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Marching to Zion: Religion in a Modern Utopian Community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Grant Wacker
Grant Wacker
Affiliation:
Mr. Wacker is assistant professor of religious studies in the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
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Extract

The twenty-fourth of September 1905 started as a typical Sunday in Zion City, Illinois. Promptly at 2:00 P.M. John Alexander Dowie ascended the platform of Shiloh Tabernacle, robed in the brightly embroidered garments of an Old Testament High Priest. He was acknowledged by the seven thousand souls who sat before him as the Messenger of the Covenant, the third and final incarnation of the prophet Elijah, and the General Overseer and First Apostle of the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion. The 6,600 acres of farms, homes, factories, and businesses surrounding the tabernacle were exclusively his. And for all practical purposes, so were the people. One contemporary journalist judged that Dowie had come to possess the “most autocratic power it is possible to wield in this republic,” while another concluded that “no man… of our time has ever secured anything like the personal following he has.” Near the end of the five hour service the prophet changed into his white expiation robes and, as he had done on countless Sundays in the past, prepared to bless and distribute the Holy Sacraments. But this time, in the semi-darkness of the early evening, he seemed to stagger and slump to the floor. The people soon learned that Dowie had suffered a crippling stroke. They also soon knew that their effort to build a biblical Zion on the “sky-skirted prairie” north of Chicago was in shambles.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 54 , Issue 4 , December 1985 , pp. 496 - 511
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1985

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References

I wish to thank Edith Blumhofer, Jeanette Scholer, and Wayne Warner for critical suggestions and bibliographic assistance.

1. The quotations are from Swain, John, “John Alexander Dowie: The Prophet and His Profits,” Century Magazine 64 (1902):934,Google Scholar and “The Passing of Dr. Dowie,” World To-Day 10 (1906): 359.Google Scholar The setting is described in Newcomb, Arthur W., Dowie: Anointed of the Lord (New York, 1930), p. 370.Google Scholar

2. Seldes, Gilbert, The Stammering Century (New York, 1928), p. 389.Google Scholar Whether Zion City was the largest utopian community in modern American history depends, of course, on the way the terms are defined. Here it suffices to say that the town was indisputably utopian in purpose and that its structure was sufficiently communalistic to warrant inclusion in Otohiko Okugawa's “Annotated List of Communal and Utopian Societes, 1787–1919,” appended to Fogarty, Robert S., Dictionary of American Communal and Utopian History (Westport, Conn. 1980), pp. 226–227.Google Scholar This and other studies indicate that the second largest utopian community was the Shaker settlement in Union Village, Ohio, which claimed a total of 3,873 members between 1805 and 1912. Okugawa rightly observes, however, that Zion City is more precisely defined as a self-contained colony rather than a utopian community in which meals and possessions were shared systematically. If the fifteen thousand Latter-day Saints who moved to the Great Basin in the late 1840s are classed as a self-contained colony, Zion City would take a distant second place.

The most valuable studies of Zion City are unpublished. They include Pokin, Frank N., “Zion: City of the White Dove” (M.A. thesis, University of Chicago, 1967);Google ScholarCook, Philip Lee, “Zion City, Illinois: Twentieth Century Utopia” (Ph.D. diss., University of Colorado, 1965);Google Scholar and Kusch, Monica H., “Zion, Illinois: An Attempt at the Theocentric City” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1954).Google Scholar For an entertaining study of Dowie's leadership skills, see Heath, Alden R., “‘Apostle in Zion,’” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 70 (1977): 98–113.Google ScholarHarlan, Rolvix, John Alexander Dowie and the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion (Evansville, Wis., 1906; reprint of his University of Chicago Ph.D. diss.),Google Scholar and Lindsay, Gordon, John Alexander Dowie: A Life Story of Trials, Tragedies and Triumphs (Dallas, 1980 [1951]),Google Scholar are extravagantly partisan (the former against Dowie, the latter for him), but each contains much data not available in other sources.

3. Dowie is quoted without citation in Lindsay, , Dowie, p.45.Google Scholar This and the next two paragraphs are based largely on Lindsay's account, which is the best source for early biographical details. See also Halsey, John J., “The Genesis of a Modern Prophet,” American Journal of Sociology 9 (1903): 310–323;CrossRefGoogle ScholarDowie's, autobiographical article in Leaves of Healing (Chicago), 31 08 1894, p. 11;Google Scholar and American First-Fruits: Being a Brief Record of Eight Months' Divine Healing Missions in the State of California Conducted by the Rev. John Alex. and Mrs. Dowie (Chicago, 1895), esp. pp. 46, 118–119, 147.Google Scholar

4. Seldes, , Stammering Century, p. 389;Google ScholarZion Banner, 5 06 1901, p. 54;Google ScholarSwain, , “Dowie,” p. 937.Google Scholar For examples of Dowie's invective against various groups, see Leaves of Healing, 11 01 1895, p. 258;Google Scholar 18 May 1901, p. 106; 13 May 1905, p. 135; 30 September 1905, p. 792.

5. Heath, , “‘Apostle,’” p. 6.Google Scholar For the holiness and higher life background, see Cunningham, Raymond J., “From Holiness to Healing: The Faith Cure in America, 1872–1892,” Church History 43 (1974):499–514,CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed and Dayton, Donald W., “The Rise of the Evangelical Healing Movement in Nineteenth Century America,” Pneuma: Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies 4 (1982):1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6. Dowie to Arthur Reynolds, M.D., [Chicago] Commissioner of Health, 9 May 1895, reprinted in Lindsay, , Dowie, p. 121.Google Scholar

7. Leaves of Healing, 10 09 1904, pp. 710, 731.Google Scholar For a typical attack by Dowie upon another evangelical healer—in this case Woodworth, Mary B.—see Leaves of Healing, 8 03 1895, pp. 380–383.Google Scholar

8. “The Dowie Movement in Chicago,” Outlook, 22 06 1901, p. 429.Google Scholar The reporter was Friedman, I.K., “Dowie and Dowieism,” American Monthly Review of Reviews 28 (1903): 612.Google Scholar “Harmless nuisance” is based on Heath, “‘Apostle,’” p. 105.

9. Kusch, , “Zion, Illinois,” p. 2.Google Scholar The population estimates given by scholars vary, but Kusch's detailed reconstruction of residential patterns offers the most probable number.

10. Zion Historical Society, “Dowie's Dream,” What's in Zion (1970), pp. 10–20.Google Scholar

11. Ibid., p. 15.

12. Harlan, , Dowie, p. 3,Google Scholar discusses the church's probable size circa 1905. Today the denomination has only 2,500 members in the United States, but it flourishes in Switzerland, South Africa, and Australia. See, for example, Fernandez, James W., ” Natural History (1971):44.–50,Google Scholar and Hollenweger, W.J., The Pentecostals: The Charismatic Movement in the Churches, trans. Wilson, R.A. (Minneapolis, 1972), pp. 116–122, 149–153.Google Scholar

13. Lindsay, , Dowie, p. 155;Google ScholarLindsay, Gordon, ed., Champion of Faith: The Sermons of John Alexander Dowie (Dallas, 1979), p. 102;Google ScholarLindsay, , Dowie, pp. 159–160.Google Scholar

14. Leaves of Healing, 18 09 1904, p. 799;Google ScholarHarlan, , Dowie, p. 68.Google Scholar

15. Leaves of Healing, 6 04 1901, p. 750;Google ScholarZion Banner, 12 06 1901, pp. 68–69.Google Scholar

16. For the Rockefeller, remark, see Leaves of Healing, 29 06 1901, p. 229.Google Scholar For examples of Dowie's position on the other issues mentioned, see Leaves of Healing, 29 06 1901, p. 299;Google Scholar 17 June 1905, p. 295; 1 July 1905, pp. 358, 361, 372.; Zion Banner, 17 07 1901, p. 156;Google Scholar 24 June 1901, pp. 161–168; 21 August 1901, p. 227; 18 September 1901, p. 290; 30 October 1901, p. 385. Dowie's pacifism is examined in Beaman, Jay, “Pentecostal Pacifism: The Origin, Development, and Rejection of Pacific Belief among Pentecostals” (M. Div. thesis, North American Baptist Seminary, Sioux Falls, S.D., 1982), pp. 29–34.Google Scholar

17. Leaves of Healing, 29 06 1901, pp. 300–303.Google Scholar See also Leaves of Healing, 22 04 1905, p. 8;Google ScholarZion Banner, 21 08 1901, p. 229;Google ScholarCook, Philip L., “Zion City, Illinois—The Kingdom of Heaven and Race,” Illinois Quarterly 38 (1975):51–62.Google Scholar

18. Leaves of Healing, 13 05 1905, p. 114;Google Scholar 7 June 1902 (quoted in Lindsay, , Dowie, p. 182); 22 04 1905, pp. 10–12.Google Scholar

19. Leaves of Healing, 31 08 1894, p. 7;Google ScholarLindsay, , ed., Sermons, pp. 98–99, 20, 98;Google ScholarAmerican First-Fruits, p. 18.

20. For one of the many pictures of Zion Tabernacle walls lined with trophies “CAPTURED FROM THE ENEMY,” see Leaves of Healing, 3 05 1895, p. 491.Google Scholar For an example of the awe Dowie engendered even in skeptics, see Burton, William E., “The Dream of Dowie and the Awakening of Zion,” Independent 60 (1906):196–197,Google Scholar quoted in Pokin, , “Zion,” p.26.Google Scholar For healing testimonials see any issue of Leaves of Healing from its inception in 1894 (new series) through 1906. The reporter was Dwyer, James L., “Elijah the Third,” American Mercury 11 (1927):294.Google Scholar Historians have overlooked the relation between Zion City and Frank W. Sandford's contemporaneous Shiloh movement in Durham, Maine, but the ideological and structural parallels were too numerous to be coincidental. See Hiss, William Charles, “Shiloh: Frank W. Sandford and the Kingdom: 1893–1948” (Ph.D. diss., Tufts University, 1978), esp. pp. 190–191.Google Scholar

21. The recent studies by Kusch, Cook, and Pokin tend to exonerate Dowie, but they are not alone. John J. Halsey, a Lake Forest College political scientist who lived in and closely studied the community in 1903, came to the same conclusion; Halsey, , A History of Lake County, Illinois (n.p., 1912), pp. 215–218.Google Scholar

22. The quotation is from Dwyer, , “Elijah,” p. 299.Google Scholar Of the 1,918 people who voted for a new General Overseer in September 1906, 1900 voted against Dowie, ; Cook, “Zion City,” p. 396.Google Scholar

23. For the demise of the theocracy after 1906, see Kusch, , “Zion, Illinois,” esp. pp. 6–8, 282Google Scholar; Cook, , “Zion City,” chap. 13;Google ScholarLee, Carl Q., “Biographies of John Alexander Dowie, Wilbur Glenn Voliva, Michael J. Mintern” (B.D. thesis, Bethany Biblical Seminary, Chicago, 1944).Google Scholar

24. Gardiner, Gordon P., “‘Unquestionably the Apostle of Divine Healing In His Day.’” Bread of Life 3 (1957):15.Google ScholarBarnes, V.V., “Address,” In Memoriam: John Alexander Dowie (n.p., 1907), p. 13.Google Scholar See also Harlan, , Dowie, pp. 71, 78–79,Google Scholar for evidence that persons who later left the church and denounced Dowie nonetheless continued to affirm his ability to heal.

25. Los Angeles Times, 13 04 1906, pt. 2, p. 4;Google ScholarUnderwood, Henry, “The Downfall of a Prophet,” Harper's Weekly, 22 12 1906, p. 1857;Google ScholarNew York Examiner, 22 10 1903,Google Scholar quoted in Harlan, , Dowie, p. 3;Google ScholarBovard, Freeman D., “Dowie's Story of the Pacific Coast,” Christian Advocate, 10 12 1903, p. 2002;Google ScholarBuckley, James M., “Dowie, Analyzed and Classified,” Century Magazine 64 (1902):930–931;Google ScholarSeldes, , Stammering Century, p. 390.Google Scholar The Chicago newspaper is quoted without citation in Sweet, William Warren, The Story of Religion in America, rev. ed. (New York, 1950), p. 378.Google ScholarDwyer, , “Elijah,” p. 296;Google ScholarLos Angeles Times, cited above, p. 5. It should be acknowledged, however, that a few journalists were quite sympathetic. See, for example, Townshend, Grover, “A City of the Plains,” Munsey's Magazine 27 (1902):843–845.Google Scholar

26. Harlan's interviews with Zion City residents in 1906 confirms my impressionistic judgment, based on a survey of the testimonial literature, that healing was the predominant motive; Harlan, , Dowie, p. 78.Google Scholar For the other motives see, for example, Zion City News, 20 09 1907, p. 1.Google Scholar See also Allen, Gillian and Wallis, Roy, “Pentecostalists as a Medical Minority,” in Wallis, and Morley, Peter, eds., Marginal Medicine (London, 1976), pp. 129–130.Google Scholar

27. Leaves of Healing, 29 12 1900, p. 290.Google Scholar

28. For typical testimonials to this effect, see those by Hubbard-Peckham, Kate and Peckham, W.S. in Leaves of Healing, 13 04 1901, pp. 770–772.Google Scholar Of the several hundred I have read, none states that there had been no healing at all, but many, perhaps a majority, refer to partial healing, or relapses of illness, and the spiritual rewards of perseverance without medicines or physicians. See also Allen, and Wallis, , “Pentecostalists as a Medical Minority,” p. 123.Google Scholar

29. Blumhofer, Edith L., “The Christian Catholic Church and the Apostolic Faith: A Study in the 1906 Pentecostal Revival,” in Studies on Pentecostal-Charismatic Experiences in History, ed. Robeck, M. Cecil (Peabody, Mass., forthcoming);Google Scholar and Hollenweger, Walter J., “Handbuch der Pfingstbewegung,” 10 vols. (Th.D. diss., University of Zurich, 1965), vol. OZa.OZ.047, pp. 459–460.Google Scholar

30. My argument is corroborated by field studies of divine-healing practices among modern pentecostals. E. Mansell Pattison, a psychiatrist, concludes that the “primary function of faith healing is not to reduce symptomatology, but to reinforce a magical belief system that is consonant with the sociocultural subculture of these subjects”; Pattison, et al. , “Faith Healing: A Study of Personality and Function,” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 157 (1973):407.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMedClements, William M., an ethnographer, reaches similar conclusions in “Faith Healing Narratives from Northeast Arkansas,” Indian Folklore 8 (1975–1976):21,Google Scholar and in “Ritual Expectation in Pentecostal Healing Experience,” Western Folklore 40 (1981):139–148.Google Scholar One need not embrace Pattison and Clements's reductionistic assumptions in order to see that the therapeutic value of healing rituals in Zion City may have been more religious than medical