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{{Short description|Nontrinitarian branch of Christianity}} | |||
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{{About|the Christian theological tradition|the doctrinal position|Nontrinitarianism|the liberal religious movement|Unitarian Universalism|its British counterpart|General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches|other uses|Unitarian (disambiguation){{!}}Unitarian}} | |||
{{God|expanded=representations}} | |||
'''Unitarianism''' ({{ety|la|unitas|unity, oneness}}) is a ] branch of ].<ref name="Bremer 2015">{{cite book |last=Bremer |first=Thomas S. |year=2015 |title=Formed From This Soil: An Introduction to the Diverse History of Religion in America |chapter=Transcendentalism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GE3YBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA235 |location=] |publisher=] |page=235 |doi=10.1002/9781394260959 |isbn=978-1-4051-8927-9 |lccn=2014030507 |s2cid=127980793 |quote=Unitarian theology, which developed in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, included a critique of the ] of the ], which regarded ] as three distinct but unified beings—transcendent ], human Savior God (i.e., ]), and immanent Spiritual God (i.e., the ]). Unitarians viewed this understanding of God as a later theological corruption, and they embraced a view of God as a singular, unified entity; in most Unitarian theological interpretations, ] retains highest respect as a spiritual and moral teacher of unparalleled insight and sensitivity, but ], or at least his divine nature is not on the same level as the singular and unique ]. |access-date=2023-01-13 |archive-date=2023-01-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230113235453/https://books.google.com/books?id=GE3YBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA235 |url-status=live }}</ref> Unitarian Christians affirm the ] ] as the singular and unique ],<ref name="Bremer 2015"/> believe that ] was ] in his moral teachings and that he is the ] of humankind,<ref name="Bremer 2015"/><ref name="Miano 2003 15">{{citation |last=Miano |first=David |title=An Explanation of Unitarian Christianity |url=http://americanunitarian.org/explanation.htm |page=15 |year=2003 |access-date=2012-10-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190521191654/http://www.americanunitarian.org/explanation.htm |url-status=dead |publisher=AUC |archive-date=2019-05-21}}.</ref><ref>Drzymala, Daren. 2002. ''Biblical Christianity''. Xulon press. p. 122: "Classically, Unitarian Universalist Christians have understood Jesus as a Savior because he was a God-filled human being, not a supernatural being."</ref> but he is not equal to God himself. Accordingly, Unitarians reject the ] and ], and sit outside traditional, mainstream Christianity.<ref name="Bremer 2015"/><ref name="Miano 2003 15"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Jesus Christ: Incarnated or Created? – Was he actually born? |url=https://www.biblicalunitarian.com/articles/jesus-christ-incarnated-or-created |website=BiblicalUnitarian.com |access-date=7 April 2022 |archive-date=19 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519153315/https://www.biblicalunitarian.com/articles/jesus-christ-incarnated-or-created |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
'''Unitarianism''' is a doctrine of God which asserts that the singleness and simplicity of God are contradicted by the doctrine of the ], and therefore rejects the doctrine of the Trinity. | |||
Unitarianism was established in order to restore "] before later corruptions set in".<ref>Joseph Priestley, one of the founders of the Unitarian movement, defined Unitarianism as the belief of primitive Christianity before later corruptions set in. Among these corruptions, he included not only the doctrine of the Trinity, but also various other orthodox doctrines and usages (Earl Morse Wilbur, ''A History of Unitarianism'', ] 1952, pp. 302–303).</ref> Likewise, Unitarian Christians generally reject the doctrine of ].<ref>From ''The Catechism of the Hungarian Unitarian Church in Transylvanian Romania'': "Unitarians do not teach original sin. We do not believe that through the sin of the first human couple we all became corrupted. It would contradict the love and justice of God to attribute to us the sin of others, because sin is one's own personal action" (Ferencz Jozsef, 20th ed., 1991. Translated from Hungarian by Gyorgy Andrasi, published in ''The Unitarian Universalist Christian,'' Fall/Winter, 1994, Volume 49, Nos. 3–4; VII:107).</ref><ref>In his history of the Unitarians, David Robinson writes: "At their inception, both Unitarians and Universalists shared a common theological enemy: Calvinism." He explains that they "consistently attacked Calvinism on the related issues of original sin and election to salvation, doctrines that in their view undermined human moral exertion." (D. Robinson, ''The Unitarians and the Universalists'', Greenwood Press, 1985, pp. 3, 17).</ref> The churchmanship of Unitarianism may include ] ] or Unitarian Christian denominations that are more ], with the latter being known as ].<ref name="Larsen2011">{{cite book |last1=Larsen |first1=Timothy |title=A People of One Book: The Bible and the Victorians |date=27 January 2011 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-19-161433-0 |page=143 |language=English|quote=Biblical Unitarians are standardly portrayed as denouncing liberal Unitarians}}</ref><ref name="MandelbroteLedger-Lomas2013">{{cite book |last1=Mandelbrote |first1=Scott |last2=Ledger-Lomas |first2=Michael |title=Dissent and the Bible in Britain, C.1650–1950 |date=October 2013 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-19-960841-6 |page=160 |language=English |quote=Although a biblical Unitarian, Mary Carpenter was lifelong friends with James Martineau, the pioneer of English liberal Unitarianism.}}</ref> | |||
Many Christians hold that a ] is not valid unless the ] is used in its administration, and therefore regard Unitarianism as a non-Christian religion. | |||
The birth of the Unitarian faith is proximate to the ], beginning almost simultaneously among the Protestant<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QTUTqE2difgC&dq=%22polish+brethren%22+%22protestant%22&pg=PA16|title=Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966–1945|isbn=978-0313260070|last1=Lerski|first1=Jerzy Jan|last2=Lerski|first2=George J.|last3=Lerski|first3=Halina T.|year=1996|publisher=Greenwood Publishing|access-date=2021-12-25|archive-date=2023-09-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928230520/https://books.google.com/books?id=QTUTqE2difgC&dq=%22polish+brethren%22+%22protestant%22&pg=PA16|url-status=live}}</ref> ] in the ] and in the ] in the mid-16th century;<ref name="Williams 1995">{{cite book |last=Williams |first=George Huntston |author-link=George Huntston Williams |year=1995 |chapter=Chapter 28: The Rise of Unitarianism in the Magyar Reformed Synod in Transylvania |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ppmYEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1099 |title=The Radical Reformation |location=] |publisher=] |edition=3rd |pages=1099–1133 |isbn=978-0-943549-83-5 |access-date=2023-01-13 |archive-date=2023-01-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230113232336/https://books.google.com/books?id=ppmYEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1099 |url-status=live }}</ref> the first Unitarian Christian denomination known to have emerged during that time was the ], founded by the Unitarian preacher and theologian ] ({{Circa|1520}}–1579).<ref name="Williams 1995"/> Among its adherents were a significant number of ] who took refuge in ], ], Poland, and Transylvania in order to escape from the ] perpetrated against them by the ] and ] ] churches.<ref name="Williams 1995"/><ref name="Luszczynska 2018">{{cite book |last=Luszczynska |first=Magdalena |year=2018 |chapter=Introduction |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mQh2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 |title=Politics of Polemics: Marcin Czechowic on the Jews |location=] and ] |publisher=] |pages=1–26 |doi=10.1515/9783110586565-001 |isbn=9783110586565 |s2cid=158456664 |access-date=2023-02-10 |archive-date=2023-02-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210201605/https://books.google.com/books?id=mQh2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>James Hastings ''Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics: Algonquins-Art'' p. 785 – 2001 "The first Unitarians were Italians, and the majority took refuge in Poland, where the laxity of the laws and the independence of the nobility secured for them a toleration which would have been denied to their views in other countries."</ref><ref>The encyclopedia of Protestantism 137 Hans Joachim Hillerbrand – 2004 "The so-called Golden Age of Unitarianism in Transylvania (1540–1571) resulted in a rich production of works both in Hungarian and Latin".</ref> In the 17th century, significant repression in Poland led many Unitarians to flee or be killed for their faith.<ref name="Luszczynska 2018"/> From the 16th to 18th centuries, Unitarians in Britain often faced significant political persecution, including ], ], and ]. In England, the ] was established in 1774 on ],<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Schofield|first=Robert E.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qL9K2e4KIvsC|title=The Enlightened Joseph Priestley: A Study of His Life and Work from 1773 to 1804|publisher=Penn State Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-271-04624-2|pages=26|language=English|access-date=2020-05-13|archive-date=2023-09-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928230520/https://books.google.com/books?id=qL9K2e4KIvsC|url-status=live}}</ref> where today's ] headquarters is still located.<ref>Erwin Fahlbusch The encyclopedia of Christianity 5 603 2008 "Lindsey attempted but failed to gain legal relief for Anglican Unitarians, so in 1774 he opened his own distinctly Unitarian church on Essex Street, London, where today's British Unitarian headquarters are still located."</ref> | |||
===Origins=== | |||
'''Unitarianism''' as a system of Christian thought and religious observance has its basis, as opposed to that of orthodox Trinitarianism, in the unipersonality of the Godhead, i.e. in the idea that the Godhead exists in the person of the Father alone. Unitarians trace their history back to the ] age, claim for their doctrine a prevalence during the ante-] period, and by help of ] communities and individual thinkers trace a continuity of their views to the present time. Whatever the accuracy of this lineage, the ] 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), in Hungary, and at a much later date in England. | |||
As is typical of ]s and ], Unitarianism does not constitute one single ]; rather, it refers to a collection of both existing and extinct Christian groups (whether historically related to each other or not) that share a common theological concept of the unitary nature of God. Unitarian Christian communities and churches have developed in ] (mostly ] and ]), ], ], ], ], ], ], ], the ], and the ]. In ], different schools of Unitarian theology first spread in the ] and subsequently in the ]. The first official acceptance of the Unitarian faith on the part of a congregation in North America was by ] in Boston, from where ] began teaching Unitarian doctrine in 1784 and was appointed rector. Later in 1785, he created a ] based on Lindsey's work.<ref>''American Unitarianism: or, A Brief history of "The progress and State of the Unitarian Churches in America,'' third edition, 1815 "So early as the year 1786, Dr. Freeman had persuaded his church to adopt a liturgy, which the Rev. ... Thus much for the history of Unitarianism at the Stone Chapel."</ref> | |||
Along with the fundamental doctrine, certain characteristics have always marked those who profess unitarianism; namely, a large degree of ], a minimizing of essentials, a repugnance to formulated ], an historical study of ]. | |||
] (1499 - 1564), a friend of ], usually appears as the first literary pioneer (1527) of the movement; the anti-Trinitarian position of ] did not become public until after his execution (1529) for ]. | |||
Both by his writings (from 1531) and by his fate (1353) ] stimulated thought in this direction. | |||
The ''Dialogues'' (1563) of ], 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. | |||
== |
== Terminology == | ||
Scattered expressions of anti-Trinitarian opinion appear here early. | |||
At the age of 80, Catherine, wife of Melchior Vogel or Weygel, was burned at ] (1539) for apostasy; whether her views embraced more than ] is not clear. | |||
The first synod of the Reformed Church took place in 1555; at the second (1556), Gregory Pauli (Grzegorz Paweł z Brzezin) and Peter ] (Piotr z Goniądza) avowed anti-Trinitarian and anabaptist views. The arrival of ] in 1558 furnished the party with a 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 ] 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 his own views by Fausto Sozzini, who had settled in Poland in 1579 (see ]). | |||
In 1602 James Sienynski (]) established at Raków a ] and a printing-press, from which the Racovian ] was issued in 1605. | |||
Unitarianism is a ] and follows the same English usage as other Christian theologies that have developed within a religious group or denomination (such as ], ], ], ], ], etc.).<ref>L. Sue Baugh, ''Essentials of English Grammar: A Practical Guide to the Mastery of English'' ({{ISBN|978-0844258218}}). Second Edition 1994, p. 59: "Religious Names and Terms: The names of all religions, denominations, and local groups are capitalized."</ref> The term existed shortly before it became the name of a distinct religious tradition, thus occasionally it is used as a common noun to describe any ] that denies the doctrine of the ] or affirms the belief that ]. In that case, it would be a ] belief system not necessarily associated with the Unitarian movement.<ref>J. Gordon Melton, ''Encyclopedia of Protestantism'', 2005, p. 543: "Unitarianism – The word ''unitarian'' means one who believes in the oneness of God; historically it refers to those in the Christian community who rejected the doctrine of the Trinity (one God expressed in three persons). Non-Trinitarian Protestant churches emerged in the 16th century in ITALY, POLAND, and TRANSYLVANIA."</ref><ref>Letter from Matthew F. Smith to Editor ''World faiths Encounter'', 7–12 World Congress of Faiths – 1994 – "In an otherwise excellent article by Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia, 'Sikh Spirit in an Age of Plurality' (No. 6, November 1993), the writer makes a number of pejorative remarks about 'unitarianism', associating the term with a striving for a monolithic polity and reductionism to a common denominator. This is a very unfortunate misuse of the word. A correct definition of 'unitarianism' (small 'u') is the mono-] belief system of someone not directly associated with the Unitarian movement, almost always applied to a person from the Christian tradition, as the word was coined in distinction to the orthodox 'Trinitarian' doctrine of Christianity. 'Unitarians' (capital 'U') are, of course, those who follow the Unitarian approach to religion and are formally associated with the movement. In neither case can it be claimed that there is an underlying agenda towards reductionism and uniformity. Quite the reverse, in fact. Modern Unitarianism is remarkable among religions in not only welcoming the variety of faiths that there are to be found but also, as a creedless church, welcoming and encouraging acceptance of the same. We readily accept that not all our members are 'realist' theists, for example. Our long-standing commitment to interfaith understanding, evident in our practical support of the International Association for Religious Freedom, the World Congress of Faiths and the newly established International Interfaith centre in Oxford cannot be taken to mean that Unitarians are seeking the creation of a single world religion out of the old. I do not know a single Unitarian who believes or seeks that. On the contrary, we reject uniformity and cherish instead the highest degree of spiritual integrity, both of the existing religious traditions of the world and of religious persons as unique, thinking individuals. Matthew F Smith, Information Officer" (], Unitarian Church headquarters, UK)</ref><ref>"The name originated at the time of the great dispute at Gyulafehérvár in 1568, in the course of which Mélius quite often concluded his argument by saying, ''Ergo Deus est trinitarius''.... Hence his party naturally came to be called Trinitarians and their opponents would naturally be called Unitarians. The name seems thus to have come into general use only gradually and it was long before it was employed in the formal proclamations of their Superintendents.... It is not found in print as the denomination of the church until 1600, when the ''unitaria religio'' is named as one of the four received religions in a decree of the Diet of Léczfalva (cf. Magyar Emlékek, iv, 551) in the extreme southeastern part of Transylvania. The name was never used by the Socinians in Poland; but late in the seventeenth century Transylvanian Unitarian students made it well-known in Holland, where the Socinians in exile, who had never adopted Socinian as the name of their movement and were more and more objecting to it, welcomed it as distinguishing them from Trinitarians. It thus gradually superseded the term Socinian, and spread to England and America." Earl Morse Wilbur, ''A History of Unitarianism'', vol. 2, pp. 47–48.</ref> For example, the Unitarian movement has never accepted the Godhood of Jesus, and therefore does not include those ''nontrinitarian'' belief systems that do, such as ], ], the ], and the writings of ] (all of which maintain that Jesus is God as a single person). Recently, some religious groups have adopted the 19th-century term '']'' to distinguish their theologies from Unitarianism.<ref>Tuggy, Dale, {{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}.</ref> | |||
In 1610 a Catholic reaction began, led by Jesuits. | |||
The establishment at Raków was suppressed in 1638, two lads having pelted a crucifix outside the town. When | |||
twenty years public opinion widely considered them as Swedish collaborators during ], 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 ] (where the Remonstrants admitted them to membership on the basis of the Apostles’ Creed); others to the German frontier; a contingent settled in Transylvania, not joining the Unitarian Church, but maintaining a distinct organization at Kolozsvár until 1793. | |||
Unitarianism is a Christian theology and practice that precedes and is distinct from ].<ref>Robinson, ''The Unitarians and the Universalists'', pp. 159–184.</ref><ref>AW Gomes, EC Beisner, and RM Bowman, ''Unitarian Universalism'' (Zondervan, 1998), pp. 30–79.</ref><ref>American Unitarian association, 1886. ''The Unitarian Register''. American Unitarian Association. p. 563</ref><ref>Rationalist Press Association Limited, 1957. ''Humanist, Volume 72''. p. III</ref> In the 1890s the ] began to allow non-Christian and ] churches and individuals to be part of their fellowship.<ref>George Willis Cooke, ''Unitarianism in America'' (AUA, 1902), pp. 224–230.</ref> As a result, people who held no Unitarian belief began to be called ''Unitarians'' because they were members of churches that belonged to the American Unitarian Association. After several decades, the non-theistic members outnumbered the theological Unitarians.<ref>{{citation | publisher = UUA | url = http://www.uua.org/documents/coa/engagingourtheodiversity.pdf | title = Engaging Our Theological Diversity | pages = 70–72 | access-date = 2011-01-02 | archive-date = 2010-06-15 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100615181113/http://uua.org/documents/coa/engagingourtheodiversity.pdf | url-status = live }}</ref> | |||
At Amsterdam was published (1665 - 1669) the ''Bibliotheca fratrum polonorum'', embracing the works of Hans Krell (], Jan Crell), their leading theologian, of Jonas Schlichting (Szlichtyng), their chief commentator, of Sozzini and of Johann Ludwig Wolzogen; the title-page of this collection, bearing the words ''quos Unitarios vocant'', introduced this term to Western Europe. | |||
== History == | |||
===Transylvania and Hungary=== | |||
{{Main|History of Unitarianism}} | |||
No distinct trace of anti-Trinitarian opinion precedes the appearance of Biandrata at the Transylvanian court in 1563. His influence was exerted on Francis David (1510 - 1579), who was successively Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist and anti-Trinitarian. | |||
{{Further|Radical Reformation|Reformation in the Kingdom of Hungary}} | |||
In 1564 David 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. | |||
{{more citations needed section|date=July 2019}} | |||
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. | |||
] holding his speech at the Diet of Torda (1568), in the ] (today ], ]). Painting by ] (1896).]] | |||
Unitarianism, both as a theology and as a ], was defined and developed in Poland, Transylvania, England, Wales, India, Japan, Jamaica, the United States, and beyond in the 16th century through the present.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Book Talk with Michel Mohr "Unitarianism in Japan: Unravelling Its Saga through the UUA Archives"|url=https://library.hds.harvard.edu/news/ahtl-book-talk-michel-mohr|access-date=2021-03-21|website=library.hds.harvard.edu|language=en|archive-date=2021-07-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210731112559/https://library.hds.harvard.edu/news/ahtl-book-talk-michel-mohr|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists Around the World {{!}} International Unitarian Universalism {{!}} UUA.org|url=https://www.uua.org/international/uus-abroad|access-date=2021-03-21|website=www.uua.org|language=en|archive-date=2021-04-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411001543/https://www.uua.org/international/uus-abroad|url-status=live}}</ref> Although common beliefs existed among Unitarians in each of these regions, they initially grew independently from each other. Only later did they influence one another and accumulate more similarities.<ref>"The religious movement whose history we are endeavoring to trace...became fully developed in thought and polity in only four countries, one after another, namely Poland, Transylvania, England and America, but in each of these it showed, along with certain individual characteristics, a general spirit, a common point of view, and a doctrinal pattern that tempt one to regard them as all outgrowths of a single movement which passed from one to another; for nothing could be more natural than to presume that these common features implied a common ancestry. Yet such is not the fact, for in each of these four lands the movement, instead of having originated elsewhere, and been translated only after attaining mature growth, appears to have sprung independently and directly from its own native roots, and to have been influenced by other and similar movements only after it had already developed an independent life and character of its own." Earl Morse Wilbur, ''A History of Unitarianism'', vol. 2 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952), p. 166.</ref> | |||
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, David 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 the edition of 186~. | |||
The ''Ecclesia minor'' or ''Minor Reformed Church of Poland'', better known today as the ], was born as the result of a controversy that started on January 22, 1556, when ] (Peter Gonesius), a Polish student, spoke out against the ] during the general synod of the Reformed (]) churches of Poland held in the village of ].<ref>Hewett, ''Racovia'', pp. 20–21.</ref> After nine years of debate, in 1565, the anti-Trinitarians were excluded from the existing synod of the ] (henceforth the ''Ecclesia maior'') and they began to hold their own synods as the ''Ecclesia minor''. Though frequently called "]" by those on the outside, the views of ] (Faustus Socinus) became the standard in the church, and these doctrines were quite removed from Arianism. So important was Socinus to the formulation of their beliefs that those outside Poland usually referred to them as ].<ref>{{cite book |last=Livingstone |first=B. A. |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199659623.001.0001/acref-9780199659623-e-5941 |title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780191744303 |edition=3 |entry=Unitarianism |quote=Poland, where Faustus Socinus was their leader from 1579 until his death. |access-date=2022-09-17 |archive-date=2023-09-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928230522/https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199659623.001.0001/acref-9780199659623-e-5941 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Polish Brethren were disbanded in 1658 by the ] (Polish Parliament). They were ordered to convert to Roman Catholicism or leave Poland. Most of them went to Transylvania or Holland, where they embraced the name "Unitarian". Between 1665 and 1668 a grandson of Socinus, ], published ''] quos Unitarios vocant'' (''Library of the Polish Brethren who are called Unitarians'' 4 vols. 1665–1669).{{citation needed|date=May 2019}} | |||
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 till 1638. | |||
The Unitarian Church in Transylvania was first recognized by the ], issued by the ] under ] ] (January 1568),<ref name="poperamet">Earl A. Pope, "Protestantism in Romania", in Sabrina Petra Ramet (ed.), ''Protestantism and Politics in Eastern Europe and Russia: The Communist and Postcommunist Eras'', ], Durham, 1992, p. 160. {{ISBN|0-8223-1241-7}}.</ref> and was first led by ] (a former ] bishop, who had begun preaching the new doctrine in 1566). The term "Unitarian" first appeared as ''unitaria religio'' in a document of the Diet of ], ], on 25 October 1600, though it was not widely used in Transylvania until 1638, when the formal ''recepta Unitaria Religio'' was published.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}} | |||
Of the line of twenty-three bishops the most distinguished were George Enyedi (1592 - 1597), whose ''Explicationes'' obtained European vogue, and Michael Lombard Szentabrahámi (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 secund urn 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 is the Hungarian Unitarian Church, with a membership as of 1911 of 60,000, most of them in Transylvania, especially among the ''Székely'' (Szekler) population, a few in Hungary; their bishop had a seat in the Hungarian parliament. At Kolozsvár, the seat of the consistory, was the principal college; others were at Torda and at Székely-Keresztúr. | |||
Till 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. | |||
The word ''Unitarian'' had been circulating in private letters in England, in reference to imported copies of such publications as the '']'' (1665). ] was the first to use the word "Unitarian" in print in English (1673), and the word first appears in a title in ]'s ''A Brief History of the Unitarians, called also Socinians'' (1687). The movement gained popularity in England in the wake of the ] and began to become a formal denomination in 1774 when ] organised meetings with ], founding the first avowedly Unitarian congregation in the country. This occurred at ] in London.<ref name=":0" /> Official ]. | |||
===England=== | |||
Between 1548 (John Assheton) and 1612 we find a thin line of anti-Trinitarians, either executed or saved by recantation. 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 virus seems to have come from Holland; the last two executions followed the rash dedication to ] of the Latin version of the Racovian Catechism (1609). | |||
The vogue of Socinian views, which for a time affected men like Falkland and Chillingworth, led to the abortive fourth canon of 1640 against Socinian books. | |||
The first official acceptance of the Unitarian faith on the part of a congregation in America was by ] in Boston, which settled ] (1759–1835) in 1782, and revised the Prayer Book into a mild Unitarian liturgy in 1785. In 1800, ] became minister of the ] in Boston, where his brilliant sermons, literary activities, and academic attention to the ] helped shape the subsequent growth of Unitarianism in New England. Unitarian ] (1764–1845) was appointed as the ] at Harvard College, in 1805. ] then shifted from its conservative roots to teach Unitarian theology (see ]). Buckminster's close associate ] (1780–1842) was settled over the ] in Boston, 1803, and in a few years he became the leader of the Unitarian movement. A theological battle with the ] resulted in the formation of the ] at Boston in 1825. Certainly, the unitarian theology was being "adopted" by the Congregationalists from the 1820s onwards. This movement is also evident in England at this time.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bowers |first1=J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LVQd6MitmpoC&q=congregationalists++adopting+Unitarian+theology&pg=PA245 |title=Joseph Priestley and English Unitarianism in America |date=2010 |publisher=Penn State Press |isbn=978-0271045818 |page=245 |quote=...Before 1819, American Unitarians followed the teachings of Priestly... the liberal Congregationalists adopted their Unitarian theology. |access-date=21 July 2020 |archive-date=28 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928230521/https://books.google.com/books?id=LVQd6MitmpoC&q=congregationalists++adopting+Unitarian+theology&pg=PA245#v=snippet&q=congregationalists%20%20adopting%20Unitarian%20theology&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
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 Biddlle 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, was weaned to Sabellian views by Stephen Nye (1648—1719), a clergyman. Firmin promoted a remarkable series of controversial tracts (1690 - 1699). | |||
The first school founded by the Unitarians in the United States was the ], in ], founded in 1831. | |||
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 the unipersonality of the Divine Being. Firmin had later 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. It is noteworthy that in England the Socinian controversy, initiated by Biddle, preceded the Arian controversy initiated by Samuel Clarke’s ''Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity'' (1712). | |||
== Beliefs == | |||
Arian or semi-Arian views had much vogue during the 18th century, both in the Church and in dissent. The free atmosphere of dissenting academies (colleges) favoured new ideas. The effect of the Salters’ Hall conference (1719), called for by the alleged heresy 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. | |||
], Hungary.]] | |||
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. | |||
=== Christology === | |||
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 Bebham (1750 - 1829). | |||
Unitarians charge that the ], unlike unitarianism, fails to adhere to strict monotheism. Unitarians maintain that Jesus was a great man and a ] of God, perhaps even a ] being, but not God himself.<ref name="Miano 2003 15"/> They believe Jesus did not claim to be God and that his teachings did not suggest the existence of a ]. | |||
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 ] 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. | |||
Unitarian Christology can be divided according to whether or not Jesus is believed to have had a pre-human existence. Both forms maintain that ] is one ] and one ] and that Jesus is the (or a) ], but generally not God himself.<ref>{{citation |last=Hastings |first=James |title=Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics |volume=2 |page=785 |quote=Unitarianism started, on the other hand, with the denial of the pre-existence... These opinions, however, must be considered apart from Arianism proper. |author-link=James Hastings}}</ref> | |||
The drier Priestley-Belsham type of Unitarianism, bound up ~vith 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 cf 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). | |||
In the early 19th century, Unitarian ] identified three particular classes of Unitarian doctrines in history: | |||
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) forms an exception. | |||
* ''']''', which believed in a pre-existence of the ]; | |||
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. | |||
* ''']''', which denied his pre-existence, but agreed that Christ should be ]ped; | |||
* '''"Strict Unitarian"''', which, believing in an "incommunicable divinity of God", denied the worship of "the man Christ."<ref>Wallace, Robert. 1819. '' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164814/https://books.google.com/books?id=a-orAAAAYAAJ |date=2023-03-26 }}''. "Statement of The Peculiar Doctrines of Unitarians": pp. 7–10</ref><ref>See also '' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150120235633/http://www.ccg.org/z/P185z.html |date=2015-01-20 }}'', by Christian Churches of God, Wade Cox, Summary No. 185z</ref> | |||
Unitarianism is considered a factor in the decline of classical ] because there were people who increasingly preferred to identify themselves as Unitarians rather than deists.<ref>Mossner, Ernest Campbell (1967). "Deism". Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2. Collier-MacMillan. pp. 326–336.</ref> | |||
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 ''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 (1878 - 1894) ,an annual lectureship, and maintained (from 1894) a chair of ecclesiastical history at Manchester College. | |||
Several tenets of Unitarianism overlap with the ] and ].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Setton|first1=Kenneth|title=A History of the Crusades|url=https://archive.org/details/historycrusadesv00sett_378|url-access=limited|date=1969|page=|isbn=978-0299048341}}</ref> | |||
===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. | |||
==== "Socinian" Christology ==== | |||
The Scottish Unitarian Association was founded in 1813, mainly by Thomas Southwood Smith, M.D., the sanitary reformer. | |||
{{Main|Socinianism}} | |||
The McQuaker Trust was founded (1889) for propagandist purposes. | |||
] was an Italian theologian who helped define Unitarianism and also served the ] church.]] | |||
The Christology commonly called "]" (after ], one of the founders of Unitarian theology) refers to the belief that Jesus Christ began his life when he was born as a human. In other words, the teaching that Jesus ] his human body is rejected. There are various views ranging from the belief that Jesus was simply a human (]) who, because of his greatness, was adopted by God as his Son (]) to the belief that Jesus literally became the ] when he was conceived by the ].{{citation needed|date=May 2019}} | |||
This Christology existed in some form or another prior to Sozzini. ],<ref>{{citation |last=Hoben |first=Allan |title=The Virgin Birth |year=1903 |quote=Of the above-stated beliefs that of Theodotus of Byzantium is perhaps the most striking, in that, while it admits the virgin birth, it denies the deductions commonly made therefrom, attributing to Christ only pre-eminent righteousness.}}</ref> ]<ref>{{citation |last=Bright |first=William |title=Some Aspects of Primitive Church Life |page=127 |quote=His original view was put into more definite form by Artemon, who regarded Jesus Christ as distinguished from prophets by (1) virgin-birth, (a) superior virtue.}}</ref> and ]<ref>Charles, Tutorial Prayer Book, p. 599.</ref> denied the pre-existence of Christ. These ideas were continued by ] and his pupil ] in the 4th century AD.<ref>{{citation |last=Houdt |first=Toon |title=Self-Presentation and Social Identification |page=238 |quote=Christian apologists traced the origin of Socinianism to the doctrine of Photinus (4th century), who according to St. Augustine denied the pre-existence of Christ.}}</ref><ref>] (1916–1988), ] ''The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God: The Arian Controversy, 318–381'' (9780801031465): 1973 "Photinus' doctrine appears to have been a form of what might be called middle Marcellism, i.e. what Marcellus originally taught before his vicissitudes caused him to temper the edge of his doctrine and take account of the criticisms of his friends as well as of his enemies, a little more moderated."</ref> In the ] and ] movements of the 16th century this idea resurfaced with Sozzini's uncle, ]. Having influenced the ] to a formal declaration of this belief in the ], Fausto Sozzini involuntarily ended up giving his name to this Christological position,<ref>{{citation |last=Watson |first=R. |title=A Biblical and Theological Dictionary |page=999}}.</ref> which continued with English Unitarians such as ], ], ], and ]. In America, most of the early Unitarians were "Arian" in Christology (see below), but among those who held to a "Socinian" view was ].{{citation needed|date=May 2019}} | |||
===Ireland=== | |||
Controversy respecting the Trinity was excited in Ireland by the prosecution at Dublin (1703) of Thomas Emlyti (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. | |||
Regarding the ] among those who denied the preexistence of Christ, some held to it and others did not. Its denial is sometimes ascribed to the ]; however, ] (''Contra Celsum'' v.61) and ] (''HE'' iii.27) both indicate that some Ebionites did accept the virgin birth.<ref>{{citation |last=Bromiley |first=Geoffrey W. |title=International Standard Bible Encyclopedia |volume=E–J |page=9 |year=1982 |quote=Origen was the first to distinguish between two types of Ebionites theologically: those who believed in the Virgin Birth and those who rejected it.}}</ref> On the other hand, ], ], and ] all accepted the virgin birth.<ref name="Stead">{{Citation |last=Stead |first=Christopher |title=Philosophy in Christian Antiquity |pages=189 |year=1996 |location=Cambridge |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-521-46955-5}}.</ref> In the early days of Unitarianism, the stories of the virgin birth were accepted by most. There were a number of Unitarians who questioned the historical accuracy of the Bible, including ], ], Thomas Belsham, and ], and this made them question the virgin birth story.<ref>{{citation |last=Webb |first=R. K. |title=Enlightenment, Passion, Modernity: Historical Essays in European Thought and Culture |page=120 |year=2007 |editor1-last=Micale |editor1-first=Mark S. |contribution=Miracles in English Unitarian Thought |editor2-last=Dietle |editor2-first=Robert L |editor3-last=Gay |editor3-first=Peter}}.</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Belsham |title=Monthly Repository |issue=I |page=423 |year=1806 |contribution=Remarks on Mr. Proud's Pamphlet}}.</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Wright |first=Richard |title=An Essay on the Miraculous Conception of Jesus Christ |year=1808 |place=London}}.</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Wright |first=R |title=A Review of the Missionary Life and Labors of Richard Wright |page=68 |quote=After they were excited to think freely, some gave up the doctrine of the miraculous conception, from reading the scriptures only, and observing certain things there with which it could not be reconciled.}}</ref> Beginning in England and America in the 1830s, and manifesting itself primarily in ], which emerged from the German liberal theology associated primarily with ], the psilanthropist view increased in popularity.<ref>Gura, Philip F. ''American Transcendentalism: A History''. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007: 7–8. {{ISBN|0-8090-3477-8}}.</ref> Its proponents took an intellectual and humanistic approach to religion. They embraced evolutionary concepts, asserted the "inherent goodness of man", and abandoned the doctrine of ], rejecting most of the miraculous events in the Bible (including the virgin birth). Notable examples are ], ], ] and ]. Famous American Unitarian ] was a believer in the virgin birth until later in his life, after he had begun his association with the Transcendentalists.<ref>{{citation |last=Placher |first=William Carl |title=A History of Christian Theology: An Introduction |page=265 |year=1983 |quote=Rationalist Unitarians like William Ellery Channing had argued from the Bible and the evidence of its miracles.}}</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Chadwick |first=John White |title=William Ellery Channing: Minister of Religion |page=440}}.</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Mendelsohn |first=Jack |title=Channing, the Reluctant Radical: A Biography |year=1971 |quote=A Suffolk County grand jury indicted him on three charges of blasphemy and obscenity: (1) he had quoted a scurrilous passage by Voltaire disparaging the virgin birth of Jesus.}}</ref> | |||
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. | |||
==== Arianism ==== | |||
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''. | |||
] burning ] books, illustration from a book of canon law, c. 825.]] | |||
] is often considered a form of Unitarianism.<ref>{{cite web |title=Arianism |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arianism |website=Britannica |date=28 August 2023 |access-date=15 September 2022 |archive-date=27 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327091909/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arianism |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
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). | |||
The ] of Arianism holds that Jesus, before his human life, existed as the ], or the Word, a being begotten or created by God, who dwelt with God in heaven.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}} There are many varieties of this form of Unitarianism, ranging from the belief that the Son was a divine spirit of the same substance (called ]) or ] to that of God (called ]) to the belief that he was an angel or other lesser spirit creature of a wholly different nature from God.{{citation needed|date=May 2011}} Not all of these views necessarily were held by ], the namesake of this Christology. It is still Nontrinitarian because, according to this belief system, Jesus has always been beneath God, though higher than humans. Arian Christology was not a majority view among Unitarians in Poland, Transylvania or England. It was only with the advent of American Unitarianism that it gained a foothold in the Unitarian movement.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}} | |||
Among early Christian theologians who believed in a pre-existent Jesus who was subordinate to God the Father were ], ], ], ], ], ], and ], as well as ]. Proponents of this Christology also associate it (more controversially) with ] and ]. Antitrinitarian ] did not deny the pre-existence of Christ, so he may have believed in it.<ref>{{citation |last=Odhner |first=CT |title=Michael Servetus, His Life and Teachings |url=https://archive.org/details/michaelservetush00odhn |page=77 |year=1910 |quote=It will be seen from these extracts how completely without foundation is the assertion that Servetus denied the eternal pre-existence of Christ.}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=March 2013}} (In his "Treatise Concerning the Divine Trinity" Servetus taught that the Logos (Word) was the reflection of Christ, and "that reflection of Christ was 'the Word with God" that consisted of God Himself, shining brightly in heaven, "and it was God Himself"<ref name="Servetus 1553 75">{{cite book|last=Servetus|first=Michael|title=The Restoration of Christianity – An English Translation of Christianismi restitutio, 1553, Translated by Christopher A. Hoffman and Marian Hillar|year=1553|publisher=]|location=]|isbn=978-0-7734-5520-7|page=75}}</ref> and that "the Word was the very essence of God or the manifestation of God's essence, and there was in God no other substance or hypostasis than His Word, in a bright cloud where God then seemed to subsist. And in that very spot the face and personality of Christ shone bright."<ref name="Servetus 1553 75"/>) ] had Arian beliefs as well.<ref>{{citation |last=Pfizenmaier |first=Thomas C. |title=Journal of the History of Ideas |issue=68 |pages=57–80 |year=1997 |contribution=Was Isaac Newton an Arian? |quote=Among contemporary scholars, the consensus is that Newton was an Arian.}}</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Wiles |first=Maurice F |title=Archetypal Heresy: Arianism Through the Centuries |page=133 |year=1996 |quote=Modern Unitarianism emerged after Newton's death.}}</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Nicholls |first=David |title=God and Government in an 'age of Reason' |page=44 |year=1995 |quote=Unitarianism ideas emerged after Newton's death.}}</ref> Famous 19th-century Arian Unitarians include ]<ref>{{citation |title=A Statement of Reasons for Not Believing the Doctrines of Trinitarians |year=1859}}.</ref> and ] (in his earlier years).<ref>{{citation |title=The Works of WE Channing, DD |year=1841 |chapter=Unitarian Christianity}}.</ref> | |||
=== Other beliefs === | |||
Although there is no specific authority on convictions of Unitarian belief aside from rejection of the Trinity, the following beliefs are generally accepted:<ref>{{citation |last=May |first=Samuel Joseph |title=What Do Unitarians Believe? |year=1867 |place=Albany |publisher=Weed, Parsons, and Co. |orig-year=1860 |hdl=2027/hvd.32044081810715 |hdl-access=free}}.</ref><ref>{{citation | first = AC | last = Henderson | title = What Do Unitarians Believe? | year = 1886}}</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Dewey |first=Orville |title=The Unitarian Belief |year=1873 |place=Boston}}.</ref><ref>{{citation | first = James Freeman | last = Clarke | title = Manual of Unitarian Belief | orig-year = 1885 | edition = 20th | year = 1924}}</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Ellis |first=George H |title=What Do Unitarians Believe About Jesus Christ? |year=1890 |place=Boston}}.</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Sunderland |first=Jabez T |title=What Do Unitarians Believe? |year=1891 |place=New York |publisher=AUA |author-link=Jabez T. Sunderland}}.</ref> | |||
* One God and the oneness or unity of God. | |||
* The life and teachings of Jesus Christ constitute the exemplary model for living one's own life. | |||
* Reason, rational thought, science, and philosophy coexist with faith in God. | |||
* Humans have the ability to exercise ] in a responsible, constructive and ethical manner with the assistance of religion. | |||
* ] in its present condition is neither inherently corrupt nor depraved (see ]) but capable of both good and evil, as God intended. | |||
* No religion can claim an absolute monopoly on the Holy Spirit or ] truth. | |||
* Though the authors of the Bible were inspired by God, they were humans and therefore subject to human error. | |||
* The traditional ] of ], ], and the vicarious sacrifice and satisfaction theories of the ] are invalid because they malign God's character and veil the true nature and mission of Jesus Christ.<ref>{{cite journal|year=1858|title=The Unitarian Denomination|journal=The Quarterly Journal of the American Unitarian Association|volume=5|publisher=]|location=Boston|page=168|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zPgQAAAAIAAJ&q=%22unitarian+theory+of+atonement%22&pg=PA168|access-date=2020-11-22|archive-date=2023-09-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928230522/https://books.google.com/books?id=zPgQAAAAIAAJ&q=%22unitarian+theory+of+atonement%22&pg=PA168#v=snippet&q=%22unitarian%20theory%20of%20atonement%22&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
In 1938, ''The Christian Leader'' attributed "''the'' religion ''of'' Jesus, not ''a'' religion ''about'' Jesus" to Unitarians,<ref>{{citation |author=An esteemed Unitarian minister |title=The Christian Leader |volume=120 |page=1034 |year=1938 |chapter=2 |quote=This view finds pat expression in the dictum that Christianity is the religion of Jesus, not a religion about Jesus.}}</ref> though the phrase was used earlier by ] ] in 1924.<ref>{{citation |last=Hartt |first=Rollin Lynde |title=The Man Himself |year=1924}}.</ref> | |||
== Worship == | |||
Worship within the Unitarian tradition accommodates a wide range of understandings of ], while the focus of the service may be simply the celebration of life itself. Each Unitarian congregation is at liberty to devise its own form of worship, though commonly, Unitarians will light their chalice (symbol of faith), have a story for all ages; and include sermons, prayers, hymns and songs. Some will allow attendees to publicly share their recent joys or concerns.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/unitarianism/worship/worship.shtml|title=BBC – Religions – Unitarianism: Unitarian worship|website=www.bbc.co.uk|access-date=2022-03-28|archive-date=2022-03-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220328224957/https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/unitarianism/worship/worship.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
== Modern Christian Unitarian organizations == | |||
{{Main|History of Unitarianism}} | |||
] in ], designed by Unitarian ]]] | |||
This section relates to Unitarian churches and organizations today which are still specifically Christian, whether within or outside Unitarian Universalism. Unitarian Universalism, conversely, refers to the embracing of non-Christian religions. | |||
=== International groups === | |||
{{See also|International Council of Unitarians and Universalists}} | |||
Some Unitarian Christian groups are affiliated with the ] (ICUU), founded in 1995.<ref> on archived ICUU website. Retrieved 15 January 2020</ref> The ICUU has "full member" groups in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, EUU, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland,<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200115122454/https://icuu.net/2019/04/15/unitarians-poland-now/ |date=2020-01-15 }} on official website, 15 April 2019. Retrieved 15 January 2020</ref> Romania, South Africa, Spain. Sri Lanka and the United States. Brazil is a Provisional Member.<ref> on archived ICUU website. Retrieved 15 January 2020</ref> | |||
The ICUU includes small "Associate Groups", including Congregazione Italiana Cristiano Unitariana, ] (founded in 2004)<ref> on archived ICUU website. Retrieved 15 January 2020</ref><ref>{{citation | url = http://www.cesnur.org/religioni_italia/p/prot_radicale_04.htm | language = it | title = Protestanti radicale | first = Rev. Roberto | last = Rosso | publisher = Cesnur | access-date = 2010-06-12 | archive-date = 2009-10-14 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091014163124/http://www.cesnur.org/religioni_italia/p/prot_radicale_04.htm | url-status = live }}</ref> and the Bét Dávid Unitarian Association, ] (founded 2005).<ref>{{citation |url=http://unitarforbundet.org/ |title=Unitarforbundet Bét Dávid (Den norske unitarkirke) |language=no |access-date=2010-06-12 |archive-date=2009-04-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090422054210/http://www.unitarforbundet.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
===Transylvania (Romania)=== | |||
], a 13th-century fortified church belonging to the ]. This is the only Unitarian fortified church in Transylvania which is on the ]'s ].]] | |||
The largest Unitarian denomination worldwide today is also the oldest Unitarian denomination (since 1565, first use of the term "Unitarian" 1600):<ref>a the ] 1600, in Gordon A. ''Heads of Unitarian History''</ref> the ] (in ], which is in union with the Unitarian Church in Hungary). The church in Transylvania still looks to the statement of faith, the '']'' (1787), though today assent to this is not required. The modern ] (25,000 members) and the ] (75,000 members) are affiliated with the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU) and claim continuity with the historical Unitarian Christian tradition established by ] in 1565 in ] under ]. The Unitarian churches in Hungary and Transylvania are structured and organized along a church hierarchy that includes the election by the synod of a national bishop who serves as superintendent of the Church. Many Hungarian Unitarians embrace the principles of rationalist Unitarianism.<ref>{{citation | first = David | last = Keyes | title = Most Like An Arch |year = 1999 |page = 106 |quote = And for those who take the time to understand Transylvanian Unitarian beliefs, there may be some surprising discoveries to be made. They are humanists! Their Unitarian Christianity is steeped in rationalism, is heavily influenced by judaism}}</ref> Unitarian high schools exist only in Transylvania (Romania), including the ] in ], the ], and the Berde Mózes Unitárius Gimnázium in ]; both teach Rationalist Unitarianism.{{Citation needed|date=June 2010}} | |||
=== United Kingdom === | |||
] in London, England. Built in 1708, this is the oldest ] church in London still in use.]] | |||
The ] (UCA) was founded in the United Kingdom in 1991 by Rev. ] (1904–93)<ref>{{Cite journal |publisher=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-the-rev-lancelot-garrard-1479893.html |title=Obituary |first=Tony |last=Cross |journal=Science |date=1993-01-21 |volume=70 |issue=1803 |pages=58–60 |doi=10.1126/science.70.1803.58 |pmid=17755824 |access-date=2017-11-01 |archive-date=2018-09-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180924133843/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-the-rev-lancelot-garrard-1479893.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> and others to promote specifically Christian ideas within the ] (GAUFCC), the national Unitarian body in the UK. Just as the UUCF and ICUU maintain formal links with the ] in the US, so the UCA is an affiliate body of the GAUFCC in the UK.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}} | |||
The majority of Unitarian Christian publications are sponsored by an organization and published specifically for their membership. Generally, they do not serve as a tool for missionary work or encouraging conversions.{{Citation needed|date=June 2010}} | |||
===India=== | |||
In India, three different schools of Unitarian thought influenced varying movements, including the ], the Unitarian Church of the ],<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/Unitarianism-in-Khasi-Jaintia-Hills-A-unique-movement/articleshow/16454581.cms?referral=PM|title=Unitarianism in Khasi-Jaintia Hills: A unique movement|work=The Times of India|access-date=2018-09-26|archive-date=2018-10-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181031161134/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/Unitarianism-in-Khasi-Jaintia-Hills-A-unique-movement/articleshow/16454581.cms?referral=PM|url-status=live}}</ref> and the Unitarian Christian Church of ], in Madras, founded in 1795.<ref>{{cite web|title=Our Partner Church in India|url=http://www.edinburgh-unitarians.org.uk/our-partner-church-in-india|access-date=2021-02-27|website=Unitarians in Edinburgh|archive-date=2019-08-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190822122439/http://www.edinburgh-unitarians.org.uk/our-partner-church-in-india|url-status=live}}</ref> As of 2011, "Thirty-five congregations and eight fellowships comprising almost 10,000 Unitarians now form the Unitarian Union of North East India."<ref>{{cite web|last=Jane|first=Greer|date=21 February 2011|title=Morales visits Unitarians and humanitarian partners in India|url=https://www.uuworld.org/articles/morales-visits-india|access-date=27 February 2021|website=UU World|archive-date=11 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411211019/https://www.uuworld.org/articles/morales-visits-india|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
===United States=== | ===United States=== | ||
Unitarianism in the ] followed essentially the same development as in England, and passed through the stages of ], ], ], to ] and a ] 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 ], and sporadically elsewhere; this tendency was largely accelerated by the reaction from the excesses of the “]” under ] and ]. | |||
Before the ] 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. | |||
The American Unitarian Conference (AUC) was formed in 2000 and stands between UUA and ICUU in attachment to the Christian element of modern Unitarianism. The American Unitarian Conference is open to non-Christian Unitarians, being particularly popular with non-Christian ] and ].<ref>The Connection of Deism to American Unitarianism – Nathan De May</ref> As of 2009, The AUC has three congregations in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.americanunitarian.org/AUCCongregations.htm |title=AUC Congregations |publisher=americanunitarian.org |access-date=October 27, 2019 |archive-date=October 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191021084244/http://www.americanunitarian.org/AUCCongregations.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> | |||
As early as the middle of the 18th century ] 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 ] (1720 - 1766), pastor of the West Church in ] from 1747 to 1766. He preached the strict unity of God, the subordinate nature of Christ, and salvation by character. | |||
Unitarian Christian Ministries International was a Unitarian ministry incorporated in South Carolina until its dissolution in 2013 when it merged with the Unitarian Christian Emerging Church. The Unitarian Christian Emerging Church has recently undergone reorganization and today is known as the Unitarian Christian Church of America. In addition, the Unitarian Universalist Faith Alliance and Ministries follow a Progressive Christian format honoring Sacred Space and Creation Spirituality. | |||
] (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 ]. | |||
<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unitarianministries.com/ |title=Unitarian Christian Emerging Church ... a 21st century spiritual community, and faith ministry – Home |publisher=Unitarianministries.com |access-date=April 19, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120529072310/http://unitarianministries.com/ |archive-date=2012-05-29 |url-status=dead }}</ref> | |||
Other Unitarians included ] (1698 - 1787) of ], ] (1730 - 1807) of ], ] (1748 - 1814) of ], ] (1751 - 1836) and ] (1758 - 1819) of ], ] (1755 - 1836) of ], and several others. | |||
The Unitarian Christian Church of America (UCCA) was formed on 1 October 2016 through the merging of the Unitarian Christian Emerging Church and the Unitarian Christian Conference. The church's current ministry in on-line and through local fellowship gatherings. The current senior pastor and current president of the UCCA is the Reverend Dr. Shannon Rogers. The UCCA has both ordained and lay members.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://unitarianchristians.org/ | title=Welcome to the Unitarian Christian Church of America | website=unitarianchristians.org | access-date=2024-07-24}}</ref> | |||
=== Australia and New Zealand === | |||
{{Further|Australia and New Zealand Unitarian Universalist Association}} | |||
The first Unitarian Church in Australia was built in 1854 in Melbourne and was followed soon afterwards by chapels in Sydney and Adelaide, and later regional centres including Ballarat.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=E.R. |title=A Brief History of the Unitarian Christian Church Melbourne |publisher=Privately Printed |year=1926}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ronalds |first=B.F. |title=Alfred Ronalds: Angler, Artisan and Australian Pioneer |publisher=Medlar Press |year=2022}}</ref> The modern church, no longer unitarian Christian, retains properties in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne, and smaller congregations elsewhere in Australia and New Zealand.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/relrpt/stories/s1135435.htm|title=Stephen Crittenden: The President of the Unitarian church in Sydney, Peter Crawford, speaking to John Russell.|website=]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100418231729/http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/relrpt/stories/s1135435.htm|archive-date=2010-04-18}}</ref> | |||
=== South Africa === | |||
The Unitarian movement in South Africa was founded in 1867 by ],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/19562/De_Grunchy__JW__0869819437__Section4.pdf?sequence=4&isAllowed=y|title=Radical religion and civil society: The Unitarians of South Africa|author=Heller-Wagner, E.|publisher=University of South Africa|access-date=2018-10-09|archive-date=2018-05-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180517032443/http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/19562/De_Grunchy__JW__0869819437__Section4.pdf?sequence=4&isAllowed=y|url-status=live}}</ref> member of a well-known Cape family. He encountered advanced liberal religious thought while completing his studies at the ] in the ] for the ministry of the ] in ]. | |||
=== Ireland === | |||
There are two active ] in Ireland, one in Dublin and the other in Cork. Both are member churches of the ]. | |||
=== Denmark === | |||
Unitarianism was a latecomer to Denmark. Some of the inspiration came from Norway and England – family members of the founders, and the wife of Edward Grieg. 1900–1918 the society priest was Uffe Birkedal, who had previously been a Lutheran priest. He held the first worship 18 February 1900. A founding general assembly 18 May 1900 elected Mary Bess Westenholz as the first chairman of the Society. The Society newsletter was named 'Protestantisk Tidende' 1904–1993, and then renamed 'Unitaren', reflecting a gradually changing perception of being part of the Danish Lutheran Church, to one where this was no longer assumed (<ref>{{Cite web | title=Unitarisk Kirkesamfund – Unitarian Church Society | url=http://www.unitarerne.dk/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220703231837/http://www.unitarerne.dk/ | archive-date=2022-07-03 }}</ref>). | |||
===Biblical Unitarians=== | |||
{{main|Biblical Unitarianism}} | |||
] identifies the ] that the ] teaches that God the Father is ], and that ] is a distinct being, his son, but not divine.<ref name="Tuggy 2020">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Tuggy |first=Dale |date=Winter 2020 |title=Trinity – Unitariansm |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/trinity/unitarianism.html#18t21sCenUni |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |editor-link=Edward N. Zalta |encyclopedia=] |publisher=The Metaphysics Research Lab, ], ] |issn=1095-5054 |oclc=643092515 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170311130654/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/trinity/unitarianism.html |archive-date=11 March 2017 |access-date=9 August 2021 |quote=There are presently a number of small Christian groups calling themselves “biblical unitarians” (or: Christian monotheists or one God believers) to distinguish themselves from late 19th to 21st century Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists. Their arguments draw on early modern unitarian sources, while eschewing some of the idiosyncrasies of ] and most of the extra revisions of the ]-derived stream of unitarians. Like late 18th to early 19th century unitarians, they argue at length that trinitarianism has no biblical foundation, and is inconsistent with its clear teachings. They also reject trinitarianism as contradictory or unintelligible, as involving ], and as having been, as it were, illegally imported from ] . On some issues they draw support from recent ], for example, the point that talk of “generation” and “procession” in the ] doesn't support later claims about inter-trinitarian relations . Although this literature points out real tensions within contemporary theology (between text-oriented commentators and systematic theologians) it is widely ignored in academic theology and philosophy, and its adherents are generally excluded from the institutions of ].}}</ref> ] use this term to describe themselves, clarifying the distinction between them and those churches which, from the late 19th century, evolved into ] and, primarily in the United States, ].<ref name="Tuggy 2020"/> In 16th-century Italy, Biblical Unitarianism was powered by the ideas of the Non-trinitarian theologians ] and ], founders of ];<ref name="Mortimer 2010">{{cite book |last=Mortimer |first=Sarah |year=2010 |title=Reason and Religion in the English Revolution: The Challenge of Socinianism |chapter=The Socinian Challenge to Protestant Christianity |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fYeP_htzw14C&pg=PA13 |location=] |publisher=] |series=Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History |pages=13–38 |isbn=978-0-521-51704-1 |lccn=2010000384 |access-date=2021-08-09 |archive-date=2023-09-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928230522/https://books.google.com/books?id=fYeP_htzw14C&pg=PA13#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> their doctrine was embraced and further developed by the ] during the 16th and 17th centuries.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wilbur |first=Earl Morse |author-link=Earl Morse Wilbur |year=1952 |origyear=1945 |title=A History of Unitarianism: In Transylvania, England, and America |chapter=The Unitarian Church under Calvinist Princes: 1604–1691 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G5U9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA121 |location=] |publisher=] |volume=2 |pages=121–122 |access-date=2021-08-09 |archive-date=2023-09-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928230522/https://books.google.com/books?id=G5U9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA121#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> Today, it's represented by the churches associated with the ].<ref>cf. {{cite web |url=http://www.chiesadifrosinone.it/cosa_crediamo.html |title=Christian Church in Italy beliefs |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121028161300/http://www.chiesadifrosinone.it/cosa_crediamo.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-10-28 }}</ref> | |||
== Notable Unitarians == | |||
{{Main|List of Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists}} | |||
] held ] views]] | |||
Notable Unitarians include classical composers ] and ]; ], ], ] and ] in theology and ministry; ], ], ], ], ], ]<ref>{{Cite book|title=Newton to Einstein|last=Baierlein|first=Ralph.|publisher=]|year=1992|isbn=0-521-42323-6|location=Cambridge|page=54}}</ref> and inventor Sir ]<ref>{{Cite book|title=Sir Francis Ronalds: Father of the Electric Telegraph|last=Ronalds|first=B.F.|publisher=]|year=2016|isbn=978-1-78326-917-4|location=London}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://uudb.org/articles/francisronalds.html|title=Francis Ronalds|website=Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography|access-date=10 February 2017|archive-date=13 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413001247/https://uudb.org/articles/francisronalds.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> in science; ] in mathematics; ] in civil government; ], ] of the ], and ] in humanitarianism and social justice; ], ] and ] in literature; ] in the arts; ], ]<ref>{{cite magazine |last= Lang |first= Ernest F. |date= July 1927 |title= The early history of our firm: Richard Peacock|magazine= The Beyer-Peacock Quarterly Review |location= London |publisher= ] |page= 17 }}</ref> and ] MP<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://uudb.org/articles/samuelcarter.html|title=Samuel Carter|website=Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography|access-date=20 March 2018|archive-date=20 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320171112/http://uudb.org/articles/samuelcarter.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> in industry; ] in ministry and politics; and ] in education. ] was a leader in the woman suffrage movement, the first ever woman to be elected to the Academy of Arts and Letters, and author of the "]", volumes of poetry, and other writing. Although raised a Quaker, ], founder of ] in Ithaca, New York, attended the Unitarian church and was one of the founders of Ithaca's First Unitarian Church. Eramus Darwin Shattuck, a signatory to the Oregon State Constitution, founded the first Unitarian church in Oregon in 1865.<ref>''The Centennial History of Oregon 1811–1912'' by Joseph Gaston, p. 582.</ref> | |||
] was an abolitionist, journalist, and suffragist associated with both American Unitarianism and the ]. ]] | |||
Eleven Nobel Prizes have been awarded to Unitarians: ]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Caltech Alum and UCLA Professor Calls for Removal of Robert A. Millikan's Name, Bust From Caltech Campus Over Eugenics Support – Pasadena Now|url=https://www.pasadenanow.com/main/caltech-alum-and-ucla-professor-calls-for-removal-of-robert-a-millikans-name-bust-from-caltech-campus-over-eugenics-support|access-date=2022-02-09|website=www.pasadenanow.com|archive-date=2022-02-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220209074337/https://www.pasadenanow.com/main/caltech-alum-and-ucla-professor-calls-for-removal-of-robert-a-millikans-name-bust-from-caltech-campus-over-eugenics-support|url-status=live}}</ref> and ] (twice) in physics; ], ] and ] for peace; ] and ] in medicine; ] in chemistry; and ] in economics.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}} | |||
Four presidents of the United States were Unitarians: ], ], ], and ].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/godinamerica-white-house/ |title=God in the White House |website=pbs.org |access-date=2019-12-04 |archive-date=2019-12-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191204185621/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/godinamerica-white-house/ |url-status=live }}</ref> ], the Democratic presidential nominee in 1952 and 1956, was a Unitarian; he was the last Unitarian to be nominated by a major party for president as of 2024.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} Although a self-styled materialist, ] was pro-Unitarian to the extent of suggesting that it would become the predominant religion in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/jeffersons-religious-beliefs |title=Jefferson's Religious Beliefs |website=monticello.org |access-date=2019-12-04 |archive-date=2019-12-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207083820/https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/jeffersons-religious-beliefs |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
In the United Kingdom, although Unitarianism was the religion of only a small minority of the population, its practitioners had an enormous impact on Victorian politics, not only in the larger cities – ], ], ] and ] – but in smaller communities such as ], where there were so many Unitarian mayors that the Unitarian Chapel was known as the "Mayors' Nest".<ref name =Dare>{{cite book |last1=Dare |first1=J. |title=Working Class Life in Victorian Leicester: The Joseph Dart Reports |date=1991 |publisher=Leicestershire Libraries and Information Service |isbn=085022294X |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JpRIAAAAYAAJ&q=mayors+nest++leister++unitarian |access-date=18 September 2019 |archive-date=28 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928230527/https://books.google.com/books?id=JpRIAAAAYAAJ&q=mayors+nest++leister++unitarian |url-status=live }}</ref> Numerous Unitarian families were highly significant in the social and political life of Britain from Victorian times to the middle of the 20th century. They included the ], ], ], ], ] and Kenricks.<ref>{{cite web|work=The Parliamentary Chamberlains|url=http://www.ianchamberlain.net.au/script/03-Parliamentary%20Chamberlains.pdf|pages=57–74|title=Chapter 12 – William Chamberlain comes to London|publisher=Ian Chamberlain – 2003|access-date=March 2, 2013}}{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=no }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Holt|first=Raymond V.|title=The Unitarian Contribution to Social Progress in England|url=http://www.unitarian.org.uk/docs/publications/1952_SocialProgress.pdf|chapter=Chapter 3, including Georgian and Victorian period. Ref Chamberlain, Lupton (Leeds) and Martineau, Nettlefold, Kenrick (Birmingham) families|publisher=Lindsey Press|year=1906|access-date=March 1, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140302103107/http://www.unitarian.org.uk/docs/publications/1952_SocialProgress.pdf|archive-date=March 2, 2014}}</ref> In ], a Unitarian church – the Church of the Messiah – was opened in 1862. It became a cultural and intellectual centre of a whole society, a place where ideas about society were openly and critically discussed.{{refn|group=note| Henry W. Crosskey's congregation included ], father of British prime minister ]<ref name= Dare/> and Arthur, his younger brother, who was married to Louisa Kenrick; William Kenrick, his brother-in-law, who was married to Mary Chamberlain; and ], who was the nephew of ], another outspoken public figure and author. Sir Thomas Martineau (died 1893) was related to the ] by marriage; Sir Thomas had married Emily Kenrick, the sister of Florence Chamberlain, née Kenrick.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Times|first1=Waikato|title=Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2328, 11 June 1887, p. 2|url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=WT18870611.2.43.6|publisher=Waikato Times (Papers Past) 11 June 1887|access-date=30 March 2015|archive-date=13 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141013062551/http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=WT18870611.2.43.6|url-status=live}}</ref> In Lambeth, South London, another two members of the Martineau family, Caroline and Constance, worked at Morley College, the former acting as (unpaid) principal for over 11 years. Several other prominent Unitarians were involved in the development of this liberal arts college, which was founded by actors at the Old Vic theatre.<ref>''Offspring of the Vic'' by Denis Richards, originally published in 1958</ref>}} | |||
The first official acceptance of the Unitarian faith on the part of a congregation was by ] in Boston, which settled ] (1759—1853) in 1782, and revised the Prayer Book into a mild Unitarian liturgy in 1785. | |||
The ] (father of the essayist and critic), visiting the United States in 1783 - 1785, published the fact that there were Unitarians in ], ], ], ], ], on ] and elsewhere. | |||
Unitarian congregations were organized at Portland and Saco in 1792 by ]; in 1800 the ] accepted the more liberal faith. ] came to the United States in 1794, and organized a Unitarian Church at ], the same year, and one at Philadelphia in 1796. His writings had a considerable influence. | |||
== See also == | |||
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 ] (1764 - 1845) as professor of divinity at Harvard College, in 1805. | |||
{{Portal|Religion|Christianity}} | |||
In the same year appeared Unitarian books by ] (1772 - 1828) and ] (1771 - 1852), and another in 1810 by ] (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 ], ], ], ] and elsewhere during this period. | |||
* ] – radical Arians of the 4th century. | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ], a denomination that maintains close links with Unitarianism while maintaining its own identity. | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
** ] | |||
== Notes == | |||
] was settled over the ], 1803; and in a few years he became the leader of the Unitarian movement. | |||
{{reflist|group=note}} | |||
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 Baltimore in 1819, at the ordination of ], 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 ] 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. | |||
== References == | |||
Essentially non-sectarian, with little missionary zeal, the Unitarian movement has grown slowly; and its influence has chiefly operated through general culture and the better literature of the country. | |||
=== Citations === | |||
Many of its clergymen have been trained in other denominations; but the ] was distinctly Unitarian from its formation, in 1816, to 1870, when it became an unsectarian department of the university. | |||
{{Reflist}} | |||
The ] was founded in 1844; and the ] at Berkeley, California, in 1904. | |||
=== Sources === | |||
Unitarian thought in the United States has passed through three periods. | |||
{{refbegin}} | |||
The first, from 1800 to 1835, was formative, mainly influenced by English philosophy, semi-supernatural, imperfectly rationalistic, devoted to philanthropy and practical Christianity. Dr Channing was its distinguished exponent. | |||
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Tuggy |first=Dale |date=Winter 2020 |title=Trinity – Unitariansm |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/trinity/unitarianism.html#18t21sCenUni |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |editor-link=Edward N. Zalta |encyclopedia=] |publisher=The Metaphysics Research Lab, ], ] |issn=1095-5054 |oclc=643092515 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170311130654/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/trinity/unitarianism.html |archive-date=11 March 2017 |access-date=9 August 2021}} | |||
The second, from 1835 to 1885, profoundly influenced by German ], was increasingly rationalistic, though its theology was largely flavoured by ]. | |||
* {{citation |last=Wilbur |first=Earl Morse |author-link=Earl Morse Wilbur |url=http://www.sksm.edu/research/publications/ouh.pdf |title=Our Unitarian Heritage |year=1925 |publisher=Starr King School for the Ministry |place=Berkeley, CA |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060909175126/http://www.sksm.edu/research/publications/ouh.pdf |archive-date=2006-09-09}}. | |||
In 1865 the ] was organized, and adopted a distinctly Christian platform, affirming that its members were "disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ”. | |||
* Joseph Henry Allen, ''Our Liberal Movement in Theology'' (Boston, 1882) | |||
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 Association 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.” | |||
* Joseph Henry Allen, ''Sequel to our Liberal Movement'' (Boston, 1897) | |||
This period of controversy, and of vigorous theological development, practically came to an end soon after 1885; and its cessation was assured by the action of the national conference at ] 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 ], with his idealism, and ], with his acceptance of Christianity as absolute religion. | |||
* ] 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). | |||
* 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}}. | |||
* Earl Morse Wilbur, ''A History of Unitarianism: Socinianism and Its Antecedents'', Harvard University Press, 1945. | |||
* Andrew M. Hill, ''The Unitarian Path'', Lindsey Press (London, 1994). {{ISBN|0-85319-046-1}}. | |||
* Charles A. Howe, ''For Faith and Freedom: A Short History of Unitarianism in Europe'', Skinner House Books (Boston, 1997). {{ISBN|1-55896-359-6}}. | |||
* {{cite book | last = Smith | first = Matthew F |year = 2005 | title = Christianity: The Complete Guide | location = London | publisher = Continuum |isbn = 0-8264-5937-4 }} | |||
{{refend}} | |||
== Bibliography == | |||
The third period, beginning about 1885, has been one of ], recognition of universal religion, large acceptance of the scientific method and ideas and an ethical attempt to realize the higher affirmations of Christianity. It has been marked by harmony and unity to a degree perhaps found in no other religious body, by steady growth in the number of churches and by a widening fellowship with all other progressive phases of modern religion. | |||
* Buzzard, A. and Hunting, C. (1998). ''The Doctrine of the Trinity: Christianity's Self-Inflicted Wound''. International Scholars Publications. {{ISBN|1-57309-309-2}}. | |||
This phase was shown in the organization of ]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 ], who found his guides in ] and ]. | |||
* Lloyd, Walter (1899). ''The Story of Protestant Dissent and English Unitarianism''. London: P. Green. | |||
* Rowe, Mortimer (1959). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170110211111/https://www.unitarian.org.uk/resources/document-library/story-essex-hall-unitarian-hq-london |date=2017-01-10 }}. London: Lindsey Press. | |||
== Further reading == | |||
Beyond its own borders the body obtained recognition through the public work of such men as ] and ], the remarkable influence of ] and the popular power of ]. | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Emerton |first=Ephraim |author-link=Ephraim Emerton |year=1911 |title=Unitarian Thought |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924029478058 |location=New York |publisher=Macmillan Co. |oclc=1403642 |access-date=2011-04-22 }} | |||
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. | |||
* Hewett, Austin Phillip (1955). ''An Unfettered Faith: the Religion of a Unitarian''. London: Lindsey Press. | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Kingston |first=A. Richard |orig-year=1993 |year=2014 |title=God in One Person: The Case for Non-Incarnational Christianity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gOeuCwAAQBAJ |location=u.a. |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |edition=Softcover reprint |isbn=978-1349131006 |oclc=935187820}} | |||
== External links == | |||
In ] the American Unitarian Association merged with the ], forming the ]. | |||
{{EB1911 poster|Unitarianism}} | |||
* | |||
* at BBC Religions | |||
* | |||
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{{Christianity footer}} | |||
See: | |||
{{Theism}} | |||
*Joseph Henry Allen, ''Our Liberal Movement in Theology'' (Boston, 1882) | |||
{{Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist topics}} | |||
*Joseph Henry Allen, ''Sequel to our Liberal Movement'' (Boston, 1897) | |||
{{Authority control}} | |||
*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) | |||
*''Unitarian Year Book'' (Boston). | |||
] | |||
''Much text from the ]'' | |||
] | |||
] | |||
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Latest revision as of 15:58, 5 December 2024
Nontrinitarian branch of Christianity This article is about the Christian theological tradition. For the doctrinal position, see Nontrinitarianism. For the liberal religious movement, see Unitarian Universalism. For its British counterpart, see General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches. For other uses, see Unitarian.Part of a series on | ||||||
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Unitarianism (from Latin unitas 'unity, oneness') is a nontrinitarian branch of Christianity. Unitarian Christians affirm the unitary nature of God as the singular and unique creator of the universe, believe that Jesus Christ was inspired by God in his moral teachings and that he is the savior of humankind, but he is not equal to God himself. Accordingly, Unitarians reject the Ecumenical Councils and ecumenical creeds, and sit outside traditional, mainstream Christianity.
Unitarianism was established in order to restore "primitive Christianity before later corruptions set in". Likewise, Unitarian Christians generally reject the doctrine of original sin. The churchmanship of Unitarianism may include liberal denominations or Unitarian Christian denominations that are more conservative, with the latter being known as biblical Unitarians.
The birth of the Unitarian faith is proximate to the Radical Reformation, beginning almost simultaneously among the Protestant Polish Brethren in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and in the Principality of Transylvania in the mid-16th century; the first Unitarian Christian denomination known to have emerged during that time was the Unitarian Church of Transylvania, founded by the Unitarian preacher and theologian Ferenc Dávid (c. 1520–1579). Among its adherents were a significant number of Italians who took refuge in Bohemia, Moravia, Poland, and Transylvania in order to escape from the religious persecution perpetrated against them by the Roman Catholic and Magisterial Protestant churches. In the 17th century, significant repression in Poland led many Unitarians to flee or be killed for their faith. From the 16th to 18th centuries, Unitarians in Britain often faced significant political persecution, including John Biddle, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Theophilus Lindsey. In England, the first Unitarian Church was established in 1774 on Essex Street, London, where today's British Unitarian headquarters is still located.
As is typical of dissenters and nonconformists, Unitarianism does not constitute one single Christian denomination; rather, it refers to a collection of both existing and extinct Christian groups (whether historically related to each other or not) that share a common theological concept of the unitary nature of God. Unitarian Christian communities and churches have developed in Central Europe (mostly Romania and Hungary), Ireland, India, Jamaica, Japan, Canada, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In British America, different schools of Unitarian theology first spread in the New England Colonies and subsequently in the Mid-Atlantic States. The first official acceptance of the Unitarian faith on the part of a congregation in North America was by King's Chapel in Boston, from where James Freeman began teaching Unitarian doctrine in 1784 and was appointed rector. Later in 1785, he created a revised Unitarian Book of Common Prayer based on Lindsey's work.
Terminology
Unitarianism is a proper noun and follows the same English usage as other Christian theologies that have developed within a religious group or denomination (such as Calvinism, Anabaptism, Adventism, Lutheranism, Wesleyanism, etc.). The term existed shortly before it became the name of a distinct religious tradition, thus occasionally it is used as a common noun to describe any understanding of Jesus Christ that denies the doctrine of the Trinity or affirms the belief that God is only one person. In that case, it would be a Nontrinitarian belief system not necessarily associated with the Unitarian movement. For example, the Unitarian movement has never accepted the Godhood of Jesus, and therefore does not include those nontrinitarian belief systems that do, such as Oneness Pentecostalism, United Pentecostal Church International, the True Jesus Church, and the writings of Michael Servetus (all of which maintain that Jesus is God as a single person). Recently, some religious groups have adopted the 19th-century term biblical unitarianism to distinguish their theologies from Unitarianism.
Unitarianism is a Christian theology and practice that precedes and is distinct from Unitarian Universalism. 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 because they were members of churches that belonged to the American Unitarian Association. After several decades, the non-theistic members outnumbered the theological Unitarians.
History
Main article: History of Unitarianism Further information: Radical Reformation and Reformation in the Kingdom of HungaryThis section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Unitarianism, both as a theology and as a denominational family of churches, was defined and developed in Poland, Transylvania, England, Wales, India, Japan, Jamaica, the United States, and beyond in the 16th century through the present. Although common beliefs existed among Unitarians in each of these regions, they initially grew independently from each other. Only later did they influence one another and accumulate more similarities.
The Ecclesia minor or Minor Reformed Church of Poland, better known today as the Polish Brethren, was born as the result of a controversy that started on January 22, 1556, when Piotr of Goniądz (Peter Gonesius), a Polish student, spoke out against the doctrine of the Trinity during the general synod of the Reformed (Calvinist) churches of Poland held in the village of Secemin. After nine years of debate, in 1565, the anti-Trinitarians were excluded from the existing synod of the Polish Reformed Church (henceforth the Ecclesia maior) and they began to hold their own synods as the Ecclesia minor. Though frequently called "Arians" by those on the outside, the views of Fausto Sozzini (Faustus Socinus) became the standard in the church, and these doctrines were quite removed from Arianism. So important was Socinus to the formulation of their beliefs that those outside Poland usually referred to them as Socinians. The Polish Brethren were disbanded in 1658 by the Sejm (Polish Parliament). They were ordered to convert to Roman Catholicism or leave Poland. Most of them went to Transylvania or Holland, where they embraced the name "Unitarian". Between 1665 and 1668 a grandson of Socinus, Andrzej Wiszowaty Sr., published Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum quos Unitarios vocant (Library of the Polish Brethren who are called Unitarians 4 vols. 1665–1669).
The Unitarian Church in Transylvania was first recognized by the Edict of Torda, issued by the Transylvanian Diet under Prince John II Sigismund Zápolya (January 1568), and was first led by Ferenc Dávid (a former Calvinist bishop, who had begun preaching the new doctrine in 1566). The term "Unitarian" first appeared as unitaria religio in a document of the Diet of Lécfalva, Transylvania, on 25 October 1600, though it was not widely used in Transylvania until 1638, when the formal recepta Unitaria Religio was published.
The word Unitarian had been circulating in private letters in England, in reference to imported copies of such publications as the Library of the Polish Brethren who are called Unitarians (1665). Henry Hedworth was the first to use the word "Unitarian" in print in English (1673), and the word first appears in a title in Stephen Nye's A Brief History of the Unitarians, called also Socinians (1687). The movement gained popularity in England in the wake of the Enlightenment and began to become a formal denomination in 1774 when Theophilus Lindsey organised meetings with Joseph Priestley, founding the first avowedly Unitarian congregation in the country. This occurred at Essex Street Church in London. Official toleration came in 1813.
The first official acceptance of the Unitarian faith on the part of a congregation in America was by King's Chapel in Boston, which settled James Freeman (1759–1835) in 1782, and revised the Prayer Book into a mild Unitarian liturgy in 1785. 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. Unitarian Henry Ware (1764–1845) was appointed as the Hollis professor of divinity at Harvard College, in 1805. Harvard Divinity School then shifted from its conservative roots to teach Unitarian theology (see Harvard and Unitarianism). Buckminster's close associate William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) was settled over the Federal Street Church in Boston, 1803, and in a few years he became the leader of the Unitarian movement. A theological battle with the Congregational Churches resulted in the formation of the American Unitarian Association at Boston in 1825. Certainly, the unitarian theology was being "adopted" by the Congregationalists from the 1820s onwards. This movement is also evident in England at this time.
The first school founded by the Unitarians in the United States was the Clinton Liberal Institute, in Clinton, Oneida County, New York, founded in 1831.
Beliefs
Christology
Unitarians charge that the Trinity, unlike unitarianism, fails to adhere to strict monotheism. Unitarians maintain that Jesus was a great man and a prophet of God, perhaps even a supernatural being, but not God himself. They believe Jesus did not claim to be God and that his teachings did not suggest the existence of a triune God.
Unitarian Christology can be divided according to whether or not Jesus is believed to have had a pre-human existence. Both forms maintain that God is one being and one person and that Jesus is the (or a) Son of God, but generally not God himself.
In the early 19th century, Unitarian Robert Wallace identified three particular classes of Unitarian doctrines in history:
- Arian, which believed in a pre-existence of the Logos;
- Socinian, which denied his pre-existence, but agreed that Christ should be worshipped;
- "Strict Unitarian", which, believing in an "incommunicable divinity of God", denied the worship of "the man Christ."
Unitarianism is considered a factor in the decline of classical deism because there were people who increasingly preferred to identify themselves as Unitarians rather than deists.
Several tenets of Unitarianism overlap with the predominant Muslim view of Jesus and Islamic understanding of monotheism.
"Socinian" Christology
Main article: SocinianismThe Christology commonly called "Socinian" (after Fausto Sozzini, one of the founders of Unitarian theology) refers to the belief that Jesus Christ began his life when he was born as a human. In other words, the teaching that Jesus pre-existed his human body is rejected. There are various views ranging from the belief that Jesus was simply a human (psilanthropism) who, because of his greatness, was adopted by God as his Son (adoptionism) to the belief that Jesus literally became the son of God when he was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
This Christology existed in some form or another prior to Sozzini. Theodotus of Byzantium, Artemon and Paul of Samosata denied the pre-existence of Christ. These ideas were continued by Marcellus of Ancyra and his pupil Photinus in the 4th century AD. In the Radical Reformation and Anabaptist movements of the 16th century this idea resurfaced with Sozzini's uncle, Lelio Sozzini. Having influenced the Polish Brethren to a formal declaration of this belief in the Racovian Catechism, Fausto Sozzini involuntarily ended up giving his name to this Christological position, which continued with English Unitarians such as John Biddle, Thomas Belsham, Theophilus Lindsey, and James Martineau. In America, most of the early Unitarians were "Arian" in Christology (see below), but among those who held to a "Socinian" view was James Freeman.
Regarding the virgin birth of Jesus among those who denied the preexistence of Christ, some held to it and others did not. Its denial is sometimes ascribed to the Ebionites; however, Origen (Contra Celsum v.61) and Eusebius (HE iii.27) both indicate that some Ebionites did accept the virgin birth. On the other hand, Theodotus of Byzantium, Artemon, and Paul of Samosata all accepted the virgin birth. In the early days of Unitarianism, the stories of the virgin birth were accepted by most. There were a number of Unitarians who questioned the historical accuracy of the Bible, including Symon Budny, Jacob Palaeologus, Thomas Belsham, and Richard Wright, and this made them question the virgin birth story. Beginning in England and America in the 1830s, and manifesting itself primarily in Transcendentalist Unitarianism, which emerged from the German liberal theology associated primarily with Friedrich Schleiermacher, the psilanthropist view increased in popularity. Its proponents took an intellectual and humanistic approach to religion. They embraced evolutionary concepts, asserted the "inherent goodness of man", and abandoned the doctrine of biblical infallibility, rejecting most of the miraculous events in the Bible (including the virgin birth). Notable examples are James Martineau, Theodore Parker, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Frederic Henry Hedge. Famous American Unitarian William Ellery Channing was a believer in the virgin birth until later in his life, after he had begun his association with the Transcendentalists.
Arianism
Arianism is often considered a form of Unitarianism.
The Christology of Arianism holds that Jesus, before his human life, existed as the Logos, or the Word, a being begotten or created by God, who dwelt with God in heaven. There are many varieties of this form of Unitarianism, ranging from the belief that the Son was a divine spirit of the same substance (called Subordinationism) or of a similar substance to that of God (called Semi-Arianism) to the belief that he was an angel or other lesser spirit creature of a wholly different nature from God. Not all of these views necessarily were held by Arius, the namesake of this Christology. It is still Nontrinitarian because, according to this belief system, Jesus has always been beneath God, though higher than humans. Arian Christology was not a majority view among Unitarians in Poland, Transylvania or England. It was only with the advent of American Unitarianism that it gained a foothold in the Unitarian movement.
Among early Christian theologians who believed in a pre-existent Jesus who was subordinate to God the Father were Lucian of Antioch, Eusebius of Caesarea, Arius, Eusebius of Nicomedia, Asterius the Sophist, Eunomius, and Ulfilas, as well as Felix, Bishop of Urgell. Proponents of this Christology also associate it (more controversially) with Justin Martyr and Hippolytus of Rome. Antitrinitarian Michael Servetus did not deny the pre-existence of Christ, so he may have believed in it. (In his "Treatise Concerning the Divine Trinity" Servetus taught that the Logos (Word) was the reflection of Christ, and "that reflection of Christ was 'the Word with God" that consisted of God Himself, shining brightly in heaven, "and it was God Himself" and that "the Word was the very essence of God or the manifestation of God's essence, and there was in God no other substance or hypostasis than His Word, in a bright cloud where God then seemed to subsist. And in that very spot the face and personality of Christ shone bright.") Isaac Newton had Arian beliefs as well. Famous 19th-century Arian Unitarians include Andrews Norton and William Ellery Channing (in his earlier years).
Other beliefs
Although there is no specific authority on convictions of Unitarian belief aside from rejection of the Trinity, the following beliefs are generally accepted:
- One God and the oneness or unity of God.
- The life and teachings of Jesus Christ constitute the exemplary model for living one's own life.
- Reason, rational thought, science, and philosophy coexist with faith in God.
- Humans have the ability to exercise free will in a responsible, constructive and ethical manner with the assistance of religion.
- Human nature in its present condition is neither inherently corrupt nor depraved (see original sin) but capable of both good and evil, as God intended.
- No religion can claim an absolute monopoly on the Holy Spirit or theological truth.
- Though the authors of the Bible were inspired by God, they were humans and therefore subject to human error.
- The traditional doctrines of predestination, eternal damnation, and the vicarious sacrifice and satisfaction theories of the Atonement are invalid because they malign God's character and veil the true nature and mission of Jesus Christ.
In 1938, The Christian Leader attributed "the religion of Jesus, not a religion about Jesus" to Unitarians, though the phrase was used earlier by Congregationalist Rollin Lynde Hartt in 1924.
Worship
Worship within the Unitarian tradition accommodates a wide range of understandings of God, while the focus of the service may be simply the celebration of life itself. Each Unitarian congregation is at liberty to devise its own form of worship, though commonly, Unitarians will light their chalice (symbol of faith), have a story for all ages; and include sermons, prayers, hymns and songs. Some will allow attendees to publicly share their recent joys or concerns.
Modern Christian Unitarian organizations
Main article: History of UnitarianismThis section relates to Unitarian churches and organizations today which are still specifically Christian, whether within or outside Unitarian Universalism. Unitarian Universalism, conversely, refers to the embracing of non-Christian religions.
International groups
See also: International Council of Unitarians and UniversalistsSome Unitarian Christian groups are affiliated with the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU), founded in 1995. The ICUU has "full member" groups in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, EUU, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Spain. Sri Lanka and the United States. Brazil is a Provisional Member.
The ICUU includes small "Associate Groups", including Congregazione Italiana Cristiano Unitariana, Turin (founded in 2004) and the Bét Dávid Unitarian Association, Oslo (founded 2005).
Transylvania (Romania)
The largest Unitarian denomination worldwide today is also the oldest Unitarian denomination (since 1565, first use of the term "Unitarian" 1600): the Unitarian Church of Transylvania (in Romania, which is in union with the Unitarian Church in Hungary). The church in Transylvania still looks to the statement of faith, the Summa Universae Theologiae Christianae secundum Unitarios (1787), though today assent to this is not required. The modern Unitarian Church in Hungary (25,000 members) and the Transylvanian Unitarian Church (75,000 members) are affiliated with the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU) and claim continuity with the historical Unitarian Christian tradition established by Ferenc Dávid in 1565 in Transylvania under John II Sigismund Zápolya. The Unitarian churches in Hungary and Transylvania are structured and organized along a church hierarchy that includes the election by the synod of a national bishop who serves as superintendent of the Church. Many Hungarian Unitarians embrace the principles of rationalist Unitarianism. Unitarian high schools exist only in Transylvania (Romania), including the John Sigismund Unitarian Academy in Cluj-Napoca, the Protestant Theological Institute of Cluj, and the Berde Mózes Unitárius Gimnázium in Cristuru Secuiesc; both teach Rationalist Unitarianism.
United Kingdom
The Unitarian Christian Association (UCA) was founded in the United Kingdom in 1991 by Rev. Lancelot Garrard (1904–93) and others to promote specifically Christian ideas within the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (GAUFCC), the national Unitarian body in the UK. Just as the UUCF and ICUU maintain formal links with the Unitarian Universalist Association in the US, so the UCA is an affiliate body of the GAUFCC in the UK.
The majority of Unitarian Christian publications are sponsored by an organization and published specifically for their membership. Generally, they do not serve as a tool for missionary work or encouraging conversions.
India
In India, three different schools of Unitarian thought influenced varying movements, including the Brahmo Samaj, the Unitarian Church of the Khasi Hills, and the Unitarian Christian Church of Chennai, in Madras, founded in 1795. As of 2011, "Thirty-five congregations and eight fellowships comprising almost 10,000 Unitarians now form the Unitarian Union of North East India."
United States
The American Unitarian Conference (AUC) was formed in 2000 and stands between UUA and ICUU in attachment to the Christian element of modern Unitarianism. The American Unitarian Conference is open to non-Christian Unitarians, being particularly popular with non-Christian theists and deists. As of 2009, The AUC has three congregations in the United States.
Unitarian Christian Ministries International was a Unitarian ministry incorporated in South Carolina until its dissolution in 2013 when it merged with the Unitarian Christian Emerging Church. The Unitarian Christian Emerging Church has recently undergone reorganization and today is known as the Unitarian Christian Church of America. In addition, the Unitarian Universalist Faith Alliance and Ministries follow a Progressive Christian format honoring Sacred Space and Creation Spirituality.
The Unitarian Christian Church of America (UCCA) was formed on 1 October 2016 through the merging of the Unitarian Christian Emerging Church and the Unitarian Christian Conference. The church's current ministry in on-line and through local fellowship gatherings. The current senior pastor and current president of the UCCA is the Reverend Dr. Shannon Rogers. The UCCA has both ordained and lay members.
Australia and New Zealand
Further information: Australia and New Zealand Unitarian Universalist AssociationThe first Unitarian Church in Australia was built in 1854 in Melbourne and was followed soon afterwards by chapels in Sydney and Adelaide, and later regional centres including Ballarat. The modern church, no longer unitarian Christian, retains properties in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne, and smaller congregations elsewhere in Australia and New Zealand.
South Africa
The Unitarian movement in South Africa was founded in 1867 by David Faure, member of a well-known Cape family. He encountered advanced liberal religious thought while completing his studies at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands for the ministry of the Dutch Reformed Church in Cape Town.
Ireland
There are two active Unitarian churches in Ireland, one in Dublin and the other in Cork. Both are member churches of the Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland.
Denmark
Unitarianism was a latecomer to Denmark. Some of the inspiration came from Norway and England – family members of the founders, and the wife of Edward Grieg. 1900–1918 the society priest was Uffe Birkedal, who had previously been a Lutheran priest. He held the first worship 18 February 1900. A founding general assembly 18 May 1900 elected Mary Bess Westenholz as the first chairman of the Society. The Society newsletter was named 'Protestantisk Tidende' 1904–1993, and then renamed 'Unitaren', reflecting a gradually changing perception of being part of the Danish Lutheran Church, to one where this was no longer assumed ().
Biblical Unitarians
Main article: Biblical UnitarianismBiblical Unitarianism identifies the Christian belief that the Bible teaches that God the Father is one singular being, and that Jesus Christ is a distinct being, his son, but not divine. A few denominations use this term to describe themselves, clarifying the distinction between them and those churches which, from the late 19th century, evolved into modern British Unitarianism and, primarily in the United States, Unitarian Universalism. In 16th-century Italy, Biblical Unitarianism was powered by the ideas of the Non-trinitarian theologians Lelio and Fausto Sozzini, founders of Socinianism; their doctrine was embraced and further developed by the Unitarian Church of Transylvania during the 16th and 17th centuries. Today, it's represented by the churches associated with the Christian Church in Italy.
Notable Unitarians
Main article: List of Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian UniversalistsNotable Unitarians include classical composers Edvard Grieg and Béla Bartók; Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Parker, Yveon Seon and Thomas Lamb Eliot in theology and ministry; Oliver Heaviside, Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Priestley, John Archibald Wheeler, Linus Pauling, Sir Isaac Newton and inventor Sir Francis Ronalds in science; George Boole in mathematics; Susan B. Anthony in civil government; Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Whitney Young of the National Urban League, and Florence Nightingale in humanitarianism and social justice; John Bowring, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Elizabeth Gaskell in literature; Frank Lloyd Wright in the arts; Josiah Wedgwood, Richard Peacock and Samuel Carter MP in industry; Thomas Starr King in ministry and politics; and Charles William Eliot in education. Julia Ward Howe was a leader in the woman suffrage movement, the first ever woman to be elected to the Academy of Arts and Letters, and author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", volumes of poetry, and other writing. Although raised a Quaker, Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, attended the Unitarian church and was one of the founders of Ithaca's First Unitarian Church. Eramus Darwin Shattuck, a signatory to the Oregon State Constitution, founded the first Unitarian church in Oregon in 1865.
Eleven Nobel Prizes have been awarded to Unitarians: Robert Millikan and John Bardeen (twice) in physics; Emily Green Balch, Albert Schweitzer and Linus Pauling for peace; George Wald and David H. Hubel in medicine; Linus Pauling in chemistry; and Herbert A. Simon in economics.
Four presidents of the United States were Unitarians: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore, and William Howard Taft. Adlai Stevenson II, the Democratic presidential nominee in 1952 and 1956, was a Unitarian; he was the last Unitarian to be nominated by a major party for president as of 2024. Although a self-styled materialist, Thomas Jefferson was pro-Unitarian to the extent of suggesting that it would become the predominant religion in the United States.
In the United Kingdom, although Unitarianism was the religion of only a small minority of the population, its practitioners had an enormous impact on Victorian politics, not only in the larger cities – Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool – but in smaller communities such as Leicester, where there were so many Unitarian mayors that the Unitarian Chapel was known as the "Mayors' Nest". Numerous Unitarian families were highly significant in the social and political life of Britain from Victorian times to the middle of the 20th century. They included the Nettlefolds, Martineaus, Luptons, Kitsons, Chamberlains and Kenricks. In Birmingham, England, a Unitarian church – the Church of the Messiah – was opened in 1862. It became a cultural and intellectual centre of a whole society, a place where ideas about society were openly and critically discussed.
See also
- Anomoeanism – radical Arians of the 4th century.
- Binitarianism
- Christadelphians
- Divine simplicity
- Jesus in Islam
- Jehovah's Witnesses
- Messianic Judaism
- Monarchianism
- The New Church
- New thought
- Nondualism
- Nontrinitarianism
- Non-Trinitarian churches
- Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland, a denomination that maintains close links with Unitarianism while maintaining its own identity.
- Sabellianism
- Tawhid
- Unitarian (disambiguation)
Notes
- Henry W. Crosskey's congregation included Joseph Chamberlain, father of British prime minister Neville Chamberlain and Arthur, his younger brother, who was married to Louisa Kenrick; William Kenrick, his brother-in-law, who was married to Mary Chamberlain; and Sir Thomas Martineau, who was the nephew of Harriet Martineau, another outspoken public figure and author. Sir Thomas Martineau (died 1893) was related to the Chamberlain family by marriage; Sir Thomas had married Emily Kenrick, the sister of Florence Chamberlain, née Kenrick. In Lambeth, South London, another two members of the Martineau family, Caroline and Constance, worked at Morley College, the former acting as (unpaid) principal for over 11 years. Several other prominent Unitarians were involved in the development of this liberal arts college, which was founded by actors at the Old Vic theatre.
References
Citations
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Unitarian theology, which developed in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, included a critique of the traditional Christian theology of the Trinity, which regarded God as three distinct but unified beings—transcendent Creator God, human Savior God (i.e., Jesus Christ), and immanent Spiritual God (i.e., the Holy Spirit). Unitarians viewed this understanding of God as a later theological corruption, and they embraced a view of God as a singular, unified entity; in most Unitarian theological interpretations, Jesus Christ retains highest respect as a spiritual and moral teacher of unparalleled insight and sensitivity, but he is not regarded as divine, or at least his divine nature is not on the same level as the singular and unique Creator God.
- ^ Miano, David (2003), An Explanation of Unitarian Christianity, AUC, p. 15, archived from the original on 2019-05-21, retrieved 2012-10-01.
- Drzymala, Daren. 2002. Biblical Christianity. Xulon press. p. 122: "Classically, Unitarian Universalist Christians have understood Jesus as a Savior because he was a God-filled human being, not a supernatural being."
- "Jesus Christ: Incarnated or Created? – Was he actually born?". BiblicalUnitarian.com. Archived from the original on 19 May 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
- Joseph Priestley, one of the founders of the Unitarian movement, defined Unitarianism as the belief of primitive Christianity before later corruptions set in. Among these corruptions, he included not only the doctrine of the Trinity, but also various other orthodox doctrines and usages (Earl Morse Wilbur, A History of Unitarianism, Harvard University Press 1952, pp. 302–303).
- From The Catechism of the Hungarian Unitarian Church in Transylvanian Romania: "Unitarians do not teach original sin. We do not believe that through the sin of the first human couple we all became corrupted. It would contradict the love and justice of God to attribute to us the sin of others, because sin is one's own personal action" (Ferencz Jozsef, 20th ed., 1991. Translated from Hungarian by Gyorgy Andrasi, published in The Unitarian Universalist Christian, Fall/Winter, 1994, Volume 49, Nos. 3–4; VII:107).
- In his history of the Unitarians, David Robinson writes: "At their inception, both Unitarians and Universalists shared a common theological enemy: Calvinism." He explains that they "consistently attacked Calvinism on the related issues of original sin and election to salvation, doctrines that in their view undermined human moral exertion." (D. Robinson, The Unitarians and the Universalists, Greenwood Press, 1985, pp. 3, 17).
- Larsen, Timothy (27 January 2011). A People of One Book: The Bible and the Victorians. Oxford University Press. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-19-161433-0.
Biblical Unitarians are standardly portrayed as denouncing liberal Unitarians
- Mandelbrote, Scott; Ledger-Lomas, Michael (October 2013). Dissent and the Bible in Britain, C.1650–1950. Oxford University Press. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-19-960841-6.
Although a biblical Unitarian, Mary Carpenter was lifelong friends with James Martineau, the pioneer of English liberal Unitarianism.
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- James Hastings Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics: Algonquins-Art p. 785 – 2001 "The first Unitarians were Italians, and the majority took refuge in Poland, where the laxity of the laws and the independence of the nobility secured for them a toleration which would have been denied to their views in other countries."
- The encyclopedia of Protestantism 137 Hans Joachim Hillerbrand – 2004 "The so-called Golden Age of Unitarianism in Transylvania (1540–1571) resulted in a rich production of works both in Hungarian and Latin".
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- Erwin Fahlbusch The encyclopedia of Christianity 5 603 2008 "Lindsey attempted but failed to gain legal relief for Anglican Unitarians, so in 1774 he opened his own distinctly Unitarian church on Essex Street, London, where today's British Unitarian headquarters are still located."
- American Unitarianism: or, A Brief history of "The progress and State of the Unitarian Churches in America, third edition, 1815 "So early as the year 1786, Dr. Freeman had persuaded his church to adopt a liturgy, which the Rev. ... Thus much for the history of Unitarianism at the Stone Chapel."
- L. Sue Baugh, Essentials of English Grammar: A Practical Guide to the Mastery of English (ISBN 978-0844258218). Second Edition 1994, p. 59: "Religious Names and Terms: The names of all religions, denominations, and local groups are capitalized."
- J. Gordon Melton, Encyclopedia of Protestantism, 2005, p. 543: "Unitarianism – The word unitarian means one who believes in the oneness of God; historically it refers to those in the Christian community who rejected the doctrine of the Trinity (one God expressed in three persons). Non-Trinitarian Protestant churches emerged in the 16th century in ITALY, POLAND, and TRANSYLVANIA."
- Letter from Matthew F. Smith to Editor World faiths Encounter, 7–12 World Congress of Faiths – 1994 – "In an otherwise excellent article by Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia, 'Sikh Spirit in an Age of Plurality' (No. 6, November 1993), the writer makes a number of pejorative remarks about 'unitarianism', associating the term with a striving for a monolithic polity and reductionism to a common denominator. This is a very unfortunate misuse of the word. A correct definition of 'unitarianism' (small 'u') is the mono-hypo-static belief system of someone not directly associated with the Unitarian movement, almost always applied to a person from the Christian tradition, as the word was coined in distinction to the orthodox 'Trinitarian' doctrine of Christianity. 'Unitarians' (capital 'U') are, of course, those who follow the Unitarian approach to religion and are formally associated with the movement. In neither case can it be claimed that there is an underlying agenda towards reductionism and uniformity. Quite the reverse, in fact. Modern Unitarianism is remarkable among religions in not only welcoming the variety of faiths that there are to be found but also, as a creedless church, welcoming and encouraging acceptance of the same. We readily accept that not all our members are 'realist' theists, for example. Our long-standing commitment to interfaith understanding, evident in our practical support of the International Association for Religious Freedom, the World Congress of Faiths and the newly established International Interfaith centre in Oxford cannot be taken to mean that Unitarians are seeking the creation of a single world religion out of the old. I do not know a single Unitarian who believes or seeks that. On the contrary, we reject uniformity and cherish instead the highest degree of spiritual integrity, both of the existing religious traditions of the world and of religious persons as unique, thinking individuals. Matthew F Smith, Information Officer" (Essex Street Chapel, Unitarian Church headquarters, UK)
- "The name originated at the time of the great dispute at Gyulafehérvár in 1568, in the course of which Mélius quite often concluded his argument by saying, Ergo Deus est trinitarius.... Hence his party naturally came to be called Trinitarians and their opponents would naturally be called Unitarians. The name seems thus to have come into general use only gradually and it was long before it was employed in the formal proclamations of their Superintendents.... It is not found in print as the denomination of the church until 1600, when the unitaria religio is named as one of the four received religions in a decree of the Diet of Léczfalva (cf. Magyar Emlékek, iv, 551) in the extreme southeastern part of Transylvania. The name was never used by the Socinians in Poland; but late in the seventeenth century Transylvanian Unitarian students made it well-known in Holland, where the Socinians in exile, who had never adopted Socinian as the name of their movement and were more and more objecting to it, welcomed it as distinguishing them from Trinitarians. It thus gradually superseded the term Socinian, and spread to England and America." Earl Morse Wilbur, A History of Unitarianism, vol. 2, pp. 47–48.
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- "The religious movement whose history we are endeavoring to trace...became fully developed in thought and polity in only four countries, one after another, namely Poland, Transylvania, England and America, but in each of these it showed, along with certain individual characteristics, a general spirit, a common point of view, and a doctrinal pattern that tempt one to regard them as all outgrowths of a single movement which passed from one to another; for nothing could be more natural than to presume that these common features implied a common ancestry. Yet such is not the fact, for in each of these four lands the movement, instead of having originated elsewhere, and been translated only after attaining mature growth, appears to have sprung independently and directly from its own native roots, and to have been influenced by other and similar movements only after it had already developed an independent life and character of its own." Earl Morse Wilbur, A History of Unitarianism, vol. 2 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952), p. 166.
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Poland, where Faustus Socinus was their leader from 1579 until his death.
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...Before 1819, American Unitarians followed the teachings of Priestly... the liberal Congregationalists adopted their Unitarian theology.
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Unitarianism started, on the other hand, with the denial of the pre-existence... These opinions, however, must be considered apart from Arianism proper.
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Of the above-stated beliefs that of Theodotus of Byzantium is perhaps the most striking, in that, while it admits the virgin birth, it denies the deductions commonly made therefrom, attributing to Christ only pre-eminent righteousness.
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His original view was put into more definite form by Artemon, who regarded Jesus Christ as distinguished from prophets by (1) virgin-birth, (a) superior virtue.
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Christian apologists traced the origin of Socinianism to the doctrine of Photinus (4th century), who according to St. Augustine denied the pre-existence of Christ.
- R. P. C. Hanson (1916–1988), Lightfoot Professor of Divinity The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God: The Arian Controversy, 318–381 (9780801031465): 1973 "Photinus' doctrine appears to have been a form of what might be called middle Marcellism, i.e. what Marcellus originally taught before his vicissitudes caused him to temper the edge of his doctrine and take account of the criticisms of his friends as well as of his enemies, a little more moderated."
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Origen was the first to distinguish between two types of Ebionites theologically: those who believed in the Virgin Birth and those who rejected it.
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After they were excited to think freely, some gave up the doctrine of the miraculous conception, from reading the scriptures only, and observing certain things there with which it could not be reconciled.
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Rationalist Unitarians like William Ellery Channing had argued from the Bible and the evidence of its miracles.
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A Suffolk County grand jury indicted him on three charges of blasphemy and obscenity: (1) he had quoted a scurrilous passage by Voltaire disparaging the virgin birth of Jesus.
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It will be seen from these extracts how completely without foundation is the assertion that Servetus denied the eternal pre-existence of Christ.
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Among contemporary scholars, the consensus is that Newton was an Arian.
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Modern Unitarianism emerged after Newton's death.
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Unitarianism ideas emerged after Newton's death.
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There are presently a number of small Christian groups calling themselves "biblical unitarians" (or: Christian monotheists or one God believers) to distinguish themselves from late 19th to 21st century Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists. Their arguments draw on early modern unitarian sources, while eschewing some of the idiosyncrasies of Socinus's theology and most of the extra revisions of the Priestley-derived stream of unitarians. Like late 18th to early 19th century unitarians, they argue at length that trinitarianism has no biblical foundation, and is inconsistent with its clear teachings. They also reject trinitarianism as contradictory or unintelligible, as involving idolatry, and as having been, as it were, illegally imported from Platonic philosophy . On some issues they draw support from recent biblical scholarship, for example, the point that talk of "generation" and "procession" in the Gospel of John doesn't support later claims about inter-trinitarian relations . Although this literature points out real tensions within contemporary theology (between text-oriented commentators and systematic theologians) it is widely ignored in academic theology and philosophy, and its adherents are generally excluded from the institutions of mainstream Christianity.
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- John White Chadwick, Old and New Unitarian Belief (Boston, 1894).
- 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.
- Earl Morse Wilbur, A History of Unitarianism: Socinianism and Its Antecedents, Harvard University Press, 1945.
- Andrew M. Hill, The Unitarian Path, Lindsey Press (London, 1994). ISBN 0-85319-046-1.
- Charles A. Howe, For Faith and Freedom: A Short History of Unitarianism in Europe, Skinner House Books (Boston, 1997). ISBN 1-55896-359-6.
- Smith, Matthew F (2005). Christianity: The Complete Guide. London: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-5937-4.
Bibliography
- Buzzard, A. and Hunting, C. (1998). The Doctrine of the Trinity: Christianity's Self-Inflicted Wound. International Scholars Publications. ISBN 1-57309-309-2.
- Lloyd, Walter (1899). The Story of Protestant Dissent and English Unitarianism. London: P. Green.
- Rowe, Mortimer (1959). The Story of Essex Hall Archived 2017-01-10 at the Wayback Machine. London: Lindsey Press.
Further reading
- Emerton, Ephraim (1911). Unitarian Thought. New York: Macmillan Co. OCLC 1403642. Retrieved 2011-04-22.
- Hewett, Austin Phillip (1955). An Unfettered Faith: the Religion of a Unitarian. London: Lindsey Press.
- Kingston, A. Richard (2014) . God in One Person: The Case for Non-Incarnational Christianity (Softcover reprint ed.). u.a.: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1349131006. OCLC 935187820.
External links
- Unitarian Ministries International
- Unitarianism at BBC Religions
- American Unitarian Conference
- American Unitarian Reform
- General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (UK)
- Biblical Unitarians
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