A search for identity

A search for identity

Bible Dean Leonard Allen encourages spirituality today by shedding light on the Church of Christ's historical search for its own identity in a series of symposiums and books.

By Janel Shoun-Smith | 615-966-7078 | 06/02/2026

Sometimes you have to look back to understand where you are and how far you have traveled.

Dr. Leonard Allen, dean of the College of Bible & Ministry and one of the nation's leading experts on the history and thought of the Restoration Movement, certainly believes that is the case, and he has focused his academic career on understanding, analyzing and enlightening about the history and development of the Church of Christ in America.

In 2026, his continuous research, especially through the coordination of Lipscomb's biennial Carroll Ellis Symposium, has culminated in a three-volume work on the modern history of the Church of Christ that not only highlights the evolution of the fellowship's vision of unity over the course of a century, but also creates a structure for describing the various ideological groups within the fellowship today.

The first of the three books, A Wild Democracy, was released in May, and the following two volumes, Truth and Consequences and Divided We Stand, are scheduled to be released in January 2027.

Church of Christ leaders and scholars have described the first book as a well-structured, easy-to-understand volume that helps Church of Christ-associated readers comprehend their spiritual identity in today's world by understanding where their church fellowship originally began.

While Allen has written on Church of Christ history throughout his career, five of his latest works have been particularly shaped by his coordination of Lipscomb's Ellis Symposium, established to spotlight scholars with outstanding knowledge, scholarship and accomplishments in Restoration preaching and history.

Created 24 years ago in honor of the late Dr. Carroll B. Ellis, 40-year faculty member and chair of the department of speech communication, the symposium has featured preachers and historians such as Dr. Robert Hendren (BA '64), Dr. John Mark Hicks, Ancil Jenkins (BA '58) and Dr. Robert Hooper (BA '54) presenting on the life and work of pillars of Church of Christ history, such as James A. Harding, A.G. Freed, Alexander Campbell and David Lipscomb.

But with Allen's arrival in 2014, the symposium took on a broader view of restoration history and tackled topics that have shed new light on the Church of Christ today as a reflection of major milestones in its history.

"I try to focus the lectures on a historical area where I think there is some scholarly work needed, an area where we could make a contribution to knowledge of restoration history," said Allen.

The three symposiums held since 2019 became the scholarly foundation for two earlier books and the 2026 three-book series, all written, co-written or edited by Allen:

• Answered by Fire: The Cane Ridge Revival Reconsidered (2021);
• Faithful Defiance: Marshall Keeble's Life and Legacy (2025);
• A Wild Democracy: The Struggle for the Soul of Churches of Christ, 1889-1939 (May 2026);
• Truth and Consequences: Churches of Christ and the Habit of Division, 1939-1989 (forthcoming January 2027); and
• Divided We Stand: The Landscape of Churches of Christ, Post-1989 (forthcoming March 2027).

Allen has used the symposium as a workshop to spur development of academic presentations and papers that are then collected and consolidated into a book form. The 2025 symposium spurred Allen to write A Wild Democracy which then evolved into two additional books continuing the Church of Christ timeline to present insights on its presence in today's society.

Answered by Fire explores the Cane Ridge Revival of 1801, which Allen describes as the place that the modern Church of Christ began. The charismatic revival, which took place 20 miles outside of Lexington, Ky., saw hundreds of people "slain in the spirit" and is considered one of the landmark events of the Second Great Awakening.

Faithful Defiance explored the life of Marshall Keeble, whom Allen calls one of the most effective and powerful evangelists in the Church of Christ. It is estimated that he baptized 30,000 people and helped plant 300 congregations, said Allen.

"There was a modest body of literature on him, but I found that among churches of Christ, and particularly among Black churches of Christ, the memory of Marshall Keeble has been fading," said Allen. "I felt that it was time to produce a work based on scholarship but accessible to average readers that would keep his memory alive."

A donor made the book widely available by purchasing more than 800 copies to be distributed both to African American and White congregations.

Allen has collaborated with John Mark Hicks, now-retired professor of theology at Lipscomb and prolific author, on the symposium over the years and especially to produce A Wild Democracy, which tells the story of how the churches of Christ battled for their identity after parting ways with the Christian Churches/Disciples of Christ in the late nineteenth century.

Hicks had previously published writings on the time period (1897-1907), and Allen and Hicks used that as the jumping off point to invite presenters for the 2025 Ellis Symposium, presenting four viewpoints on the Church of Christ's split from the Disciples of Christ.

"At this time period, churches of Christ were in some disarray. They were trying to rebuild and define who they were," said Allen. "Three traditions arose to define the new orthodoxy of the Church of Christ."

A Wild Democracy explores the emergence of what the authors call the "Texas tradition," led by Austin McGary, R. L. Whiteside and Foy Wallace Jr, the "Nashville tradition," led by James A. Harding, David Lipscomb and J. N. Armstrong, and the "Indiana tradition," led by Daniel Sommer and his followers.

"All three had a common commitment to restore the core of Christianity, but the Tennessee tradition had a dynamic view of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, and the Texas tradition prioritized human initiative," said Allen. "By the 1930s, most congregations espoused some form of the Texas tradition."

This work led Allen to develop the two forthcoming books, Truth and Consequences and Divided We Stand, further analyzing and describing the history of the ideological divisions of the Church of Christ up to 1989, by which time Allen argues there were five distinct and mostly separate major groupings:

• Conservative Mainstream Churches of Christ, which grew from the Texas tradition prioritizing human initiative;
• Black Churches of Christ, separated largely by cultural tradition, not orthodoxy;
• Moderate Mainstream Churches of Christ, which has become one of the larger groups since the mid-20th century and focuses on the overarching story of Scripture as the means of defining the church;
• Noninstitutional Churches of Christ, which developed in the 1950s and rejects the financial support of institutions (such as orphans organizations) that are operated outside of individual congregations; and
• International Churches of Christ, established through the Crossroads Church of Christ in Gainesville, Florida, and the Boston Church of Christ in Boston, Massachusetts, which employed a hierarchical structure to enact disciple-making.

The three latest works take a strictly descriptive approach to informing the reader about these Church of Christ groups, said Allen. Each volume of the trilogy includes an appendix, called "In Their Own Words," with excerpts from the writings of the historical founders of the fellowship. Volume three, Divided We Stand, provides an overview of each of the five groups, with each chapter written by an author associated with that particular group. Authors were asked to provide a fair and equitable description of how that group emerged and how they operate today, he said.

Allen hopes the books will bring Church of Christ-associated readers some new perspective on the divisions that have emerged in the 20th century and provoke new thinking about the dream of Christian unity which first launched the Restoration Movement in America.

"If you don't look at your own history, you can be shaped and often bound by it unconsciously," he said. "Do you want to be a conscious participant in your tradition or be unconsciously bound by it? If you are not informed, things you don't know could constrain and control you."