William Ellery Channing

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This article is about Dr. William Ellery Channing, the Unitarian theologian. For the Transcendentalist poet, see William Ellery Channing (1818–1901).

Dr. William Ellery Channing (April 7, 1780 – October 2, 1842) 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 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. He became a New England liberal, rejecting the Calvinist doctrines of total depravity and divine election.

He graduated from Harvard in 1798. Troubled both by post-revolutionary French radicalism and by American Calvinist orthodoxy, Channing preferred a gentle, loving relationship with God. However, the struggle continued through two years during which Channing lived in Richmond, working as a tutor. He came to his definitive faith only through much spiritual turmoil and difficulty.

In 1803 Channing was called as pastor of what later became known as the Arlington Street Church (Boston), where he remained for the rest of his life. He lived through the increasing tension between religious liberals and conservatives and took a moderate position, rejecting the extremes of both groups.

Nevertheless he became the primary spokesman and interpreter of Unitarianism when he preached the ordination sermon of Jared Sparks in Baltimore in 1819; it was entitled "Unitarian Christianity". In that address he explicated the distinctive tenets of the Unitarian movement, only one of which was the rejection of the Trinity. Other important tenets were the belief in human goodness and the subjection of theological ideas to the light of reason.

A few years later he gave another famous ordination sermon, entitled "Likeness to God". The idea of the human potential to be like God, which Channing advocated as grounded firmly in scripture, was seen as heretical by the Calvinist religious establishment of his day.

In later years Channing addressed the topic of slavery, although he was never an ardent abolitionist. In 1835 Channing wrote the book entitled, " SLAVERY," James Monroe and Company, publisher. Channing, however, has been described as a "romantic racist" in Black Abolitionism: A Quest for Human Dignity by Beverly Eileen Mitchell (133-38). He held a common American belief about the inferiority of African slaves and held a belief that once freed, Africans would need overseers. The overseers (largely former slave masters) were necessary because the slaves would lapse into laziness. Furthermore, he did not join the abolitionist movement because he did not agree with their way of conducting themselves, and he felt that voluntary associations limited a person's autonomy. Therefore, he often chose to remain separate from organizations and reform movements. This middle position characterized his attitude about most questions, although his eloquence and strong influence on the religious world incurred the enmity of many extremists. Channing had an enormous influence over the religious (and social) life of New England, and America, in the nineteenth century.

Channing died in Old Bennington, Vermont, where a cenotaph is placed in his memory. He is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Statues of Channing are located on the edge of the Boston Public Garden, across the street from the Arlington Street Church that he served, and facing Channing Memorial Church, built in Newport, RI in 1880 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Two of Dr. Channing's nephews were prominent Transcendentalists:

William Ellery Channing (1818–1901), usually known as Ellery Channing, was the son of his brother Walter Channing (1786–1876, a Boston doctor);
William Henry Channing was the son of his brother Francis Dana Channing.

In 1880, a younger Unitarian minister in Newport, Charles Timothy Brooks, published a biography, William Ellery Channing, A Centennial Memory.