DISCIPLES OF CHRIST or CHRISTIANS, an American Protestant denomination, founded by Thomas Campbell, his son Alexander Campbell (q.v.) and Barton Warren Stone (1 7 7 2 1844). Stone had been a Presbyterian minister prominent in the Kentucky revival of 18o1, but had revolted because the synod had condemned Richard McNemar, one of his colleagues, for preaching (as Stone had done) counter to the Westminster Con fession, on faith and the work of the Holy Spirit in conversion. He had organized the Springfield Presbytery, but in 1804 with his five fellow ministers signet; "The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery," giving up that name and calling them selves "Christians." Like Stone, Alexander Campbell had adopted (in 1812) immersion, and, like him, his two great desires were for Christian unity and the restoration of the ancient order of things. But the Campbellite doctrines differed widely from the hyper Calvinism of the Baptists whom they had joined in 1813, espe cially on the points on which Stone had quarrelled with the Pres byterians; and after various local breaks in 1825-3o the Re formers were practically all ruled out of the Baptist communion (1832). The Campbells gradually lost sight of Christian unity, owing to the unfortunate experience with the Baptists and to the tone taken by those clergymen who had met them in debates; and for the sake of Christian union it was peculiarly fortunate that. in Jan. 1832 at Lexington, Kentucky, the followers of the Campbells and those of Stone (who had stressed union more than primitive Christianity) united. Campbell objected to the name "Christians" as sectarianized by Stone, but "Disciples" never drove the name out of use.
During the Civil War the denomination escaped an actual scis sion by following the neutral views of Campbell, who opposed slavery, war and abolition. In 1849 the American Christian Mis sionary Society was formed ; it was immediately attacked as a "human innovation," unwarranted by the New Testament, by literalists led in later years by Benjamin Franklin (secretary of the missionary society in 1857), who opposed all church music also. Isaac Errett (182o-88) was the most prominent leader of the progressive party, which was considered corrupt and worldly by the literalists, many of whom, in spite of his strenuous efforts, broke off from the main body, especially in that territory em braced by the states of Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas.
The main body appointed in 1890 a standing committee on Christian union ; their aim was not for absorption, as was clearly shown by their answer in 1887 to overtures from the Protestant Episcopal Church regarding Christian unity. The credal position of the Disciples is simple : great stress is put upon the phrase "the Christ, the Son of the living God," and upon the recognition by Jesus of this confession as the foundation of His church; agreement with Baptists is only as to immersion, which is con sidered "the primitive confession of Christ and a gracious token of salvation" and as being "for the remission of sins" ; they deny the authority over Christians of the Old Covenant, and Alexander Campbell held this view so forcibly that he was accused by Bap tists of "throwing away the Old Testament." The Lord's Supper is celebrated every Sunday, the bread being broken by the com municants. The Disciples are not Unitarian, but they urge the use of simple New Testament phraseology as to the Godhead. The church government of the Disciples of Christ is congrega tional in character.
See Errett Gate's History of the Disciples of Christ (N.Y., i9o5), in "The Story of the Churches" series, and his Early Relation and Sep aration of Baptists and Disciples (Chicago, 1904) ; B. B. Tyler's His tory of the Disciples of Christ in vol. xii. of "The American Church History Series" (N.Y., 1894) ; and article "Disciples of Christ" by H. L. Willett in Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. iv.
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