I recently finished Constance Walker's small biography on Adolphe Monod (1802-1856) which I would recommend to anyone interested in nineteenth century conservative Protestantism on the European continent – of which there is not a great deal. This is why figures like Monod stand out.
The period continues to fascinate me. Just as the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) had shaken Europe to its foundations and represents the culmination and failures of the Magisterial Reformation period, the Napoleonic Wars constitute something of a parallel. The French Revolution had gone sideways and morphed into something else – for some, Napoleon was its culmination and its custodian. For others he betrayed the Revolution and what it purported to be. In many respects the ideologies driving these events were all part of the Enlightenment – or it could be said, the Enlightenment imploding.
Both epochs (1618-1648/1789-1815) are marked by epistemological crisis that plays out in terms of the political order, the social polity, and even basic morality. The same is also true of 1945 which also represented the conclusion of roughly another thirty year crisis period (1914-1945).
In 1648, 1815, and 1945 many people knew and were aware that they were witnessing an epoch – a cultural shift. Things were different and would likely never be the same. The latter date (1945) is probably (for obvious reasons) the easiest for contemporary people to understand. It remains within the scope of living memory and even as it fades and those generations that remember that moment die off – there are still extant generations that grew up in its shadow and retain at least the memory of our parents or grandparents speaking of that time and reflecting on it.
Europe in 1815 was a continent shaken and much has been written about that fascinating time period and the great and sweeping changes on the horizon. It was the time of revolutions, industrialisation, reaction to the Enlightenment and the new technological order and so forth.
All of this is certainly very interesting, even captivating. But the angle that is of particular interest to me is the Christian one. One is left startled or perhaps astonished to take in the real state of things at that time.
Theological Liberalism was making inroads into the Anglo-American world to be sure but in Europe it already had the mastery. Apart from some of the pietist sects in northern Europe, the substantial but shrinking Confessionalists in the Netherlands, and some outliers in Hungary (which included Transylvania), the bulk of the Magisterial Reformation's heritage had been subverted and was (spiritually speaking) wiped out. Theological liberalism decimated German Lutheranism and the Reformed communities in not only Germany but in Switzerland and France as well. The Hungarian Reformed movement would soon be affected as would the Calvinist (Waldensian) communities in Italy.
One could say with regard to the European Continent in 1815 – Christianity was everywhere and nowhere. People went to church and skylines were dominated by steeples, but Christianity was in clear decline and for those committed to a more robust Biblical understanding of the faith and the gospel message – it was almost non-existent.
This was the context of the Reveil, the Awakening or revival that came to Europe in the aftermath of Napoleon. In many respects it was like a mission to re-Christianize Europe, which it failed to do. This was not a programme of Magisterial or Top-Down national conversions as seen with figures like Clovis in the Dark Ages or with the Magisterial Reformation of the sixteenth century and its reliance on legislation.
No, this was grassroots evangelism in the context of an increasingly post-Christian Europe. It's rather interesting when considered in light of contemporary discussions in the United States. In the case of Reveil, there were no earth shattering events with great sweeping political ramifications. However seeds were planted that would lead to Christian survival into the twentieth century when the entire situation would again face upheaval due not only the events of 1914-1945, but significant shifts brought about through likes of Vatican II and the arrival of American-style Evangelicalism in the Lausanne Movement (1974).
Through the efforts of Robert Haldane and others, traditional Protestantism returned to the Continent – albeit in modified form. In many cases the changes were healthy as a great deal of the 'Magisterial' aspect of the sixteenth century Reformation was thankfully abandoned. This was an era of free churches, restorationists, and remnants. State Churches continued to decline and the era is marked by conservative groups breaking away as seen with the 1849 Union of Free Evangelical Churches in France, the 1892 formation of the Gereformeerde Kerk in the Netherlands, and in the British context, the Free Church of Scotland in 1843.
There were those that continued to work within the framework of the state Church and in post-Revolutionary France, the Huguenot Church was effectively a state Church. It was not the Established Church of France – something that did not exist in the post-Revolutionary context. However, the French government controlled religion, appointed pastors, and paid their salaries. This unacceptable situation would continue until 1905 and the secularisation decrees (Laïcité) that govern France today – essentially making all the churches into free bodies.
This is why the arrival of the Plymouth Brethren on the continent in the nineteenth century was in many respects revolutionary. They were not tied in any way to the state and did not want to be. Many Americans are surprised to learn of this state of affairs on the continent as the true statist nature of the Magisterial Reformation lived on in Europe until the cusp of the twentieth century, a thoroughly rotten and corrosive arrangement that in the case of the French speaking world offers a poor testimony indeed. The men of Reveil all wrestled with this state of affairs and most were eventually forced out of the state church – either by conviction or coercion.
Adolphe Monod (1802-1856) was part of a second generation as he was only a teenager when Robert Haldane arrived in Switzerland in 1816. And yet he would be greatly affected by the early efforts of the Reveil movement eventually becoming a minister in the Reformed Church of France. His brother Frederic was instrumental in creating the Union of Free Evangelical Churches in France in 1849, but Adolphe remained in the state-affiliated Church. Depending on one's ecclesiology this is either a stain on his record or worthy of praise.
To be fair, it was a difficult time and in many respects there wasn't much to work with. The men of these generations were labouring among the ruins (as it were) and in conflict with Enlightenment ideology which dominated society and had deeply penetrated the Church.
This episode is also instructive with regard to the intellectual split that exists between Europe and the United States – and then one might triangulate with the British situation which occupied a kind of middle ground between the two.
As stated, nineteenth century Europe was something of a spiritual wasteland and a continent reeling from the upheaval born of 1789. For large segments of the population, Christianity was a largely irrelevant tradition. The foundations of the social order had been shaken and they were entering what might be called a brave new world. For Christians, it was a time of starting over – depressing to be sure in some respects but at the same time a period of great hope and possibility. For those connected to Reveil, there was all the baggage associated with state churches and traditions. For groups like the Plymouth Brethren who would begin to evangelise in earnest during the nineteenth century, there was a kind of liberation in that they were not bound or burdened by the centuries of convoluted Magisterial Protestant tradition.