Unitarian Christianity

Unitarian Christianity is the belief in the single personality of God, in contrast to to the doctrine of the Trinity (three persons in one God). It is the philosophy upon which the modern Unitarian movement was based, and, according to its proponents, is the original form of Christianity. Unitarian Christians believe in the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, as found in the New Testament and other early Christian writings, and hold him up as an exemplar. Adhering to strict monotheism, they maintain that Jesus was a great man and a prophet of God, perhaps even a supernatural creature, but not God himself. Unitarians believe in the moral authority, but not necessarily the divinity, of Jesus.

Unitarians distinguish themselves from Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and other Christian denominations in that they believe that their belief system is structured around "following the religion of Jesus, not a religion about Jesus." They do not "pray to Jesus", but to God, as Jesus taught.

Historically, Unitarians have encouraged open-minded, freethinking views of God, Jesus, the world and purpose of life as revealed through reason, scholarship, science, philosophy, scripture and other prophets and religions. Unitarians believe that reason and belief are complementary and that religion and science can co-exist and guide them in their understanding of nature and God. They also do not enforce belief in creeds or dogmatic formulas. Although there is flexibility in the nuances of belief or basic truths for the individual Unitarian Christian, general principles of faith have been recognized as a way to bind the group in some commonality. Members generally accept religious pluralism and find value in all teachings, but remain committed to their core belief in Christ's teachings. Unitarians value a secular society in which government stays out of religious affairs.

Unitarians are not to be confused with the Unity Church.

The Distinction between Theological Unitarians and Ecclesiastical Unitarians

The term "Unitarian" has been applied both to those who hold a Unitarian belief and to those who belong to a Unitarian church. A hundred years ago, this would not have made much of a difference, but today it is an important distinction to make.

Unitarianism as a theology is not identical to modern American Unitarian Universalism, because over time in America, the Unitarian Universalists have moved away from the traditional Christian roots of Unitarianism.

In the 1890s the American Unitarian Association began to allow non-Christian and non-theistic churches and individuals to be part of their fellowship. As a result, people who held no Unitarian belief began to be called "Unitarians," simply because they were members of churches that belonged to the American Unitarian Association. After several decades, the non-theistic members outnumbered the theological Unitarians. A similar phenomenon is now going on in the UK's Unitarian churches.

This article mainly concerns only Unitarianism as a theology. For more information about ecclesiastical Unitarians, see Unitarian Universalism.

Forms of Unitarianism

Unitarianism can very loosely be divided into two categories. Both maintain that God is one being and one "person"—the one Jesus called "Our Father." Jesus is the (or a) Son of God, but generally not God himself. However, they differ as to particulars.

• Socinianism— Jesus did not preexist his human life, but as a man was chosen by God and filled with the Holy Spirit. This theology is associated with the Ebionites, Theodotus of Byzantium, Artemon, Paul of Samosata, and other Adoptionists in the early Church, and Faustus Socinus in the Protestant Reformation. In modern times we see this view manifested in Rationalist Unitarianism, which emerged from the German Rationalism and the liberal theology of the 19th century. Its proponents took a highly intellectual and humanistic approach to religion, rejecting most of the miraculous events in the Bible (including the virgin birth.) They embraced evolutionary concepts, asserted the "inherent goodness of man," and abandoned the doctrine of biblical infallibility. Rationalist Unitarianism is distinguished from Deism (with which it nevertheless shares many features) by its belief in a personal deity who directly acts on creation, while Deists see God as holding aloof from creation. Notable Rationalist Unitarians include Ralph Waldo Emerson and Theodore Parker in theology and ministry, Joseph Priestley and Linus Pauling in science, Susan B. Anthony and Florence Nightingale in humanitarianism and social justice, Charles Dickens in literature, and Frank Lloyd Wright in arts. Many Hungarian Unitarians embrace the principles of Rationalist Unitarianism — the only Unitarian high school in the world, John Sigismund Unitarian Academy in Cluj Napoca (Kolozsvar, Klausenburg), Romania, teaches Rationalist Unitarianism.

• Arianism—The Son is a pre-existent being, the Logos who dwelled with God in the beginning and then was born as the man Jesus. This theology is associated with early church figures such as Justin Martyr, Hippolytus of Rome, Eusebius of Caesarea, Arius, Eusebius of Nicomedia, Asterius the Sophist, Eunomius, and Ulfilas. Arian Unitarianism remains as the only or main theology among Unitarians in Transylvania, Hungary, France, and several countries in Africa. Famous Arian Unitarians include Michael Servetus, Isaac Newton, Andrews Norton and Dr. William Ellery Channing. Since the 19th century, several Evangelical or Revivalist movements adopted a unitarian theology. Theologies among Evangelical Unitarians are often Arian, and occasionally Sabellian (Jesus is God in the flesh, the manifestation of God, who exists as a single person). Evangelical Unitarians share their strict adherence to sola scriptura and their belief that Scripture is both inspired and inerrant. Christadelphians and both groups called the Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith are Evangelical Unitarians. Other modern non-trinitarian churches, such as the Filipino-based Iglesia ni Cristo, may also be included, although they reject the "unitarian" name to avoid confusion. Jehovah's Witnesses and Christadelphians also have a unitarian theology with specific traits.

History

Early origins

Unitarians trace their history back to the Apostolic age and claim for their doctrine a prevalence during the ante-Nicene period. A small number of Unitarians claim a continuity through Arian communities and individual thinkers to the present time.

The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century saw in many European countries an outbreak, more or less serious, of anti-Trinitarian opinion. Suppressed as a rule in individual cases, this type of doctrine ultimately became the badge of separate religious communities, in Poland (extinct), Hungary and, at a much later date, in England. Compare to Sabellianism.

Along with the fundamental doctrine, certain characteristics have always marked those who profess unitarianism: a large degree of tolerance, a minimizing of essentials, a repugnance to formulated creed and an historical study of scripture.

Martin Cellarius (1499-1564), a friend of Luther, usually appears as the first literary pioneer (1527) of the movement; the anti-Trinitarian position of Ludwig Haetzer did not become public until after his execution (1529) for anabaptism.

Michael Servetus (1511?-1553) stimulated thought in this direction and heavily influenced other reformers both by his writings and by his death at the stake. In 1531 he had published his theological treatise De Trinitatis Erroribus (On the Errors About the Trinity), in which he rejected the Nicene dogma of the Trinity and proposed that the Son was the union of the divine Logos with the man Jesus, miraculously born from the Virgin Mary through the intervention of God's spirit. This was generally interpreted as a denial of the Trinitarian dogma (actually Servetus had described the Trinity as a "three-headed Cerberus" and "three ghosts" which only led believers to confusion and error). Servetus expanded his ideas on the nature of God and Christ 20 years later in his major work, Christianismi Restitutio (The Restoration of Christianity), which caused his burning at the stake in Calvin's Geneva (and also in effigy by the Catholic Inquisition in France) in 1553. Nowadays most Unitarians see Servetus as their pioneer and first martyr, even though his views on Jesus Christ are quite different from what Unitarians generally believe today.

The Dialogues (1563) of Bernardino Ochino, while defending the Trinity, stated objections and difficulties with a force which captivated many. In his 27th Dialogue Ochino points to Hungary as a possible home of religious liberty. And in Poland and Hungary definitely anti-Trinitarian religious communities first formed and were tolerated.

Poland

Scattered expressions of anti-Trinitarian opinion appear here early. At the age of 80, Catherine, wife of Melchior Vogel or Weygel, was burned at Cracow (1539) for apostasy; whether her views embraced more than deism is not clear. The first synod of the Reformed Church took place in 1555; the second Synod (1556) faced the theological challenges of Gregory Pauli (Grzegorz Paweł z Brzezin) and Peter Gonesius (Piotr z Goniądza), who were aware of the works of Servetus and of Italian antitrinitarians such as Mateo Gribaldi. The arrival of Blandrata in 1558 furnished the party with a temporary leader.

In 1565, the Diet of Piotrkow excluded anti-Trinitarians from the existing synod; henceforward they held their own synods as the Minor Church. Known by various other names (of which Polish brethren and Arian were the most common), at no time in its history did this body adopt for itself any designation save "Christian". Originally Arian (though excluding any worship of Christ) and Anabaptist, the Minor Church was (by 1588) brought round to the views of Fausto Sozzini, who had settled in Poland in 1579 (see Socinianism).

In 1602 James Sienynski (Jakub Sieniński) established at Raków a college and a printing-press, from which the Racovian Catechism was issued in 1605. In 1610 a Catholic reaction began, led by Jesuits. The establishment at Raków was suppressed in 1638, after two boys pelted a crucifix outside the town.

When twenty years' public opinion widely considered them as Swedish collaborators during The Deluge, the Polish Diet gave anti-Trinitarians the option of conformity or exile. The Minor Church included many Polish magnates, but their adoption of the views of Sozzini, which precluded Christians from magisterial office, rendered them politically powerless.

The execution of the decree, hastened by a year, took place in 1660. Some conformed; a large number made their way to the Netherlands (where the Remonstrants admitted them to membership on the basis of the Apostles' Creed), while others went to the German frontier. A contingent settled in Transylvania, not joining the Unitarian Church, but maintaining a distinct organization at Cluj until 1793.

The refugees who reached Amsterdam published the Bibliotheca fratrum polonorum (1665–1669), embracing the works of Hans Krell (Crellius, Jan Crell), their leading theologian, Jonas Schlichting (Szlichtyng), their chief commentator, Sozzini and Johann Ludwig Wolzogen. The title-page of this collection, bearing the words quos Unitarios vocant, introduced this term to Western Europe.

Transylvania and Hungary

No distinct trace of anti-Trinitarian opinion precedes the appearance of Biandrata at the Transylvanian court in 1563. His influence was exerted on Ferenc Dávid (1510–1579), who was successively Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist and anti-Trinitarian.

In 1564 Dávid was elected by the Calvinists as "bishop of the Hungarian churches in Transylvania," and appointed court preacher to John Sigismund, prince of Transylvania. His discussion of the Trinity began (1565) with doubts of the personality of the Holy Ghost.

His antagonist in public disputations was the Calvinist leader, Peter Juhász (Melius); his supporter was Blandrata. John Sigismund, adopting his court-preacher's views, issued (1568) an edict of religious liberty at the Torda Diet, which allowed David (retaining his existing title) to transfer his episcopate from the Calvinists to the anti-Trinitarians, Kolozsvár being evacuated by all but his followers.

In 1571 John Sigismund was succeeded by Stephen Báthory, a Catholic, and trouble began. Under the influence of John Sommer, rector of the Kolozsvár gymnasium, David (about 1572) abandoned the worship of Christ. The attempted accommodation by Sozzini only precipitated matters; tried as an innovator, Dávid died in prison at Déva (1579). The cultus of Christ became an established usage of the Church; it is recognized in the 1837 edition of the official hymnal, but removed in later editions.

On the other hand, in 1621 a new sect arose, the Sabbatarii, with strong Judaic tendencies; though excluded from toleration they maintained an existence till 1848. The term unitarius (said to have been introduced by Melius in discussions of 1569–1571) makes its first documentary appearance in a decree of the Lécsfalva Diet (1600); it was not officially adopted by the Church until 1638.

Of the line of twenty-three bishops the most distinguished were György Enyedi (commonly known in English as George Enyedi) (1592–1597), whose Explicationes obtained European vogue, and Mihály Lombard de Szentabrahám (1737–1758), who rallied the forces of his Church, broken by persecution and deprivation of property, and gave them their existing constitution. His Summa universae theologiae secundum Unitarios (1787), Socinian with Arminian modifications, was accepted by Joseph II as the official manifesto of doctrine, and so remains, though no subscription to it has ever been required.

The official title in Hungary is the Hungarian Unitarian Church, with a membership of about 25,000 members, whereas in Romania there is a separate church with the name of Transylvanian Unitarian Church and about 65,000 members, especially among the Székely population. In the past, the Unitarian bishop had a seat in the Hungarian parliament. The principal college of both churches is located at Cluj (Kolozsvár), which is also the seat of the Transylvanian consistory; there were others at Turda (Torda) and at Székelykeresztúr.

Until 1818 the continued existence of this body was unknown to English Unitarians; relations subsequently became intimate. After 1860 a succession of students finished their theological education at Manchester College, Oxford; others at the Unitarian Home Missionary College.

England

The Unitarian chapel at Newington Green, London, England. Built in 1708, this is the oldest non-conformist church in London still in use as a church. (October 2005)

Between 1548 (John Assheton) and 1612 we find few anti-Trinitarians, most of whom were either executed or forced to recant. Those burned included George van Parris. (1551), Flemish surgeon; Patrick Pakingham (1555), fellmonger; Matthew Hamont (1579), ploughwright; John Lewes (1583); Peter Cole (1587), tanner; Francis Kett (1589), physician and author; Bartholomew Legate (1612), cloth-dealer, last of the Smithfield victims; and the twice-burned fanatic Edward Wightman (1612). In all these cases the anti-Trinitarian sentiments seem to have come from Holland; the last two executions followed the dedication to James I of the Latin version of the Racovian Catechism (1609).

The vogue of Socinian views, typified by men like Falkland and Chillingworth, led to the abortive fourth canon of 1640 against Socinian books. The ordinance of 1648 made denial of the Trinity a capital offence, but it remained a dead letter, Cromwell intervening in the cases of Paul Best (1590-1657) and John Biddle (1616-1662).

In 1650 John Knowles was an Arian lay preacher at Chester.

In 1652-1654 and 1658-1662 Biddle held a Socinian conventicle in London; in addition to his own writings he reprinted (1651) and translated (1652) the Racovian Catechism, and the Life of Socinus (1653). His disciple Thomas Firmin (1632-1697), mercer and philanthropist, and friend of Tillotson, adopted the more Sabellian views of Stephen Nye (1648-1719), a clergyman. Firmin promoted a remarkable series of controversial tracts (1690-1699).

The term "Unitarian" first emerges in 1682, and appears in the title of the Brief History (1687). It was construed in a broad sense to cover all who, with whatever differences, held to the unipersonality of the Divine Being. Firmin later had a project of Unitarian societies "within the Church". The first preacher to describe himself as Unitarian was Thomas Emlyn (1663-1741) who gathered a London congregation in 1705. This was contrary to the Toleration Act of 1689, which excluded all who should preach or write against the Trinity.

In England the Socinian controversy, initiated by Biddle, preceded the Arian controversy initiated by Samuel Clarke's Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity (1712). Arian or semi-Arian views had much vogue during the 18th century, both in the Church and among dissenters.

The free atmosphere of dissenting academies (colleges) favoured new ideas. The effect of the Salters' Hall conference (1719), called for by the views of James Peirce (1673-1726) of Exeter, was to leave dissenting congregations to determine their own orthodoxy; the General Baptists had already (1700) condoned defections from the common doctrine.

Isaac Newton was an anti-Trinitarian, and possibly a Unitarian.

In 1689 Presbyterians and Independents had coalesced, agreeing to drop both names and to support a common fund. The union in the London fund was ruptured in 1693; in course of time differences in the administration of the two funds led to the attaching of the Presbyterian name to theological liberals, though many of the older Unitarian chapels were Independent foundations, and at least half of the Presbyterian chapels (of 1690-1710) came into the hands of Congregationalists.

Leaders in the advocacy of a purely humanitarian christology came largely from the Independents, such as Nathaniel Lardner (1684-1768), Caleb Fleming (1698-1779), Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) and Thomas Belsham (1750-1829).

The formation of a distinct Unitarian denomination dates from the secession (1773) of Theophilus Lindsey (1723-1808) from the Anglican Church, on the failure of the Feathers petition to parliament (1772) for relief from subscription. Lindsey's secession had been preceded in Ireland by that of William Robertson D.D. (1705-1783), who has been called "the father of Unitarian nonconformity".

It was followed by other clerical secessions, mostly of men who left the ministry, and Lindsey's hope of a Unitarian movement from the Anglican Church was disappointed. By degrees his type of theology superseded Arianism in a considerable number of dissenting congregations.

The Toleration Act was amended (1779) by substituting belief in Scripture for belief in the Anglican (doctrinal) articles. In 1813 the penal acts against deniers of the Trinity were repealed. In 1825 the British and Foreign Unitarian Association was formed as an amalgamation of three older societies, for literature (1791), mission work (1806) and civil rights (1818).

Attacks were made on properties held by Unitarians, but created prior to 1813. The Wolverhampton Chapel case began in 1817, the more important Hewley Fund case in 1830; both were decided against the Unitarians in 1842.

Appeal to parliament resulted in the Dissenters' Chapels Act (1844), which secured that, so far as trusts did not specify doctrines, twenty-five years tenure legitimated existing usage.

The drier Priestley-Belsham type of Unitarianism, bound up with a determinist philosophy, was gradually modified by the influence of Channing (see below), whose works were reprinted in numerous editions and owed a wide circulation to the efforts of Robert Spears (1825-1899).

Another American influence, potent in reducing the rigid though limited supernaturalism of Belsham and his successors, was that of Theodore Parker (1810 - 1860). At home the teaching of James Martineau (1805-1900), resisted at first, was at length powerfully felt, seconded as it was by the influence of John James Tayler (1797-1869) and of John Hamilton Thom (1808-1894).

English Unitarianism produced some remarkable scholars, e.g. John Kenrick (1788-1877), James Yates (1789-1871), Samuel Sharpe (1799-1881), but few very popular preachers, though George Harris (1794-1859) is an exception.

For the education of its ministry it supported Manchester College at Oxford (which deduced its ancestry from the academy of Richard Frankland, begun 1670), the Unitarian Home Missionary College (founded in Manchester in 1854 by John Relly Beard, D.D., and William Gaskell), and the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen. It also produced the notable Chamberlain family of politicians: Joseph Chamberlain, Austen Chamberlain, and Neville Chamberlain, and the Courtauld industrialist dynasty.

English Unitarian periodical literature begins with Priestley's Theological Repository (1769 - 1788), and includes the Monthly Repository (1806 - 1838), The Christian Reformer (1834 - 1863), The Christian Teacher (1835 - 1844), The Prospective Review (1845 - 1854), The National Review (1855 - 1864), the Theological Review (1864 - 1879), and The Hibbert Journal, one of the enterprises of the Hibbert Trust, founded by Robert Hibbert (1770 - 1849) and originally designated the Anti-Trinitarian Fund. This came into operation in 1853, awarded scholarships and fellowships, supported an annual lectureship (1878 - 1894), and maintained (from 1894) a chair of ecclesiastical history at Manchester College.

Scotland

Much has been made of the execution (1697) at Edinburgh of the student Thomas Aikenhead, convicted of blaspheming the Trinity. The works of John Taylor, D.D. (1694 - 1761) on original sin and atonement had much influence in the east of Scotland, as we learn from Robert Burns; and such men as William Dalrymple, D.D. (1723 - 1814) and William M'Gill, D.D. (1732 - 1807), along with other "moderates", were under suspicion of similar heresies. Overt Unitarianism has never had much vogue in Scotland. The only congregation of old foundation is at Edinburgh, founded in 1776 by a secession from one of the "fellowship societies" formed by James Fraser, of Brea (1639 - 1699). The mission enterprises of Richard Wright (1764 - 1836) and George Harris (1794 - 1859) produced results of no great permanence.

The Scottish Unitarian Association was founded in 1813, mainly by Thomas Southwood Smith, M.D., the sanitary reformer. The McQuaker Trust was founded (1889) for propagandist purposes.

Ireland

Controversy respecting the Trinity was excited in Ireland by the prosecution at Dublin (1703) of Thomas Emlyn (see above), resulting in fine and imprisonment, for rejecting the deity of Christ. In 1705 the Belfast Society was founded for theological discussion by Presbyterian ministers in the north, with the result of creating a body of opinion adverse to subscription to the Westminster standards. Toleration of dissent, withheld in Ireland till 1719, was then granted without the requirement of any doctrinal subscription. Next year a movement against subscription was begun in the General Synod of Ulster, culminating (1725) in the placing of the advocates of non-subscription, headed by John Abernethy, D.D., of Antrim into a presbytery by themselves. This Antrim presbytery was excluded (1726) from jurisdiction, though not from communion. During the next hundred years its members exercised great influence on their brethren of the synod; but the counterinfluence of the mission of the Scottish Seceders (from 1742) produced a reaction. The Antrim Presbytery gradually became Arian; the same type of theology affected more or less the Southern Association, known since 1806 as the Synod of Munster. From 1783 ten of the fourteen presbyteries in the General Synod had made subscription optional; the synod's code of 1824 left "soundness in the faith" to be ascertained by subscription or by examination. Against this compromise Henry Cooke, D.D. (1788–1868), directed all his powers, and was ultimately (1829) successful in defeating his Arian opponent, Henry Montgomery, LL.D. (1788–1865). Montgomery led a secession which formed (1830) the Remonstrant Synod, comprising three presbyteries.

In 1910 the Antrim Presbytery, Remonstrant Synod and Synod of Munster united as the General Synod of the Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland, with 38 congregations and some mission stations. Till 1889 they maintained two theological chairs in Belfast, where John Scott Porter (1801–1880) pioneered biblical criticism; they afterwards sent their students to England for their theological education, though in certain respects their views and practices remained more conservative than those of their English brethren.

Irish Unitarian periodical literature began in 1832 with the Bible Christian, followed by the Irish Unitarian Magazine, the Christian Unitarian, the Disciple and the Non-subscribing Presbyterian.

See generally R. Wallace's Antitrinitarian Biog. (1850); G. BonetMaury's Early Sources of Eng. Unit. Christianity, trans. E. P. Hall (1884); A. Gordon's Heads of Eng. Unit. Hist. (1895).

United States

Unitarianism in the United States followed essentially the same development as in England, and passed through the stages of Arminianism, Arianism, to rationalism and a modernism based on a large-minded acceptance of the results of the comparative study of all religions.

In the early 18th century Arminianism presented itself in New England, and sporadically elsewhere. This tendency was largely accelerated by the reaction from the excesses of the "Great Awakening" under Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield.

Before the War of Independence Arianism showed itself in individual instances, and French influences were widespread in the direction of deism, though they were not organized into any definite utterance by religious bodies.

As early as the middle of the 18th century Harvard College represented the most advanced thought of the time, and a score or more of clergymen in New England preached what was essentially Unitarianism. The most prominent of these men was Jonathan Mayhew (1720–1766), pastor of the West Church in Boston, Massachusetts from 1747 to 1766. He preached the strict unity of God, the subordinate nature of Christ, and salvation by character.

Charles Chauncy (1705–1787), pastor of the First Church from 1727 until his death, the chief opponent of Edwards in the great revival, was both a Unitarian and a Universalist. Other Unitarians included Ebenezer Gay (1698–1787) of Hingham, Samuel West (1730–1807) of New Bedford, Thomas Barnard (1748–1814) of Newbury, John Prince (1751–1836) and William Bentley (1758–1819) of Salem, Aaron Bancroft (1755–1836) of Worcester, and several others.

The first official acceptance of the Unitarian faith on the part of a congregation was by King's Chapel in Boston, which settled James Freeman (1759-1853) in 1782, and revised the Prayer Book into a mild Unitarian liturgy in 1785. The Rev. William Hazlitt (father of the essayist and critic), visiting the United States in 1783–1785, published the fact that there were Unitarians in Philadelphia, Boston, Charleston, Pittsburgh, Hallowell, on Cape Cod, and elsewhere.

Unitarian congregations were organized at Portland and Saco in 1792 by Thomas Oxnard; in 1800 the First Church in Plymouth--the congregation founded by the Pilgrims in 1620--accepted the more liberal faith. Joseph Priestley immigrated to the United States in 1794, and organized a Unitarian Church at Northumberland, Pennsylvania, the same year and one at Philadelphia in 1796. His writings had a considerable influence.

Thus from 1725 to 1825, a more tolerant and rational belief was developing in New England, and to some extent elsewhere. The first distinctive manifestation of the change was the inauguration of Henry Ware (1764–1845) as professor of divinity at Harvard College, in 1805.

In the same year appeared Unitarian books by John Sherman (1772–1828) and Hosea Ballou (1771–1852), and another in 1810 by Noah Worcester (1758–1837). At the opening of the 19th century, with one exception, all the churches of Boston were occupied by Unitarian preachers, and various periodicals and organizations expressed their opinions. Churches were established in New York, Baltimore, Washington, Charleston, and elsewhere during this period.

In 1800, Joseph Stevens Buckminster became minister of the Brattle Street Church in Boston, where his brilliant sermons, literary activities, and academic attention to the German "New Criticism" helped shape the subsequent growth of Unitarianism in New England.

Buckminster's close associate William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) was settled over the Federal Street Congregational Church, Boston, 1803; and in a few years he became the leader of the Unitarian movement. At first mystical rather than rationalistic in his theology, he took part with the "Catholic Christians", as they called themselves, who aimed at bringing Christianity into harmony with the progressive spirit of the time. His essays on The System of Exclusion and Denunciation in Religion (1815), and Objections to Unitarian Christianity Considered (1819), made him a defender of Unitarianism. His sermon on "Unitarian Christianity", preached at First Unitarian Church of Baltimore in 1819, at the ordination of Jared Sparks, and that at New York in 1821, on "Unitarian Christianity most favourable to Piety" made him its interpreter.

The result was a growing division in the Congregational churches, which was emphasized in 1825 by the formation of the American Unitarian Association at Boston. It was organized "to diffuse the knowledge and promote the interests of pure Christianity" and it published tracts and books, supported poor churches, sent out missionaries into every part of the country, and established new churches in nearly all the states.

Essentially non-sectarian, with little missionary zeal, the Unitarian movement has grown slowly; and its influence has chiefly operated through general culture and the literature of the country. Many of its clergymen have been trained in other denominations; but the Harvard Divinity School was distinctly Unitarian from its formation, in 1816, to 1870, when it became a non-sectarian department of the university. The Meadville Lombard Theological School was founded at Meadville, Pennsylvania in 1844 and the Starr King School for the Ministry at Berkeley, California in 1904.

The history of Unitarian thought in the United States can be roughly divided into three periods. The first, from about 1800 to about 1835, can be thought of as formative, mainly influenced by English philosophy, semi-supernatural, imperfectly rationalistic, devoted to philanthropy and practical Christianity. Dr. Channing was its distinguished exponent.

The second (see Transcendentalism), from about 1835 to about 1885, profoundly influenced by German idealism, was increasingly rationalistic, though its theology was largely flavoured by mysticism. As a reaction against this, the National Unitarian Conference was organized in 1865, and adopted a distinctly Christian platform, affirming that its members were "disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ".

The more rationalistic minority thereupon formed the Free Religious Association, "to encourage the scientific study of theology and to increase fellowship in the spirit." The Western Unitarian Conference later accepted the same position, and based its "fellowship on no dogmatic tests, but affirmed a desire "to establish truth, righteousness and love in the world." In addition, the WUC claimed belief in God was not a necessary component of Unitarian belief.

This period of controversy and of vigorous theological development practically came to an end soon after 1885. Its cessation was assured by the action of the national conference at Saratoga, New York in 1894, when it was affirmed by a nearly unanimous vote that: "These churches accept the religion of Jesus, holding, in accordance with his teaching, that practical religion is summed up in love to God and love to man. The conference recognizes the fact that its constituency is Congregational in tradition and polity. Therefore it declares that nothing in this constitution is to be construed as an authoritative test; and we cordially invite to our working fellowship any who, while differing from us in belief, are in general sympathy with our spirit and our practical aims." The leaders of this period were Ralph Waldo Emerson with his idealism and Theodore Parker with his acceptance of Christianity as absolute religion.

The third period, beginning about 1885, has been one of rationalism, recognition of universal religion, large acceptance of the scientific method and ideas and an ethical attempt to realize what was perceived as to be the higher affirmations of Christianity. It has been marked by a general harmony and unity, by steady growth in the number of churches and by a widening fellowship with all other similarly minded movements.

This phase was shown in the organization of The International Council of Unitarian and other Liberal Religious Thinkers and Workers at Boston on 25 May 1900, "to open communication with those in all lands who are striving to unite pure religion and perfect liberty, and to increase fellowship and co-operation among them." This council has held biennial sessions in London, Amsterdam, Geneva and Boston. During the period after 1885 the influence of Emerson became predominant, modified by the more scientific preaching of Minot J. Savage, who found his guides in Darwin and Spencer.

Beyond its own borders the body obtained recognition through the public work of such men as Henry Whitney Bellows and Edward Everett Hale, the remarkable influence of James Freeman Clarke and the popular power of Robert Collyer. The number of Unitarian churches in the United States in 1909 was 461, with 541 ministers. The church membership then, really nominal, may be estimated at 100,000. The periodicals were The Christian Register, weekly, Boston; Unity, weekly, Chicago; The Unitarian, monthly, New York; Old and New, monthly, Des Moines; Pacific Unitarian, San Francisco.

In 1961, the American Unitarian Association merged with the Universalist Church of America, forming the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA).

Strictly speaking, modern-day Unitarian Universalism is not Unitarian in theology. Despite its name, this denomination does not necessarily promote either belief in One God or universal salvation. It is merely the inheritor of the Unitarian and Universalist church system in America. Though there are Unitarians within the Unitarian-Universalist Association, there is no creed or doctrine that one must affirm to join a Unitarian Universalist congregation. This makes it very different from many other faith groups. Today, the majority of Unitarian Universalists don't identify themselves as Christians. Jesus and the Bible are generally treated as exceptional sources of inspiration, along with the holy people and traditions around the world. Unitarian Universalists base their community on a set of Principles and Purposes rather than on a prophet or creed. Notable Unitarian Universalists include Tim Berners-Lee (founder of the world wide web), Pete Seeger, congressman Pete Stark and Christopher Reeve.

The decline of Unitarian theology in the Unitarian churches in the United States has prompted several revival movements. Unitarian Christians within the Unitarian Universalist Association formed, in 1945, a fellowship just for Christians, who were gradually becoming a minority. Thus the the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship was formed. Similarly, the American Unitarian Conference (AUC) was founded in 2000. Its mission is "renewal of the historic Unitarian faith". It promotes a set of God-centered religious principles, but like Unitarian Universalism, it does not impose a creed on its members.

Unitarians in America, because of the developments with the Unitarian churches, have generally taken one of three courses of action to find communities in which to worship God. Some have stayed within the Unitarian churches, accepting the non-Christian nature of their congregation, but have found their needs met in the UU Christian Fellowship. Some Unitarians, because they felt that the mainstream UUA churches are not accepting of Christians, or that the larger Unitarian-Universalist organizations are becoming too political and liberal to be considered a religious movement or faith, have decided to affiliate with the American Unitarian Conference. The vast majority of Unitarians have sought out liberal Christian churches in other denominations and have made homes there.

Canada

Unitarianism arrived in Canada from Iceland and Britain. Some Canadian congregations had services in Icelandic into living memory. The first Unitarian service in Canada was held in 1832 by a minister from England, Rev, David Hughes, in a school owned by the Workman family, who were Unitarians from Belfast. The Montreal congregation, founded in 1842, called their first permanent minister, the Rev. John Cordner, of the Remonstrant Synod of Ulster; he arrived in 1843 and served as their minister for thirty-six years. A few years later, a congregation in Toronto was founded whose first minister, William Adam, was a Scottish Baptist missionary who had served in India. Congregations formed in Ottawa and Hamilton in the late 19th century and continued westward. In 1891 the First Icelandic Unitarian Church was formed in Winnipeg. Congregations in Vancouver (1909) and Victoria (1910) followed. Individual Canadian congregations had ties to the British association until they were disrupted by World War II, when relations to Unitarians in the United States became stronger.

Universalism found its way to Canada during the 1800s, for the most part, though not entirely, brought by settlers from the United States. The Universalist concepts of universal salvation, a loving and forgiving God, and the brother/sisterhood of all people, were welcomed by those for whom the partialist view or predestination were no longer acceptable. Universalist congregations formed, with the exception of the congregation in Halifax, mostly in rural towns and villages in lower Quebec and the Maritimes, and in southern Ontario. Universalism in Canada followed a corresponding decline as in the United States, and today the three remaining congregations at Olinda in Ontario, North Hatley in Quebec, and Halifax, Nova Scotia have since the 1960s been part of the Canadian Unitarian Council.

The Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC) was formed in advance (1960) of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) in the United States, but the two functioned in close association until money exchange and other complications led to greater independence, with the CUC assuming the direct delivery of services to Canadian congregations formerly extended by the UUA in Boston, Massachusetts. The two organizations continue collaboration in the credentialling of ministers, and in youth/young adult programs and services.

The Unitarian Service Committee, established during World War II as an overseas emergency relief agency, began under the capable direction of Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova and initially supported largely by Unitarians, now continues as a separate agency, drawing support throughout Canada for its humanitarian work in many parts of the world.

The first ordination of a Canadian Unitarian minister after the organizational separation of the CUC and the UUA was held at the First Unitarian Church of Victoria, British Columbia, in 2002. Rev. Brian Kiely, who was to give the ordination sermon, was told (partly in jest) he must define Canadian Unitarianism, as Rev. Channing had at that New England ordination sermon of 1819. The simile Rev. Kiely chose was that Canadian Unitarianism is like a Tim Horton's doughnut, the richness is in the circle of fellowship, not a creedal centre.

Germany

There are currently four unaffiliated groups of Unitarians in Germany:

• The Unitarische Freie Religionsgemeinde (Unitarian Free Religious Community, then called German Catholics) was founded in 1845 in Frankfurt am Main.

• The Religionsgemeinschaft Freier Protestanten ("Religious Community of Free Protestants") was formed in 1876 in Germany's Rheinhessen region. in 1911 their newspaper took on the subtitle "deutsch-unitarische Blätter" ("German Unitarian Gazette") as leader Rudolf Walbaum wanted to connect to American Unitarians. In 1950 the Free Protestants changed their name to Deutsche Unitarier Religionsgemeinschaft ("German Unitarian Religious Community"). It is the only Unitarian group in Germany to belong to the ICUU

• The Unitarische Kirche in Berlin (Unitarian Church in Berlin) was founded by Hansgeorg Remus in 1948.

• The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Frankfurt is an international, English-speaking liberal religious community serving the Rhein-Main area. It is part of the European Unitarian Universalists.

Denmark

In 1900 Det fri Kirkesamfund (literally, The Free Congregation) was founded by a group of liberal Christians in Copenhagen. Since 1908, the church is outside the Folkekirke (the Danish Lutheran state church). In Aarhus, another Unitarian congregation was founded at this time by the Norwegian Unitarian pastor and writer Kristofer Janson (1841-1917); it has since closed.

Sweden

Inspired by the writings of Theodore Parker the Swedish writer Klas Pontus Arnoldson founded in Gothenburg in 1871 the Unitarian association Sanningssökarna (“The Truth Seekers”) – later also found in Stockholm. This association also published the periodical Sanningsökaren (“The Truth Seeker”). Two other Unitarian associations were founded in 1882 (one of them in Stockholm). In 1888 Unitarians asked the Swedish King for permission to establish yet another Unitarian association in Gothenburg but was turned down because Unitarianism was not regarded as a Christian religion. Later many Unitarians turned to theosophy. Reports indicate that there to day 2006 again exists a Unitarian church with about 50 members and one ordained Unitarian pastor.

Norway

In 1892 and 1893 the Norwegian Unitarian ministers Hans Tambs Lyche and Kristofer Janson returned from America and at once started independently of each other to introduce Unitarianism. In 1894 Tambs Lyche failed to organize a Unitarian Church in Oslo (then Kristiania) but managed to publish Norway’s first Unitarian periodical (Free Words). In January 1895 Kristofer Janson founded The Church of Brotherhood in Oslo which was to be the first Unitarian church – where he stayed as the congregation’s pastor only for 3 years. In 1904 Herman Haugerud was to return to Norway from America and to become the last Unitarian pastor to The Unitarian Society (which The Church of Brotherhood now was renamed). Pastor Haugerud died in 1937 and the Unitarian church ceased to exist shortly thereafter. Between 1986 and 2003 different Unitarian groups were active in Oslo. In 2004 these merged into The Unitarian Association which registered as religious society according to Norwegian law on April 20 2005 under the name The Unitarian Association (The Norwegian Unitarian Church). Later “Bét Dávid” has been added to the name: The Bét Dávid Unitarian Association (The Norwegian Unitarian Church). The church is akin to both Transylvanian Unitarianism and Judaism. In 2006 this church was associated with the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU).

Spain

See Unitarian Universalist Religious Society of Spain.

Principles of Faith of Modern Unitarian Christians

Unitarian Christians generally do not believe in the Virgin Birth, the deity of Christ, or Biblical inerrancy.

Unitarian Christians do not have a creed or formal statements of faith that must be believed in its entirety or used as a test of character in order to be accepted into fellowship with other Unitarian Christians. However, they have set out some basic principles that distinguish their faith from other Christian religions.

Although there is no specific authority on these principles, the following represent the most generally accepted -

• the belief in One God and the oneness or unity of God.
• the life and teachings of Jesus Christ is the exemplar model for living ones' own life.
• that reason, rational thought, science, and philosophy together with religion and faith are not mutually exclusive.
• that man has the ability to exercise free will in a responsible, constructive and ethical manner with the assistance of religion.
• the belief that human nature in its present condition is neither inherently corrupt nor depraved, but capable of both good and evil, as God intended.
• the conviction that no religion can claim an absolute monopoly on the Holy Spirit or theological truth.
• the belief that the works of the Bible are inspired by God, but were written and edited by humans and therefore subject to human error.
• the rejection of traditional doctrines that they believe malign God's character or veil the true nature and mission of Jesus Christ, such as the doctrine of predestination, eternal damnation, the Trinity, and the vicarious sacrifice or satisfaction theory of the Atonement.

Most Unitarian Christians would say that Jesus of Nazareth and his followers and disciples would today be defined as Unitarian Christians, and that Unitarian Christianity is the form of Christianity most closely following the direct teachings of Jesus. However, Unitarian Christians respect the beliefs of others and do not believe that the Unitarian Christian way is the only way to follow God's will.

Unitarian Christians believe Jesus did not claim to be God nor did his teachings hint at his divinity or the existence of a triune God. Unitarian Christians generally do not believe that Jesus was conceived in the womb of a virgin or performed miracles to the extent reported in the Gospels. Unitarian Christians give the most weight regarding the accounts of Jesus, his character, and his life to the four canonical Gospels (Mark, Mathew, Luke, and John). Most also accept other sources of information about Jesus including newly discovered Gospels that were not included in the original canon of the Bible (e.g. Nag Hammadi Library).

Unitarian Christians reject the doctrine of some Christian denominations that God chooses to redeem or save only those certain individuals that accept the creeds of, or affiliate with a specific Church or religion, from a common ruin or corruption of the mass of humanity. They generally do not believe that God merely demands belief in certain principles of faith and that no good works in life are required to be morally righteous.

Most Unitarian Christians believe that the mixing of political activism and religious fellowship is not an acceptable practice. Unitarian Christians believe that one's personal moral convictions will guide their political activities and a secular society is the most viable, just and fair society.

Ecclesiology

Unitarian Christianity is a tradition in Unitarianism that asserts a connection with Arian beliefs in the early Christian Church preceding the Nicene Creed's establishment of the Trinity as orthodox Christian belief. Arius, son of Ammonius, who was a popular priest appointed presbyter for the district of Baucalis in Alexandria in 313. His views of the nature of Jesus, although not original, conflicted with the views held by Bishop Alexander of Alexandria. Bishop Alexander's position was that Jesus was God, in human form.

The issue ultimately resulted in the Nicene Creed adopted at the First Council of Nicaea in 325, wherein with the involvement of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, the issue was considered settled and the adoption of Alexander's view became the orthodox doctrine and all other views were considered heresy and officially suppressed. At the Second Ecumenical Council in 381, the position that God was actually the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost was agreed and the formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity was complete. Christian Unitarians believe that God is a single oneness, whereas the vast majority of those calling themselves Christian in the world today, including Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, and other denominations, are Trinitarians. Many Christians consider any religion that does not adhere to the basic tenants formulated by the Nicene Creed, including Trinitarianism, to be non-Christian.

Unitarianism developed in the 1600s during the Protestant era of the evolution of the Christian church with strongholds in Eastern Europe and eventually Britain and the North Eastern parts of the United States. As liberal Christians and Freethinkers, these small congregations developed into more formal associations of churches. In America, in 1961 the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America merged to form the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), which is the largest organization of Unitarians in the US. The UUA no longer is an explicitly Christian organization and does not focus on the core teachings of Jesus Christ or Christianity.

Several Unitarian organizations still promote Christianity as their central theme including the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship (UUCF, an affiliate of the UUA), the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (GAUFCC) of the United Kingdom, and the Unitarian Christian Association (UCA, an affiliate of the GAUFCC).

In the US, the newest organization promoting a return to the theistic roots of Unitarianism is the American Unitarian Conference (AUC), formed in 2000. The AUC's stated goal is to formulate and promote classical Unitarian-based, unifying religious convictions, which balance the needs of members with a practical approach to inclusion and progressive free thought.

Impact and Opposition

The adoption of unitarian belief almost always entails severance of identification with Christianity as it is understood by the Nicene-Chalcedonian churches (Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and most Protestants). Unitarianism is outside of the fellowship of these traditions; it has a tradition of its own, parallel to trinitarianism. Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants of various stripes insist on trinitarian belief as an essential of Christianity, and basic to a group's continuity of identity with the historical Christian faith.

Occasionally, especially in Protestant history, traditionally trinitarian groups grow friendly to or incorporate unitarianism. Friendliness toward unitarianism has sometimes gone hand-in-hand with anti-Catholicism. In some cases non-trinitarian or unitarian belief has been adopted by some, and tolerated in Christian churches as a "non-essential". This was the case in the English Presbyterian Church, and in the Congregational Church in New England late in the 18th century. The Restoration Movement also attempted to forge a compatible relation between trinitarians and unitarians, as did the Seventh Day Baptists and various Adventists. The unitarian tendency in these last-mentioned groups is probably due to the in-built skepticism about Catholic history as a reliable guide to the Christian tradition of interpretation.

In other cases, this openness to unitarianism within traditionally trinitarian churches has been inspired by a very broad ecumenical motive. Modern liberal Protestant denominations are often accused by trinitarians within their ranks, and critics outside, of being indifferent to the doctrine, and therefore self-isolated from their respective trinitarian pasts and heritage. In some cases, it is charged that these trinitarian denominations are no longer Christian, because of their toleration of unitarian belief among their teachers, and in their seminaries.

See also

• Unitarianism
• Unitarian Universalism
• American Unitarian Conference
• Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship
• Unitarian Christian Association
• Unitarian Christian Groups and Publications
• American Unitarian Conference
• International Council of Unitarians and Universalists
• General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
• List of Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists
• Nontrinitarianism
• Arian Catholicism
• Arius
• Arianism
• Deism
• Divine simplicity
• Polish Brethren
• History of philosophy in Poland

References

Bibliography

• Joseph Henry Allen, Our Liberal Movement in Theology (Boston, 1882)
• Joseph Henry Allen, Sequel to our Liberal Movement (Boston, 1897)
• Anthony F. Buzzard and Charles F. Hunting, The Doctrine of the Trinity: Christianity's Self-Inflicted Wound (Lanham, Maryland, 1998) ISBN 1-57309-309-2
• John White Chadwick, Old and New Unitarian Belief (Boston, 1894)
• William Ellery Channing (1903)
• Unitarianism: its Origin and history, a course of Sixteen Lectures (Boston, 1895)
• George Willis Cooke, Unitarianism in America: a History of its Origin and Development (Boston, 1902)
• Patrick Navas, Divine Truth or Human Tradition: A Reconsideration of the Roman Catholic-Protestant Doctrine of the Trinity in Light of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures (Bloomington, Indiana 2007) ISBN 1-4259-4832-4
• Unitarian Year Book (Boston).
• Earl Morse Wilbur, A History of Unitarianism: Socinianism and Its Antecedents, Harvard University Press, 1945.
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

American UC Denominations not within the UUA

• God is 1 not 3 Resources Living Hope Intl. Min.
• Biblical Unitarians
• American Unitarian Conference
• Christian Churches of God

Articles on theological debate among American Unitarians

• God, Optional (from OpinionJournal)
• Unitarians seeking more piety, less politics (from Beliefnet)
• Theological stirrings in Unitarian circles (from Christian Century)
• Unitarian group changes name, settles lawsuit (from Christian Century)

Historical texts on Unitarianism

• Traditional Unitarian Literature