The Campbellites are schismatic heretics, not reformers, not restorationists, and not ecumenists. You would do well to shun them and their Pelagian, works-righteousness-based apostasy.
Thanks for the advice. It's a book on the history of the movement is all. Points I find interesting should in no way be confused as my subscribing to any of their views.
Campbellites are an interesting group. A few years ago it was reported that the highest percentage of mega churches in America were of a Cambellite (Independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ) pedigree. They are biblicists to the umpteenth degree. I remember speaking with the president of a restorationist school a few years back. When asked why they required two full years of classes on the Gospels/Life of Christ but only a single 2 unit class on "doctrine," he opined that it was intentional. They did not want to sully their biblicism with "doctrine" that was merely the product of human arguments and contrivance. Their often repeated claim is that "we are not the only Christians, but we are only Christian." But, this needs to be balanced against the empirical data that they are not only the most denominational non-denomination, but that they display a very insular character usually associated with the most judgmental denominations and cults. As wrong as they are, the combined efforts of the network drawrfs most solid evangelical denominations by just about every metric.
I would count them as heterodox rather than heretical, but that may be as much a difference in terms of art as opinion. They are certainly as semi-Pelagian as Baptists, less so than Pentecostals.
An IVP book back in 2002 asked how much we should consider them "evangelicals" in the broad evangelical tradition. Their leading theologian, Jack Cottrell, is a graduate of Westminster and Princeton, who participates in a number of evangelical gatherings and associations such as ETS and complementarian groups, further blurring the lines. Each year 8,000+ of them gather for a convention (compare that to your average attendance at a denomination annual gathering!!!) where they draw more than 250 exhibitors hawking their wares. For a non-denomination, they represent a network of churches, publishing houses, foreign missions, shared benevolences, home missions, and a string of Bible colleges, universities, and seminaries.
The disagreements between denominations in the nineteenth century (and within them, for that matter) gave rise to the ideal of restoration. They thought that all would be fixed if they could just eschew the doctrinal exactitude that they thought gave rise to internal friction and external fighting between denominations. But, the notion that "doctrine divides" (a slogan that would later take on new force within the charismatic movement and turned into a virtual mantra by their premier theologian, J. Rodman Williams) was closely tied to the naive biblicism that promoted "first century Christianity" as the solution to everything. This repristination theology has not proven to produce churches any freer of friction than nineteenth century denominations.
