Preaching, Conflict and Organization: Christian Universalism in the Architecture of American Christianity between Philadelphia and New England
Preaching, Conflict and Organization: Christian Universalism in the Architecture of American Christianity between Philadelphia and New England

Summary/Abstract: This study examines the emergence and development of Christian universalism in late eighteenth-century America through a comparative analysis of Elhanan Winchester and John Murray, situating their activity within the broader framework of the "architecture of American Christianity." Rather than treating universalism as a marginal or isolated doctrine, the article argues that it functioned as a significant theological and institutional force within a religious landscape marked by pluralism, mobility, and the absence of centralized ecclesiastical authority. Focusing on the interconnected themes of preaching, conflict, and organization, the study demonstrates that the development of universalism followed two distinct but complementary trajectories. In Philadelphia, Winchester's universalism emerged within an established Baptist context, generating intense doctrinal controversy and institutional rupture, while simultaneously producing a sophisticated hermeneutical model that sought to reconcile biblical texts on judgment with those affirming universal restoration. In contrast, Murray's activity in New England illustrates a more stable process of institutionalization, in which universalism, shaped by the theological influence of James Relly, was articulated in a coherent Christological framework and successfully embedded within newly formed religious communities. By comparing these two models, the article highlights the dual dynamic through which universalism became a durable feature of American religious life: as a polemical and exegetical challenge that redefined theological discourse, and as an organized movement capable of sustaining communal identity and expansion. Ultimately, the study argues that universalism played a constitutive role in shaping the architecture of American Christianity, not by resolving the tension between divine justice and universal salvation, but by preserving and intensifying it as a central theological question.

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