History of Unitarianism
Encyclopedia
Unitarianism, both as a theology and as a denominational family of churches, was first defined and developed in England and America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, although theological ancestors are to be found in the Protestant Reformation
and even as far back as the early days of Christianity. It matured and reached its classical form in the mid-19th century. Later historical development has been diverse in different countries.
, i.e. the life of Jesus and the decades immediately after his death, and claim this doctrine was widespread during the pre-Nicene period
, that is, before the First Council of Nicaea
met in 325. Many believe their Christology
(understanding of Jesus Christ) most closely reflects that of the "original Christians." (For a discussion of the New Testament
evidence, see Nontrinitarianism
.)
While it is evident that other Christologies existed in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries, Jewish-Christian congregations tended to hold the view that Jesus was a great man and prophet, even the Son of God, but not God himself. (See Ebionites
.)
One of the earliest controversies over the nature of Christ that involved the propagation of "unitarian" ideas broke out at Rome during the episcopate of Victor I
(189–199). This was the so-called "Monarchian controversy", which originated in a revolt against the influential Logos
theology of Justin Martyr
and the apologists, who had spoken of Jesus as a second god. Such language was disturbing to some. Justin's language appeared to promote ditheism (two gods). The view, however, was defended by Hippolytus of Rome, for whom it was essential to say that the Father and the Logos are two distinct "persons" (prosopa).
Some critics of Justin's theology tried to preserve the unity of God by saying that there is no difference to be discerned between the ‘Son’ and the ‘Father’ (unless ‘Son’ is a name for the physical body or humanity of Christ and ‘Father’ a name for the divine Spirit within). This sort of thinking, known as Modal Monarchianism or Sabellianism
, would one day lead to a compromise doctrine that the Father and the Son are consubstantial (of the same being).
Other critics preserved the unity of God by saying that Jesus was a man, but differentiated in being indwelt by the Spirit of God to an absolute and unique degree. They thus denied that Jesus was God or a god. They became known as "adoptionists
", because they suggested that Jesus was adopted by the Father to be his Son. This view was associated with Theodotus of Byzantium
(the Shoemaker) and Artemon
.
So even at this early stage we find evidence of proto-Arianism
(Justin's view) and proto-Socinianism
(the Adoptionist view), though they were, as yet, not fully formed. Both of these theologies have similarities to latter day Unitarianism.
The Monarchian controversy came to a head again in the mid-3rd century. In 259 the help of Dionysius of Alexandria
, was invoked in a dispute among the churches in Libya between adherents of Justin's Logos-theology and some modalist Monarchians. Dionysius vehemently attacked the modalist standpoint. He affirmed that the Son and the Father were as different as a boat and a boatman and denied that they were "of one substance" (homoousios). The Libyans appealed to Dionysius of Rome, whose rebuke to his Alexandrian namesake stressed the unity of God and condemned "those who divide the divine monarchy into three separate hypostases and three deities".
Another crisis occurred over Paul of Samosata
, who became bishop of Antioch in Syria in 260. Paul's doctrine is akin to the primitive Jewish-Christian idea of the person of Christ and to the Christology of Theodotus of Byzantium (adoptionism). To many his doctrine seemed plain heresy, and a council of local bishops was held to consider his case in 268. The bishops found it easier to condemn Paul than to expel him, and he remained in full possession of the church with his enthusiastic supporters. However, the bishops appealed to the Roman emperor, who decided that the legal right to the church building should be assigned "to those to whom the bishops of Italy and Rome should communicate in writing". It was the first time that an ecclesiastical dispute had to be settled by the secular power. So Paul was put out of his church.
Arius
, son of Ammonius, was a popular priest appointed presbyter
for the district of Baucalis in Alexandria
in 313. His views of the nature of Jesus, although not original, conflicted with the views held by Bishop Alexander of Alexandria
. Both Arius and Alexander held that Jesus was the Word (Logos) in human form; however, Arius held that the Word was a creation of God and had a beginning of existence, whereas Alexander held that the Word was co-eternal and consubstantial with God. When disagreement arose between the two men, forces were set in motion that resulted in the formation of the doctrine of the Trinity.
In the Nicene Creed
adopted at the First Council of Nicaea
in 325, wherein the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great got involved, the issue was considered settled and the adoption of Alexander's view became the orthodox doctrine and all other views were considered heresy and officially suppressed. During the reign of the emperor Constantius II
, however, the anti-Nicene party rose to prominence and exercised considerable control over the church for about a generation. New creeds were drawn up to counter the homoousian
doctrine of the Nicene Creed. When Theodosius I
took the imperial throne, however, the tables were turned, and at the Council of Constantinople
in 381, the position that the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost were all the same being was agreed upon, and the formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity was complete. Theodosius outlawed all Nontrinitarian forms of Christianity.
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, Hungary and, at a much later date, in England. By contrast, Sabellianism
(also known as modalism, modalistic monarchianism, or modal monarchism) is the nontrinitarian belief that the Heavenly Father, Resurrected Son and Holy Spirit are different modes or aspects of one God, as perceived by the believer, rather than three distinct persons in God Himself.
Along with the fundamental doctrine, certain characteristics have always marked those who profess unitarianism: a large degree of tolerance
, a historical study of scripture, a minimizing of essentials, and a repugnance to formulated creed
.
Martin Cellarius
(1499–1564), a friend of Luther
, and Hans Denck
(1500–1527) usually are considered the first literary pioneers of the movement; the anti-Trinitarian position of Ludwig Haetzer
did not become public until after his execution (1529) for Anabaptism
. Luther himself was opposed to the Unitarian movement, blaming the spread of Islam
for the growth of Unitarianism, arguing that:
Michael Servetus
(1511?–1553) stimulated thought in this direction and heavily influenced other reformers both by his writings and by his death at the stake. In 1531 he had published his theological treatise De Trinitatis Erroribus (On the Errors About the Trinity), in which he rejected the Nicene dogma of the Trinity
and proposed that the Son was the union of the divine Logos
with the man Jesus
, miraculously born from the Virgin Mary through the intervention of God's spirit. This was generally interpreted as a denial of the Trinitarian dogma (actually Servetus had described the Trinity as a "three-headed Cerberus" and "three ghosts" which only led believers to confusion and error). Servetus expanded his ideas on the nature of God and Christ 20 years later in his major work, Christianismi Restitutio (The Restoration of Christianity), which caused his burning at the stake in Calvin
's Geneva
(and also in effigy by the Catholic Inquisition
in France) in 1553 . Nowadays most Unitarians see Servetus
as their pioneer and first martyr, and his thought was a remarkable influence in the beginnings of Polish and Transylvanian Anti-trinitarian churches, even though his Arian
views on Jesus Christ (e.g. retaining belief in the pre-existence of Christ
) were different from those of the Polish Socinians (rejecting belief in Jesus' pre-existence), and again from the generation of Thomas Belsham
(rejecting also the virgin birth), and very different from what the Unitarian Church generally believes today.
Council of Venice
1550, marks the start of a formal but underground antitrinitarian movement in Italy, led by men such as Matteo Gribaldi
. The Italian exiles spread antitrinitarian views to Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Transylvania and Holland.
The Dialogues (1563) of Bernardino Ochino
, while defending the Trinity, stated objections and difficulties with a force which captivated many. In his 27th Dialogue Ochino points to Hungary as a possible home of religious liberty. And in Poland and Hungary definitely anti-Trinitarian religious communities first formed and were tolerated.
(1539) for apostasy
; whether her views embraced more than deism
is not clear. The first synod of the (Calvinist) Reformed Church took place in 1555; the second Synod (1556) faced the theological challenges of Grzegorz Paweł z Brzezin
(Gregory Pauli) and Peter Gonesius (Piotr z Goniądza), who were aware of the works of Servetus and of Italian antitrinitarians
such as Matteo Gribaldi
. The arrival of Giorgio Biandrata
in 1558 furnished the party with a temporary leader.
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 Polish Brethren
began as a grouping of Arians and Unitarians who split from the Polish Calvinist Church in 1565, though by 1580 the Unitarian views of Fausto Sozzini (hence the adjective Socinian
) had become the majority. Sozzini's grandson Andrzej Wiszowaty Sr. in 1665-1668 published Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum quos Unitarios vocant (Library of the Polish Brethren who are called Unitarians 4 vols. 1665–69). The name was introduced into English by the Socinian Henry Hedworth
in 1673. Thereafter the term became common currency in English, though their detractors continued to label both Arian and Unitarian views as "Socinian".
In 1565, the Diet (Sejm
) of Piotrków
excluded anti-Trinitarians from the existing synod of the Polish Reformed church
(henceforth the Ecclesia maior) and Unitarians began to hold their own synods as the Ecclesia minor. Known by various other names (of which Polish brethren
and Arian were the most common), at no time in its history did this body adopt for itself any designation save "Christian". Originally Arian (but excluding any worship of Christ), and Anabaptist
, the Minor Church was (by 1588) brought round to the views of Fausto Sozzini
, who had settled in Poland in 1579, and who denied the pre-existence of Christ
, while accepting the virgin birth (see Socinianism
).
In 1602 the nobleman Jakub Sienieński
established among the non-Trinitarian community founded by his father at Raków, Kielce County the Racovian Academy
and a printing-press, from which the Racovian Catechism
was issued in 1605. In 1610 a Catholic reaction began, led by Jesuits. The establishment at Raków was suppressed in 1638, after two boys allegedly pelted a crucifix outside the town.
For twenty years 1639-1659 the Arians were tolerated, but public opinion widely considered them as collaborators with Sweden during The Deluge
, and in 1660 the Polish Diet gave anti-Trinitarians the option of conformity or exile. The Ecclesia minor or Minor Church included many Polish magnates, but their adoption of the views of Sozzini, which precluded Christians from magisterial office, rendered them politically powerless.
The execution of the decree, hastened by a year, took place in 1660. Some conformed; a large number made their way to the Netherlands, where the Remonstrants
admitted them to membership on the basis of the Apostles' Creed
. Others, like Christopher Crell, went to the German frontier, Prussia and Lithuania. A contingent settled in Transylvania
, not joining the Unitarian Church, but maintaining a distinct organization at Cluj until 1793.
The refugees who reached Amsterdam
published the Bibliotheca fratrum polonorum (1665–1669), with the assistance of the Prussian emigre Christopher Sandius
, embracing the works of Johannes Crellius
, their leading theologian, Jonasz Szlichtyng
, their chief Biblical commentator, Fausto Sozzini and Johann Ludwig von Wolzogen
. The title page of this collection, bearing the words quos Unitarios vocant, introduced the term Unitarian to Western Europe.
The term Unitarian (in Latin) was first used by Polish and Dutch Socinians from the 1660s.
No distinct trace of anti-Trinitarian opinion precedes the appearance of Biandrata at the Transylvanian court in 1563. His influence was exerted on Ferenc Dávid
(1510–1579), who was successively Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist and finally anti-Trinitarian. Some argue that the growth of anti-Trinitarian opinion Transylvania and Hungary may have partly been due to the growing Islam
ic influence of the expanding Ottoman Empire
at the time.
In 1564 Dávid was elected by the Calvinists as "bishop of the Hungarian churches in Transylvania", and appointed court preacher to John Sigismund
, prince of Transylvania. His discussion of the Trinity began (1565) with doubts of the personality of the Holy Ghost.
His antagonist in public disputations was the Calvinist leader, Peter Melius (Bishop of Debrecen 1558-1572); his supporter was Biandrata. John Sigismund, adopting his court-preacher's views, issued (1568) an edict of religious liberty at the Diet of Torda
, which allowed Dávid (retaining his existing title) to transfer his episcopate from the Calvinists to the anti-Trinitarians, Kolozsvár
being evacuated by all but his followers.
In 1571 John Sigismund was succeeded by Stephen Báthory, a Catholic. Under the influence of Johann Sommer, rector of the Kolozsvár gymnasium
, David (about 1572) abandoned the worship of Christ. The attempted accommodation by Fausto Sozzini only precipitated matters; tried as an innovator, Dávid died in prison at the Fortress of Deva (1579). The cultus of Christ became an established usage of the Church; it is recognized in the 1837 edition of the official hymnal, but removed in later editions.
The term unitarius made its first documentary appearance, unitaria religio, in a decree of the Diet of Lécfalva
(1600); though it was not officially adopted by the Church until 1638.
In 1618 the Unitarian Church condemned and withdrew from Simon Péchi and the Sabbatarians
, a group with Judaic tendencies. The group continued to exist till the 1840s by which time many had converted to Judaism. In 1626 the Disciplina ecclesiastica was published by Bishop Bálint Radeczki (Latin: Valentinus Radecius, bishop 1616—1632). 1638 saw the Accord of Dés and suppression of the Unitarians.
Of the line of twenty-three bishops the most distinguished were George Enyedi
(1592–1597), whose Explicationes obtained European vogue, and Mihály Lombard de Szentábrahám
(1737–1758), who rallied the forces of his Church, broken by persecution and deprivation of property, and gave them their traditional statement of faith. His Summa Universae Theologiae Christianae secundum Unitarios
(published 1787), Socinian with Arminian modifications, was accepted by Joseph II
as the official manifesto of doctrine, and so remains, though subscription to it has not been required since the 19th century.
The first secondary school in Transylvania was established in the late 18th century in Székelykeresztúr (Cristuru Secuiesc
); this functions to this day, although as a state school.
The official title in Hungary is the Hungarian Unitarian Church, with a membership of about 25,000 members, whereas in Romania there is a separate church with the name of Unitarian Church of Transylvania
and about 65,000 members, especially among the Székely
population. In the past, the Unitarian bishop had a seat in the Hungarian parliament. The principal college of both churches is located at Cluj-Napoca
(Kolozsvár), which is also the seat of the Transylvanian consistory; there were others at Turda
(Torda) and at Cristuru Secuiesc
.
Until 1818 the continued existence of this body was largely 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.
In England, the movement gained popularity 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, at Essex Street Church in London. In 1791 Lindsey and his colleague John Disney
were behind the "first organized denominational Unitarian society", formally The Unitarian Society for promoting Christian Knowledge and the Practice of Virtue by the Distribution of Books but more simply known as the Unitarian Book Society. This was followed by The Unitarian Fund (1806), which sent out missionaries and financially supported poorer congregations. Unitarianism was not fully legal in the United Kingdom until the Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813
, a bill largely pushed forward in Parliament by William Smith
, and thus known sometimes under his name, or as the Unitarian Relief Act (Trinity Act) or The Unitarian Toleration Bill. This did not grant them full civil rights
while the oppressive Corporation Act and Test Act
remained, and thus in 1819 the third significant Unitarian society was created, The Association for the Protection of the Civil Rights of Unitarians. In 1825 these three groups amalgamated into the British and Foreign Unitarian Association
. A century later, this joined with the Sunday School Association to become the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
, which remains today the umbrella organisation for British Unitarianism.
) and 1612 we find few anti-Trinitarians, most of whom were either executed or forced to recant. Those burned included the Flemish surgeon George van Parris
(1551); Patrick Pakingham
(1555), a fellmonger; Matthew Hamont
(1579), a ploughwright; John Lewes (1583); Peter Cole (1587), a tanner; Francis Kett
(1589), physician and author; Bartholomew Legate
(1612), a cloth-dealer and last of the Smithfield victims; and the twice-burned Edward Wightman
(1612). In all these cases the anti-Trinitarian sentiments seem to have come from Holland; the last two executions followed the dedication to James I
of the Latin version of the Racovian Catechism
(1609).
and printing press continued till 1639, exerting influence in England via the Netherlands.
The vogue of Socinian views, typified by men like Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland
and Chillingworth
, led to the abortive fourth canon of 1640 against Socinian books. The ordinance of 1648 made denial of the Trinity a capital offence, but it remained a dead letter, Cromwell
intervening in the cases of Paul Best
(1590–1657) and John Biddle
(1616–1662).
In 1652–1654 and 1658–1662 Biddle held a Socinian conventicle
in London; in addition to his own writings he reprinted (1651) and translated (1652) the Racovian Catechism
, and the Life of Socinus (1653). His disciple Thomas Firmin
(1632–1697), mercer and philanthropist, and friend of John Tillotson
, adopted the more Sabellian
views of Stephen Nye
(1648–1719), a clergyman. Firmin promoted a remarkable series of controversial tracts (1690–1699).
In England the Socinian controversy
, initiated by Biddle
, preceded the Arian controversy
initiated by Samuel Clarke
's Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity (1712), although John Knowles
was an Arian lay preacher at Chester
in 1650. Arian or semi-Arian views had much vogue during the 18th century, both in the Church and among dissenters.
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). It was construed in a broad sense to cover all who, with whatever differences, held to the unipersonality of the Divine Being. Firmin later had a project of Unitarian societies "within the Church".
(1663–1741) who gathered a London congregation in 1705. This was contrary to the Act of Toleration 1689
, which excluded all who should preach or write against the Trinity.
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 Congregationalist
s.
(colleges) favoured new ideas. The effect of the Salters' Hall conference (1719), called for by the views of James Peirce
(1673–1726) of Exeter
, was to leave dissenting congregations to determine their own orthodoxy; the General Baptists had already (1700) condoned defections from the common doctrine. Leaders in the advocacy of a purely humanitarian christology
came largely from the Independents, such as Nathaniel Lardner (1684–1768), Caleb Fleming
(1698–1779), Joseph Priestley
(1733–1804) and Thomas Belsham
(1750–1829).
Isaac Newton
was an anti-Trinitarian, and possibly a Unitarian (though he may have been Sabellian). One of his last visitors before his death in 1727 was Samuel Crellius
from Lithuania.
(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. The congregation he established at Essex Street Chapel
, with the assistance of prominent ministers such as Joseph Priestley
and Richard Price
, was a pivot for change. Legal difficulties with the authorities were overcome with the help of barrister John Lee
, who later became Attorney-General. By degrees Lindsey's type of theology superseded Arianism
in a considerable number of dissenting congregations.
The Act of Toleration 1689
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 by the Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813
, largely pushed through Parliament by William Smith
, M.P., abolitionist, and grandfather of Florence Nightingale
. In 1825 the British and Foreign Unitarian Association
was formed as an amalgamation of three older societies, for literature (1791), mission work (1806) and civil rights (1818).
Attacks were made on properties held by Unitarians, but created prior to 1813. The Wolverhampton Chapel case began in 1817, the more important Hewley Fund case in 1830; both were decided against the Unitarians in 1842. Appeal to parliament
resulted in the Dissenters' Chapels Act (1844), which secured that, so far as trusts did not specify doctrines, twenty-five years tenure legitimated existing usage.
to questioning the miraculous, inspiration of Scripture, and the virgin birth, though not yet at this point the resurrection of Christ.
(see below), whose works were reprinted in numerous editions and owed a wide circulation to the efforts of Robert Spears
(1825–1899). Another American influence, potent in reducing the rigid though limited supernaturalism of Belsham and his successors, was that of Theodore Parker
(1810–1860). At home the teaching of James Martineau
(1805–1900), resisted at first, was at length powerfully felt, seconded as it was by the influence of John James Tayler (1797–1869) and of John Hamilton Thom
(1808–1894).
English Unitarianism produced some well-known scholars, e.g. John Kenrick (1788–1877), James Yates (1789–1871), Samuel Sharpe
(1799–1881), but few popular preachers, though George Harris
(1794–1859) is an exception. For the education of its ministry it supported Manchester College
at Oxford
(which deduced its ancestry from the academy of Richard Frankland
, begun 1670), the Unitarian Home Missionary College (founded in Manchester in 1854 by John Relly Beard
, D.D., and William Gaskell
), and the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen. It also produced the notable Chamberlain family of politicians: Joseph Chamberlain
, Austen Chamberlain
, and Neville Chamberlain
, and the Courtauld
industrialist dynasty.
English Unitarian periodical literature begins with Priestley's Theological Repository
(1769–1788), and includes the Monthly Repository
(1806–1838), The Christian Reformer (1834–1863), The Christian Teacher (1835–1844), The Prospective Review (1845–1854), The National Review
(1855–1864), the Theological Review (1864–1879), and The Hibbert Journal
, one of the enterprises of the Hibbert Trust
, founded by Robert Hibbert
(1770–1849) and originally designated the Anti-Trinitarian Fund. This came into operation in 1853, awarded scholarships and fellowships, supported an annual lectureship (1878–1894), and maintained (from 1894) a chair of ecclesiastical history at Manchester College.
of the student Thomas Aikenhead
, convicted of blaspheming the Trinity. The works of John Taylor
, D.D. (1694–1761) on original sin and atonement had much influence in the east of Scotland
, as we learn from Robert Burns
; and such men as William Dalrymple, D.D. (1723–1814) and William M'Gill, D.D. (1732–1807), along with other "moderates", were under suspicion of similar heresies. Overt Unitarianism has never had much vogue in Scotland. The only congregation of old foundation is at Edinburgh, founded in 1776 by a secession
from one of the "fellowship societies" formed by James Fraser, of Brea (1639–1699). The mission enterprises of Richard Wright (1764–1836) and George Harris (1794–1859) produced results of no great permanence.
The Scottish Unitarian Association was founded in 1813, mainly by Thomas Southwood Smith
, M.D., the sanitary reformer. The McQuaker Trust was founded (1889) for propagandist purposes.
Paradoxically, one of the reasons for the relative weakness of Unitarian movement in Scotland in the early 19th century may be the continuing presence of conservative, and therefore Bible-fundamentalist, non-Trinitarian, Arian, and Socinian views in dissenting chapels and among the Scottish followers of the Campbellite
and Millerite
movements. The Non-Trinitarian believers in Scotland were often more sympathetic to the Unitarians of a century earlier than to the more liberal views of Wright, Harris and Southwood Smith. A notable Bible-fundamentalist Scottish Unitarian was J. S. Hyndman, author of Lectures on The Principles of Unitarianism (Alnwick
, 1824) This conservative non-Trinitarian presence can be demonstrated by the response in Scotland, relative both to America and to his home town London, of the call of the first Christadelphian John Thomas
. The first congregations following Thomas' Socinian and Adventist
teachings in 1848-1849 were predominantly Scottish. And while the Christadelphians initially made more of their Millenialist teachings, the christological legacy of 17th century unitarians such as John Biddle
is evident and acknowledged.
There are currently four Unitarian churches in Scotland: Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
, 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 counter-influence of the mission of the Scottish Seceders (from 1742) produced a reaction. The Antrim Presbytery gradually became Arian; the same type of theology affected more or less the Southern Association, known since 1806 as the Synod of Munster. From 1783 ten of the fourteen presbyteries in the General Synod had made subscription optional; the synod's code of 1824 left "soundness in the faith" to be ascertained by subscription or by examination. Against this compromise Henry Cooke, D.D. (1788–1868), directed all his powers, and was ultimately (1829) successful in defeating his Arian opponent, Henry Montgomery, LL.D. (1788–1865). Montgomery led a secession which formed (1830) the Remonstrant Synod, comprising three presbyteries.
In 1910 the Antrim Presbytery, Remonstrant Synod and Synod of Munster united as the General Synod of the Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland
, with 38 congregations and some mission stations. Till 1889 they maintained two theological chairs in Belfast, where John Scott Porter (1801–1880) pioneered biblical criticism; they afterwards sent their students to England for their theological education, though in certain respects their views and practices remained more conservative than those of their English brethren.
Irish Unitarian periodical literature began in 1832 with the Bible Christian, followed by the Irish Unitarian Magazine, the Christian Unitarian, the Disciple and the Non-subscribing Presbyterian.
See generally: Robert Wallace
, Antitrinitarian Biography(1850); G. Bonet Maury, Early Sources of Eng. Unit. Christianity, trans. E. P. Hall (1884); A. Gordon, Heads of Eng. Unit. Hist. (1895).
, Arianism
, to rationalism
and a modernism
based on an acceptance of the results of the comparative study of all religions
. In the early 18th century Arminianism presented itself in New England
, and sporadically elsewhere. This tendency was largely accelerated by a backlash against the "Great Awakening
" under Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield
. Before the War of Independence Arianism showed itself in individual instances, and French influences were widespread in the direction of deism, though they were not organized into any definite utterance by religious bodies.
As early as the middle of the 18th century Harvard College
represented the most advanced thought of the time, and a score or more of clergymen in New England preached what was essentially Unitarianism. The most prominent of these men was Jonathan Mayhew
(1720–1766), pastor of the West Church in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1747 to 1766. He preached the strict unity of God, the subordinate nature of Christ, and salvation by character. Charles Chauncy
(1705–1787), pastor of the First Church from 1727 until his death, the chief opponent of Edwards in the great revival, was both a Unitarian and a Universalist. Other Unitarians included Ebenezer Gay (1698–1787) of Hingham
, Samuel West
(1730–1807) of New Bedford
, Thomas Barnard (1748–1814) of Newbury
, John Prince (1751–1836) and William Bentley
(1758–1819) of Salem
, Aaron Bancroft (1755–1836) of Worcester
, and several others.
The first official acceptance of the Unitarian faith on the part of a congregation was by King's Chapel
in Boston, which settled James Freeman
(1759–1853) in 1782, and revised the Prayer Book into a mild Unitarian liturgy in 1785. The Rev. William Hazlitt (father of the essayist and critic), visiting the United States in 1783–1785, published the fact that there were Unitarians in Philadelphia
, Boston, Charleston
, Pittsburgh
, Hallowell
, on Cape Cod
, and elsewhere. Unitarian congregations were organized at Portland
and Saco
in 1792 by Thomas Oxnard; in 1800 the First Church in Plymouth—the congregation founded by the Pilgrims in 1620—accepted the more liberal faith. Joseph Priestley
emigrated to the United States in 1794, and organized a Unitarian Church at Northumberland, Pennsylvania
, the same year and one at Philadelphia
in 1796. His writings had a considerable influence.
Thus from 1725 to 1825, Unitarianism was gaining ground in New England, and to some extent elsewhere. The first distinctive manifestation of the change was the inauguration of Henry Ware
(1764–1845) as professor of divinity at Harvard College, in 1805.
In the same year appeared Unitarian books by John Sherman
(1772–1828) and another in 1810 by Noah Worcester
(1758–1837). At the opening of the 19th century, with one exception, all the churches of Boston were occupied by Unitarian preachers, and various periodicals and organizations expressed their opinions. Churches were established in New York
, Baltimore, Washington
, Charleston, and elsewhere during this period.
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
(1759–1853) 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 & 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. At first mystical rather than rationalistic in his theology, he took part with the "Catholic Christians", as they called themselves, who aimed at bringing Christianity into harmony with the progressive spirit of the time. His essays on The System of Exclusion and Denunciation in Religion (1815), and Objections to Unitarian Christianity Considered (1819), made him a defender of Unitarianism. His sermon on "Unitarian Christianity", preached at First Unitarian Church of Baltimore in 1819, at the ordination of Jared Sparks
, and that at New York in 1821, made him its interpreter.
The result of the "Unitarian Controversy" (1815) was a growing division in the Congregational churches, which was emphasized in 1825 by the formation of the American Unitarian Association
at Boston. It was organized "to diffuse the knowledge and promote the interests of pure Christianity" and it published tracts and books, supported poor churches, sent out missionaries into every part of the country, and established new churches in nearly all the states. Essentially non-sectarian, with little missionary zeal, the Unitarian movement has grown slowly; and its influence has chiefly operated through general culture and the literature of the country. Many of its clergymen have been trained in other denominations; but the Harvard Divinity School
was distinctly Unitarian from its formation, in 1816, to 1870, when it became a non-sectarian department of the university. The Meadville Lombard Theological School
was founded at Meadville, Pennsylvania
in 1844, and the Starr King School for the Ministry
at Berkeley, California
in 1904.
The History of Essex Hall, written in 1959 by Mortimer Rowe, the Secretary (i.e. chief executive) of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
for its first twenty years, claims that the BFUA and AUA were founded entirely coincidentally on the same day, 26 May 1825.
), from about 1835 to about 1885, profoundly influenced by German idealism
, was increasingly rationalistic, though its theology was largely flavoured by mysticism
. As a reaction against this, the National Unitarian Conference was organized in 1865, and adopted a distinctly Christian platform, affirming that its members were "disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ".
The more rationalistic minority thereupon formed the Free Religious Association, "to encourage the scientific study of theology and to increase fellowship in the spirit." The Western Unitarian Conference later accepted the same position, and based its "fellowship on no dogmatic tests, but affirmed a desire "to establish truth, righteousness and love in the world." In addition, the WUC claimed belief in God was not a necessary component of Unitarian belief.
This period of controversy and of vigorous theological development practically came to an end soon after 1885. Its cessation was assured by the action of the national conference at Saratoga, New York
in 1894, when it was affirmed by a nearly unanimous vote that: "These churches accept the religion of Jesus, holding, in accordance with his teaching, that practical religion is summed up in love to God and love to man. The conference recognizes the fact that its constituency is Congregational in tradition and polity. Therefore it declares that nothing in this constitution is to be construed as an authoritative test; and we cordially invite to our working fellowship any who, while differing from us in belief, are in general sympathy with our spirit and our practical aims." The leaders of this period were Ralph Waldo Emerson
with his idealism and Theodore Parker
with his acceptance of Christianity as absolute religion.
, recognition of universal religion, large acceptance of the scientific method and ideas and an ethical attempt to realize what was perceived as to be the higher affirmations of Christianity. It has been marked by a general harmony and unity, by steady growth in the number of churches and by a widening fellowship with all other similarly minded movements.
This phase was shown in the organization of The International Council of Unitarian and other Liberal Religious Thinkers and Workers at Boston on 25 May 1900, "to open communication with those in all lands who are striving to unite pure religion and perfect liberty, and to increase fellowship and co-operation among them." This council has held biennial sessions in London, Amsterdam, Geneva and Boston. During the period after 1885 the influence of Emerson became predominant, modified by the more scientific preaching of Minot Judson Savage
, who found his guides in Darwin
and Spencer
.
Beyond its own borders the body obtained recognition through the public work of such men as Henry Whitney Bellows
and Edward Everett Hale
, the remarkable influence of James Freeman Clarke
and the popular power of Robert Collyer
. The number of Unitarian churches in the United States in 1909 was 461, with 541 ministers. The church membership then, really nominal, may be estimated at 100,000. The periodicals were The Christian Register, weekly, Boston; Unity, weekly, Chicago; The Unitarian, monthly, New York; Old and New, monthly, Des Moines; Pacific Unitarian, San Francisco.
In 1961, the American Unitarian Association
merged with the Universalist Church of America
, forming the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA)
.
Strictly speaking, modern-day Unitarian Universalism
is not Unitarian in theology. Despite its name, this denomination does not necessarily promote either belief in One God or universal salvation. It is merely the inheritor of the Unitarian and Universalist church system in America. Though there are Unitarians within the Unitarian-Universalist Association, there is no creed or doctrine that one must affirm to join a Unitarian Universalist congregation. This makes it very different from many other faith groups. Today, the majority of Unitarian Universalists do not identify themselves as Christians. Jesus and the Bible are generally treated as exceptional sources of inspiration, along with the holy people and traditions around the world. Unitarian Universalists base their community on a set of Principles and Purposes rather than on a prophet or creed. Notable Unitarian Universalists include Tim Berners-Lee
(founder of the World Wide Web), Pete Seeger
, U. S. Congressman Pete Stark
, former U. S. Senator Mike Gravel
and Christopher Reeve
.
Unitarians have been victims of hate crimes. For example, in 1965, UUA minister James Reeb
was killed in Selma, Alabama protesting police violence against civil rights advocates. In 2008, Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church shooting
two UUA members were killed and six others wounded by the ex-husband of a former member, who was motivated by hatred of liberals.
The decline of specifically Christian theology in the Unitarian churches in the United States has prompted several revival movements. Unitarian Christians within the Unitarian Universalist Association
formed, the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship
(UUCF) in 1945, a fellowship within UUA just for Christians, who were gradually becoming a minority. Similarly, the American Unitarian Conference
(AUC) was founded in 2000 with 4 congregations, but unlike the UUCF, the AUC remains outside the UUA. The AUC's mission is "renewal of the historic Unitarian faith", and promotes a set of God-centered religious principles, but like Unitarian Universalism, it does not impose a creed on its members.
Unitarians in America, because of the developments with the Unitarian churches, have generally taken one of three courses of action to find communities in which to worship God. Some have stayed within the Unitarian churches, accepting the non-Christian nature of their congregation, but have found their needs met in the UUCF. Some Unitarians, because they felt that the mainstream UUA churches are not accepting of Christians, or that the larger Unitarian-Universalist organizations are becoming too political and liberal
to be considered a religious movement or faith, have decided to affiliate with the American Unitarian Conference
. Most Christian Unitarians have sought out liberal Christian churches in other denominations and have made homes there.
Universalism found its way to Canada during the 19th century, for the most part, though not entirely, brought by settlers from the United States. The Universalist concepts of universal salvation, a loving and forgiving God, and the brother/sisterhood of all people, were welcomed by those for whom the partialist view or predestination were no longer acceptable. Universalist congregations formed, with the exception of the congregation in Halifax, mostly in rural towns and villages in lower Quebec and the Maritimes, and in southern Ontario. Universalism in Canada followed a corresponding decline as in the United States, and today the three remaining congregations at Olinda in Ontario, North Hatley in Quebec, and Halifax, Nova Scotia have since the 1960s been part of the Canadian Unitarian Council.
The Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC) was formed in advance (1960) of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) in the United States, but the two functioned in close association until money exchange and other complications led to greater independence, with the CUC assuming the direct delivery of services to Canadian congregations formerly extended by the UUA in Boston, Massachusetts. The two organizations continue collaboration in the credentialling of ministers, and in youth/young adult programs and services.
The Unitarian Service Committee, established during World War II as an overseas emergency relief agency, began under the capable direction of Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova
and initially supported largely by Unitarians, now continues as a separate agency, drawing support throughout Canada for its humanitarian work in many parts of the world.
The first ordination of a Canadian Unitarian minister after the organizational separation of the CUC and the UUA was held at the First Unitarian Church of Victoria, British Columbia, in 2002. Rev. Brian Kiely, who was to give the ordination sermon, was told (partly in jest) he must define Canadian Unitarianism, as Rev. Channing had at that New England ordination sermon of 1819. The simile Rev. Kiely chose was that Canadian Unitarianism is like a doughnut, the richness is in the circle of fellowship, not a creedal centre.
. The General Assembly is still the umbrella organisation for British Unitarianism, which has its headquarters, Essex Hall, in the same place in central London
.
founded in 1645 in Atherton, Greater Manchester
, published an article in the movement's journal, The Inquirer, and gave an interview to The Times
where he warned of the extinction of the Unitarian Church. According to The Times, "the church has fewer than 6,000 members in Britain; half of whom are aged over 65." He added, referring to Toxteth Chapel in Liverpool
, the movement's oldest building, where he was brought up, "they have had no minister since 1976 and the Unitarian cause there is effectively dead." The denomination's president, Dawn Buckle, a retired lecturer in education, denied that the movement was in a terminal phase and described it as a "thriving community capable of sustaining growth". There are more than 180 Unitarian congregations in Britain as part of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
.
Entirely separate from the General Assembly, and generally with no historical descent from the British and Foreign Unitarian Association
(1825–1928), there are a number of other denominations and small groups which look to earlier periods of Unitarianism as influences. This includes both groups looking back to the early Polish, Dutch and English "Socinians"
of the 17th century such as the Restoration Fellowship of Sir Anthony Buzzard, 3rd Baronet
, and those looking to the later "biblical unitarianism
" of Robert Spears
. Many of these groups are nontrinitarian
in theology, liberal in some political areas - such as conscientious objection, but fundamentalist in regard to the Bible, and conservative in areas such as homosexuality or women priests. Some of these groups however do have women ministers.
Recently some religious groups have adopted the term "Biblical Unitarianism
" to distinguish their theology from modern liberal Unitarianism.
(literally, The Free Congregation) was founded by a group of liberal Christians in Copenhagen
. Since 1908, the church is outside the Folkekirke
(the Danish Lutheran state church). In Aarhus
, another Unitarian congregation was founded at this time by the Norwegian Unitarian pastor and writer Kristofer Janson
(1841–1917); it has since closed.
Often labeled and considered as a "pioneer" or "precursor" (in a spiritual manner) to the Unitarian movement in Denmark was the Icelandic theologian Magnús Eiríksson
(1806–1881), who lived in Copenhagen from 1831 until his death in 1881.
the Swedish writer Klas Pontus Arnoldson
founded in Gothenburg
in 1871 the Unitarian association Sanningssökarna ("The Truth Seekers") – later also found in Stockholm
. This association also published the periodical Sanningssökaren ("The Truth Seeker"). Two other Unitarian associations were founded in 1882 (one of them in Stockholm
). In 1888 Unitarians asked the Swedish King for permission to establish yet another Unitarian association in Gothenburg but was turned down because Unitarianism was not regarded as a Christian religion. Later many Unitarians turned to theosophy. In 1974 members of The Religion and Culture Association in Malmö
founded The Free Church of Sweden and Rev. Ragnar Emilsen would be its pastor (ordained 1987 to Unitarian minister for Sweden and Finland and later the first to become Unitarian bishop of Scandinavia, he died February 2008). In 1999 the church changed its name to The Unitarian Church in Sweden.
and Kristofer Janson
returned from America and at once started independently of each other to introduce Unitarianism. In 1894 Tambs Lyche failed to organize a Unitarian Church in Oslo
(then Kristiania) but managed to publish Norway's first Unitarian periodical (Free Words). In January 1895 Kristofer Janson founded The Church of Brotherhood in Oslo which was to be the first Unitarian church – where he stayed as the congregation's pastor only for 3 years. In 1904 Herman Haugerud was to return to Norway from America and to become the last Unitarian pastor to The Unitarian Society (which The Church of Brotherhood now was renamed). Pastor Haugerud died in 1937 and the Unitarian church ceased to exist shortly thereafter. Between 1986 and 2003 different Unitarian groups were active in Oslo. In 2004 these merged into The Unitarian Association which registered as religious society according to Norwegian law on 20 April 2005 under the name The Unitarian Association (The Norwegian Unitarian Church). Later "Bét Dávid" has been added to the name: The Bét Dávid Unitarian Association (The Norwegian Unitarian Church). The church is akin to both Transylvanian Unitarianism and Judaism
, hence the name bét referring to the Hebrew word for "house" and Dávid which is the name of the first Transylvanian Unitarian bishop Dávid Ferenc (1510–1579). In 2006 this church was associated with the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists
(ICUU). Since 2007 there is also a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship independent of The Norwegian Unitarian Church. This fellowship is located in the Oslo area.
Michael Servetus
, the Spanish Inquisition
and the religious hegemony of the Roman Catholic Church
over both the State and the Spanish society, blocked for centuries any possibility of developing a Unitarian Church in Spain.
This situation began to change in the 19th century. A liberal Spanish writer and former priest, José María Blanco-White
, became a Unitarian during his exile in England and remained so until the end of his life (1841). At the end of the century, a group of liberal Spanish intellectuals and reformers, the Krausistas (who received this name for being followers of German idealist philosopher Karl Krause), were admirers of American Unitarian leaders William Ellery Channing
and Theodore Parker
, and wished that natural religion and religious rationalism were more present in Spain, although they did not create any liberal church to push that process forward.
The Spanish Civil War
(1936–1939) put an end to any expectations of change and liberal developments in Spain for several decades. After the death of dictator Francisco Franco and the approval of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, religious freedom was finally established in Spain (although still with many restrictions in actual practice). In 2000, the Sociedad Unitaria Universalista de España (SUUE) was founded in Barcelona, and in 2001 it became a member of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU). In 2005 it changed its name to the Unitarian Universalist Religious Society of Spain in order to achieve legal status as a religious organization under the Spanish law on Religious Freedom, but the application was also rejected.
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
and even as far back as the early days of Christianity. It matured and reached its classical form in the mid-19th century. Later historical development has been diverse in different countries.
Early origins
Unitarians trace their history back to the Apostolic AgeApostolic Age
The Apostolic Age of the history of Christianity is traditionally the period of the Twelve Apostles, dating from the Crucifixion of Jesus and the Great Commission in Jerusalem until the death of John the Apostle in Anatolia...
, i.e. the life of Jesus and the decades immediately after his death, and claim this doctrine was widespread during the pre-Nicene period
Ante-Nicene Period
The Ante-Nicene Period , or Post-Apostolic Period, of the history of early Christianity spanned the late 1st century to the early 4th century, with the end marked by the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity during this time was extremely diverse, with many developments difficult to trace...
, that is, before the First Council of Nicaea
First Council of Nicaea
The First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea in Bithynia by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325...
met in 325. Many believe their Christology
Christology
Christology is the field of study within Christian theology which is primarily concerned with the nature and person of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament. Primary considerations include the relationship of Jesus' nature and person with the nature...
(understanding of Jesus Christ) most closely reflects that of the "original Christians." (For a discussion of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
evidence, see Nontrinitarianism
Nontrinitarianism
Nontrinitarianism includes all Christian belief systems that disagree with the doctrine of the Trinity, namely, the teaching that God is three distinct hypostases and yet co-eternal, co-equal, and indivisibly united in one essence or ousia...
.)
While it is evident that other Christologies existed in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries, Jewish-Christian congregations tended to hold the view that Jesus was a great man and prophet, even the Son of God, but not God himself. (See Ebionites
Ebionites
Ebionites, or Ebionaioi, , is a patristic term referring to a Jewish Christian sect or sects that existed during the first centuries of the Christian Era. They regarded Jesus as the Messiah and insisted on the necessity of following Jewish religious law and rites...
.)
One of the earliest controversies over the nature of Christ that involved the propagation of "unitarian" ideas broke out at Rome during the episcopate of Victor I
Pope Victor I
Pope Saint Victor I was Pope from 189 to 199 .Pope Victor I was the first bishop of Rome born in the Roman Province of Africa: probably he was born in Leptis Magna . He was later canonized...
(189–199). This was the so-called "Monarchian controversy", which originated in a revolt against the influential Logos
Logos
' is an important term in philosophy, psychology, rhetoric and religion. Originally a word meaning "a ground", "a plea", "an opinion", "an expectation", "word," "speech," "account," "reason," it became a technical term in philosophy, beginning with Heraclitus ' is an important term in...
theology of Justin Martyr
Justin Martyr
Justin Martyr, also known as just Saint Justin , was an early Christian apologist. Most of his works are lost, but two apologies and a dialogue survive. He is considered a saint by the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church....
and the apologists, who had spoken of Jesus as a second god. Such language was disturbing to some. Justin's language appeared to promote ditheism (two gods). The view, however, was defended by Hippolytus of Rome, for whom it was essential to say that the Father and the Logos are two distinct "persons" (prosopa).
Some critics of Justin's theology tried to preserve the unity of God by saying that there is no difference to be discerned between the ‘Son’ and the ‘Father’ (unless ‘Son’ is a name for the physical body or humanity of Christ and ‘Father’ a name for the divine Spirit within). This sort of thinking, known as Modal Monarchianism or Sabellianism
Sabellianism
In Christianity, Sabellianism, is the nontrinitarian belief that the Heavenly Father, Resurrected Son and Holy Spirit are different modes or aspects of one God, as perceived by the believer, rather than three distinct persons in God Himself.The term Sabellianism comes from...
, would one day lead to a compromise doctrine that the Father and the Son are consubstantial (of the same being).
Other critics preserved the unity of God by saying that Jesus was a man, but differentiated in being indwelt by the Spirit of God to an absolute and unique degree. They thus denied that Jesus was God or a god. They became known as "adoptionists
Adoptionism
Adoptionism, sometimes called dynamic monarchianism, is a minority Christian belief that Jesus was adopted as God's son at his baptism...
", because they suggested that Jesus was adopted by the Father to be his Son. This view was associated with Theodotus of Byzantium
Theodotus of Byzantium
Theodotus of Byzantium was an early Christian writer from Byzantium, one of several named Theodotus whose writings were condemned as heresy in the early church.Theodotus claimed that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit as a mortal man, and though later "adopted" by...
(the Shoemaker) and Artemon
Artemon
Artemon , a prominent Christian teacher in Rome, who held Adoptionist, or Nontrinitarian views. We know little about his life for certain.He is mentioned as the leader of a nontrinitarian sect at Rome in the third century...
.
So even at this early stage we find evidence of proto-Arianism
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
(Justin's view) and proto-Socinianism
Socinianism
Socinianism is a system of Christian doctrine named for Fausto Sozzini , which was developed among the Polish Brethren in the Minor Reformed Church of Poland during the 15th and 16th centuries and embraced also by the Unitarian Church of Transylvania during the same period...
(the Adoptionist view), though they were, as yet, not fully formed. Both of these theologies have similarities to latter day Unitarianism.
The Monarchian controversy came to a head again in the mid-3rd century. In 259 the help of Dionysius of Alexandria
Dionysius of Alexandria
Pope Dionysius of Alexandria, named "the Great," was the Pope of Alexandria from 248 until his death on November 17, 265 after seventeen years as a bishop. He was the first Pope to hold the title "the Great" . We have information on Dionysius because during his lifetime, Dionysius wrote many...
, was invoked in a dispute among the churches in Libya between adherents of Justin's Logos-theology and some modalist Monarchians. Dionysius vehemently attacked the modalist standpoint. He affirmed that the Son and the Father were as different as a boat and a boatman and denied that they were "of one substance" (homoousios). The Libyans appealed to Dionysius of Rome, whose rebuke to his Alexandrian namesake stressed the unity of God and condemned "those who divide the divine monarchy into three separate hypostases and three deities".
Another crisis occurred over Paul of Samosata
Paul of Samosata
Paul of Samosata was Bishop of Antioch from 260 to 268. He was a believer in monarchianism, and his teachings anticipate adoptionism.-Life:...
, who became bishop of Antioch in Syria in 260. Paul's doctrine is akin to the primitive Jewish-Christian idea of the person of Christ and to the Christology of Theodotus of Byzantium (adoptionism). To many his doctrine seemed plain heresy, and a council of local bishops was held to consider his case in 268. The bishops found it easier to condemn Paul than to expel him, and he remained in full possession of the church with his enthusiastic supporters. However, the bishops appealed to the Roman emperor, who decided that the legal right to the church building should be assigned "to those to whom the bishops of Italy and Rome should communicate in writing". It was the first time that an ecclesiastical dispute had to be settled by the secular power. So Paul was put out of his church.
Arius
Arius
Arius was a Christian presbyter in Alexandria, Egypt of Libyan origins. His teachings about the nature of the Godhead, which emphasized the Father's divinity over the Son , and his opposition to the Athanasian or Trinitarian Christology, made him a controversial figure in the First Council of...
, son of Ammonius, was a popular priest appointed presbyter
Presbyter
Presbyter in the New Testament refers to a leader in local Christian congregations, then a synonym of episkopos...
for the district of Baucalis in Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
in 313. His views of the nature of Jesus, although not original, conflicted with the views held by Bishop Alexander of Alexandria
Alexander of Alexandria
Alexander of Alexandria was the nineteenth Patriarch of Alexandria from 313 to his death. During his patriarchate, he dealt with a number of issues relevant to a church's positions on issues facing the church. These included the dating of Easter, the actions of Meletius of Lycopolis, and the issue...
. Both Arius and Alexander held that Jesus was the Word (Logos) in human form; however, Arius held that the Word was a creation of God and had a beginning of existence, whereas Alexander held that the Word was co-eternal and consubstantial with God. When disagreement arose between the two men, forces were set in motion that resulted in the formation of the doctrine of the Trinity.
In the Nicene Creed
Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed is the creed or profession of faith that is most widely used in Christian liturgy. It is called Nicene because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Nicaea by the first ecumenical council, which met there in the year 325.The Nicene Creed has been normative to the...
adopted at the First Council of Nicaea
First Council of Nicaea
The First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea in Bithynia by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325...
in 325, wherein the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great got involved, the issue was considered settled and the adoption of Alexander's view became the orthodox doctrine and all other views were considered heresy and officially suppressed. During the reign of the emperor Constantius II
Constantius II
Constantius II , was Roman Emperor from 337 to 361. The second son of Constantine I and Fausta, he ascended to the throne with his brothers Constantine II and Constans upon their father's death....
, however, the anti-Nicene party rose to prominence and exercised considerable control over the church for about a generation. New creeds were drawn up to counter the homoousian
Homoousian
Homoousian is a technical theological term used in discussion of the Christian understanding of God as Trinity. The Nicene Creed describes Jesus as being homooúsios with God the Father — that is, they are of the "same substance" and are equally God...
doctrine of the Nicene Creed. When Theodosius I
Theodosius I
Theodosius I , also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of the Roman Empire. During his reign, the Goths secured control of Illyricum after the Gothic War, establishing their homeland...
took the imperial throne, however, the tables were turned, and at the Council of Constantinople
First Council of Constantinople
The First Council of Constantinople is recognized as the Second Ecumenical Council by the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox, the Eastern Orthodox, the Roman Catholics, the Old Catholics, and a number of other Western Christian groups. It was the first Ecumenical Council held in...
in 381, the position that the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost were all the same being was agreed upon, and the formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity was complete. Theodosius outlawed all Nontrinitarian forms of Christianity.
The Protestant Reformation
The Protestant ReformationProtestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
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, Hungary and, at a much later date, in England. By contrast, Sabellianism
Sabellianism
In Christianity, Sabellianism, is the nontrinitarian belief that the Heavenly Father, Resurrected Son and Holy Spirit are different modes or aspects of one God, as perceived by the believer, rather than three distinct persons in God Himself.The term Sabellianism comes from...
(also known as modalism, modalistic monarchianism, or modal monarchism) is the nontrinitarian belief that the Heavenly Father, Resurrected Son and Holy Spirit are different modes or aspects of one God, as perceived by the believer, rather than three distinct persons in God Himself.
Along with the fundamental doctrine, certain characteristics have always marked those who profess unitarianism: a large degree of tolerance
Toleration
Toleration is "the practice of deliberately allowing or permitting a thing of which one disapproves. One can meaningfully speak of tolerating, ie of allowing or permitting, only if one is in a position to disallow”. It has also been defined as "to bear or endure" or "to nourish, sustain or preserve"...
, a historical study of scripture, a minimizing of essentials, and a repugnance to formulated creed
Creed
A creed is a statement of belief—usually a statement of faith that describes the beliefs shared by a religious community—and is often recited as part of a religious service. When the statement of faith is longer and polemical, as well as didactic, it is not called a creed but a Confession of faith...
.
Martin Cellarius
Martin Cellarius
Martin Borrhaus was a German Protestant theologian and reformer.-Life:Borrhaus was born in Stuttgart and raised as an adopted child of a Simon Keller.. He enrolled at the University of Tübingen, where in 1515 he graduated and came to know Philipp Melanchthon...
(1499–1564), a friend of Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
, and Hans Denck
Hans Denck
Hans Denck was a German theologian and Anabaptist leader during the Reformation.Denck was born in 1495 in the Bavarian town of Habach. After a classical education, he became headmaster at the St. Sebaldus school in Nuremberg in 1523...
(1500–1527) usually are considered the first literary pioneers of the movement; the anti-Trinitarian position of Ludwig Haetzer
Ludwig Haetzer
Ludwig Haetzer was an Anabaptist.Born in Bischofszell, Thurgau, Switzerland, he wrote an article against the uses of images in worship, translated some Latin evangelical texts regarding the conversion of Jews, together with Hans Denck he translated the prophets of the Bible into German and...
did not become public until after his execution (1529) for Anabaptism
Anabaptist
Anabaptists are Protestant Christians of the Radical Reformation of 16th-century Europe, and their direct descendants, particularly the Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites....
. Luther himself was opposed to the Unitarian movement, blaming the spread of Islam
Spread of Islam
The Spread of Islam started shortly after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 632 AD. During his lifetime, the community of Muhammad, the ummah, was established in the Arabian Peninsula by means of conversion to Islam and conquering of territory, and oftentimes the conquered had to either...
for the growth of Unitarianism, arguing that:
Michael Servetus
Michael Servetus
Michael Servetus was a Spanish theologian, physician, cartographer, and humanist. He was the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation...
(1511?–1553) stimulated thought in this direction and heavily influenced other reformers both by his writings and by his death at the stake. In 1531 he had published his theological treatise De Trinitatis Erroribus (On the Errors About the Trinity), in which he rejected the Nicene dogma of the Trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
and proposed that the Son was the union of the divine Logos
Logos
' is an important term in philosophy, psychology, rhetoric and religion. Originally a word meaning "a ground", "a plea", "an opinion", "an expectation", "word," "speech," "account," "reason," it became a technical term in philosophy, beginning with Heraclitus ' is an important term in...
with the man Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, miraculously born from the Virgin Mary through the intervention of God's spirit. This was generally interpreted as a denial of the Trinitarian dogma (actually Servetus had described the Trinity as a "three-headed Cerberus" and "three ghosts" which only led believers to confusion and error). Servetus expanded his ideas on the nature of God and Christ 20 years later in his major work, Christianismi Restitutio (The Restoration of Christianity), which caused his burning at the stake in Calvin
John Calvin
John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
's Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
(and also in effigy by the Catholic Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
in France) in 1553 . Nowadays most Unitarians see Servetus
Michael Servetus
Michael Servetus was a Spanish theologian, physician, cartographer, and humanist. He was the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation...
as their pioneer and first martyr, and his thought was a remarkable influence in the beginnings of Polish and Transylvanian Anti-trinitarian churches, even though his Arian
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
views on Jesus Christ (e.g. retaining belief in the pre-existence of Christ
Pre-existence of Christ
The pre-existence of Christ refers to the doctrine of the ontological or personal existence of Christ before his conception. One of the relevant Bible passages is where, in the Trinitarian view, Christ is identified with a pre-existent divine hypostasis called the Logos or Word...
) were different from those of the Polish Socinians (rejecting belief in Jesus' pre-existence), and again from the generation of Thomas Belsham
Thomas Belsham
Thomas Belsham was an English Unitarian minister- Life :Belsham was born in Bedford, England, and was the elder brother of William Belsham, the English political writer and historian. He was educated at the dissenting academy at Daventry, where for seven years he acted as assistant tutor...
(rejecting also the virgin birth), and very different from what the Unitarian Church generally believes today.
Italy
The AnabaptistAnabaptist
Anabaptists are Protestant Christians of the Radical Reformation of 16th-century Europe, and their direct descendants, particularly the Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites....
Council of Venice
Council of Venice
The concilio di Veneto or sinodo a Venezia 1550 was a meeting in Venice of the anabaptist radicals of Northern Italy.It had been preceded by the antitrinitarian Collegia Vicentina The concilio di Veneto or sinodo a Venezia 1550 was a meeting in Venice of the anabaptist radicals of Northern Italy.It...
1550, marks the start of a formal but underground antitrinitarian movement in Italy, led by men such as Matteo Gribaldi
Matteo Gribaldi
Matteo Gribaldi Mofa was an Italian legal scholar who became an Arian and defender of Michael Servetus....
. The Italian exiles spread antitrinitarian views to Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Transylvania and Holland.
The Dialogues (1563) of Bernardino Ochino
Bernardino Ochino
Bernardino Ochino was an Italian Reformer.-Biography:Bernardino Ochino was born in Siena son of the barber Domenico Ochino, and at the age of 7 or 8 around 1504 was entrusted to the Minorite order of Franciscan Friars, then from 1510 he studied medicine at Perugia.-1534, transfer to the...
, while defending the Trinity, stated objections and difficulties with a force which captivated many. In his 27th Dialogue Ochino points to Hungary as a possible home of religious liberty. And in Poland and Hungary definitely anti-Trinitarian religious communities first formed and were tolerated.
Poland
Scattered expressions of anti-Trinitarian opinion appeared in Poland early. At the age of 80, Catherine, wife of Melchior Vogel or Weygel, was burned at CracowKraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
(1539) for apostasy
Apostasy
Apostasy , 'a defection or revolt', from ἀπό, apo, 'away, apart', στάσις, stasis, 'stand, 'standing') is the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. One who commits apostasy is known as an apostate. These terms have a pejorative implication in everyday...
; whether her views embraced more than deism
Deism
Deism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
is not clear. The first synod of the (Calvinist) Reformed Church took place in 1555; the second Synod (1556) faced the theological challenges of Grzegorz Paweł z Brzezin
Grzegorz Paweł z Brzezin
Grzegorz Paweł z Brzezin , Latin: Gregorius Paulus Brzezinensis) , was a Socinian writer and theologian, one of the principal creators and propagators of radical wing of the Polish Brethren, and author of several of the first theological works in Polish, which helped to the development of literary...
(Gregory Pauli) and Peter Gonesius (Piotr z Goniądza), who were aware of the works of Servetus and of Italian antitrinitarians
Nontrinitarianism
Nontrinitarianism includes all Christian belief systems that disagree with the doctrine of the Trinity, namely, the teaching that God is three distinct hypostases and yet co-eternal, co-equal, and indivisibly united in one essence or ousia...
such as Matteo Gribaldi
Matteo Gribaldi
Matteo Gribaldi Mofa was an Italian legal scholar who became an Arian and defender of Michael Servetus....
. The arrival of Giorgio Biandrata
Giorgio Biandrata
Giorgio Biandrata or Blandrata , was an Italian physician and polemicist, who came of the De Biandrate family, powerful from the early part of the 13th century, was born at Saluzzo, the youngest son of Bernardino Biandrata.He graduated in arts and medicine at Montpellier in 1533, and specialized in...
in 1558 furnished the party with a temporary leader.
The term "Unitarian" first appeared as unitaria religio in a document of the Diet of Lécfalva
Let
Let or LET may refer to:* -let, an English diminutive suffix* Let, a shot or point that must be replayed in certain racquet sports* Let, a name binding construct in computer programming languages...
, Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
on 25 October 1600, though it was not widely used in Transylvania until 1638, when the formal recepta Unitaria Religio was published. The Polish Brethren
Polish Brethren
The Polish Brethren were members of the Minor Reformed Church of Poland, a Nontrinitarian Protestant church that existed in Poland from 1565 to 1658...
began as a grouping of Arians and Unitarians who split from the Polish Calvinist Church in 1565, though by 1580 the Unitarian views of Fausto Sozzini (hence the adjective Socinian
Socinianism
Socinianism is a system of Christian doctrine named for Fausto Sozzini , which was developed among the Polish Brethren in the Minor Reformed Church of Poland during the 15th and 16th centuries and embraced also by the Unitarian Church of Transylvania during the same period...
) had become the majority. Sozzini's grandson Andrzej Wiszowaty Sr. in 1665-1668 published Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum quos Unitarios vocant (Library of the Polish Brethren who are called Unitarians 4 vols. 1665–69). The name was introduced into English by the Socinian Henry Hedworth
Henry Hedworth
Henry Hedworth of Huntingdon was a Unitarian writer.Henry Hedworth is chiefly notable for being the first person in the English language to introduce Latin term Unitarian into print in England 1673, fourteen years before Stephen Nye of Hertfordshire became the first to use the word on a title...
in 1673. Thereafter the term became common currency in English, though their detractors continued to label both Arian and Unitarian views as "Socinian".
In 1565, the Diet (Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
) of Piotrków
Piotrków Trybunalski
Piotrków Trybunalski is a city in central Poland with 80,738 inhabitants . It is situated in the Łódź Voivodeship , and previously was the capital of Piotrków Voivodeship...
excluded anti-Trinitarians from the existing synod of the Polish Reformed church
Polish Reformed Church
The Polish Reformed Church, officially called the Evangelical Reformed Church in the republic of Poland is a historic Protestant church in Poland established in the 16th century, still in existence today.-Structure and organisation:An internal census showed that in 2004 the Polish Reformed Church...
(henceforth the Ecclesia maior) and Unitarians began to hold their own synods as the Ecclesia minor. Known by various other names (of which Polish brethren
Polish Brethren
The Polish Brethren were members of the Minor Reformed Church of Poland, a Nontrinitarian Protestant church that existed in Poland from 1565 to 1658...
and Arian were the most common), at no time in its history did this body adopt for itself any designation save "Christian". Originally Arian (but excluding any worship of Christ), and Anabaptist
Anabaptist
Anabaptists are Protestant Christians of the Radical Reformation of 16th-century Europe, and their direct descendants, particularly the Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites....
, the Minor Church was (by 1588) brought round to the views of Fausto Sozzini
Fausto Paolo Sozzini
Fausto Paolo Sozzini, also known as Faustus Socinus or Faust Socyn was an Italian theologian and founder of the school of Christian thought known as "Socinianism" and the main theologian of Polish Brethren .-Life:Sozzini was born at Siena, the only son of Alessandro Sozzini and...
, who had settled in Poland in 1579, and who denied the pre-existence of Christ
Pre-existence of Christ
The pre-existence of Christ refers to the doctrine of the ontological or personal existence of Christ before his conception. One of the relevant Bible passages is where, in the Trinitarian view, Christ is identified with a pre-existent divine hypostasis called the Logos or Word...
, while accepting the virgin birth (see Socinianism
Socinianism
Socinianism is a system of Christian doctrine named for Fausto Sozzini , which was developed among the Polish Brethren in the Minor Reformed Church of Poland during the 15th and 16th centuries and embraced also by the Unitarian Church of Transylvania during the same period...
).
In 1602 the nobleman Jakub Sienieński
Jakub Sienieński
Jakub Sienieński was a Polish nobleman, representative in the Sejm, who in 1602 founded the Racovian Academy.His father Jan Sienieński founded the town of Raków, Kielce County in 1569...
established among the non-Trinitarian community founded by his father at Raków, Kielce County the Racovian Academy
Racovian Academy
The Racovian Academy was a school of the Socinian Polish Brethren operating in Raków, Kielce County, Poland 1602-1638, and publisher of the Racovian Catechism in 1605....
and a printing-press, from which the Racovian Catechism
Racovian Catechism
The Racovian Catechism is a nontrinitarian statement of faith from the 16th century. The title Racovian comes from the publishers, the Polish Brethren, who had founded a sizeable town in Raków, Kielce County, where the Racovian Academy and printing press was founded by Jakub Sienieński in...
was issued in 1605. In 1610 a Catholic reaction began, led by Jesuits. The establishment at Raków was suppressed in 1638, after two boys allegedly pelted a crucifix outside the town.
For twenty years 1639-1659 the Arians were tolerated, but public opinion widely considered them as collaborators with Sweden during The Deluge
The Deluge (Polish history)
The term Deluge denotes a series of mid-17th century campaigns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a wider sense it applies to the period between the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 and the Truce of Andrusovo in 1667, thus comprising the Polish–Lithuanian theaters of the Russo-Polish and...
, and in 1660 the Polish Diet gave anti-Trinitarians the option of conformity or exile. The Ecclesia minor or Minor Church included many Polish magnates, but their adoption of the views of Sozzini, which precluded Christians from magisterial office, rendered them politically powerless.
The execution of the decree, hastened by a year, took place in 1660. Some conformed; a large number made their way to the Netherlands, where the Remonstrants
Remonstrants
The Remonstrants are the Dutch Protestants who, after the death of Jacobus Arminius, maintained the views associated with his name. In 1610 they presented to the States of Holland and Friesland a remonstrance in five articles formulating their points of disagreement from Calvinism.-History:The five...
admitted them to membership on the basis of the Apostles' Creed
Apostles' Creed
The Apostles' Creed , sometimes titled Symbol of the Apostles, is an early statement of Christian belief, a creed or "symbol"...
. Others, like Christopher Crell, went to the German frontier, Prussia and Lithuania. A contingent settled in Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
, not joining the Unitarian Church, but maintaining a distinct organization at Cluj until 1793.
The refugees who reached Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
published the Bibliotheca fratrum polonorum (1665–1669), with the assistance of the Prussian emigre Christopher Sandius
Christopher Sandius
Christopher Sandius Jr. was an Arian writer and publisher of Socinian works without himself being a Socinian....
, embracing the works of Johannes Crellius
Johannes Crellius
Johannes Crellius was a Polish and German theologian.-Life:...
, their leading theologian, Jonasz Szlichtyng
Jonasz Szlichtyng
Jonasz Szlichtyng was a Polish nobleman, theologian of the Socinian Polish Brethren and father of Krzysztof Szlichtyng....
, their chief Biblical commentator, Fausto Sozzini and Johann Ludwig von Wolzogen
Johann Ludwig von Wolzogen
Johann Ludwig von Wolzogen was an Austrian nobleman and Socinian theologian.Wolzogen was born in Nové Zámky , known then as Neuhäusel in German and Érsekújvár in Hungarian. He inherited the titles of Baron of Tarenfeldt and Freiherr of Neuhäusel.Comenius became acquainted with Wolzogen in 1638....
. The title page of this collection, bearing the words quos Unitarios vocant, introduced the term Unitarian to Western Europe.
The term Unitarian (in Latin) was first used by Polish and Dutch Socinians from the 1660s.
Transylvania and Hungary
Ferenc Dávid
Ferenc Dávid was a Transylvanian Nontrinitarian and Unitarian preacher, the founder of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania.-Life:Born in Kolozsvár to a Hungarian family, he studied in Wittenberg and Frankfurt...
(1510–1579), who was successively Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist and finally anti-Trinitarian. Some argue that the growth of anti-Trinitarian opinion Transylvania and Hungary may have partly been due to the growing Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic influence of the expanding Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
at the time.
In 1564 Dávid was elected by the Calvinists as "bishop of the Hungarian churches in Transylvania", and appointed court preacher to John Sigismund
John II Sigismund Zápolya
John II Sigismund Zápolya was King of Hungary from 1540 to 1570 and Prince of Transylvania from 1570–1571.-Family:The son of King John I and Isabella Jagiełło, he succeeded his father as an infant...
, prince of Transylvania. His discussion of the Trinity began (1565) with doubts of the personality of the Holy Ghost.
His antagonist in public disputations was the Calvinist leader, Peter Melius (Bishop of Debrecen 1558-1572); his supporter was Biandrata. John Sigismund, adopting his court-preacher's views, issued (1568) an edict of religious liberty at the Diet of Torda
Edict of Turda
The Edict of Torda in 1568, also known as the Patent of Toleration, was an early attempt to guarantee religious freedom in Christian Europe, that was born due the special political, social and religious situation in the Kingdom of Hungary in the 16 Century.- The original edict :King John II...
, which allowed Dávid (retaining his existing title) to transfer his episcopate from the Calvinists to the anti-Trinitarians, Kolozsvár
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
being evacuated by all but his followers.
In 1571 John Sigismund was succeeded by Stephen Báthory, a Catholic. Under the influence of Johann Sommer, rector of the Kolozsvár gymnasium
John Sigismund Unitarian Academy
The John Sigismund Unitarian Academy, located in Kolozsvár , was a theological school founded in 1557 by the Unitarian Diocese of Transylvania.-Foundation:...
, David (about 1572) abandoned the worship of Christ. The attempted accommodation by Fausto Sozzini only precipitated matters; tried as an innovator, Dávid died in prison at the Fortress of Deva (1579). The cultus of Christ became an established usage of the Church; it is recognized in the 1837 edition of the official hymnal, but removed in later editions.
Let
Let or LET may refer to:* -let, an English diminutive suffix* Let, a shot or point that must be replayed in certain racquet sports* Let, a name binding construct in computer programming languages...
(1600); though it was not officially adopted by the Church until 1638.
In 1618 the Unitarian Church condemned and withdrew from Simon Péchi and the Sabbatarians
Szekler Sabbatarians
The Szekler Sabbatarians were a religious group in Transylvania and Hungary between the Sixteenth and Nineteenth centuries who held Unitarian and judaizing beliefs.-History:The Magyar...
, a group with Judaic tendencies. The group continued to exist till the 1840s by which time many had converted to Judaism. In 1626 the Disciplina ecclesiastica was published by Bishop Bálint Radeczki (Latin: Valentinus Radecius, bishop 1616—1632). 1638 saw the Accord of Dés and suppression of the Unitarians.
Of the line of twenty-three bishops the most distinguished were George Enyedi
György Enyedi (Unitarian)
György Enyedi, in Latin Georgius Eniedinus was a Hungarian Unitarian bishop, moderator of the John Sigismund Unitarian Academy in Kolozsvár and writer known as the "Unitarian Plato"....
(1592–1597), whose Explicationes obtained European vogue, and Mihály Lombard de Szentábrahám
Mihály Lombard de Szentábrahám
Mihály Lombard de Szentábrahám was a Hungarian Unitarian bishop. He re-laid the foundations of the Unitarian Church in Transylvania during a period of harassment until the accession of Joseph II and the return of an era of tolerance.During the period 1718-1720 the settlements were struck by famine...
(1737–1758), who rallied the forces of his Church, broken by persecution and deprivation of property, and gave them their traditional statement of faith. His Summa Universae Theologiae Christianae secundum Unitarios
Summa Universae Theologiae Christianae secundum Unitarios
Summa Universae Theologiae Christianae secundum Unitarios is a statement of faith of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania officially recognised by Joseph II in 1782....
(published 1787), Socinian with Arminian modifications, was accepted by Joseph II
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
as the official manifesto of doctrine, and so remains, though subscription to it has not been required since the 19th century.
Cristuru Secuiesc
Cristuru Secuiesc is a town in Harghita County, Romania. It lies in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania.The town administers two villages:*Beteşti / Betfalva, part of Mugeni until 2004*Filiaş / Fiatfalva- History :...
); this functions to this day, although as a state school.
The official title in Hungary is the Hungarian Unitarian Church, with a membership of about 25,000 members, whereas in Romania there is a separate church with the name of Unitarian Church of Transylvania
Unitarian Church of Transylvania
The Unitarian Church of Transylvania is a church of the Unitarian denomination, based in the city of Cluj in the Principality of Transylvania, present day in Romania...
and about 65,000 members, especially among the Székely
Székely
The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...
population. In the past, the Unitarian bishop had a seat in the Hungarian parliament. The principal college of both churches is located at Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
(Kolozsvár), which is also the seat of the Transylvanian consistory; there were others at Turda
Turda
Turda is a city and Municipality in Cluj County, Romania, situated on the Arieş River.- Ancient times :The city was founded by Dacians under the name Patavissa or Potaissa...
(Torda) and at Cristuru Secuiesc
Cristuru Secuiesc
Cristuru Secuiesc is a town in Harghita County, Romania. It lies in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania.The town administers two villages:*Beteşti / Betfalva, part of Mugeni until 2004*Filiaş / Fiatfalva- History :...
.
Until 1818 the continued existence of this body was largely unknown to English Unitarians ; relations subsequently became intimate. After 1860 a succession of students finished their theological education at Manchester College
Harris Manchester College, Oxford
Harris Manchester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Formerly known as Manchester College, it is listed in the University Statutes as Manchester Academy and Harris College, and at University ceremonies it is called Collegium de Harris et...
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
; others at the Unitarian Home Missionary College.
England
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
and began to become a formal denomination in 1774 when Theophilus Lindsey
Theophilus Lindsey
Theophilus Lindsey was an English theologian and clergyman who founded the first avowedly Unitarian congregation in the country, at Essex Street Chapel.-Life:...
organised meetings with Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
, founding the first avowedly Unitarian congregation in the country, at Essex Street Church in London. In 1791 Lindsey and his colleague John Disney
John Disney (Unitarian)
John Disney was an English Unitarian minister and biographical writer, initially an Anglican clergyman active against subscription to the Thirty Nine Articles.-Life:...
were behind the "first organized denominational Unitarian society", formally The Unitarian Society for promoting Christian Knowledge and the Practice of Virtue by the Distribution of Books but more simply known as the Unitarian Book Society. This was followed by The Unitarian Fund (1806), which sent out missionaries and financially supported poorer congregations. Unitarianism was not fully legal in the United Kingdom until the Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813
Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813
The Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
, a bill largely pushed forward in Parliament by William Smith
William Smith (abolitionist)
William Smith was a leading independent British politician, sitting as Member of Parliament for more than one constituency. He was an English Dissenter and was instrumental in bringing political rights to that religious minority...
, and thus known sometimes under his name, or as the Unitarian Relief Act (Trinity Act) or The Unitarian Toleration Bill. This did not grant them full civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
while the oppressive Corporation Act and Test Act
Test Act
The Test Acts were a series of English penal laws that served as a religious test for public office and imposed various civil disabilities on Roman Catholics and Nonconformists...
remained, and thus in 1819 the third significant Unitarian society was created, The Association for the Protection of the Civil Rights of Unitarians. In 1825 these three groups amalgamated into the British and Foreign Unitarian Association
British and Foreign Unitarian Association
The British and Foreign Unitarian Association was the major Unitarian body in Britain from 1825. The BFUA was founded as an amalgamation of three older societies: the Unitarian Book Society for literature , The Unitarian Fund for mission work , and the Unitarian Association for civil rights...
. A century later, this joined with the Sunday School Association to become the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christian and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1928, with denominational roots going back to the Great Ejection of 1662...
, which remains today the umbrella organisation for British Unitarianism.
Early beginnings
Between 1548 (John AsshetonJohn Assheton
John Assheton was an Anglican priest at "Shiltelington" who is the first recorded English anti-Trinitarian.Almost nothing is known about Assheton except the record of recantation to Thomas Cranmer in 1548...
) and 1612 we find few anti-Trinitarians, most of whom were either executed or forced to recant. Those burned included the Flemish surgeon George van Parris
George van Parris
George van Parris was a Dutch Arian, who was burnt at the stake in London by his fellow Protestants.George van Parris was a member of the Stranger's Church congregation, and his excommunication and subsequent burning were done with the agreement of the pastor of the congregation, John Lasco...
(1551); Patrick Pakingham
Patrick Pakingham
Patrick Pakenham was an English fellmonger who was burned to death at Uxbridge in August 1555 because he refused to recant his Arian beliefs. He is mentioned in John Foxe's Acts and Monuments in the proceedings of Edmund Bonner against John Denley and another.-References:...
(1555), a fellmonger; Matthew Hamont
Matthew Hamont
Matthew Hamont was a Norfolk plowright, accused of heresy, who was burnt at the stake in Norwich Castle by the Church of England.The Bishop of Norwich, Edmund Freke, accused Hamont of denying Christ to be our Saviour.-Life:...
(1579), a ploughwright; John Lewes (1583); Peter Cole (1587), a tanner; Francis Kett
Francis Kett
-Life:Kett was born in Wymondham, Norfolk, the son of Thomas and Agnes Kett, and the nephew of the rebel Robert Kett, the main instigator of Kett's Rebellion....
(1589), physician and author; Bartholomew Legate
Bartholomew Legate
Bartholomew Legate was an English anti-Trinitarian martyr.Legate was born in Essex and became a dealer in cloth. In the 1590s, Bartholomew and his two brothers, Walter and Thomas, began preaching around the London area. Their unorthodox message rejected the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of...
(1612), a cloth-dealer and last of the Smithfield victims; and the twice-burned Edward Wightman
Edward Wightman
Edward Wightman was an English radical Anabaptist, executed at Lichfield for his activities promoting himself as the divine Paraclete and Savior of the world...
(1612). In all these cases the anti-Trinitarian sentiments seem to have come from Holland; the last two executions followed the dedication to James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
of the Latin version of the Racovian Catechism
Racovian Catechism
The Racovian Catechism is a nontrinitarian statement of faith from the 16th century. The title Racovian comes from the publishers, the Polish Brethren, who had founded a sizeable town in Raków, Kielce County, where the Racovian Academy and printing press was founded by Jakub Sienieński in...
(1609).
Socinian influence
Fausto Sozzini had died on the road, after expulsion from Kraków, Poland on March 4, 1604, but the Racovian AcademyRacovian Academy
The Racovian Academy was a school of the Socinian Polish Brethren operating in Raków, Kielce County, Poland 1602-1638, and publisher of the Racovian Catechism in 1605....
and printing press continued till 1639, exerting influence in England via the Netherlands.
The vogue of Socinian views, typified by men like Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland
Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland
Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland was an English author and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1642...
and Chillingworth
William Chillingworth
William Chillingworth was a controversial English churchman.-Early life:He was born in Oxford, where his father served as mayor; William Laud was his godfather. In June 1618 he became a scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, of which he was made a fellow in June 1628...
, led to the abortive fourth canon of 1640 against Socinian books. The ordinance of 1648 made denial of the Trinity a capital offence, but it remained a dead letter, Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
intervening in the cases of Paul Best
Paul Best
Paul Best was one of the first British converts to the "Socinian" Polish Brethren, and one of the first Unitarians to be imprisoned....
(1590–1657) and John Biddle
John Biddle (Unitarian)
John Biddle or Bidle was an influential English nontrinitarian, and Unitarian. He is often called "the Father of English Unitarianism".- Life :...
(1616–1662).
In 1652–1654 and 1658–1662 Biddle held a Socinian conventicle
Conventicle
A conventicle is a small, unofficial and unofficiated meeting of laypeople, to discuss religious issues in a non-threatening, intimate manner. Philipp Jakob Spener called for such associations in his Pia Desideria, and they were the foundation of the German Evangelical Lutheran Pietist movement...
in London; in addition to his own writings he reprinted (1651) and translated (1652) the Racovian Catechism
Racovian Catechism
The Racovian Catechism is a nontrinitarian statement of faith from the 16th century. The title Racovian comes from the publishers, the Polish Brethren, who had founded a sizeable town in Raków, Kielce County, where the Racovian Academy and printing press was founded by Jakub Sienieński in...
, and the Life of Socinus (1653). His disciple Thomas Firmin
Thomas Firmin
Thomas Firmin was an English businessman and philanthropist, and Unitarian publisher.-Early life:Firmin was born to Puritan parents, Henry and Prudence Firmin in Ipswich. Henry Firmin was a parishioner of Samuel Ward, the Puritan incumbent of St. Mary-le-Tower, by whom in 1635 he was accused of...
(1632–1697), mercer and philanthropist, and friend of John Tillotson
John Tillotson
John Tillotson was an Archbishop of Canterbury .-Curate and rector:Tillotson was the son of a Puritan clothier at Haughend, Sowerby, Yorkshire. He entered as a pensioner of Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1647, graduated in 1650 and was made fellow of his college in 1651...
, adopted the more Sabellian
Sabellianism
In Christianity, Sabellianism, is the nontrinitarian belief that the Heavenly Father, Resurrected Son and Holy Spirit are different modes or aspects of one God, as perceived by the believer, rather than three distinct persons in God Himself.The term Sabellianism comes from...
views of Stephen Nye
Stephen Nye
Stephen Nye was an English clergyman, known as a theological writer and for his Unitarian views.-Life:Son of John Nye, he graduated B.A. at Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1665. He became rector of Little Hormead, Hertfordshire in 1679...
(1648–1719), a clergyman. Firmin promoted a remarkable series of controversial tracts (1690–1699).
In England the Socinian controversy
Socinian controversy
The Socinian controversy in the Church of England was a theological argument on christology carried out by English theologians for around a decade from 1687...
, initiated by Biddle
John Biddle (Unitarian)
John Biddle or Bidle was an influential English nontrinitarian, and Unitarian. He is often called "the Father of English Unitarianism".- Life :...
, preceded the Arian controversy
Arian controversy
The Arian controversy describes several controversies between the Christian Church fathers Arius and Athanasius related to Christology which divided the Christian church from before the Council of Nicaea in 325 to after the Council of Constantinople in 381...
initiated by Samuel Clarke
Samuel Clarke
thumb|right|200px|Samuel ClarkeSamuel Clarke was an English philosopher and Anglican clergyman.-Early life and studies:...
's Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity (1712), although John Knowles
John Knowles (antitrinitarian)
John Knowles was an English antitrinitarian preacher, imprisoned in 1665.-Life:Probably a native of Gloucester, he first appears as a lay preacher among the Independents there; in 1648 he described himself as a preacher of the gospel, formerly in and near Gloucester...
was an Arian lay preacher at Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
in 1650. Arian or semi-Arian views had much vogue during the 18th century, both in the Church and among dissenters.
"Unitarian" 1673
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 HedworthHenry Hedworth
Henry Hedworth of Huntingdon was a Unitarian writer.Henry Hedworth is chiefly notable for being the first person in the English language to introduce Latin term Unitarian into print in England 1673, fourteen years before Stephen Nye of Hertfordshire became the first to use the word on a title...
was the first to use the word "Unitarian" in print in English (1673), and the word first appears in a title in Stephen Nye
Stephen Nye
Stephen Nye was an English clergyman, known as a theological writer and for his Unitarian views.-Life:Son of John Nye, he graduated B.A. at Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1665. He became rector of Little Hormead, Hertfordshire in 1679...
's A brief history of the Unitarians, called also Socinians (1687). It was construed in a broad sense to cover all who, with whatever differences, held to the unipersonality of the Divine Being. Firmin later had a project of Unitarian societies "within the Church".
Act of Toleration 1689
The first preacher to describe himself as Unitarian was Thomas EmlynThomas Emlyn
Thomas Emlyn , English nonconformist divine.-Life:Emlyn was born at Stamford, Lincolnshire and served as chaplain to the presbyterian Letitia, countess of Donegal, and then to Sir Robert Rich, afterwards becoming colleague to Joseph Boyse, presbyterian minister in Dublin...
(1663–1741) who gathered a London congregation in 1705. This was contrary to the Act of Toleration 1689
Act of Toleration 1689
The Act of Toleration was an act of the English Parliament , the long title of which is "An Act for Exempting their Majestyes Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penalties of certaine Lawes".The Act allowed freedom of worship to Nonconformists who had pledged to the...
, which excluded all who should preach or write against the Trinity.
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 Congregationalist
Congregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....
s.
Salters' Hall conference 1719
The free atmosphere of dissenting academiesDissenting academies
The dissenting academies were schools, colleges and nonconformist seminaries run by dissenters. They formed a significant part of England’s educational systems from the mid-seventeenth to nineteenth centuries....
(colleges) favoured new ideas. The effect of the Salters' Hall conference (1719), called for by the views of James Peirce
James Peirce
James Peirce was an English dissenting minister, the catalyst for the Salter's Hall controversy.-Early life:The son of John Peirce, he was born at Wapping about 1674. His parents, who were in easy circumstances, were members of the congregational church at Stepney, under Matthew Mead...
(1673–1726) of Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
, was to leave dissenting congregations to determine their own orthodoxy; the General Baptists had already (1700) condoned defections from the common doctrine. Leaders in the advocacy of a purely humanitarian christology
Christology
Christology is the field of study within Christian theology which is primarily concerned with the nature and person of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament. Primary considerations include the relationship of Jesus' nature and person with the nature...
came largely from the Independents, such as Nathaniel Lardner (1684–1768), Caleb Fleming
Caleb Fleming
Caleb Fleming, D.D. was an English dissenting minister and polemicist.-Life:Fleming was born at Nottingham on 4 November 1698. His father was a hosier; his mother, whose maiden name was Buxton, was a daughter of the lord of the manor of Chelmerton, Derbyshire. Brought up in Calvinism, Fleming's...
(1698–1779), Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
(1733–1804) and Thomas Belsham
Thomas Belsham
Thomas Belsham was an English Unitarian minister- Life :Belsham was born in Bedford, England, and was the elder brother of William Belsham, the English political writer and historian. He was educated at the dissenting academy at Daventry, where for seven years he acted as assistant tutor...
(1750–1829).
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
was an anti-Trinitarian, and possibly a Unitarian (though he may have been Sabellian). One of his last visitors before his death in 1727 was Samuel Crellius
Samuel Crellius
Samuel Crell-Spinowski was an Arian philosopher and theologian, pastor of the church of the Polish Brethren....
from Lithuania.
The Unitarian Church 1774
The formation of a distinct Unitarian denomination dates from the secession (1773) of Theophilus LindseyTheophilus Lindsey
Theophilus Lindsey was an English theologian and clergyman who founded the first avowedly Unitarian congregation in the country, at Essex Street Chapel.-Life:...
(1723–1808) from the Anglican Church
Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is an international association of national and regional Anglican churches in full communion with the Church of England and specifically with its principal primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury...
, 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
William Robertson
Field Marshal Sir William Robert Robertson, 1st Baronet, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, DSO was a British Army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff from 1916 to 1918, during the First World War...
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. The congregation he established at Essex Street Chapel
Essex Street Chapel
Essex Street Chapel, also known as Essex Church, is a Unitarian place of worship in London. It was the first church in England set up with this doctrine, and was established at a time when Dissenters still faced legal threat...
, with the assistance of prominent ministers such as Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
and Richard Price
Richard Price
Richard Price was a British moral philosopher and preacher in the tradition of English Dissenters, and a political pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the American Revolution. He fostered connections between a large number of people, including writers of the...
, was a pivot for change. Legal difficulties with the authorities were overcome with the help of barrister John Lee
John Lee (Attorney-General)
John Lee KC was an English lawyer, politician, and law officer of the Crown. He assisted in the early days of Unitarianism in England.-Life:...
, who later became Attorney-General. By degrees Lindsey's type of theology superseded Arianism
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
in a considerable number of dissenting congregations.
The Act of Toleration 1689
Act of Toleration 1689
The Act of Toleration was an act of the English Parliament , the long title of which is "An Act for Exempting their Majestyes Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penalties of certaine Lawes".The Act allowed freedom of worship to Nonconformists who had pledged to the...
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 by the Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813
Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813
The Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
, largely pushed through Parliament by William Smith
William Smith (abolitionist)
William Smith was a leading independent British politician, sitting as Member of Parliament for more than one constituency. He was an English Dissenter and was instrumental in bringing political rights to that religious minority...
, M.P., abolitionist, and grandfather of Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night...
. In 1825 the British and Foreign Unitarian Association
British and Foreign Unitarian Association
The British and Foreign Unitarian Association was the major Unitarian body in Britain from 1825. The BFUA was founded as an amalgamation of three older societies: the Unitarian Book Society for literature , The Unitarian Fund for mission work , and the Unitarian Association for civil rights...
was formed as an amalgamation of three older societies, for literature (1791), mission work (1806) and civil rights (1818).
Attacks were made on properties held by Unitarians, but created prior to 1813. The Wolverhampton Chapel case began in 1817, the more important Hewley Fund case in 1830; both were decided against the Unitarians in 1842. Appeal to parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
resulted in the Dissenters' Chapels Act (1844), which secured that, so far as trusts did not specify doctrines, twenty-five years tenure legitimated existing usage.
The waning of the miraculous
The period 1800-1850 is characterized by a shift in the British Unitarian movement's position from questioning the doctrine of the Trinity or the pre-existence of ChristPre-existence of Christ
The pre-existence of Christ refers to the doctrine of the ontological or personal existence of Christ before his conception. One of the relevant Bible passages is where, in the Trinitarian view, Christ is identified with a pre-existent divine hypostasis called the Logos or Word...
to questioning the miraculous, inspiration of Scripture, and the virgin birth, though not yet at this point the resurrection of Christ.
Influence from America
During the 19th century, the drier Priestley-Belsham type of Unitarianism, bound up with a determinist philosophy, was gradually modified by the influence of ChanningWilliam Ellery Channing
Dr. William Ellery Channing was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton, one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. He was known for his articulate and impassioned sermons and public speeches, and as a prominent thinker...
(see below), whose works were reprinted in numerous editions and owed a wide circulation to the efforts of Robert Spears
Robert Spears
Robert Spears was a British Unitarian minister who was editor of the confessedly "Biblical Unitarian" Christian Life weekly.-Life:...
(1825–1899). Another American influence, potent in reducing the rigid though limited supernaturalism of Belsham and his successors, was that of Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker was an American Transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church...
(1810–1860). At home the teaching of James Martineau
James Martineau
James Martineau was an English religious philosopher influential in the history of Unitarianism. For 45 years he was Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy and Political Economy in Manchester New College, the principal training college for British Unitarianism.-Early life:He was born in Norwich,...
(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
John Hamilton Thom
-Life:He was a younger son of John Thom , born on 10 January 1808 at Newry, County Down, where his father, a native of Lanarkshire, was presbyterian minister from 1800. His mother was Martha Anne , daughter of Isaac Glenny. In 1823 he was admitted at the Belfast Academical Institution as a student...
(1808–1894).
English Unitarianism produced some well-known scholars, e.g. John Kenrick (1788–1877), James Yates (1789–1871), Samuel Sharpe
Samuel Sharpe (scholar)
Samuel Sharpe was an English Unitarian Egyptologist and translator of the Bible.-Life:He was the second son of Sutton Sharpe , brewer, by his second wife, Maria , and was born in King Street, Golden Square, London, on 8 March 1799, baptised at St. James's, Piccadilly...
(1799–1881), but few popular preachers, though George Harris
George Harris (Unitarian)
George Harris was an English Unitarian minister, controversialist and editor.-Life:Born at Maidstone in Kent on 15 May 1794, he was son of Abraham Harris, Unitarian minister at Swansea for 40 years. George was at the age of fourteen placed in a Manchester warehouse in Cheapside, London, but,...
(1794–1859) is an exception. For the education of its ministry it supported Manchester College
Harris Manchester College, Oxford
Harris Manchester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Formerly known as Manchester College, it is listed in the University Statutes as Manchester Academy and Harris College, and at University ceremonies it is called Collegium de Harris et...
at Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
(which deduced its ancestry from the academy of Richard Frankland
Richard Frankland (tutor)
Richard Frankland was an English nonconformist, notable for founding the Rathmell Academy, a dissenting academy in the north of England.-Biography:...
, begun 1670), the Unitarian Home Missionary College (founded in Manchester in 1854 by John Relly Beard
John Relly Beard
John Relly Beard was an English Unitarian minister who wrote more than thirty books in his lifetime.-Life:He was born in Portsmouth on 4 August 1800, the first child of a tradesman, John Beard, and his wife Ann Paine. Afer schooling in Portsmouth and in France he went joined Manchester College,...
, D.D., and William Gaskell
William Gaskell
The Reverend William Gaskell was an English Unitarian minister, charity worker and pioneer in the education of the working class...
), and the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen. It also produced the notable Chamberlain family of politicians: Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain was an influential British politician and statesman. Unlike most major politicians of the time, he was a self-made businessman and had not attended Oxford or Cambridge University....
, Austen Chamberlain
Austen Chamberlain
Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain, KG was a British statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and half-brother of Neville Chamberlain.- Early life and career :...
, and Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
, and the Courtauld
Samuel Courtauld (industrialist)
Samuel Courtauld was an industrialist and Unitarian, chiefly remembered as the driving force behind the rapid growth of the Courtauld textile business in Britain....
industrialist dynasty.
English Unitarian periodical literature begins with Priestley's Theological Repository
Theological Repository
The Theological Repository was a periodical founded and edited from 1769 to 1771 by the eighteenth-century British polymath Joseph Priestley...
(1769–1788), and includes the Monthly Repository
Monthly Repository
The Monthly Repository was a British monthly Unitarian periodical which ran between 1806 and 1838.The Monthly Repository was established when Robert Aspland bought William Vidler's Universal Theological Magazine and changed the name to the Monthly Repository of Theology and General Literature...
(1806–1838), The Christian Reformer (1834–1863), The Christian Teacher (1835–1844), The Prospective Review (1845–1854), The National Review
National Review (1855)
The National Review was a quarterly British magazine published between 1855 and 1864. The magazine was founded and joint-edited by journalists Walter Bagehot and Richard Holt Hutton....
(1855–1864), the Theological Review (1864–1879), and The Hibbert Journal
The Hibbert Journal
The Hibbert Journal was a large, quarterly magazine in sorftback book format, issued since 1902 by the Hibbert Trust, best described by its subtitle; "A Quarterly Review of Religion, Theology and Philosophy"....
, one of the enterprises of the Hibbert Trust
Hibbert Trust
The Hibbert Trust was founded by Robert Hibbert and originally designated the Anti-Trinitarian Fund. It came into operation in 1853, awarded scholarships and fellowships, supports the Hibbert Lectures, and maintained a chair of ecclesiastical history at Manchester College....
, founded by Robert Hibbert
Robert Hibbert
Robert Hibbert was the founder of the Hibbert Trust.-Biography:The third and posthumous son of John Hibbert , a Jamaica merchant, and Janet, daughter of Samuel Gordon, he was born in Jamaica; hence he spoke of himself as a Creole. His mother died early. Between 1784 and 1788, he was a pupil of...
(1770–1849) and originally designated the Anti-Trinitarian Fund. This came into operation in 1853, awarded scholarships and fellowships, supported an annual lectureship (1878–1894), and maintained (from 1894) a chair of ecclesiastical history at Manchester College.
Scotland
Much has been made of the execution (1697) at EdinburghEdinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
of the student Thomas Aikenhead
Thomas Aikenhead
Thomas Aikenhead was a Scottish student from Edinburgh, who was prosecuted and executed at the age of 20 on a charge of blasphemy. He was the last person in Britain to be executed for blasphemy.-Indictment:...
, convicted of blaspheming the Trinity. The works of John Taylor
John Taylor (1694-1761)
John Taylor was an English dissenting preacher, Hebrew scholar, and theologian.-Early life:The son of a timber merchant at Lancaster, he was born at Scotforth, Lancashire. His father, John was an Anglican, his mother, Susannah a dissenter...
, D.D. (1694–1761) on original sin and atonement had much influence in the east of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, as we learn from Robert Burns
Robert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
; 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
Secession
Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...
from one of the "fellowship societies" formed by James Fraser, of Brea (1639–1699). The mission enterprises of Richard Wright (1764–1836) and George Harris (1794–1859) produced results of no great permanence.
The Scottish Unitarian Association was founded in 1813, mainly by Thomas Southwood Smith
Thomas Southwood Smith
Thomas Southwood Smith , English physician and sanitary reformer, was born at Martock, Somersetshire.While a medical student in Edinburgh he took charge of a Unitarian congregation. In 1816 he took his M.D...
, M.D., the sanitary reformer. The McQuaker Trust was founded (1889) for propagandist purposes.
Paradoxically, one of the reasons for the relative weakness of Unitarian movement in Scotland in the early 19th century may be the continuing presence of conservative, and therefore Bible-fundamentalist, non-Trinitarian, Arian, and Socinian views in dissenting chapels and among the Scottish followers of the Campbellite
Campbellite
Campbellite refers to any of the religious groups historically descended from the Restoration Movement, a religious reform movement in the early 19th century in the United States...
and Millerite
Millerite
Millerite is a nickel sulfide mineral, NiS. It is brassy in colour and has an acicular habit, often forming radiating masses and furry aggregates...
movements. The Non-Trinitarian believers in Scotland were often more sympathetic to the Unitarians of a century earlier than to the more liberal views of Wright, Harris and Southwood Smith. A notable Bible-fundamentalist Scottish Unitarian was J. S. Hyndman, author of Lectures on The Principles of Unitarianism (Alnwick
Alnwick
Alnwick is a small market town in north Northumberland, England. The town's population was just over 8000 at the time of the 2001 census and Alnwick's district population was 31,029....
, 1824) This conservative non-Trinitarian presence can be demonstrated by the response in Scotland, relative both to America and to his home town London, of the call of the first Christadelphian John Thomas
John Thomas (Christadelphian)
Dr. John Thomas was the founder of the Christadelphian movement, a Restorationist religion with doctrines similar in part to some 16th century Antitrinitarian Rationalist Socinians and the 16th century Swiss-German pacifist Anabaptists.-Early life:John Thomas M.D., born in Hoxton Square, Hackney,...
. The first congregations following Thomas' Socinian and Adventist
Adventist
Adventism is a Christian movement which began in the 19th century, in the context of the Second Great Awakening revival in the United States. The name refers to belief in the imminent Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It was started by William Miller, whose followers became known as Millerites...
teachings in 1848-1849 were predominantly Scottish. And while the Christadelphians initially made more of their Millenialist teachings, the christological legacy of 17th century unitarians such as John Biddle
John Biddle (Unitarian)
John Biddle or Bidle was an influential English nontrinitarian, and Unitarian. He is often called "the Father of English Unitarianism".- Life :...
is evident and acknowledged.
There are currently four Unitarian churches in Scotland: Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Ireland
Controversy respecting the Trinity was excited in Ireland by the prosecution at Dublin (1703) of Thomas Emlyn (see above), resulting in fine and imprisonment, for rejecting the deity of Christ. In 1705 the Belfast Society was founded for theological discussion by Presbyterian ministers in the north, with the result of creating a body of opinion adverse to subscription to the Westminster standards. Toleration of dissent, withheld in Ireland till 1719, was then granted without the requirement of any doctrinal subscription. Next year a movement against subscription was begun in the General Synod of Ulster, culminating (1725) in the placing of the advocates of non-subscription, headed by John AbernethyJohn Abernethy (minister)
Reverend John Abernethy was an Irish Presbyterian church leader, the grandfather of the surgeon John Abernethy.He was born at Coleraine, County Londonderry, where his father was a Nonconformist minister...
, 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 counter-influence of the mission of the Scottish Seceders (from 1742) produced a reaction. The Antrim Presbytery gradually became Arian; the same type of theology affected more or less the Southern Association, known since 1806 as the Synod of Munster. From 1783 ten of the fourteen presbyteries in the General Synod had made subscription optional; the synod's code of 1824 left "soundness in the faith" to be ascertained by subscription or by examination. Against this compromise Henry Cooke, D.D. (1788–1868), directed all his powers, and was ultimately (1829) successful in defeating his Arian opponent, Henry Montgomery, LL.D. (1788–1865). Montgomery led a secession which formed (1830) the Remonstrant Synod, comprising three presbyteries.
In 1910 the Antrim Presbytery, Remonstrant Synod and Synod of Munster united as the General Synod of the Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland
Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland
The Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland derives its name and its liberal and tolerant identity from early 18th century Presbyterian ministers who refused to subscribe at their ordination to the Westminster Confession, a standard Reformed statement of faith; and who formed, in 1725, the...
, with 38 congregations and some mission stations. Till 1889 they maintained two theological chairs in Belfast, where John Scott Porter (1801–1880) pioneered biblical criticism; they afterwards sent their students to England for their theological education, though in certain respects their views and practices remained more conservative than those of their English brethren.
Irish Unitarian periodical literature began in 1832 with the Bible Christian, followed by the Irish Unitarian Magazine, the Christian Unitarian, the Disciple and the Non-subscribing Presbyterian.
See generally: Robert Wallace
Robert Wallace (Unitarian)
Robert Wallace was an English Unitarian minister, now best known for his Antitrinitarian Biography .-Life:He was born at Dudley, Worcestershire, on 26 February 1791. In 1808 he came under the influence of James Hews Bransby, who prepared him for entrance at Manchester College, then at York, under...
, Antitrinitarian Biography(1850); G. Bonet Maury, Early Sources of Eng. Unit. Christianity, trans. E. P. Hall (1884); A. Gordon, Heads of Eng. Unit. Hist. (1895).
United States
The history of Unitarian thought in the United States can be roughly divided into four periods:- a period of precursor movements (early 18th century to c. 1800)
- the formative period (c. 1800-1835)
- a Transcendentalist period (c. 1835-1885)
- the modern period (since 1885)
Precursor movements and early Unitarianism
Unitarianism in the United States followed essentially the same development as in England, and passed through the stages of ArminianismArminianism
Arminianism is a school of soteriological thought within Protestant Christianity based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic followers, the Remonstrants...
, Arianism
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
, to rationalism
Rationalism
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
and a modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
based on an acceptance of the results of the comparative study of all religions
Comparative religion
Comparative religion is a field of religious studies that analyzes the similarities and differences of themes, myths, rituals and concepts among the world's religions...
. In the early 18th century Arminianism presented itself in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, and sporadically elsewhere. This tendency was largely accelerated by a backlash against the "Great Awakening
First Great Awakening
The First Awakening was a Christian revitalization movement that swept Protestant Europe and British America, and especially the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, leaving a permanent impact on American religion. It resulted from powerful preaching that gave listeners a sense of personal...
" under Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield
George Whitefield
George Whitefield , also known as George Whitfield, was an English Anglican priest who helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain, and especially in the British North American colonies. He was one of the founders of Methodism and of the evangelical movement generally...
. Before the War of Independence Arianism showed itself in individual instances, and French influences were widespread in the direction of deism, though they were not organized into any definite utterance by religious bodies.
As early as the middle of the 18th century Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
represented the most advanced thought of the time, and a score or more of clergymen in New England preached what was essentially Unitarianism. The most prominent of these men was Jonathan Mayhew
Jonathan Mayhew
Jonathan Mayhew was a noted American minister at Old West Church, Boston, Massachusetts. He is credited with coining the phrase "no taxation without representation." -Early life:...
(1720–1766), pastor of the West Church in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1747 to 1766. He preached the strict unity of God, the subordinate nature of Christ, and salvation by character. Charles Chauncy
Charles Chauncy (1705-1787)
Charles Chauncy was an American Congregational clergyman in Boston. He was ordained as a minister of the First Church, Boston, in 1727 and remained in that pulpit for 60 years. Next to Jonathan Edwards, his great opponent, Chauncy was probably the most influential clergyman of his time in New...
(1705–1787), pastor of the First Church from 1727 until his death, the chief opponent of Edwards in the great revival, was both a Unitarian and a Universalist. Other Unitarians included Ebenezer Gay (1698–1787) of Hingham
Hingham, Massachusetts
Hingham is a town in northern Plymouth County on the South Shore of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and suburb in Greater Boston. The United States Census Bureau 2008 estimated population was 22,561...
, Samuel West
Samuel West
Samuel Alexander Joseph West is an English actor and theatre director. He is perhaps best known for his role in Howards End and his work on stage. He also starred in the award-winning play ENRON...
(1730–1807) of New Bedford
New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, located south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and about east of Fall River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 95,072, making it the sixth-largest city in Massachusetts...
, Thomas Barnard (1748–1814) of Newbury
Newbury, Massachusetts
Newbury is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,666 at the 2010 census. Newbury includes the villages of Old Town , Plum Island and Byfield, home of The Governor's Academy , a private preparatory school.- History :Newbury Plantation was settled and incorporated...
, John Prince (1751–1836) and William Bentley
William Bentley
William Bentley was an American Unitarian minister, scholar, columnist, and diarist....
(1758–1819) of Salem
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
, Aaron Bancroft (1755–1836) of Worcester
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
, and several others.
The first official acceptance of the Unitarian faith on the part of a congregation was by King's Chapel
King's Chapel
King's Chapel is "an independent Christian unitarian congregation affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association" that is "unitarian Christian in theology, Anglican in worship, and congregational in governance." It is housed in what was formerly called "Stone Chapel", an 18th century...
in Boston, which settled James Freeman
James Freeman (clergyman)
James Freeman was the minister of King's Chapel in Boston for 43 years and the first preacher in America to call himself a Unitarian...
(1759–1853) in 1782, and revised the Prayer Book into a mild Unitarian liturgy in 1785. The Rev. William Hazlitt (father of the essayist and critic), visiting the United States in 1783–1785, published the fact that there were Unitarians in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, Boston, Charleston
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
, Hallowell
Hallowell, Maine
Hallowell is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,467 at the 2000 census.-History:The city is named for Benjamin Hallowell, a Boston merchant and one of the Kennebec Proprietors, holders of land originally granted to the Plymouth Company by the British monarchy in...
, on Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
, and elsewhere. Unitarian congregations were organized at Portland
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
and Saco
Saco, Maine
Saco is a city in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 18,482 at the 2010 census. It is home to Ferry Beach State Park, Funtown Splashtown USA, Thornton Academy, as well as General Dynamics Armament Systems , a subsidiary of the defense contractor General Dynamics...
in 1792 by Thomas Oxnard; in 1800 the First Church in Plymouth—the congregation founded by the Pilgrims in 1620—accepted the more liberal faith. Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
emigrated to the United States in 1794, and organized a Unitarian Church at Northumberland, Pennsylvania
Northumberland, Pennsylvania
Northumberland is a borough in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 3,714 at the 2000 census.-History:Northumberland was founded in 1772. The land that became Northumberland was purchased from the Iroquois in the first Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768, and the...
, the same year and one at Philadelphia
First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia
The First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia is a Unitarian Universalist congregation located at 2125 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
in 1796. His writings had a considerable influence.
Thus from 1725 to 1825, Unitarianism was gaining ground in New England, and to some extent elsewhere. The first distinctive manifestation of the change was the inauguration of Henry Ware
Henry Ware (Unitarian)
Henry Ware was a preacher and theologian influential in the formation of Unitarianism and the American Unitarian Association in the United States....
(1764–1845) as professor of divinity at Harvard College, in 1805.
In the same year appeared Unitarian books by John Sherman
John Sherman (clergyman)
Rev. John Sherman, , graduated from Yale College in 1793 with honors, and became the pastor of the First Congregational Church in Mansfield, Connecticut in 1797. During the last of his eight years at Mansfield, his evolving Unitarian doctrine conflicted with the Trinitarian beliefs of his...
(1772–1828) and another in 1810 by Noah Worcester
Noah Worcester
Noah Worcester was a Unitarian clergyman and a seminal figure in history of American pacifism.-Life:Born in Hollis, New Hampshire, at age 16 Worcester joined the militia as a fifer during the Revolutionary War, and was at the battle of Bunker Hill, where he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner...
(1758–1837). At the opening of the 19th century, with one exception, all the churches of Boston were occupied by Unitarian preachers, and various periodicals and organizations expressed their opinions. Churches were established in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Baltimore, Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Charleston, and elsewhere during this period.
Formative period
The next period of American Unitarianism, from about 1800 to about 1835, can be thought of as formative, mainly influenced by English philosophy, semi-supernatural, imperfectly rationalistic, devoted to philanthropy and practical Christianity. Dr. Channing was its distinguished exponent.The first official acceptance of the Unitarian faith on the part of a congregation in America was by King's Chapel
King's Chapel
King's Chapel is "an independent Christian unitarian congregation affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association" that is "unitarian Christian in theology, Anglican in worship, and congregational in governance." It is housed in what was formerly called "Stone Chapel", an 18th century...
in Boston, which settled James Freeman
James Freeman (clergyman)
James Freeman was the minister of King's Chapel in Boston for 43 years and the first preacher in America to call himself a Unitarian...
(1759–1853) in 1782, and revised the Prayer Book into a mild Unitarian liturgy in 1785. In 1800, Joseph Stevens Buckminster
Joseph Stevens Buckminster
Joseph Stevens Buckminster was an influential Unitarian preacher in Boston, Massachusetts and a leader in bringing the German higher criticism of the Bible to America....
became minister of the Brattle Street Church
Brattle Street Church
The Brattle Street Church was a Congregational and Unitarian church on Brattle Street in Boston, Massachusetts.- Brief history :...
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
Henry Ware (Unitarian)
Henry Ware was a preacher and theologian influential in the formation of Unitarianism and the American Unitarian Association in the United States....
(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 & Unitarianism. Buckminster's close associate William Ellery Channing
William Ellery Channing
Dr. William Ellery Channing was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton, one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. He was known for his articulate and impassioned sermons and public speeches, and as a prominent thinker...
(1780–1842) was settled over the Federal Street Church
Federal Street Church (Boston)
The Federal Street Church was a congregational unitarian church in Boston, Massachusetts. Organized in 1727, the presbyterian congregation changed in 1786 to Congregationalism, then adopted the liberal theology of its fifth Senior Minister, William Ellery Channing. For most of the 18th-century the...
in Boston, 1803; and in a few years he became the leader of the Unitarian movement. At first mystical rather than rationalistic in his theology, he took part with the "Catholic Christians", as they called themselves, who aimed at bringing Christianity into harmony with the progressive spirit of the time. His essays on The System of Exclusion and Denunciation in Religion (1815), and Objections to Unitarian Christianity Considered (1819), made him a defender of Unitarianism. His sermon on "Unitarian Christianity", preached at First Unitarian Church of Baltimore in 1819, at the ordination of Jared Sparks
Jared Sparks
Jared Sparks was an American historian, educator, and Unitarian minister. He served as President of Harvard University from 1849 to 1853.-Biography:...
, and that at New York in 1821, made him its interpreter.
The result of the "Unitarian Controversy" (1815) was a growing division in the Congregational churches, which was emphasized in 1825 by the formation of the American Unitarian Association
American Unitarian Association
The American Unitarian Association was a religious denomination in the United States and Canada, formed by associated Unitarian congregations in 1825. In 1961, it merged with the Universalist Church of America to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.According to Mortimer Rowe, the Secretary...
at Boston. It was organized "to diffuse the knowledge and promote the interests of pure Christianity" and it published tracts and books, supported poor churches, sent out missionaries into every part of the country, and established new churches in nearly all the states. Essentially non-sectarian, with little missionary zeal, the Unitarian movement has grown slowly; and its influence has chiefly operated through general culture and the literature of the country. Many of its clergymen have been trained in other denominations; but the Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...
was distinctly Unitarian from its formation, in 1816, to 1870, when it became a non-sectarian department of the university. The Meadville Lombard Theological School
Meadville Lombard Theological School
The Meadville Lombard Theological School, located in Chicago, is a Unitarian Universalist seminary.It is a result of a merger in the 1930s between a Unitarian and a Universalist institution...
was founded at Meadville, Pennsylvania
Meadville, Pennsylvania
Meadville is a city in and the county seat of Crawford County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city is generally considered part of the Pittsburgh Tri-State and is within 40 miles of Erie, Pennsylvania. It was the first permanent settlement in northwest Pennsylvania...
in 1844, and the Starr King School for the Ministry
Starr King School for the Ministry
Starr King School for the Ministry is a Unitarian Universalist seminary in Berkeley, California and part of the Graduate Theological Union. Starr King School opened in 1904 as the Pacific Unitarian School for the Ministry...
at Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
in 1904.
The History of Essex Hall, written in 1959 by Mortimer Rowe, the Secretary (i.e. chief executive) of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christian and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1928, with denominational roots going back to the Great Ejection of 1662...
for its first twenty years, claims that the BFUA and AUA were founded entirely coincidentally on the same day, 26 May 1825.
Influence of Transcendentalism; reaction
A third period (see TranscendentalismTranscendentalism
Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the New England region of the United States as a protest against the general state of culture and society, and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian...
), from about 1835 to about 1885, profoundly influenced by German idealism
Idealism
In philosophy, idealism is the family of views which assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing...
, was increasingly rationalistic, though its theology was largely flavoured by mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
. As a reaction against this, the National Unitarian Conference was organized in 1865, and adopted a distinctly Christian platform, affirming that its members were "disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ".
The more rationalistic minority thereupon formed the Free Religious Association, "to encourage the scientific study of theology and to increase fellowship in the spirit." The Western Unitarian Conference later accepted the same position, and based its "fellowship on no dogmatic tests, but affirmed a desire "to establish truth, righteousness and love in the world." In addition, the WUC claimed belief in God was not a necessary component of Unitarian belief.
This period of controversy and of vigorous theological development practically came to an end soon after 1885. Its cessation was assured by the action of the national conference at Saratoga, New York
Saratoga, New York
Saratoga is a town in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 5,141 at the 2000 census. It is also the commonly used, but not official, name for the neighboring and much more populous city, Saratoga Springs. The major village in the town of Saratoga is Schuylerville which is...
in 1894, when it was affirmed by a nearly unanimous vote that: "These churches accept the religion of Jesus, holding, in accordance with his teaching, that practical religion is summed up in love to God and love to man. The conference recognizes the fact that its constituency is Congregational in tradition and polity. Therefore it declares that nothing in this constitution is to be construed as an authoritative test; and we cordially invite to our working fellowship any who, while differing from us in belief, are in general sympathy with our spirit and our practical aims." The leaders of this period were Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
with his idealism and Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker was an American Transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church...
with his acceptance of Christianity as absolute religion.
Modern period
The fourth period, beginning about 1885, has been one of rationalismRationalism
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
, recognition of universal religion, large acceptance of the scientific method and ideas and an ethical attempt to realize what was perceived as to be the higher affirmations of Christianity. It has been marked by a general harmony and unity, by steady growth in the number of churches and by a widening fellowship with all other similarly minded movements.
This phase was shown in the organization of The International Council of Unitarian and other Liberal Religious Thinkers and Workers at Boston on 25 May 1900, "to open communication with those in all lands who are striving to unite pure religion and perfect liberty, and to increase fellowship and co-operation among them." This council has held biennial sessions in London, Amsterdam, Geneva and Boston. During the period after 1885 the influence of Emerson became predominant, modified by the more scientific preaching of Minot Judson Savage
Minot Judson Savage
Minot Judson Savage was an American Unitarian minister and author.Savage was born in Norridgewock, Maine in 1841. He graduated from the Bangor Theological Seminary in 1864, and for nine years was in the Congregational ministry, being a home missionary at San Mateo and Grass Valley, California,...
, who found his guides in Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
and Spencer
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era....
.
Beyond its own borders the body obtained recognition through the public work of such men as Henry Whitney Bellows
Henry Whitney Bellows
Henry Whitney Bellows was American clergyman, and the planner and president of the United States Sanitary Commission, the leading soldiers' aid society, during the American Civil War...
and Edward Everett Hale
Edward Everett Hale
Edward Everett Hale was an American author, historian and Unitarian clergyman. He was a child prodigy who exhibited extraordinary literary skills and at age thirteen was enrolled at Harvard University where he graduated second in his class...
, the remarkable influence of James Freeman Clarke
James Freeman Clarke
James Freeman Clarke , an American theologian and author.-Biography:Born in Hanover, New Hampshire, James Freeman Clarke attended the Boston Latin School, graduated from Harvard College in 1829, and Harvard Divinity School in 1833...
and the popular power of Robert Collyer
Robert Collyer
thumb|Robert Collyer in 1880thumb|Robert Collyer in 1903Robert Collyer was an English-born American Unitarian clergyman.-Biography:...
. The number of Unitarian churches in the United States in 1909 was 461, with 541 ministers. The church membership then, really nominal, may be estimated at 100,000. The periodicals were The Christian Register, weekly, Boston; Unity, weekly, Chicago; The Unitarian, monthly, New York; Old and New, monthly, Des Moines; Pacific Unitarian, San Francisco.
In 1961, the American Unitarian Association
American Unitarian Association
The American Unitarian Association was a religious denomination in the United States and Canada, formed by associated Unitarian congregations in 1825. In 1961, it merged with the Universalist Church of America to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.According to Mortimer Rowe, the Secretary...
merged with the Universalist Church of America
Universalist Church of America
The Universalist Church of America was a Christian Universalist religious denomination in the United States . Known from 1866 as the Universalist General Convention, the name was changed to the Universalist Church of America in 1942...
, forming the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA)
Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Association , in full the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations in North America, is a liberal religious association of Unitarian Universalist congregations formed by the consolidation in 1961 of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of...
.
Strictly speaking, modern-day Unitarian Universalism
Unitarian Universalism
Unitarian Universalism is a religion characterized by support for a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning". Unitarian Universalists do not share a creed; rather, they are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth and by the understanding that an individual's theology is a...
is not Unitarian in theology. Despite its name, this denomination does not necessarily promote either belief in One God or universal salvation. It is merely the inheritor of the Unitarian and Universalist church system in America. Though there are Unitarians within the Unitarian-Universalist Association, there is no creed or doctrine that one must affirm to join a Unitarian Universalist congregation. This makes it very different from many other faith groups. Today, the majority of Unitarian Universalists do not identify themselves as Christians. Jesus and the Bible are generally treated as exceptional sources of inspiration, along with the holy people and traditions around the world. Unitarian Universalists base their community on a set of Principles and Purposes rather than on a prophet or creed. Notable Unitarian Universalists include Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee
Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, , also known as "TimBL", is a British computer scientist, MIT professor and the inventor of the World Wide Web...
(founder of the World Wide Web), Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
, U. S. Congressman Pete Stark
Pete Stark
Fortney Hillman "Pete" Stark, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1973. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Currently he is the 5th most senior Representative, as well as 6th most senior member of Congress overall...
, former U. S. Senator Mike Gravel
Mike Gravel
Maurice Robert "Mike" Gravel is a former Democratic United States Senator from Alaska, who served two terms from 1969 to 1981, and a former candidate in the 2008 presidential election....
and Christopher Reeve
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist...
.
Unitarians have been victims of hate crimes. For example, in 1965, UUA minister James Reeb
James Reeb
James Reeb was a white American Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston, Massachusetts and pastor and civil rights activist in Washington, DC. While marching for civil rights in Selma, Alabama in 1965, he was beaten severely by segregationists and died of head injuries two days later in the...
was killed in Selma, Alabama protesting police violence against civil rights advocates. In 2008, Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church shooting
Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church shooting
On July 27, 2008, a politically motivated fatal shooting took place at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
two UUA members were killed and six others wounded by the ex-husband of a former member, who was motivated by hatred of liberals.
The decline of specifically Christian theology in the Unitarian churches in the United States has prompted several revival movements. Unitarian Christians within the Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Association , in full the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations in North America, is a liberal religious association of Unitarian Universalist congregations formed by the consolidation in 1961 of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of...
formed, the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship
Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship
The Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship is the main group serving Christian Unitarian Universalists within the Unitarian Universalist Association. The UUCF was founded in 1945 and can trace its roots back through the history of North American Universalism and Unitarianism...
(UUCF) in 1945, a fellowship within UUA just for Christians, who were gradually becoming a minority. Similarly, the American Unitarian Conference
American Unitarian Conference
The American Unitarian Conference was founded in 2000 by several Unitarian Universalists who felt that the Unitarian Universalist Association had become too theologically liberal and too political. They decided their mission was to promote "classical" Unitarianism, which they argued as being...
(AUC) was founded in 2000 with 4 congregations, but unlike the UUCF, the AUC remains outside the UUA. The AUC's mission is "renewal of the historic Unitarian faith", and promotes a set of God-centered religious principles, but like Unitarian Universalism, it does not impose a creed on its members.
Unitarians in America, because of the developments with the Unitarian churches, have generally taken one of three courses of action to find communities in which to worship God. Some have stayed within the Unitarian churches, accepting the non-Christian nature of their congregation, but have found their needs met in the UUCF. Some Unitarians, because they felt that the mainstream UUA churches are not accepting of Christians, or that the larger Unitarian-Universalist organizations are becoming too political and liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
to be considered a religious movement or faith, have decided to affiliate with the American Unitarian Conference
American Unitarian Conference
The American Unitarian Conference was founded in 2000 by several Unitarian Universalists who felt that the Unitarian Universalist Association had become too theologically liberal and too political. They decided their mission was to promote "classical" Unitarianism, which they argued as being...
. Most Christian Unitarians have sought out liberal Christian churches in other denominations and have made homes there.
Canada
Unitarianism arrived in Canada from Iceland and Britain. Some Canadian congregations had services in Icelandic into living memory. The first Unitarian service in Canada was held in 1832 by a minister from England, Rev, David Hughes, in a school owned by the Workman family, who were Unitarians from Belfast. The Montreal congregation, founded in 1842, called their first permanent minister, the Rev. John Cordner, of the Remonstrant Synod of Ulster; he arrived in 1843 and served as their minister for thirty-six years. A few years later, a congregation in Toronto was founded whose first minister, William Adam, was a Scottish Baptist missionary who had served in India. Congregations formed in Ottawa and Hamilton in the late 19th century and continued westward. In 1891 the First Icelandic Unitarian Church was formed in Winnipeg. Congregations in Vancouver (1909) and Victoria (1910) followed. Individual Canadian congregations had ties to the British association until they were disrupted by World War II, when relations to Unitarians in the United States became stronger.Universalism found its way to Canada during the 19th century, for the most part, though not entirely, brought by settlers from the United States. The Universalist concepts of universal salvation, a loving and forgiving God, and the brother/sisterhood of all people, were welcomed by those for whom the partialist view or predestination were no longer acceptable. Universalist congregations formed, with the exception of the congregation in Halifax, mostly in rural towns and villages in lower Quebec and the Maritimes, and in southern Ontario. Universalism in Canada followed a corresponding decline as in the United States, and today the three remaining congregations at Olinda in Ontario, North Hatley in Quebec, and Halifax, Nova Scotia have since the 1960s been part of the Canadian Unitarian Council.
The Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC) was formed in advance (1960) of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) in the United States, but the two functioned in close association until money exchange and other complications led to greater independence, with the CUC assuming the direct delivery of services to Canadian congregations formerly extended by the UUA in Boston, Massachusetts. The two organizations continue collaboration in the credentialling of ministers, and in youth/young adult programs and services.
The Unitarian Service Committee, established during World War II as an overseas emergency relief agency, began under the capable direction of Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova
Lotta Hitschmanova
Lotta Hitschmanova, was a Canadian humanitarian. In 1945, she helped to found USC Canada as the Unitarian Service Committee of Canada...
and initially supported largely by Unitarians, now continues as a separate agency, drawing support throughout Canada for its humanitarian work in many parts of the world.
The first ordination of a Canadian Unitarian minister after the organizational separation of the CUC and the UUA was held at the First Unitarian Church of Victoria, British Columbia, in 2002. Rev. Brian Kiely, who was to give the ordination sermon, was told (partly in jest) he must define Canadian Unitarianism, as Rev. Channing had at that New England ordination sermon of 1819. The simile Rev. Kiely chose was that Canadian Unitarianism is like a doughnut, the richness is in the circle of fellowship, not a creedal centre.
20th century
In 1928 the British and Foreign Unitarian Association merged with the Sunday School Association, with which it had been sharing offices for decades, as the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian ChurchesGeneral Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christian and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1928, with denominational roots going back to the Great Ejection of 1662...
. The General Assembly is still the umbrella organisation for British Unitarianism, which has its headquarters, Essex Hall, in the same place in central London
Central London
Central London is the innermost part of London, England. There is no official or commonly accepted definition of its area, but its characteristics are understood to include a high density built environment, high land values, an elevated daytime population and a concentration of regionally,...
.
21st century
In May 2004 Rev. Peter Hughes, vice-chairman of the East Lancashire Unitarian Mission, and a minister at Chowbent ChapelChowbent Chapel
Chowbent Chapel is a Unitarian place of worship in Atherton, Greater Manchester, England. It was built in 1721 and is the oldest place of worship in the town. It is a member of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the umbrella organisation for British...
founded in 1645 in Atherton, Greater Manchester
Atherton, Greater Manchester
Atherton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England, historically a part of Lancashire. It is east of Wigan, north-northeast of Leigh, and northwest of Manchester...
, published an article in the movement's journal, The Inquirer, and gave an interview to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
where he warned of the extinction of the Unitarian Church. According to The Times, "the church has fewer than 6,000 members in Britain; half of whom are aged over 65." He added, referring to Toxteth Chapel in Liverpool
Toxteth Unitarian Chapel
Toxteth Unitarian Chapel is in Park Road, Dingle, Liverpool, England . Since the 1830s it has been known as The Ancient Chapel of Toxteth. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building, and continues to be in use as a Unitarian chapel...
, the movement's oldest building, where he was brought up, "they have had no minister since 1976 and the Unitarian cause there is effectively dead." The denomination's president, Dawn Buckle, a retired lecturer in education, denied that the movement was in a terminal phase and described it as a "thriving community capable of sustaining growth". There are more than 180 Unitarian congregations in Britain as part of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christian and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1928, with denominational roots going back to the Great Ejection of 1662...
.
Entirely separate from the General Assembly, and generally with no historical descent from the British and Foreign Unitarian Association
British and Foreign Unitarian Association
The British and Foreign Unitarian Association was the major Unitarian body in Britain from 1825. The BFUA was founded as an amalgamation of three older societies: the Unitarian Book Society for literature , The Unitarian Fund for mission work , and the Unitarian Association for civil rights...
(1825–1928), there are a number of other denominations and small groups which look to earlier periods of Unitarianism as influences. This includes both groups looking back to the early Polish, Dutch and English "Socinians"
Socinianism
Socinianism is a system of Christian doctrine named for Fausto Sozzini , which was developed among the Polish Brethren in the Minor Reformed Church of Poland during the 15th and 16th centuries and embraced also by the Unitarian Church of Transylvania during the same period...
of the 17th century such as the Restoration Fellowship of Sir Anthony Buzzard, 3rd Baronet
Sir Anthony Buzzard, 3rd Baronet
Sir Anthony Farquhar Buzzard, 3rd Baronet, ARCM , is a Christian scholar, author and professor on the faculty of Atlanta Bible College.-Early life:...
, and those looking to the later "biblical unitarianism
Biblical Unitarianism
Today, biblical Unitarianism identifies the Christian belief that the Bible teaches God is a singular person—the Father—and that Jesus his son is a distinct being...
" of Robert Spears
Robert Spears
Robert Spears was a British Unitarian minister who was editor of the confessedly "Biblical Unitarian" Christian Life weekly.-Life:...
. Many of these groups are nontrinitarian
Nontrinitarianism
Nontrinitarianism includes all Christian belief systems that disagree with the doctrine of the Trinity, namely, the teaching that God is three distinct hypostases and yet co-eternal, co-equal, and indivisibly united in one essence or ousia...
in theology, liberal in some political areas - such as conscientious objection, but fundamentalist in regard to the Bible, and conservative in areas such as homosexuality or women priests. Some of these groups however do have women ministers.
Recently some religious groups have adopted the term "Biblical Unitarianism
Biblical Unitarianism
Today, biblical Unitarianism identifies the Christian belief that the Bible teaches God is a singular person—the Father—and that Jesus his son is a distinct being...
" to distinguish their theology from modern liberal Unitarianism.
Germany
There are currently four separate groups of Unitarians in Germany:- The Unitarische Freie Religionsgemeinde (Unitarian Free Religious Community, then called German Catholics) was founded in 1845 in Frankfurt am Main.
- The Religionsgemeinschaft Freier Protestanten ("Religious Community of Free Protestants") was formed in 1876 in Germany's RheinhessenRheinhessenRhenish Hesse refers to the part of the former Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt located west of the Rhine river and now part of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is a hilly countryside largely devoted to vineyards, therefore it is also called the "land of the thousand hills." Its larger towns include:...
region. in 1911 their newspaper took on the subtitle "deutsch-unitarische Blätter" ("German Unitarian Gazette") as leader Rudolf Walbaum wanted to connect to American UnitariansAmerican Unitarian AssociationThe American Unitarian Association was a religious denomination in the United States and Canada, formed by associated Unitarian congregations in 1825. In 1961, it merged with the Universalist Church of America to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.According to Mortimer Rowe, the Secretary...
. In 1950 the Free Protestants changed their name to Deutsche Unitarier ReligionsgemeinschaftDeutsche Unitarier ReligionsgemeinschaftDeutsche Unitarier Religionsgemeinschaft was founded in 1876 in Germany's Rheinhessen region under the name Religionsgemeinschaft Freier Protestanten ....
("German Unitarian Religious Community"). It is the only Unitarian group in Germany to belong to the ICUUInternational Council of Unitarians and UniversalistsThe International Council of Unitarians and Universalists is an umbrella organization founded in 1995 bringing together many Unitarians, Universalists and Unitarian Universalists.The size of the member organizations varies widely...
- The Unitarische Kirche in Berlin (Unitarian Church in Berlin) was founded by Hansgeorg Remus in 1948.
- The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Frankfurt is an international, English-speaking liberal religious community serving the Rhein-Main area. It is part of the European Unitarian UniversalistsEuropean Unitarian UniversalistsThe European Unitarian Universalists is a network of English-speaking Unitarian Universalist fellowships and individuals in Western Continental Europe...
.
Denmark
In 1900 Det fri KirkesamfundUnitarisk Kirkesamfund
Unitarisk Kirkesamfund is the Danish Unitarian Church, founded May 18, 1900 as "Det fri Kirkesamfund" by a group of liberal Christians....
(literally, The Free Congregation) was founded by a group of liberal Christians in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
. Since 1908, the church is outside the Folkekirke
Church of Denmark
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark, Church of Denmark or Danish National Church, is the state church and largest denomination in Denmark and Greenland...
(the Danish Lutheran state church). In Aarhus
Aarhus
Aarhus or Århus is the second-largest city in Denmark. The principal port of Denmark, Aarhus is on the east side of the peninsula of Jutland in the geographical center of Denmark...
, another Unitarian congregation was founded at this time by the Norwegian Unitarian pastor and writer Kristofer Janson
Kristofer Janson
Kristofer Nagel Janson was a Norwegian poet, author and Unitarian clergyman. Kristofer Janson is commonly recognized as the historical founder of the Norwegian Unitarian Church.-Background:...
(1841–1917); it has since closed.
Often labeled and considered as a "pioneer" or "precursor" (in a spiritual manner) to the Unitarian movement in Denmark was the Icelandic theologian Magnús Eiríksson
Magnús Eiríksson
Magnús Eiríksson was an Icelandic theologian and a contemporary critic of Søren Aabye Kierkegaard and Hans Lassen Martensen in Copenhagen....
(1806–1881), who lived in Copenhagen from 1831 until his death in 1881.
Sweden
Inspired by the writings of Theodore ParkerTheodore Parker
Theodore Parker was an American Transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church...
the Swedish writer Klas Pontus Arnoldson
Klas Pontus Arnoldson
Klas Pontus Arnoldson was a Swedish author, journalist, politician, and committed pacifist who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1908. He was a founding member and the first chairman of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society.-External links:* * at Find-A-Grave...
founded in Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
in 1871 the Unitarian association Sanningssökarna ("The Truth Seekers") – later also found in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
. This association also published the periodical Sanningssökaren ("The Truth Seeker"). Two other Unitarian associations were founded in 1882 (one of them in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
). In 1888 Unitarians asked the Swedish King for permission to establish yet another Unitarian association in Gothenburg but was turned down because Unitarianism was not regarded as a Christian religion. Later many Unitarians turned to theosophy. In 1974 members of The Religion and Culture Association in Malmö
Malmö
Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...
founded The Free Church of Sweden and Rev. Ragnar Emilsen would be its pastor (ordained 1987 to Unitarian minister for Sweden and Finland and later the first to become Unitarian bishop of Scandinavia, he died February 2008). In 1999 the church changed its name to The Unitarian Church in Sweden.
Norway
In 1892 and 1893 the Norwegian Unitarian ministers Hans Tambs LycheHans Tambs Lyche
Hans Tambs Lyche was a Norwegian engineer, unitarian minister, journalist and magazine editor.-Background:...
and Kristofer Janson
Kristofer Janson
Kristofer Nagel Janson was a Norwegian poet, author and Unitarian clergyman. Kristofer Janson is commonly recognized as the historical founder of the Norwegian Unitarian Church.-Background:...
returned from America and at once started independently of each other to introduce Unitarianism. In 1894 Tambs Lyche failed to organize a Unitarian Church in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
(then Kristiania) but managed to publish Norway's first Unitarian periodical (Free Words). In January 1895 Kristofer Janson founded The Church of Brotherhood in Oslo which was to be the first Unitarian church – where he stayed as the congregation's pastor only for 3 years. In 1904 Herman Haugerud was to return to Norway from America and to become the last Unitarian pastor to The Unitarian Society (which The Church of Brotherhood now was renamed). Pastor Haugerud died in 1937 and the Unitarian church ceased to exist shortly thereafter. Between 1986 and 2003 different Unitarian groups were active in Oslo. In 2004 these merged into The Unitarian Association which registered as religious society according to Norwegian law on 20 April 2005 under the name The Unitarian Association (The Norwegian Unitarian Church). Later "Bét Dávid" has been added to the name: The Bét Dávid Unitarian Association (The Norwegian Unitarian Church). The church is akin to both Transylvanian Unitarianism and Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, hence the name bét referring to the Hebrew word for "house" and Dávid which is the name of the first Transylvanian Unitarian bishop Dávid Ferenc (1510–1579). In 2006 this church was associated with the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists
International Council of Unitarians and Universalists
The International Council of Unitarians and Universalists is an umbrella organization founded in 1995 bringing together many Unitarians, Universalists and Unitarian Universalists.The size of the member organizations varies widely...
(ICUU). Since 2007 there is also a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship independent of The Norwegian Unitarian Church. This fellowship is located in the Oslo area.
Spain
Although the pioneer and first martyr of European Unitarianism was a Spaniard,Michael Servetus
Michael Servetus
Michael Servetus was a Spanish theologian, physician, cartographer, and humanist. He was the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation...
, the Spanish Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
and the religious hegemony of the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
over both the State and the Spanish society, blocked for centuries any possibility of developing a Unitarian Church in Spain.
This situation began to change in the 19th century. A liberal Spanish writer and former priest, José María Blanco-White
Joseph Blanco White
Joseph Blanco White, born José María Blanco Crespo , was a Spanish theologian and poet....
, became a Unitarian during his exile in England and remained so until the end of his life (1841). At the end of the century, a group of liberal Spanish intellectuals and reformers, the Krausistas (who received this name for being followers of German idealist philosopher Karl Krause), were admirers of American Unitarian leaders William Ellery Channing
William Ellery Channing
Dr. William Ellery Channing was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton, one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. He was known for his articulate and impassioned sermons and public speeches, and as a prominent thinker...
and Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker was an American Transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church...
, and wished that natural religion and religious rationalism were more present in Spain, although they did not create any liberal church to push that process forward.
The Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
(1936–1939) put an end to any expectations of change and liberal developments in Spain for several decades. After the death of dictator Francisco Franco and the approval of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, religious freedom was finally established in Spain (although still with many restrictions in actual practice). In 2000, the Sociedad Unitaria Universalista de España (SUUE) was founded in Barcelona, and in 2001 it became a member of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU). In 2005 it changed its name to the Unitarian Universalist Religious Society of Spain in order to achieve legal status as a religious organization under the Spanish law on Religious Freedom, but the application was also rejected.