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 in the liberal theology of the day. Dr. Channing's religion and thought were among the chief influences on the New England
Transcendentalists, though he never countenanced their views, which he saw as extreme.
Channing was born in Newport, Rhode Island
, a grandson of William Ellery, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence
.
We honor revelation too highly to make it the antagonist of reason, or to believe that it calls us to renounce our highest powers.
The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.
I see the marks of God in the heavens and the earth, but how much more in a liberal intellect, in magnanimity, in unconquerable rectitude, in a philanthropy which forgives every wrong, and which never despairs of the cause of Christ and human virtue. I do and I must reverence human nature... I thank God that my own lot is bound up with that of the human race.
There are seasons, in human affairs, of inward and outward revolution, when new depths seem to be broken up in the soul, when new wants are unfolded in multitudes, and a new and undefined good is thirsted for. There are periods when...to dare, is the highest wisdom.