As a partial product of the 2×2 Fellowship I am fascinated with the origins of the group. We know Where they started. We know What they believe. We also know Who is attributed as the founder. This article will examine the How and Why by exploring the historical and cultural roots of the 2×2 restorationist tree.

Use this quote from an article by Dwight Longenecker:

Firstly, each restorationist movement, although it seeks to return to the ancient church of the apostolic age, is actually produced as a reaction to the circumstances of its own age and culture. For example, the peasant movement of the Bogomils came out of a church weighed down with corruption and aristocratic influence.  The radical reformers in sixteenth century Europe and the New World were influenced by the utopianism, the rise of the nation state, and revolutionary spirit of their age. Similarly, the American restorationist movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was determined more by the independent, anti-establishment mentality of the American frontier than by any real reference to the church of the apostolic age. Restorationists believe they are restoring something ancient. In fact all they do is create an expression of Christianity which is a reaction against the circumstances and assumptions of the age in which they live.

Secondly, while Restorationist movements are reactions to the particular age in which they live, they are also conditioned by the long history of Restorationist movements. For hundreds of years Protestants have perpetuated a particular vision of the early church. Each new Restorationist movement borrows those ideas, never questioning whether the tradition they are inheriting is actually true to the reality of the early church or not. Therefore, the Restorationist doesn’t so much restore primitive Christianity; he simply replicates are earlier Restorationist model, re-producing what he has been told early Christianity was like.

will not include the first and second groups or the medieval dissenting and reform movements and start with perhaps the most important intellectual precursor from the 14-16th centuries - that is Renaissance Humanism.

Key figure:

• Desiderius Erasmus

Central ideas:

• Ad fontes ("back to the sources")

• Return to original texts

• Recovery of apostolic Christianity through Scripture

• Historical criticism of tradition

Most later restorationists adopted the humanist assumption that one could reconstruct primitive Christianity directly from the New Testament

4. Protestant Reformation (16th century)

The Reformation provided the essential theological framework.

Key figures:

• Martin Luther

• John Calvin

• Huldrych Zwingli

Influential doctrines:

• Sola Scriptura

• Rejection of accumulated traditions

• Individual examination of Scripture

• Criticism of apostolic succession

Restorationism is often viewed as the logical extension of Reformation principles.

5. Radical Reformation (Anabaptism)

Many restorationist assumptions emerged more clearly among Anabaptists than among Magisterial Reformers.

Key groups:

• Swiss Brethren

• Mennonites

Themes:

• New Testament as church blueprint

• Believer's baptism

• Separation from state churches

• Rejection of historic ecclesiastical authority

• 6. Enlightenment Rationalism (17th–18th centuries)

  A profound influence on later Restorationism.

  Key figures:

  • John Locke

  • Francis Bacon

  Influential concepts:

  • Reason as arbiter of truth

  • Rejection of inherited authority

  • Empirical investigation

  • "Common sense" interpretation

  Many restorationists came to believe that rational readers could reconstruct the apostolic church from Scripture alone.

7. Scottish Common Sense Realism

Probably the single most important philosophical influence on nineteenth-century Restorationism.

Key figures:

• Thomas Reid

• Dugald Stewart

Influence on leaders such as:

• Alexander Campbell

• Barton W. Stone

Core assumptions:

• Facts are objectively knowable

• Language communicates plainly

• Rational persons can reach the same conclusions

• The Bible can function as a book of observable facts and precedents

8. Democratic Individualism

Especially influential in America.

Influences:

• Equality of believers

• Suspicion of hierarchy

• Rejection of ecclesiastical elites

• Congregational autonomy

Closely connected to the political culture emerging from the American Revolution.

Secondary but Significant Influences

9. Puritanism

Contributed:

• Biblical rigor

• Church purification

• Desire to remove unscriptural practices

10. Pietism

Key figures:

• Philipp Jakob Spener

• August Hermann Francke

Contributed:

• Experiential religion

• Small-group Christianity

• Distrust of formalism

11. Revivalism

Especially:

• First Great Awakening

• Second Great Awakening

Influence:

• Anti-denominationalism

• Conversion-centered faith

• Restoration of New Testament Christianity

12. Baconian Empiricism

Particularly important among nineteenth-century restorationists.

Idea:

• Gather biblical facts

• Classify them

• Derive doctrine scientifically

Many Restoration Movement leaders explicitly described their method as "scientific."

13. Republicanism

Influence:

• Opposition to centralized authority

• Preference for local governance

• Congregational self-rule

14. Anti-Creedalism

The conviction that creeds create division and that Scripture alone should unite Christians.

Slogans:

• "No creed but Christ"

• "No book but the Bible"

Minor or Indirect Influences

15. Deism

Although restorationists opposed Deism theologically, they absorbed some of its assumptions:

• Rational inquiry

• Suspicion of tradition

• Confidence in common reason

16. Romanticism

Some restorationist groups absorbed:

• Emotional religion

• Simplicity

• Idealization of origins

This influence became particularly visible in revivalistic and holiness-oriented restoration movements.

17. Millennialism

Influence:

• Restoration of apostolic Christianity as preparation for Christ's return

• Expectation of an imminent new age

18. Voluntaryism

The idea that religious affiliation should be entirely voluntary and free from state control.

19. Anti-Institutionalism

A recurring intellectual tendency rather than a formal philosophy:

• Distrust of bureaucracies

• Distrust of ecclesiastical structures

• Preference for informal religious communities