Disciples

DISCIPLES. - A designation for Protestants also called Campbellites, because they were followers of Thomas Campbell (1763-1853). He was an Irish Presbyterian who, in 1807, having emigrated to the United States, set out to unite all Christians, adopting a name that would be genuinely biblical and not sectarian. To this end he separated from the Presbyterians and, aided by his son Alexander (1788-1866), founded in 1810 the "First Church of the Christian Society."

To unite all the sects, Campbell proposed that: a) only the Bible should be the norm of faith, worship, organization and government; b) deductions drawn from the Bible, even though they might be true doctrines, should not be binding on the Christian; c) confessions of faith, even though useful, should never be held to be essential conditions for belonging to the Christian Church. The two Campbells, persuaded that Baptism by immersion was necessary, at one time joined with the Baptists and had themselves rebaptized, but then separated from them in 1829. A few years later, in 1838, the followers of Barton W. Stone, who from a Presbyterian minister had become a "Christian" (v. CRISTIANI), joined them. There then arose the question of the name, which had to be purely biblical: Stone wanted them to be called "Christians" and Alexander Campbell "d."; hence confusion arose, since they were called indifferently by the two names. Even after the schism of 1906, in which the more conservative assumed officially the name Church of Christ or Christians, and the progressives took the definitive one of d., some confusion is still noticeable among Protestant writers, as can be seen in the World Missionary Atlas, and in the Directory of World Missions. The d. number more than a million in the United States, but are few in England. They support many missions, mainly in India and Latin America.

Camillo Crivelli