The Holiness movement
Holiness · 1835–1867 · United States; Britain; worldwide
The 19th-century revival of Wesley's doctrine of entire sanctification, organized around camp meetings from Vineland (1867); its 'come-outer' wing produced the Holiness denominations, and its matrix produced Pentecostalism. Large sectors adopted J. N. Darby's dispensational premillennialism — a documented line from Brethren teaching into this cascade.
The Holiness movement was formed between 1835 and 1867, as a process rather than a single event. The Holiness movement is a segment of the spine, a drawing convenience rather than a body that ended. The Holiness movement's institutional line runs back through Methodism, Church of England, Roman Catholicism to the post-apostolic church. No body on this tree is the assembly of Acts 2; where a body claims that, the claim appears in the claimed-lineage layer.
Between the post-apostolic church and The Holiness movement stand 2 divisions along the institutional line, counting separations and disputed forks, not mergers, renewals or national organizations.
At a glance
- Formed
- Between 1835 and 1867, as a process rather than a single event
- Family
- Holiness
- Region
- United States; Britain; worldwide
- Key figures
- Phoebe Palmer, John Inskip
- Cause tags
- Doctrine
- Also known as
- Wesleyan-Holiness movement
What it was organized out of
- Began as a renewal within Methodism. Methodist in leadership and doctrine (entire sanctification), transdenominational in reach; 'come-outer' denominations separated from the 1840s–1900s.
Bodies organized out of it or separated from it: Church of the Nazarene, Pentecostalism, Church of God in Christ, United Church of Christ in Japan, Pilgrim Holiness Church.
On the tree
Solid lines are separations and unions; dashed lines are renewals that began inside a body; dotted gray lines are national organizations of one communion; a diamond marks a fork event where neither side is drawn as the one that left. Every line runs back to the post-apostolic church; no body descends from the assembly of Acts 2.
Sources
Research compiled July 2026. Page data built 2026-10-10.