Unitarianism and Universalism

▪ religion

Introduction

      liberal religious movements that have merged in the United States. In previous centuries they appealed for their views to Scripture interpreted by reason, but most contemporary Unitarians and Universalists base their religious beliefs on reason and experience.

      Unitarianism as an organized religious movement emerged during the Reformation period in Poland, Transylvania, and England, and later in North America from the original New England Puritan churches. In each country Unitarian leaders sought to achieve a reformation that was completely in accordance with the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament; in particular, they found no warrant for the doctrine of the Trinity accepted by other Christian churches.

      Universalism as a religious movement developed from the influences of radical Pietism in the 18th century and dissent in the Baptist and Congregational churches from predestinarian views that only a small number, the elect, will be saved. Universalists argued that Scripture does not teach eternal torment in hell and with Origen, the 3rd century Alexandrian theologian, they affirmed a universal restoration of all to God.

History

Servetus and Socinus

      In De Trinitatis erroribus (1531; “On the Errors of the Trinity”) and Christianismi restitutio (1553; “The Restitution of Christianity”) the Spanish physician and theologian Michael Servetus (Servetus, Michael) provided important stimulus for the emergence of Unitarianism. Servetus' execution for heresy in 1553 led Sebastian Castellio, a liberal humanist, to advocate religious toleration in De haereticis . . . (1554; Concerning Heretics”) and caused some Italian religious exiles, who were then in Switzerland, to move to Poland.

      One of the most important of these Italian exiles was Faustus Socinus (Socinus, Faustus) (1539–1604). His acquisition in 1562 of the papers of his uncle Laelius Socinus (1525–62), a theologian suspected of heterodox views, led him to adopt some of Laelius' proposals for the reformation of Christian doctrines and to become an anti-Trinitarian theologian. Laelius' commentary on the prologue to the Gospel According to John presented Christ as the revealer of God's new creation and denied Christ's preexistence. Faustus' own Explicatio primae partis primi capitis Ioannis (first edition published in Transylvania in 1567–68; “Explanation of the First Part of the First Chapter of John's Gospel”) and his manuscripts of 1578, De Jesu Christo Servatore (first published 1594; “On Jesus Christ, the Saviour”) and De statu primi hominis ante lapsum (1578; “On the State of the First Man Before the Fall”), were of subsequent influence, the first, particularly, in Transylvania and all three in Poland.

Unitarianism in Poland

      Unitarianism appeared in Poland in incipient form in 1555 when Peter Gonesius, a Polish student, proclaimed views derived from Servetus at a Polish Reformed Church synod. Controversies that ensued with tritheists, ditheists, and those who affirmed the unity of God resulted in a schism in 1565 and the formation of the Minor Reformed Church of Poland (Polish Brethren). Gregory Paul, Marcin Czechowic, and Georg Schomann soon emerged as leaders of the new church. They were encouraged by Georgius Blandrata (Blandrata, George) (1515–88), an Italian physician to the Polish-Italian bride of King John Sigismund, who aided the development of anti-Trinitarianism in Poland and Transylvania. In 1569 Racow was founded as the Polish Brethren's central community.

      Faustus Socinus went to Poland in 1579. He rejected Anabaptist insistence on immersionist adult baptism and affirmed that Jesus Christ was a man whom God had resurrected and to whom he had given all power in heaven and earth over the church. Socinus emphasized the validity of prayer to Christ as an expression of honour and as a request for aid. Through his ability in theological debate he soon became the leader of the Polish Brethren, whose adherents were frequently referred to as Socinians (Socinian).

      After Socinus' death his followers published the Racovian Catechism (1605). The hostility of their opponents, however, caused the destruction of the Socinians' famous printing press and school at Racow (1632). In 1658 a legislative decree was enacted stating that by 1660 the Socinians must either become Roman Catholics, go into exile, or face execution. A few of these Polish exiles reached Kolozsvár, centre of the Transylvanian Unitarian movement, and some of their leaders moved to the Netherlands, where they continued the publication of Socinian books.

Transylvanian (Transylvania) Unitarianism

      Blandrata encouraged Ferenc Dávid (Dávid, Ferenc) (1510–79), a Transylvanian theologian, to deliver anti-Trinitarian sermons. Study at Wittenberg had led Dávid to convert from Roman Catholicism to Lutheranism. As superintendent of Transylvanian Lutheran churches Dávid had engaged in debates with Peter Melius, leader of the Transylvanian Reformed Church, with the result that Dávid had joined the Reformed Church, of which he soon became superintendent. Cooperation between Dávid and Blandrata led to the publication of two Unitarian books, De falsa et vera unius Dei Patris (1567; “On the False and True Unity of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”) and De regno Christi . . . (1569; “On the Reign of Christ”), which showed the influences of Servetus and Laelius Socinus.

      Biblical study and discussions with colleagues (e.g., with Jacobus Palaeologus) led Dávid to nonadorantism (denial that prayer should be addressed to Christ), which caused a serious crisis. In 1568 John Sigismund, Unitarian king of Transylvania, granted religious freedom to Catholics, Lutherans, the Reformed Church, and those who were soon to be called Unitarians, and in 1571 the Transylvanian Diet gave constitutional recognition to all four received religions. But Sigismund's successor, Stephen Báthory, forbade further innovations (changes in doctrine from beliefs held during Sigismund's reign). Dávid's nonadorantist innovation thus endangered the Unitarians' legal status. Blandrata sought to protect them by the arrest and trial of Dávid, who died in prison in 1579. This oldest Unitarian Church survives in Hungary and Romania.

English Unitarianism

      John Biddle (Biddle, John) (1615–62), an English Socinian, whose knowledge of the Greek text of the New Testament convinced him that the doctrine of the Trinity was not of scriptural origin, published his Unitarian convictions in Twelve Arguments Drawn out of Scripture . . . (1647) and other works; English readers, moreover, were exposed to Unitarian views through Socinian books published in the Netherlands. Although the Toleration Act of 1689 excluded Unitarians, advocates of an Arian Christology (belief in Christ's preexistence as a subordinate, divine, created being) soon appeared within the Church of England and among Dissenters. This led some Anglicans to seek, without success, the rescinding of the requirement of subscription to the Anglican Thirty-nine Articles. Dissenting ministers, meeting in the Salters' Hall in London in 1719, separated into two groups, one insisting on adherence to confessional documents, the other requiring only agreement with Scripture. Of those in the second group, Presbyterians, General Baptists, and a few independents gradually moved during the 18th century with their congregations toward Unitarian views.

      The first English Unitarian congregation, Essex Street Chapel, was founded in London in 1774 by Theophilus Lindsey, who previously had been an Anglican clergyman. The scientist and dissenting minister Joseph Priestley (Priestley, Joseph) (1733–1804) influenced Unitarian ministers by his scriptural rationalism, materialist determinism, and emphasis on a humanitarian Christology. The scholar and theologian Thomas Belsham supported Priestley's emphasis on a humanitarian Christology and opposition to Arian views. The British and Foreign Unitarian Association was founded in 1825.

      In the 19th century Parliament was persuaded to repeal some of the laws against nonconformity, which freed the Unitarians for a more active church life. English Unitarians, moreover, were greatly influenced by James Martineau (Martineau, James) (1805–1900), who, after studies in Germany, was led to a religious epistemology emphasizing intuition. In 1928 a union of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association with the National Conference (which included other Free Christian Churches) resulted in the founding of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches. Unitarianism is also present in Wales, Scotland, and the Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland.

American (United States) Unitarianism

      In the American colonies Congregationalist ministers influenced by Arian Christology and by Arminian theology, gradually moved in the 18th century toward Unitarian views. Conflicts with supporters of Jonathan Edwards' theological heritage resulted in the election at Harvard College of a liberal, Henry Ware, as Hollis Professor of Divinity in 1805. When the liberal Congregationalists were accused of agreeing with Belsham's strictly humanitarian Christology, the Unitarian clergyman William Ellery Channing (Channing, William Ellery) defended them as Arians. Channing's 1819 sermon “Unitarian Christianity,” a manifesto, presented both a recognition that the liberals would have to separate from the Congregational Church and a coherent theology. In 1825 the American Unitarian Association (AUA), an association of individuals, was organized.

      Channing's Arian Christology as well as his affirmations of the divine unity, the authority of Scripture rationally interpreted, and an optimistic view of human nature were dominant among early American Unitarians. His Lockean epistemology (modified by views of Scottish commonsense philosophers and the English Unitarian Richard Price), however, was challenged by such Transcendentalists as Ralph Waldo Emerson (Emerson, Ralph Waldo), in his “Divinity School Address” (1838), and Theodore Parker (Parker, Theodore), in his sermon “The Transient and Permanent in Christianity” (1841), both of whom emphasized intuition and moral idealism. Parker's leadership in addressing issues of social reform, such as issues relating to the anti-slavery movement, made a lasting impact on Unitarians.

      Although Transcendentalism divided the Unitarians, Henry Whitney Bellows, a prominent figure in Unitarianism after the Civil War, succeeded in organizing the National Conference of Unitarian Churches in 1865. A separatist Free Religious Association (FRA) was organized in 1867 by persons who, although holding a variety of views, were agreed in their opposition to the preamble of the National Conference's constitution, which was virtually a Christian creed. A Western Unitarian Conference, organized in 1852, also experienced a controversy over whether Unitarianism was to include persons whose views were not theistic and Christian. In 1894 a revision in the constitution of the National Conference enabled members of the FRA to rejoin the Conference. Later renamed the General Conference, it merged with the AUA in 1925.

      In the 20th century religious humanism, the endeavour to reformulate liberal theology on strictly non-theistic grounds, emerged within Unitarianism, leading to a theist-humanist controversy. After such Unitarian ministers as John Dietrich and Curtis Reese signed the Humanist Manifesto (1933), religious humanism became the view of many Unitarians. A Commission of Appraisal (1934–36) recommended modifications in the structure and program of the AUA. Frederick May Eliot, chairman of the commission, was persuaded to become president of the AUA, and while in office he prepared the denomination for future growth. In the 1930s a critical movement emerged, largely in response to a general crisis of faith in liberal thought; its leader was James Luther Adams, whose writings contributed significantly to Unitarian theology and social thought. Of particular importance for Unitarianism today are his studies of voluntary associations and their implications (On Being Human—Religiously, 1976).

Early Universalism

      Radical Pietism emerged in Germany under the leadership of Johann Wilhelm Petersen, who led groups of Philadelphian Pietists identifying themselves with the sixth church referred to in Revelation 3:7–13. A Philadelphian Society was organized in London in 1681 under Jane Leade, whose religious views were based on the thought of the German mystic Jakob Böhme and on her own visions and dreams. Convinced that Leade was correct in affirming a universal restoration (the ultimate reconciliation to God of all human beings, the devil, and his angels), Petersen gave her views scriptural foundations in his Mystery of the Restitution of All Things (1700–10), which included The Everlasting Gospel, a restorationist treatise by George Klein-Nicolai published under the pseudonym Paul Siegvolck. German Philadelphian Pietists took these and other works to Pennsylvania in the early 18th century, where George de Benneville (1703–93), a French Universalist who had gone to Pennsylvania in 1741, brought them into contact with other groups that affirmed universal salvation.

      A different view of Universalism appeared in the work of the Welsh revivalist preacher James Relly (1720–78). In his Union, or A Treatise of the Consanguinity and Affinity Between Christ and His Church (1759) he presented scriptural texts for the view that universal salvation is assured. Christ's unity with all human beings and his acceptance of the guilt and endurance of the punishment for the sins of mankind ensured that among the elect for whom Christ had suffered was the entire human race. The English Methodist John Murray (1741–1815) unsuccessfully sought to refute Relly's views; instead he became convinced of their truth and took this theology to New England in 1770. His church at Gloucester, Mass. (1780), was the first American Universalist congregation.

      Urged by George de Benneville to read The Everlasting Gospel and other Universalist works, Elhanan Winchester (1751–97), a Baptist minister, became converted to restorationist Universalism. He traveled to England, where he founded a Universalist Church in London in 1793 and wrote The Universal Restoration . . . (1794). He emphasized scriptural texts that affirmed the finite and remedial nature of punishment after death. Winchester subsequently continued his ministry in the United States.

American Universalism

      Hosea Ballou (1771–1852) was the greatest 19th-century American Universalist leader. His A Treatise on Atonement . . . (1805) converted most Universalist ministers to a Unitarian view of God, an Arian Christology, and the view that, because sin is finite in nature and all of its effects will be experienced in this life, all of mankind will be saved after death. Ballou later abandoned his Arian belief in Christ's preexistence.

      The Winchester Profession (1803), adopted by the General Convention of Universalists in the New England States at Winchester, N.H., was phrased in general terms to embrace differing Universalist views. In 1870, however, a resolution adopted by the General Convention required that the Winchester Profession be interpreted as requiring belief in the authority of Scripture and the lordship of Jesus Christ. This restriction was rescinded in 1899.

      Ballou's theology was dominant during the first half of the 19th century, when Universalist ministers founded congregations in many states. Opposed to Ballou's theology, however, was a small group of ministers and laypersons, who left the denomination to form the Massachusetts Association of Universal Restorationists, which existed from 1831 to 1841. Although both factions believed that there would be no eternal punishment for sinners after death, the Massachusetts restorationists embraced the position that there would be a limited punishment followed by a general restoration to God. Adin Ballou (1803–90), a leading restorationist, was an outstanding advocate of the application of New Testament ethics to social issues. By the end of the 19th century most Universalists held restorationist views.

      Clarence Skinner (1881–1949), dean of Crane Theological School, greatly influenced American Universalists by his emphasis on social issues and his reinterpretation of Universalism as referring not to salvation after death but to the unities and universals in human life (A Religion for Greatness, 1945). In 1935 the Universalists adopted a non-creedal Bond of Fellowship, which they revised in 1953. Clinton Lee Scott and Kenneth Patton affirmed religious humanism and emphasized drawing religious sustenance from the traditions of the world's great religions.

Teachings

      The Unitarian theologian Earl Morse Wilbur (1866–1956) advanced the thesis, now widely accepted, that the history of Unitarianism in Poland, Transylvania, England, and America gains unity from certain common themes. These themes are freedom of religious thought rather than required agreement with creeds or confessions, reliance not on tradition or external authority but on the use of reason in formulating religious beliefs, and tolerance of differing religious views and customs in worship and polity.

      Unitarian Universalists are creedless and deny the authority of dogmas promulgated by church councils. Their teachings historically have included the unity of God, the humanity of Jesus, mankind's religious and ethical responsibility, and the possibility of attaining religious salvation through differing religious traditions. They emphasize the authority of the individual's religious conviction, the importance of religiously motivated action for social reform, democratic method in church governance, and reason and experience as appropriate bases for formulating religious beliefs. Their traditional concern for social issues has caused Unitarian Universalists to give active support to the demands for equality of blacks, feminists, and other groups. Gains in equality for women within the Unitarian Universalist Association were significant, but its predominantly white, middle-class membership remains an issue.

      Although the nonadorantist Unitarians in Romania and Hungary are firmly Christian, in England, the United States, and Canada, the beliefs of Unitarians range from Unitarian Christianity to religious humanism; there are also aspirations toward becoming a universal religion. Universalist teachings have changed also; whereas the restorationist theology that was dominant among American Universalists toward the end of the 19th century emphasized the salvation of all after death, many 20th-century Universalists affirm a naturalistic worldview and regard salvation as an aspect of present human experience.

Worship and organization

      English and American Unitarian Universalist worship is predominantly thematic in emphasis and sermon-centred in form. It makes use of hymnals that have been revised to reflect changing religious interests; for example, today's hymns express themes of religious humanism. There also is some liturgical experimentation. Whereas baptism and frequent observance of the Lord's Supper characterize Hungarian and Romanian Unitarian worship, in England and the United States infants may be dedicated and observance of the Lord's Supper is rare, except among Unitarian Christians.

      The American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America merged in 1961 to form the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). The UUA's churches and fellowships are located primarily in the United States and Canada. (Canadian congregations are also members of the Canadian Unitarian Council.) The UUA is a member of the International Association for Religious Freedom, which was founded in 1900 as the International Association for Liberal Christianity and Religious Freedom (its name being changed in 1969 to reflect the inclusion of member-groups from non-Christian religious traditions).

      English Unitarians and American Unitarian Universalists have congregational polity and emphasize the democratic process. Ministerial and lay delegates from congregations constitute the annual General Assembly, a legislative body. In Hungary and Romania a bishop and a lay president in each country supervise the Unitarian churches, which are governed by annual synods.

John Charles Godbey

Additional Reading

Earl Morse Wilbur, A History of Unitarianism, 2 vol. (1945), which remains basic for understanding Unitarianism; C. Gordon Bolam et al., The English Presbyterians, from Elizabethan Puritanism to Modern Unitarianism (1968); Conrad Wright, The Beginnings of Unitarianism in America (1955, reissued 1976), which portrays the 18th century; and Conrad Wright (ed.), A Stream of Light: A Sesquicentennial History of American Unitarianism (1975). Richard Eddy, Universalism in America, 3rd ed., 2 vol. (1891–94), still useful, has been followed by Russell E. Miller, The Larger Hope, vol. 1, The First Century of the Universalist Church in America, 1770–1870 (1979), and vol. 2, The Second Century of the Universalist Church in America, 1870–1970 (1985). Ernest Cassara (ed.), Universalism in America: A Documentary History, 2nd ed. (1984); and George Huntston Williams, American Universalism: A Bicentennial Historical Essay, 2nd ed. (1976), are important supplements to Miller. David Robinson, The Unitarians and the Universalists (1985), is a study of the merged denominations.John Charles Godbey

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