David E. Bumbaugh - Brief History or U-Uism Page 1 of 4

Brief History of Unitarian-Universalism Rev. David E. Bumbaugh The Unitarian Church in Summit NJ USA January 1996

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISM finds its organizational roots deep in the soil of the Protestant Reformation. In the social, political, religious turmoil which caused and resulted from the Protestant Reformation, most of the heresies which had ever disturbed the peace of the church were renewed and reborn. Among these ancient heresies were --tracing its anti-trinitarianism to the Arian heresy which predated the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.--and Universalism, the teaching that all human beings ultimately would be restored to harmony with God, a view which was declared heretical in 544 A.D. For a variety of reasons, speculation concerning the and the reality of eternity punishment were rife in many of the groups which comprised the "left wing" of the Reformation.

Credit for making the debate over the trinity a matter of public concern must go to . Born and reared in Spain just after the expulsion of the Jews and Moors by Ferdinand and Isabella, Servetus grew up in the atmosphere of terror created by the Inquisition's relentless search for converted Jews and Moors who privately adhered to their ancient faiths. Many of these unfortunates were discovered and made victims of the Inquisition--some being executed publicly.

Servetus, convinced that the doctrine of the trinity was the principle barrier to sincere conversion of Jews and Moslems, set out to prepare a convincing defense of that doctrine. In the process of his study, he convinced himself that the doctrine of the trinity had no basis in scripture, or in the earth teachings of the church (prior to 325). In response to this stupendous discovery, Servetus wrote and published ON THE ERRORS OF THE TRINITY, a work designed to convince others that the church's teachings concerning the trinity was a late and human fabrication, and therefore should not be the basis for persecuting people.

Servetus soon found it necessary to flee the Inquisition. After several futile attempts to convince various Protestant leaders of the truth of his discovery, Servetus settled in southern France, working as a physician and as an editor for a local printer. He continued his theological interests, writing a volume on the restoration of Christianity which he shared with John Calvin in Geneva. Word of Servetus' whereabouts was leaked to the Inquisition by someone in Geneva, and again Servetus was fleeing for his life, heading for northern Italy by way of Geneva. He was recognized in Geneva, arrested, tried for heresy, and burned with his books at the stake in 1553.

Servetus had tried to reach northern Italy because of the existence there of a radical Protestant community in which he hoped to find succor and refuge. That community was soon to be destroyed by the Inquisition, its members fleeing to Switzerland, Germany and eventually to eastern Europe.

One of the major figures from this group was Georgio Biandrata, who accompanied Bona Sforza to Poland when she became the bride of that nation's king. While serving as physician to the Polish queen,

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Biandrata was instrumental in smoothing the path of religious reformation and insinuating anti- trinitarian ideas. The result of his labor would be the Minor Church of Poland, later led by another Italian refugee, Faustus Socinus. From Socinus the church would take the name by which it is best known in history, the Socinian Church. This Unitarian movement flourished until 1658, when a resurgent Catholicism succeeded in having Socinians banished forever from Poland.

Biandrata, having served Queen Bona, subsequently became physician to her daughter, Isabella, who had married the Prince of Transylvania. In Transylvania, Biandrata again favored the reformation and insinuated and supported anti-trinitarian concerns. When Isabella's son, John Sigismund, assumed the throne of Transylvania, Biandrata advocated Francis David as court preacher. In a series of open debates, David so ably defended a Unitarian position that the king, the court, and most of the nation embraced the Unitarian cause. (It was in Transylvania that anti-trinitarians were first called Unitarians.)

The Edict of Torda, 1568, decreed religious toleration and established Unitarianism as one of the "received faiths." Shortly after, King John Sigismund died and the throne fell to elements not sympathetic to the Unitarians. The church was tolerated, but not allowed any innovations in doctrine or thought or practice. Francis David died in the dungeon at Deva, convicted of heretical innovations. From that day to this, the Unitarian Church in Transylvania has existed, frequently under severe repression. However, the oldest Unitarian churches in the world still exist in Transylvania, now largely encompassed within the boundaries of Rumania, and serving the Hungarian minority in that country.

Holland had often received traveling scholars from Poland and Transylvania, who brought their Unitarian doctrines with them. Consequently, when Socinians fled from Poland, those who did not settle in Prussia and Transylvania, found refuge in Holland. There was never a distinct Unitarian church in Holland, but the Socinian community there functioned to liberalize Dutch Calvinism. It was in Holland that the "" published the definitive library of Socinian thought and history.

From Holland, Socinian and Unitarian influences reached England. As early as the 1550s, the Church of the Strangers was strongly influenced by Socinian thought. The growth of Unitarianism in England was not without opposition. John Biddle, the father of English Unitarianism, spent much of his adult life in jail or in exile for his faith. It was not until the founding of the Essex Street Chapel in London (1774) by Theophilus Lindsey that English Unitarianism would develop a firm and continuing history. Though Unitarian ideas and concerns were frequently agitated within the Church of England itself, Unitarianism remained part of the dissenting traditions, and Unitarians, along with Roman Catholics, were the last in England to be freed from restraints on civil liberties because of religious belief. The British Unitarian Association was founded in May, 1825, and continues to this day.

Universalism, which throughout the Reformation was a specific opinion held by scattered individuals and groups, coalesced into a movement in the England of the of the eighteenth century. James Relly published a book entitled UNION, in which he argued that the unity of all people with Christ meant that in his death Christ had paid for all human sin, and therefore, the need for hell had been overcome. In various places in England, Universalism was preached to dissenting congregations.

In North America, Unitarianism and Universalism developed independently. Unitarianism is largely the result of gradually liberalizing theological views among the Congregational churches of New England. The Great Awakening of the mid-eighteenth century forced the recognition that over the years significant changes had occurred in the thought of the churches descended from the Pilgrims and Puritans, and two parties now existed in the colonies--those who welcomed liberalizing changes and those who sought to return the churches to the pure doctrines of a previous day. This division festered for several decades, with the more liberal churches gradually ignoring or abandoning such classic doctrines as human depravity, original sin, faith in a triune God, etc. http://www.uc.summit.nj.uua.org/Resources/UU/uuhistory.html 5/26/2004 David E. Bumbaugh - Brief History or U-Uism Page 3 of 4

When the chair of divinity fell vacant at Harvard College (1805), the two factions each proposed a candidate for the position which would be chiefly responsible for the training of future ministers. After a bitter debate, the liberals succeeded in electing Henry Ware; the conservatives left Harvard and founded Andover as a competing school; and the Unitarian-Congregational schism was complete. A large number of the oldest and wealthiest churches in New England became Unitarian.

In an independent development, King's Chapel (Anglican) in Boston revised the Book of Common Prayer and became Unitarian. Joseph Priestly, British Unitarian minister and amateur scientist, fled oppression in England and brought Unitarianism to Philadelphia. In 1819, William Ellery Channing, acknowledged leader of New England liberals, embraced the name Unitarian in his famous Baltimore Sermon. The movement spread to urban centers along the Atlantic coast and to the new cities of the west. In May, 1825, the American Unitarian Association was organized to facilitate this growth through the publishing of pamphlets.

Universalism, by contrast, was largely a rural movement, composed of self-educated women and men who could not accept the harsh, vindictive God of Calvinism. Universalists were often members of other churches until driven out because of their belief in universal salvation. The first Universalist church in the world was organized in 1779 in , Massachusetts--the creation of a small group of people who had been influenced by Relly's book, UNION. They settled as their first minister, the Reverend John Murray, a sometime Methodist lay-preacher who had read Relly's book, converted to Universalism, fled the hostility of his former associates and his personal misfortunes to bury himself in the wilderness of North America. Because of his efforts along the Atlantic seaboard, Murray became known as the father of American Universalism. Under his leadership, the Gloucester church fought a successful battle for separation of church and state, for the right of dissenting ministers to perform marriages, for the right of women and men to support the churches of their choosing and not be forced to provide tax support for state churches in addition.

Murray's efforts were supplemented by various indigenous groups and individuals who embraced and proclaimed the "larger gospel" of Universalism. Perhaps the most influential thinker among early Universalists was Hosea Ballou, self-educated son of a Baptist minister. Ballou's A TREATISE ON ATONEMENT, published in 1805, presented a coherent unitarian and universalist theological position which moved the Universalist churches from Murray's trinitarianism to a fully unitarian position in the course of a single decade, and firmly established Ballou as the intellectual leader of Universalism.

Like many religious groups, the Universalist soon fanned out along the frontier, establishing churches, school, colleges, newspapers as they moved west, engaging orthodox leaders in debate and seeking to apply their faith to the problems of the world in which they lived. By the end of the nineteenth century, Universalism was said to be the sixth largest denomination in America.

Both movements soon began to strain at the confines of traditional Christianity. Transcendentalists such as Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Theodore Parker sought to escape the constraints of rigid rationalism and the parochialism of the Christian world-view. Emerson invited Unitarians to seek religious authority within their own souls and in the world of immediate experience. Parker sought to distinguish between the eternal truths of Christianity and the temporal forms and myths in which it was clothed, effectively undercutting any religion's exclusive claim to truth. The effect of this effort over the years was to move Unitarians and Universalists away from strict reliance upon scripture and tradition and in the direction of a world religion.

Both movements were deeply involved in the events of the day. The churches which were to become Unitarian had a long tradition of involvement in social and political issues, since they had been part of the established order in the Massachusetts theocracy. Unitarians would contribute John Adams, Thomas http://www.uc.summit.nj.uua.org/Resources/UU/uuhistory.html 5/26/2004 David E. Bumbaugh - Brief History or U-Uism Page 4 of 4

Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore, and William Howard Taft to the presidential leadership of the United States and a host of political leaders at other levels. Universalists, from the 1790 Philadelphia convention on, sought to address social issues from the base of their religious convictions, expressing concern for issues of peace, capital punishment, slavery, public education.

Both Unitarians and Universalists were central to the abolitionist cause prior to the Civil War. Both denominations were important to the cause of women's rights, providing the leadership of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mary Livermore, Olympia Brown (first denominationally ordained woman in the United States--1863), Fanny Gage, Julia Ward Howe and others to that cause. Individual Universalists and Unitarians spear-headed a variety of social reforms: Clara Barton and the American Red Cross, Dorothea Dix and reform of prisons and mental hospitals, Horace Mann and public education, Henry Berg and animal rights, Joseph Tuckermann and social service, John Haynes Holmes and social justice, to name only a few. Unitarians and Universalists virtually created American Letters: Channing, Emerson, Parker, Thoreau, the Alcotts, Hawthorne, Melville, Alice and Phoebe Cary, the Longfellows, Emily Dickenson, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Brett Hart, Kurt Vonnegut, May Sarton are among the many who have contributed to the nation's literature.

Following the Civil War, both denominations turned their attention to organizing themselves on a national basis. It was during this period that the American Unitarian Association became an organization of churches rather than of individuals. The Universalists organized a national convention which later became the Universalist Church of America. In 1869, the Women's Centenary Association, organized to support the celebration of the centennial of John Murray's arrival in America, became the first national women's organization in the history of the country. It evolved into the Association of Universalist Women.

At the same time, both denominations groped toward a more inclusive, less orthodox theology, confronting the implications of the theory of evolution, as propounded by British Unitarian, Charles Darwin; encountering world religions; and eventually working their way toward a humanistic religion which does not rely exclusively upon Christian assumptions and affirmations.

The two churches were originally separated by serious sociological differences. Unitarians were largely urban, well-educated, upper and upper middle class professionals. Universalists tended to be rural, often self-educated farmers, shop-keepers and artisans. Demographic shifts slowly erased many of these differences, while the emerging theologies of each denomination began to converge, as did their responses to the social reality.

In 1939, the Unitarian Service Committee was established to respond to the plight of refugees in war- torn Europe. In 1945 the Universalist Service Committee was created with a similar mission. In 1953, the two denominations merged their departments of education, publications and publicity in the Council of Liberal Churches and their youth groups merged into the Liberal Religious Youth (subsequently restructured and renamed Young Religious Unitarian Universalists). In 1961, the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America consolidated to become the Unitarian Universalist Association.

In the years since merger, the Unitarian Universalists have sought to streamline their institutional structures, have sought to respond prophetically and creatively to the social concerns of our turbulent times, and have sought to proclaim a meaningful and relevant gospel to women and men seeking a religion which challenges them to be the best it is in them to be. Now, reinvigorated and resting firmly upon its ancient tradition of reason, freedom and loving tolerance, Unitarian Universalism looks forward to a new century.

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