What does Restorationism mean?
Restorationism, also called the Restorationist Movement, is a broad label for Christian movements that hold that the early church departed from important teachings or practices and that Christianity should be renewed by returning to those sources.
Restorationist communities do not form one unified denomination. Their readings of the Bible, church history, baptism, worship, leadership and Christian identity can differ substantially. The label describes a family resemblance rather than a single creed.
Groups commonly discussed under the label
Depending on the definition being used, discussions of Restorationism may include the following communities:
- Christadelphians
- The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
- Churches of Christ and related independent Christian churches
- The Community of Christ
- The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
- International Churches of Christ
- Jehovah’s Witnesses
- Seventh-day Adventists
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
These communities have different histories and current teachings. A group may be described as Restorationist in a historical survey even when it no longer uses that description for itself. Readers should therefore distinguish an external classification from a community’s own identity.
Two major uses of the term
Broad usage
Some accounts include churches that seek to recover early Christian patterns of worship, scripture reading, community life or church organization.
Stone–Campbell traditions
Another usage emphasizes churches connected historically with the reforming work associated with Thomas Campbell, Alexander Campbell and related nineteenth-century movements.
Latter Day Saint traditions
A separate usage focuses on churches that trace their origins to the movement begun by Joseph Smith in the nineteenth century and its later branches.
Why the label can be difficult
There is no universal agreement about when the early church departed from its original form, which practices should be restored, or which sources best represent primitive Christianity. Some movements locate the change very early; others describe a gradual historical process. Some emphasize doctrine, while others focus on worship, church structure or moral practice.
Restorationist claims also appear in many other Christian settings. Protestant reformers, for example, commonly understood their work as a return to earlier Christian convictions, although different churches disagree about the nature and extent of that return.
How communities describe early change
Restorationist accounts often use the idea of a “Great Apostasy” to describe a loss or alteration of original Christian teaching. The timing and explanation vary:
- Some place the decisive changes soon after the apostolic period.
- Some understand change as gradual, developing through debates about authority, worship and church leadership.
- Some connect the process with later institutional developments in the ancient church.
- Others use the idea mainly as a theological explanation for why renewal is needed, rather than as a precise historical timeline.
These are claims made within particular traditions. Historical scholarship may describe the same developments using different categories and evidence.
Terminology used on this site
On this page, Restorationism is used as a broad descriptive term for the related movements listed above. LDS Restorationism refers specifically to Restorationist groups that trace their history to the nineteenth-century Latter Day Saint movement.
These working definitions are not accepted by every community. They are intended to make the discussion readable while acknowledging that labels can carry different meanings in different contexts.