Frontier Camp Meetings -- By: Don Odens

Journal: Central Bible Quarterly
Volume: CENQ 12:4 (Winter 1969)
Article: Frontier Camp Meetings
Author: Don Odens


Frontier Camp Meetings

Don Odens

An unusual phenomenon which arrived on the scene of American religious expression as the eighteenth century became the nineteenth century was called the camp meeting. The camp meeting was part of a great spiritual revival called the Second Awakening, which swept the country in several forms. As part of an important vehicle of religious activity in this country, the camp meeting merits careful evaluation, especially in its relationship to the Baptists. This survey will endeavor to discover the historical background of the camp meetings, the practices which they fostered, the degree of participation by the Baptists and, finally, their results.

Historical Background

The effects of the Great Awakening of the mid-eighteenth century were all but completely obliterated by the War of Independence. The closing years of the eighteenth century saw the lowest spiritual life in the history of American churches. The demoralization of army life, the fury of political factions, the materialist morality of Franklin, the philosophic deism of men like Jefferson, and popular ribaldry of Tom Paine, had brought about a desperate condition. War, political fighting, materialism, religious innovations, and a general godless spirit were all factors influencing the mood of the country.

Both the War of Independence and the French and Indian War shortly before it caused destruction, loss of life, and a low level of morality in the young nation. Oppression by England had worked a spirit of rebellion in the American people. The interest of the populace was of a political bent rather than spiritual, for it was a time of great political upheaval in the birthing of a new nation. The Revolution took many of the pastors and church leaders as the chaplains and soldiers of the Continental army. With the loss of leadership, many churches closed their doors, or, at the least, became ineffective.

After the War of Independence men moved westward in the search for new homes and great riches. The result was that a concern for physical survival and material gain supplanted any concern for spiritual matters. The churches were left behind, and in their absence men became ungodly, without spiritual guidance for the most part until the churches were able to extend their influence into the frontiers by means of newly organized mission societies.

Another noteworthy influence upon the spiritual temperature of the times was the arrival from Europe of deism. This movement among the educated, which sought to wed philosophy with religion, was perhaps one of the great forces in shaping the decline of orthodox Christianity at that time. Its proponents relegated God to second place u...

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