Introduction

Biography

Campbell stu­died a year at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Glas­gow, then emi­grat­ed to Am­er­ica, where he was or­dained a min­is­ter and joined his fa­ther, Tho­mas Camp­bell, as a lead­er of a re­form ef­fort that is his­to­ri­cal­ly known as the Res­to­ra­tion Move­ment, and by some as the Stone-Camp­bell Move­ment.

It re­sulted in the de­vel­op­ment of non-de­nom­in­ation­al Chris­tian church­es. In 1832, the group of re­form­ers led by the Camp­bells merged with a si­mi­lar move­ment that be­gan un­der the leader­ship of Bar­ton W. Stone in Ken­tuc­ky. Their con­gre­ga­tions iden­ti­fied as Dis­ciples of Christ or Chris­tian church­es.

Several Am­er­ican church groups have his­tor­ic­al roots in the Camp­bells’ ef­forts, in­clud­ing the Church­es of Christ, Chris­tian Church­es and Church­es of Christ, the Ev­an­ge­li­cal Chris­tian Church in Ca­na­da, and the Chris­tian Church (Dis­ciples of Christ).

Alexander Camp­bell al­so found­ed Be­tha­ny Col­lege in Be­tha­ny, West Vir­gin­ia.