Read complete books and articles on: Unitarianism

Unitarianism - in general, the form of Christianity that denies the doctrine of the Trinity, believing that God exists only in one person. While there were previous antitrinitarian movements in the early Christian Church, like Arianism and Monarchianism, modern Unitarianism originated in the period of the Protestant Reformation. In Geneva, Michael Servetus was burned at the stake (1553) for his antitrinitarian views. Under Faustus Socinus a strong center of Unitarian belief developed in Poland. In Transylvania, Francis Dávid laid the foundation (c.1560) for the Unitarian Church there. In the 17th and 18th cent. Socinian ideas took root in England, especially under the influence of John Biddle, called the father of English Unitarianism. The development of a separate Unitarian body came about gradually through the efforts of such men as Joseph Priestley and Thomas Belsham. Originally a scripturally oriented movement, in the mid-19th cent. Unitarianism became a religion of reason under the leadership of James Martineau in England and Ralph Waldo Emerson and Theodore Parker in the United States. Reason and conscience were considered the only guides to religious truth; complete religious toleration, innate human goodness, and universal salvation were preached. Unitarianism took hold in the liberal wing of the Congregational churches of New England. At King's Chapel, Boston, in 1785, trinitarian doctrines were removed from the liturgy. In 1796, Priestley, who had fled to America to escape persecution, established a Unitarian church in Philadelphia. Liberal Congregationalists in New England gradually formed themselves into a new denomination, to which the name Unitarian was given (c.1815) by their conservative opponents. The final separation from Congregationalism was hastened by the choice of Henry Ware (1764–1845), a liberal, as Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard in 1805 and by the ordination sermon defending the liberals preached (1819) by William Ellery Channing in Baltimore. Channing's statement of Unitarian beliefs became the platform of the denomination. The American Unitarian Association was formed in 1825, and in 1865 a national conference was organized. A congregational form of government prevails in the Unitarian churches, each congregation having control of its own affairs. Neither ministers nor members are required to make profession of any particular doctrine, and no creed has been adopted by the church. The covenant in general use is simply, "In the love of truth, and in the spirit of Jesus, we unite for worship of God and the service of man." In 1961 the Universalist Church of America merged with the American Unitarian Association to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.

See J. F. Clarke, Manual of Unitarian Belief (20th ed. rev. 1924); D. W. Howe, The Unitarian Conscience (1970); S. E. Almstrom and J. S. Carey, ed., An American Reformation: A Documentary History of Unitarian Christianity (1984); D. Robinson, The Unitarians and the Universalists (1985).

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14 of the Best Books and Articles on: Unitarianism

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

The Unitarian Conscience: Harvard Moral Philosophy, 1805-1861 » Read Now
by Daniel Walker Howe. 400 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Philosophy, Entire Library
2.

The Modernist Impulse in American Protestantism (Chap. 1 "The Unitarian Movement and 'The Spirit of the Age'") » Read Now
by William R. Hutchison. 352 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...modifications into an organized movement. Unitarianism remained small as a denomination but...considerable portion of the most dynamic Unitarianism was moving "beyond...
3.

American Originals: Homemade Varieties of Christianity (Chap. 2 "Humanistic Christianity: Unitarians and Universalists") » Read Now
by Paul K. Conkin. 340 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...Neither annihilationism nor the so-called unitarianism of Smith and Jones became obligatory...rejection of all creeds. Stones so-called Unitarianism and the antitrinitarian...
4.

Who Were the Evangelicals?: Conservative and Liberal Identity in the Unitarian Controversy in Boston, 1804-1833, in Journal of Social History » Read Now
by Marie Kuplec Cayton. 23 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...by Morse entitled Review of American Unitarianism, which flatly accused the liberals...uniformity of belief and was exclusive; Unitarianism was a pluralistic belief system...
5.

Hell and the Victorians: A Study of the Nineteenth-Century Theological Controversies concerning Eternal Punishment and the Future Life (Chap. III "The Contribution of the Unitarians") » Read Now
by Geoffrey Rowell. 248 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...39 New directions in Unitarianism 49 F. W. Newman...but in several instances, notably Unitarianism, it has been necessary to have an earlier...FOR most of the nineteenth...
6.

History of Religion in the United States ("The Rise of Unitarianism and Universalism" begins on p. 296) » Read Now
by Clifton E. Olmstead. 628 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library
7.

The Dissenters: The Expansion of Evangelical Nonconformity, Vol. II ("'Nothing That Alarms the Conscience': The Unitarian and Quaker Exceptions" begins on p. 81) » Read Now
by Michael R. Watts. 916 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

English and Welsh society in the nineteenth century was profoundly influenced by religion. For millions of people, religion determined their choice of marriage partner, conditioned the upbringing of their children and moulded their family life. Religion pervaded education and literature, inspired...
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English and Welsh society in the nineteenth century was profoundly influenced by religion. For millions of people, religion determined their choice of marriage partner, conditioned the upbringing of their children and moulded their family life. Religion pervaded education and literature, inspired poetry, stimulated music, motivated philanthropy, moderated industrial strife, and decided political loyalties. The driving religious force which dominated the early nineteenth century was Evangelical Christianity. While a substantial minority of Anglicans subscribed to it, its main influence was mediated through the channels of the Bapitists, the Congregationalists, and the Methodists: otherwise known as Dissenters or Nonconformists. They are the subject of this book, the second part of the comprehensive study of Dissent in England and Wales. The first volume dealt with the period between the Reformation and French Revolution; this volume takes the study into the nineteenth century, examining Dissent in the years from 1791 to 1869. Michael Watts shows how the influence of Nonconformism extended beyond the confines of the ministers of religion and travelling evangelicals. He argues that whilst the appeal of rational Dissent was often to the prosperous, the well-educated, and the cultured, Evangelical Nonconformity found its main support among the poor, the ignorant, and the unsophisticated where its influence on working-class men and women was almost as great as that of the population explosion, the industrial revolution, and possibly that of its great rival, the public house. The followers of Evangelical Dissent, vastly outnumbered those of Owenism, Socialism, or even Chartism. This impressive synthesis combines smoothly written narrative with shrewd analysis, and clearly demonstrates that no-one can fully understand the history of the nineteenth century, without a thorough knowledge of Nonconformism.
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8.

New Directions in American Religious History ("Unitarianism, Literature, and Self-Culture" begins on p. 223) » Read Now
by D. G. Hart, Harry S. Stout. 502 pgs.

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The eighteen essays collected in this book had their origin in a conference of the same title, held at the Wingspread Conference Center in October of 1993. Some of the most distinguished scholars in the field were invited to reflect on their specialities in American religious history in ways that...
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The eighteen essays collected in this book had their origin in a conference of the same title, held at the Wingspread Conference Center in October of 1993. Some of the most distinguished scholars in the field were invited to reflect on their specialities in American religious history in ways that summarized where the field is and where it ought to move in the decades to come. Organized according to four general ways of looking at religious history--places and regions, universal themes, transformative events, and marginal groups and ethno-cultural "outsiders"--the essays address a wide range of topics, including Puritanism, religion and the Civil War, Protestantism and economic behavior, gender and sexuality in American Protestantism, and the contemporary de-Christianization of American culture. Featuring contributions from David D. Hall, Donald G. Matthews, Allen C. Guelzo, Gordon S. Wood, Daniel Walker Howe, Robert Wuthnow, Jon Butler, David A. Hollinger, and others, this thought-provoking and up-to-date collection will interest anyone involved in the study of American religion and history.
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9.

German Culture in America, 1600-1900: Philosophical and Literary Influences ("The Unitarian and Congregational Clergy" begins on p. 148) » Read Now
by Henry A. Pochmann, Arthur R. Schultz. 870 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, History, Literature, Entire Library
10.

William Ellery Channing: Selected Writings ("Unitarian Christianity (1819)" begins on p. 70) » Read Now
by William Ellery Channing, David Robinson. 310 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library
11.

Theodore Parker (1936) (Chap. IV "The Unitarian Controversy") » Read Now
by Henry Steele Commager. 339 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

...indiscriminately against Catholicism and Unitarianism. Did this Litchfield parson think...for the dialectics of Calvinism or Unitarianism. That winter Theodore might...
12.

Strauss's English Propagandists and the Politics of Unitarianism, 1841-1845, in Church History » Read Now
by Valerie A. Dodd. 21 pgs.

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...English Propagandists and the Politics of Unitarianism, 1841-1845 VALERIE A. DODD In...are associated with developments in Unitarianism such as George Eliot encountered...
13.

Strained Bedfellows: Pagans, New Agers, and 'Starchy Humanists' in Unitarian Universalism, in Sociology of Religion » Read Now
by Richard Wayne Lee. 18 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...Atlanta, Georgia (1990-92). 1 Unitarianism and Universalism (merged in 1961...UNITARIANS AND UNIVERSALISTS American Unitarianism coalesced as a liberal-Protestant...
14.

The Inherent Worth and Dignity: Gay Unitarians and the Birth of Sexual Tolerance in Liberal Religion, in Journal of the History of Sexuality » Read Now
by Mark Oppenheimer. 29 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...more than prayer and belief. Today, Unitarianism may be seen, in part, as ritual manifest...that he was right. ANTECEDENTS Unitarianism began in eastern Europe in the...