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Half‐Way Covenant
Half‐Way Covenant. The Half‐way Covenant, as it was called by its eighteenth‐century detractors, attempted to resolve New England Puritans' conflicting commitments to constituting the church exclusively with Visible Saints while still extending its discipline over the widest possible population. Congregationalist theory restricted full membership to those who could testify to a personal experience of conversion, but allowed for baptizing their unredeemed children. Left unsettled was whether the offspring of baptized unregenerates could undergo the same rite. The issue became acute during the 1650s when second‐generation New Englanders, many baptized but unsaved, began bringing their babies to the baptismal font. Led by Jonathan Mitchel, the Synod of 1662, held in Massachusetts, determined that these progeny did enjoy a measure of church fellowship and could consequently receive the sacrament. Despite overwhelming clerical support, however, the innovation faced determined resistance from John Davenport, Increase Mather, and many laity, who complained that it debased membership standards and traduced the traditional order. Acceptance mounted after Mather switched sides in 1671 and a series of misfortunes, widely conceded as manifesting God's wrath at New England's sins, encouraged congregations to rethink their dissent. By century's end perhaps 80 percent had adopted the practice, allowing them to discipline half‐way members while, coincidentally, the number of full communicants surged. In the eighteenth century, churches influenced by New Light revivalism discarded the arrangement as too lax, and by about 1825 Congregationalists had abandoned it.
See also Colonial Era; Great Awakening, First and Second; Mather, Increase and Cotton; Puritanism; Religion. Bibliography Robert Pope , The Half‐Way Covenant: Church Membership in Puritan New England, 1969. Charles L. Cohen |
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Paul S. Boyer. "Half‐Way Covenant." The Oxford Companion to United States History. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. Paul S. Boyer. "Half‐Way Covenant." The Oxford Companion to United States History. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O119-HalfWayCovenant.html Paul S. Boyer. "Half‐Way Covenant." The Oxford Companion to United States History. 2001. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O119-HalfWayCovenant.html |
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Half-Way Covenant
Half-Way Covenant a doctrinal decision of the Congregational churches in New England. The first generation of Congregationalists had decided that only adults with personal experience of conversion were eligible to full membership but that children shared in the covenant of their parents and therefore should be admitted to all the privileges of the church except the Lord's Supper. The question arose (c.1650) whether this privilege should be extended to the children of these children, even though the parents of the second generation may have confessed no experience that brought them into full communion. It was proposed (1657) and adopted (1662) by a church synod that the privileges should be extended. The measure, to which the nickname Half-Way Covenant became attached, provoked much controversy and was never adopted by all the churches. Portions of many congregations seceded to form new settlements, among them Newark, N.J.
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"Half-Way Covenant." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Half-Way Covenant." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-HalfWayC.html "Half-Way Covenant." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-HalfWayC.html |
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Half‐Way Covenant
Half‐Way Covenant, doctrinal revision of New England Congregationalism, drafted by Richard Mather and approved by a church synod (1662). First‐generation Congregationalists were admitted to full membership in the church only after a personal experience of conversion, but their children shared in the privileges of full membership except for the Lord's Supper. The Half‐Way Covenant proposed to extend this same status of baptism to the children of second‐generation members, even though the latter may have confessed no experience of conversion to bring them into full communion.
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James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Half‐Way Covenant." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Half‐Way Covenant." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-HalfWayCovenant.html James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Half‐Way Covenant." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-HalfWayCovenant.html |
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Half-Way Covenant, the
Half-Way Covenant, the. A doctrine current in 17th- and 18th-cent. American Congregationalism which was held to express the relationship to God of those (especially baptized) members of the community who had had no describable religious experience.
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E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Half-Way Covenant, the." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Half-Way Covenant, the." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-HalfWayCovenantthe.html E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Half-Way Covenant, the." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-HalfWayCovenantthe.html |
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