Unitarianism

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Unitarianism is a nontrinitarian Christian theology which holds that God is only one person, in contrast to the doctrine of the Trinity (God as three persons).[1]

Unitarianism (capitalized) has come to be associated with certain liberal Christian beliefs. The uncapitalized term, unitarianism, while denoting adherence to the teaching of the singular personhood of God, includes beliefs generally similar to those of conservative, evangelical Christians (apart from the Trinity). This form of unitarianism is more commonly called nontrinitarianism. There are also nontrinitarians who maintain that God is a single person, but also that Jesus is that God, and who therefore are distinct from unitarians, who reject the divinity of Jesus.

Contents

History

Unitarianism, both as a theology and as a denominational family of churches, was first defined and developed within the Protestant Reformation, although theological ancestors may be found back in the early days of Christianity. Historically the term Unitarian first appeared as unitaria religio in a document of the Diet of Lécfalva, Transylvania on 25 Oct. 1600, though it was not widely used in Transylvania till 1638, when the formal recepta Unitaria Religio was published. The Polish Brethren or Socinians did not adopt the name, perhaps because of their differences with the Transylvanian Unitarians, but Christopher Sandius in 1668 entitled his publication of their works: Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum quos Unitarios vocant (Library of the Polish Brethren who are called Unitarians 4 vols. 1665–1669). The name was introduced into English by the Socinian Henry Hedworth in 1673.

The movement gained popularity in the wake of the Enlightenment and, began to become a formal denomination in England in 1774 when Theophilus Lindsey organised meetings with Joseph Priestley. Unitarianism was not fully legal in the United Kingdom until the Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813.

Theological and denominational distinctions

The term "Unitarian" has been applied both to those who hold a Unitarian theological belief and to those who belong to a Unitarian church. A hundred years ago, this would not have made much of a difference, but today it is a distinction that needs to be made.

Unitarian theology is distinguishable from the belief system of modern Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist churches and fellowships in several countries. This is because over time, some Unitarians and many Unitarian Universalists have moved away from the traditional Christian roots of Unitarianism.[2] For example, in the 1890s the American Unitarian Association began to allow non-Christian and non-theistic churches and individuals to be part of their fellowship.[3] As a result, people who held no Unitarian belief began to be called "Unitarians," simply because they were members of churches that belonged to the American Unitarian Association. After several decades, the non-theistic members outnumbered the theological Unitarians.[4] A similar, though proportionally much smaller, phenomenon has taken place in the Unitarian churches in the United Kingdom, Canada, and other countries, which remain more theistically based.

The remainder of this article includes information about Unitarianism as a theology and about the development of theologically Unitarian churches in several countries around the world. For a more specific discussion of Unitarianism as it evolved into a pluralistic liberal religious movement in the United States and elsewhere in more recent times, see Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist Association, Canadian Unitarian Council, General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, and International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU).

Unitarians are not to be confused with members of the United Church of Christ, the Unity Church, the Universal Life Church, the Unification Church, the United Church of Canada, or the Uniting Church in Australia.

Beliefs

The description of "unitarian beliefs" requires recognition both of historical development (16th–21st centuries) and of diversity among modern churches that are unitarian in Christology and/or 'Unitarian' in name.[5] A simplification of the historical development can be made in three stages:

Historically, unitarians believed in the teachings of Jesus Christ as found in the New Testament and other early Christian writings. Adhering to strict monotheism, they maintained that Jesus was a great man and a prophet of God, perhaps even a supernatural being, but not God himself. They believe Jesus did not claim to be God, nor did his teachings hint at the existence of a triune God. Unitarians believe in the moral authority, but not necessarily the divinity, of Jesus. Their theology is thus opposed to the trinitarian theology of other Christian denominations.

Christology (distinction from Arianism)

Historically the Arianism and unitarianism of the 16th–19th centuries could be divided based on whether Jesus was believed to have had a pre-human existence. Both forms maintain that God is one being and one "person"—the one Jesus called "Father"—and that Jesus is the (or a) Son of God, but generally not God himself.[9]

Arianism – Personal pre-human existence

In one form, the Son of God is considered to have pre-existed as the Logos, a being created by God, who dwelt with God in heaven prior to his birth as the man, Jesus. This theology is commonly called Arianism; however, there are many varieties of this form of Unitarianism, ranging from the belief that the Son was a divine spirit of the same nature as God before coming to earth, to the belief that he was an angel or other lesser spirit creature of a wholly different nature from God. Arius' views represent only one variation of this theology.

In this belief system, Jesus is beneath God, but higher than humans (and has always been so). This concept could be referred to as "elevated subordinationism". It is associated with early church figures such as Justin Martyr, Lucian of Antioch, Eusebius of Caesarea, Arius, Eusebius of Nicomedia, Asterius the Sophist, Eunomius, and Ulfilas, as well as Felix, Bishop of Urgel and others who believed that Jesus was God in his divine nature but his divinity in his human nature was through adoption. Arian ideas persist among Unitarians in Transylvania, Hungary, France, and several countries in Africa. Famous 19th century Arian Unitarians include Andrews Norton[10] and Dr. William Ellery Channing.[11]

Since the 19th century, several Evangelical or Revivalist movements have adopted an elevated subordinationist theology (best described as Nontrinitarianism or Semi-Arianism, rather than Unitarianism). Important figures include Barton W. Stone and Charles Taze Russell. Theologies among evangelical nontrinitarians are sometimes classed as Arian,[12] and sometimes Sabellian[13] (the belief that Jesus is God in the flesh, the manifestation of God, who exists as a single person). Other modern nontrinitarian churches or fellowships include Jehovah's Witnesses, the Christian Churches of God (CCG), and the Filipino-based Iglesia ni Cristo.[14]

Michael Servetus did not deny the pre-existence of Christ.[15] Nineteenth century Unitarians often claimed Isaac Newton, though his Arian ideas pre-date Unitarianism.[16]

Unitarianism – No personal pre-human existence

Contrasting unitarianism with Arianism, the distinguishing feature is the question of personal pre-existence. All forms of unitarianism deny the personal pre-existence of Christ. Among those forms, there are various views ranging from the belief that Jesus was a great man, son of Joseph (etc.), but filled with the Holy Spirit, often called adoptionism (or, in the 19th century, psilanthropism), to the belief that he literally was the Son of God through the virgin birth.

Acceptance of the virgin birth Theodotus of Byzantium[17], Artemon[18] and Paul of Samosata[19] denied the pre-existence of Christ but accepted the virgin birth.[20] This was continued by Marcellus of Ancyra and his pupil Photinus in the 4th century AD.[21] In the Radical Reformation and Anabaptist movements of the 16th Century this resurfaced with Lelio Sozzini and his nephew Fausto Sozzini, who having influenced the Polish Brethren to a formal declaration of this belief in the Racovian Catechism then gave the name "Socinianism" to this christological position[22], which carried on with English Unitarians such as John Biddle's Twofold Catechism (1654), and then resurfaced in the 1850s with the Christadelphians,[23][24] and the Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith who do not believe in the literal pre-existence of Christ, but do believe in the virgin birth.

Psilanthropism The denial of the virgin birth is also sometimes described as Ebionism from the Ebionites, though this is incorrect since both Origen (Contra Celsum v.61) and Eusebius (HE iii.27) indicate that some Ebionites did accept the virgin birth.[25] Chambers Biographical Dictionary ascribes denial of the virgin birth to Ferenc Dávid leader of the Transylvanian Unitarians. The psilanthropist view is manifested in Rationalist Unitarianism, which emerged from German Rationalism and the liberal theology of the 19th century. Its proponents took an intellectual and humanistic approach to religion, rejecting most of the miraculous events in the Bible (including the virgin birth). They embraced evolutionary concepts, asserted the "inherent goodness of man", and abandoned the doctrine of biblical infallibility. Notable examples are Theodore Parker and Frederick Henry Hedge, and the "Rationalist Unitarian"[26] William Ellery Channing[27].

19th-century rational unitarianism

The 'Rational Unitarian' movement as a denomination can be dated to Theophilus Lindsey in 1774.

With regard to Unitarianism proper (the liberal variety) there are common traits to be found, apart from the rejection of the Trinity doctrine. Although there is no specific authority on these convictions, the following represent the most generally accepted beliefs during the 19th Century as recorded by Samuel Joseph May (1860),[28] A.C. Henderson (1886)[29] Orville Dewey (1873),[30] James Freeman Clarke (1885),[31], George H. Ellis (1890)[32] and J.T. Sunderland:[33]

Modern unitarianism

More information about beliefs of specific unitarian or Unitarian churches might be found under specific articles:

The Christian leader in 1938[34] attributed "the religion of Jesus, not a religion about Jesus." to Unitarians, (though in fact the phrase was first used by Congregationalist Rollin Lynde Hartt in 1924)[35]

Historically, they have encouraged unorthodox views of God, Jesus, the world and purpose of life as revealed through reason, scholarship, science, philosophy, scripture and other prophets and religions. They believe that reason and belief are complementary and that religion and science can co-exist and guide them in their understanding of nature and God. They also do not enforce belief in creeds or dogmatic formulas. Although there is flexibility in the nuances of belief or basic truths for the individual Unitarian Christian, general principles of faith have been recognized as a way to bind the group in some commonality. Adherents generally accept religious pluralism and find value in all teachings, but remain committed to their core belief in Christ's teachings. Liberal Unitarians value a secular society in which government stays out of religious affairs. Most contemporary Unitarian Christians believe that one's personal moral convictions guide one's political activities, and that a secular society is the most viable, just and fair society.

Unitarian Christians generally accept the presentation of Jesus in the canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), but believe that those accounts are not without error. They generally do not believe that Jesus was conceived in the womb of a virgin or performed miracles to the extent reported in the Gospels, for example. They also are more likely than other Christians to find value in early Christian texts that did not make it into the canon of the Christian Bible.

Unitarian Christians reject the doctrine of some Christian denominations that God chooses to redeem or save only those certain individuals that accept the creeds of, or affiliate with a specific church or religion, from a common ruin or corruption of the mass of humanity. They believe that righteous acts are necessary for redemption, not only faith.

Modern Christian Unitarian Organizations

First Unitarian Meeting House, Madison, Wisconsin, designed by Unitarian Frank Lloyd Wright

This section relates to Unitarian churches and organisations today which are still specifically Christian within or outside Unitarian-Universalism, which embraces non-Christian religions.

UUCF (USA)

The Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship (UUCF, founded 1945) predates the consolidation of the American Unitarian Association (AUA) and Universalist Church of America (UCA) into the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) in 1961. UUCF continues as a subgroup of UUA serving the Christian members.

ICUU

Other Unitarian Christian groups are affiliated with the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU), founded in 1995. The ICUU tends to contain a majority membership who express specifically Unitarian Christian beliefs, rather than the religious pluralism of the UUA, but nevertheless remain liberal, open-minded and inclusive communities.[36] The ICUU has "full member" groups in the United States, Australia & New Zealand, United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, South Africa, Sri Lanka.

The modern Unitarian Church in Hungary (25,000 members) and the Transylvanian Unitarian Church (75,000 members) are affiliated with the ICUU and claim continuity with the historical Unitarian Christian tradition established by Ferenc Dávid in 1565 in Transylvania under John II Sigismund Zápolya. The Unitarian churches in Hungary and Transylvania are structured and organized along a church hierarchy that includes the election by the Synod of a national Bishop who serves as superintendent of the Church. Many Hungarian Unitarians embrace the principles of Rationalist Unitarianism. The only Unitarian high schools in the world exist in Translyvania (Romania), these have rich traditions with many notable graduates among its ranks: John Sigismund Unitarian Academy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania and the Berde Mózes Unitárius Gimnázium in Cristuru Secuiesc (Székelykeresztúr), Romania, and both teach Rationalist Unitarianism.

The ICUU includes small "Associate groups" such as Congregazione Italiana Cristiano Unitariana, Turin (founded 2004)[37] and the Bét Dávid Unitarian Association, Oslo (founded 2005)[38] and elsewhere worldwide.

AUC (USA)

The American Unitarian Conference (AUC) was formed in 2000 and stands between UUA and ICUU in attachment to the Christian element of modern Unitarianism. The American Unitarian Conference is open to non-Christian Unitarians – being particularly popular with non-Christian theists and deists. The AUC has four congregations in the USA.

UCA (UK)

The Unitarian Christian Association (UCA, UK) was founded 1991 by Rev. Lancelot Garrard (1904–1993)[39] and others to promote specifically Christian ideas within the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (GAUFCC). Just as the UUCF and ICUU maintain formal links with UUA in America, so the UCA does with the GAUFCC in the UK.

The majority of Unitarian Christian publications are sponsored by an organization and published specifically for their membership. They generally do not serve as a tool for missionary work or encouraging conversions.

Development in the 21st century

In recent years there has been a relatively small, yet significant, growth in groups with a specifically Unitarian Christian outlook and ethos. There is a noticeable presence of Unitarian Christians on the internet, such as the Restoration Fellowship (though this is a "Biblical Unitarian" fundamentalist group) and Unitarian Ministries International. Online networks have been growing steadily for some time attracting members from across the world. Many Unitarian Christians who join these networks do not have a congregation in their locality and so rely on the internet as the main contact with their fellow believers.

In May 2004 Rev. Peter Hughes, vice-chairman of the East Lancashire Unitarian Mission, and a minister at Chowbent Chapel near Wigan, founded in 1645, 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." There are more than 180 Unitarian congregations in Britain. Mr Hughes refers 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,” he says. 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”.[40]

Ecclesiology

When Unitarianism developed in the 1600s during the Protestant era of the evolution of Christianity, the strongholds in Transylvania, Poland, and eventually Britain and the northeastern parts of the United States were firmly in the congregational tradition in the English-speaking countries. In the Hungarian-speaking territories it adopted a governance system that combined the Synodal and Episcopal models.

For those churches under the congregational model, each church governed itself independently of a hierarchical authority. These small congregations did belong, however, to more formal associations of churches. The American Unitarian Association, formed in 1825, was one of these. Later, in 1961, the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America merged to form the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), which is the largest organization of Unitarians in the US. The UUA is no longer an explicitly Christian organization and does not focus exclusively on the core teachings of Jesus Christ or Christianity.

Several Unitarian organizations still promote Christianity as their central theme including the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship (UUCF, an affiliate of the UUA), the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (GAUFCC) of the United Kingdom, and the Unitarian Christian Association (UCA, an affiliate of the GAUFCC).

In the US, the newest organization promoting a return to the theistic roots of Unitarianism is the American Unitarian Conference (AUC), formed in 2000. The AUC's stated goal is to formulate and promote classical Unitarian-based, unifying religious convictions, which balance the needs of members with a practical approach to inclusion and progressive free thought.

Interfaith dialogue and relations

The adoption of Unitarian belief almost always entails severance of identification with "Christianity" as it is formulated in the creeds of the Nicene and pre-Chalcedonian churches (Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and most Protestants). Unitarianism is outside of the fellowship of these traditions. Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant creeds of various stripes insist on trinitarian belief as an essential of Christianity and basic to a group's continuity of identity with the historical Christian faith.

However, occasionally, especially in Protestant history, traditionally trinitarian groups grow friendly to, or incorporate, unitarianism. Friendliness toward unitarianism has sometimes gone hand-in-hand with anti-Catholicism. In some cases non-trinitarian or unitarian belief has been adopted by some, and tolerated in Christian churches as a "non-essential". This was the case in the English Presbyterian Church, and in the Congregational Church in New England late in the 18th century. The Restoration Movement also attempted to forge a compatible relation between Trinitarians and Unitarians, as did the Seventh Day Baptists and various Adventists. The Seventh Day Baptists hold Unitarian Doctrines in their International Conference but became Trinitarians in the US. The Unitarian tendency in these last-mentioned groups came from their original theology and a total rejection of the Catholic explanation and acceptance of Trinitarianism and the Trinitarian Christian tradition of interpretation.

In some cases, this openness to unitarianism within traditionally trinitarian churches has been inspired by a very broad ecumenical motive. Modern liberal Protestant denominations are often accused by trinitarians within their ranks, and critics outside, of being indifferent to the doctrine, and therefore self-isolated from their respective trinitarian pasts and heritage. In some cases, it is charged that these trinitarian denominations are no longer Christian, because of their toleration of unitarian belief among their teachers, and in their seminaries.

At a local level, many Unitarian Christian groups – and individual Unitarian Christians – have links with congregations affiliated with the United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, and Unity Church. Indeed, some argue they feel more at home within these denominations than Unitarian-Universalism. A small proportion of Unitarian Christians also have links with Progressive Christianity.

Despite the close friendship and shared heritage that exists between adherents to Unitarian Universalism and Unitarian Christianity, there is an element within Unitarian Universalism that opposes specifically Unitarian Christian groups, believing them to be exclusive and intolerant of non-Christian thought. Likewise, some Unitarian Christians also believe that Unitarian Universalists are intolerant of Christian thought and tend to marginalize Christians.

Notable Unitarians

Notable Unitarians include Ralph Waldo Emerson and Theodore Parker in theology and ministry, Joseph Priestley and Linus Pauling in science, Susan B. Anthony and Florence Nightingale in humanitarianism and social justice, Charles Dickens and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in literature, Frank Lloyd Wright in arts, Josiah Wedgwood in industry and Charles William Eliot in education. Five presidents of the United States were Unitarians: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore, and William Howard Taft. Other Unitarians include Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Lancelot Ware, founder of Mensa, Sir Adrian Boult, the conductor, and C. Killick Millard, founder of the Euthanasia Society.

See also

References

  1. ↑ The dogma of the Trinity at 'Catholic Encyclopedia', ed. Kevin Knight at New Advent website
  2. ↑ See A.W. Gomes, E.C. Beisner, and R.M. Bowman, Unitarian Universalism (Zondervan, 1998), pp. 30–79
  3. ↑ George Willis Cooke, Unitarianism in America (AUA, 1902), pp. 224–230
  4. ↑ See the results of a recent poll on theological self-identity among UUs in the Engaging Our Theological Diversity report, pp. 70–72.
  5. ↑ Browde, Anatole (2009-01-26). Faith Under Siege: A History of Unitarian Theology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 236. ISBN 978-1440111624. 
  6. ↑ Ezra Abbot British & foreign evangelical review‎ 1882, p 97, "Waning of Biblical Unitarianism."
  7. ↑ The Princeton theological review, V 27‎ 1929, p 478, "Dr. Gow stresses the fact that the older Unitarianism was professedly a Biblical Unitarianism"
  8. ↑ Knight M. Mason E. Nineteenth-century religion and literature: an introduction‎, 2006, p 74, "set against that [transcendentalism,] rationalist Unitarianism influenced by Locke and Hume
  9. ↑ James Hastings Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics Part 2, Part 2‎ p785 "Unitarianism started, on the other hand, with the denial of the pre-existence of ... These opinions, however, must be considered apart from Arianism proper, ..."
  10. ↑ See his book, A Statement of Reasons for Not Believing the Doctrines of Trinitarians (1859)
  11. ↑ See his famous sermon, "Unitarian Christianity" in The Works of W.E. Channing, D.D (1841)
  12. ↑ See, for example, Spirit and Truth Fellowship International [www.biblicalunitarian.com].
  13. ↑ See, for example, United Pentecostal Church International [www.upci.org] and True Jesus Church [www.tjc.org].
  14. ↑ see www.ccg.org.
  15. ↑ Odhner C.T. Michael Servetus, His Life and Teachings, page 77 2009 "It will be seen from these extracts how completely without foundation is the assertion that Servetus denied the eternal pre-existence of Christ"
  16. ↑ "Among contemporary scholars, the consensus is that Newton was an Arian," says Thomas C. Pfizenmaier, "Was Isaac Newton an Arian?" Journal of the History of Ideas (1997) 68:57–80. Maurice F. Wiles, Archetypal Heresy: Arianism Through the Centuries (1996) p 133 points out that modern Unitarianism emerged after Newton's death; David Nicholls, God and Government in an 'age of Reason' (1995) Page 44, also emphasizes that Unitarianism ideas emerged after Newton's death.
  17. ↑ Allan Hoben The virgin birth 1903 "Of the above-stated beliefs that of Theodotus of Byzantium is perhaps the most striking, in that, while it admits the virgin birth, it denies the deductions commonly made therefrom, attributing to Christ only pre-eminent righteousness"
  18. ↑ William Bright Some Aspects of Primitive Church Life p127 "His original view was put into more definite form by Artemon, who regarded Jesus Christ as distinguished from prophets by (1) virgin-birth, (a) superior virtue"
  19. ↑ Charles Tutorial prayer book p.599
  20. ↑ Stead, Christopher (1996-01-27). Philosophy in Christian Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 189. ISBN 978-0521469555. 
  21. ↑ Toon Houdt Self-presentation and social identification p.238 "Christian apologists traced the origin of Socinianism to the doctrine of Photinus (4th century), who according to St. Augustine denied the pre-existence of Christ."
  22. ↑ Watson. R. A Biblical and theological dictionary p999
  23. ↑ Hayward, A. Did Jesus really come down from heaven? CALS
  24. ↑ Perry, A. Before he was born. Willow Publications
  25. ↑ Geoffrey W. Bromiley International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: E–J 1982 p9 "Origen was the first to distinguish between two types of Ebionites theologically: those who believed in the Virgin Birth and those who rejected it"
  26. ↑ William Carl Placher A history of Christian theology: an introduction 1983 p265 "Rationalist Unitarians like William Ellery Channing had argued from the Bible and the evidence of its miracles."
  27. ↑ Jack Mendelsohn Channing, the reluctant radical: a biography 1971 "A Suffolk County grand jury indicted him on three charges of blasphemy and obscenity: (1) he had quoted a scurrilous passage by Voltaire disparaging the virgin birth of Jesus"
  28. ↑ May S.J. What Do Unitarians Believe? Albany: Weed, Parsons, and Co., 1860 reissued 1867)
  29. ↑ Rev. A.C. Henderson, Minister of Melbourne Unitarian Church What Do Unitarians Believe? four-page tract, date listed as "1866–1886?" in Aus. Nat. Cat. but undated in Bibliography of Australia: 1851–1900 H–P., Volume 6 by John Alexander Ferguson p71.
  30. ↑ Dewey O. The Unitarian Belief Boston, 1873
  31. ↑ Clarke J.F. Manual of Unitarian Belief 1885, 20th ed 1924
  32. ↑ Ellis What Do Unitarians Believe About Jesus Christ? Boston 1890
  33. ↑ Sunderland J.T. What Do Unitarians Believe? New York AUA, 1891.
  34. ↑ The Christian leader, Volume 120, Part 2‎ – Page 1034, 1938 "This view finds pat expression in the dictum that Christianity is the religion of Jesus, not a religion about Jesus. An esteemed Unitarian minister.. "
  35. ↑ as the subtitle to Rollin Lynde Hartt, The Man Himself 1924
  36. ↑ ICUU webpage with world map
  37. ↑ Website in Italian, Rev. Roberto Rosso
  38. ↑ Unitarforbundet Bét Dávid (Den norske unitarkirke) Website in Norwegian
  39. ↑ The Independent – Obituary
  40. ↑ Ruth Gledhill The end is nigh for Unitarians, minister warns The Times (UK) 24 May 2004

Sources

External links

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