searched the Bible for details on the
primitive church and applied them in his church. Campbell’s model did not
tolerate any demonstrative gifts of the Spirit outside the biblical usage. In
his mind, a God of reason would not encourage the spiritual chaos he saw around
him during the Second Great Awakening. Driven by the rational influences of the
Enlightenment and particularly the Scottish Common Sense Realism (SCSR),
Campbell approached biblical pneumatology from his head rather than his heart.
He believed that God created humanity with a rational mind capable of receiving
truths from the Bible through common sense. From his perspective, it was
illogical to think that the Holy Spirit worked in sinful people. Applying this
view left Campbell no room for the Spirit’s intervention in conversion— belief
became a logical choice. He denounced nineteenth century uncontrolled
impressions (like the ones Cartwright fostered in revivals), categorizing them
as satanic influences. He believed that only after people aligned their lives
with the truths of the Bible and believed through their rational capacities
could the Spirit peacefully commune with them. In this way he was not a pure
rationalist but saw the Spirit working within an orderly realm to bring peace
and joy to Christians.
. . .
4) A Rational
Conversion through Accepting the Bible
In Campbell’s pneumatology, a
conversion of one’s mind to the truth must precede the witness of the Spirit.
He felt strongly that the Bible was sensible enough—that all believing and
faithful minds could rationally see its truths. In his preface to the New
Testament Commentary, Campbell admonished his audience to appreciate the
Bible’s power to convert the rational mind:
Reader! This is . . . designed to
accomplish an object superlatively grand, transcending—in degrees
inexpressible—the most magnificent scheme that created intelligence ever
conceived. To convert a race of polluted, miserable, and dying mortals, into
pure, happy, and glorious immortals . . . Yes! this is the benevolent and
glorious design of these Testimonies. Books, written with such a design, with a
design to purify, elevate, and glorify the debased and degraded children of
men. And the bare hypothesis, to say nothing of the moral certainty, that they
came from God, with such a design, methinks, is quite enough to woo our whole
rational nature, to constrain all our moral powers, to test their high
pretensions to a character so philanthropic and divine . . . fired with God's
own inspiration. (Campbell, Sacred Writings, xxiii.)
In Campbell’s flowery invitation to
study the Bible, he empowered the Bible to “woo our whole rational nature” to
convert mortals to believe in God. He explained the Bible’s sacred origin that
called for “attention and examination” which in turn would work on the rational
mind to convert them to their God. Once that rational step was taken, he
believed that fallen man was elevated. For Campbell, conversion was a rational,
step-by-step process, not a Spirit-filled leap. He taught that the Spirit
functioned only in obedient, converted Christians—not in sinners who sought a
spiritual witness as their conversion. (Lynne Wilson, “Joseph Smith’s
Doctrine of the Holy Spirit Contrasted with Cartwright, Campbell, Hodge, and
Finney” [PhD Thesis; Marquette University, 2010], 81-82, 105-6)
