Evangelicals and the antimission crisis: A study of religious identity in the central Mississippi Valley, 1820--1840

The early republic was a period of remarkable growth for religion in America. Evangelical Protestants organized a host of missionary societies, Bible societies, religious tract societies, Sunday Schools, and other benevolent organizations to promote religion both at home and abroad. Despite their successes, organizers failed to anticipate the impact that their societies would have on local churches. Baptists experienced a formidable opposition to the missions societies during the 1820s and 1830s. Scholars explain this "anti-mission" sentiment as a product of an extreme Calvinism, which led some adherents to view evangelism as unnecessary. While acknowledging theological differences contributed to the missions debate, this study takes a different approach by arguing that the controversy must be understood within the context of local church life.;By making use of local church meeting minutes, associational records, circular letters, and religious newspapers, this dissertation exposes how Baptists in the Illinois and Missouri backcountry constructed religious identities through their participation in faith communities---places where bonds of fellowship between members defined individual religious experiences. Indeed, by 1817 when the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions commissioned John M. Peck and James Welch to launch the St. Louis mission, a western Baptist identity had emerged, evidenced by the practices associated with church membership, discipline, and congregational association. The missions society system challenged some of these fundamental practices and beliefs by pressing members for financial support, encouraging missionary itinerancy, and propagating a system of evangelism that fell beyond congregational oversight. In doing so, promoters inadvertently undermined local church authority and encouraged the adoption of new practices that, for western Baptists, would redefine the purpose and identity of the local church.;The missions controversy forced church members to reconsider their allegiances in light of denominational objectives with an increasingly national focus. The result was the formation of distinctly pro-missionary and anti-missionary Baptist identities across the central Mississippi Valley region. Besides exploring a major schism among American Baptists, this study offers insight into the role religion played in settling the Midwest and the way local churches shaped religious identities in the early republic.