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Citation: Pedlar, James E. “Holiness Movement,” in The Encyclopedia of Christianity in the
United States, ed. George Thomas Kurian and Mark A. Lamport, 1112-1113. Lanham,
MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.

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Pedlar, James E. “Holiness Movement,” in The Encyclopedia of Christianity in the
United States, ed. George Thomas Kurian and Mark A. Lamport, 1112-1113. Lanham,
MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.

[ Citation Page ]



[ Page ] 1112

Holiness Movement

The Holiness Movement (HM) was the dominant force in
nineteenth-century American Protestantism. Although the
HM eventually spawned a family of denominations which
remain to this day, its influence in the nineteenth century
extended to a much broader swath of American religion,
including every major Protestant tradition except for Old
School Presbyterians. Varying terminology was used to
describe holiness in different segments of the HM, but
its central concern was to promote the sanctification of
Christian believers through a definite second work of grace
subsequent to conversion. The HM was also marked by an
emphasis on the active outworking of personal holiness
through various social reform efforts.

History

The HM was part of the American revivalist tradition, which
had roots in the First Great Awakening in the eighteenth
century, and the frontier camp-meeting revivalism which
emerged in the early nineteenth century. Historians usu-
ally trace the beginnings of the HM as a distinct movement
to the “Tuesday Meeting for the Promotion of Christian
Holiness,” an interdenominational parlor-room meeting
in New York City led by Phoebe Palmer. Although Palmer
was a Methodist with many connections to high-ranking
Methodist leaders, her meetings were attended by lead-
ers from other traditions, such as Edgar Levy (Baptist),
Thomas Upham (Congregationalist), William Boardman
(Presbyterian), Asa Mahan (president of Oberlin College),
and Charles Cullis (Episcopal). Through such influential
relationships, the HM emphasis on a definite second work of
grace was spread through American Protestantism, though
several distinct strains of HM teaching emerged (Wesleyan,
Keswick, Oberlin). Wesleyan teaching on Christian “perfec-
tion” blended with American Revivalism and was supported
by general ascendency of Arminian theology, producing a
dramatic and expectant atmosphere in the period leading up
to the Civil War. This expectancy contributed in part to the
association between HM leaders and social activism on such
causes as the abolition of slavery, relief for the poor, temper-
ance and womens rights.

   The dramatic central event in the history of the HM was
the Laymans Revival of 1858, which resonated across the
United States, as well as in Canada, and Britain. This revival
began with a series of daily prayer meetings organized by



[ Page ] 1113

businessmen in New York, which soon spread to other
cities. These interdenominational events were supported by
a wide spectrum of denominations, and they were supported
by mass revival campaigns by itinerant preachers such as
Phoebe Palmer and James Caughey.

   In the postwar period, the focus of the HM shifted
from informal, lay-led initiatives to formal, clergy-led mass
revival efforts, organized by the National Camp Meeting
Association for the Promotion of Holiness (founded 1867)
and its Methodist-dominated leadership. The new Asso-
ciation took on a leading role within the movement, and
continued to hold sway the 1870s. However, from 1875, as
the HM continued to solidify its institutional structures, it
lost its non-polemical, activist, and interdenominational
character, and started down the road to eventual schism and
denominationalization.

Enduring Legacy

The most obvious aspect of the HM legacy is the denomi-
national family that it birthed. Denominations such as the
Free Methodists, Nazarenes, Wesleyans, Salvation Army,
and Church of God are enduring testimony to the HM's
impact on US Christianity. It is also significant that the
Pentecostal churches, now arguably the dominant force in
global Protestantism, emerged from within US Holiness
circles. A less obvious legacy is the social activist strain of US
Christianity, now more associated with liberal Protestantism
than conservative Holiness denominations. By the time of
the emergence of the “Social Gospel” movement in the early
twentieth century, Holiness teaching had turned increasingly
to matters of piety to the exclusion of its earlier emphasis on
social activism. However, as Timothy Smith, Melvin Dieter,
and Donald Dayton have argued, liberal Protestantisms
social emphasis and the Holiness Traditions pietistic empha-
sis have common roots in the nineteenth-century HM.

References and Resources

Dayton, Donald W, and Douglas M. Strong. 2014. Rediscovering
  an Evangelical Heritage: A Tradition and Trajectory of Integrating
  Pietv and Justice. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

Dieter, Melvin E. 1980. The Holiness Revival of the Nineteenth Cen-
  tury. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.

Kostlevy, William and Gari-Anne. Patzwald. 2001. Historical Dic-
  tionary of the Holiness Movement. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow
Press.

Smith, Timothy L. 2004 [1957]. Revivalism and Social Reform:
  American Protestantism on the Eve of the Civil War. Eugene, OR:
  Wipf and Stock Publishers.

—James E. Pedlar

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