• Tuesdays, May 12 - June 9/16?, 2015 (5-6 sessions), 7:00 - 8:15 p.m.

• Emails: add to list?

• Slides: frederickuu.org/UUHistory

• $5/session, requested but not required (for UUCF Operating Fund to cover building expenses, childcare, etc. which allow these classes to be offered — not to the instructor.)

• Fall 2016?

• Banned Questions about the 1 of 4,

• CSAI: Wealth Inequality,

• Ethics (Peter Singer) Covenant

• Use “I” statements: speak from your own experience.

• Ask permission before sharing other participants’ stories outside the group.

• Step-up, step-back: be conscious of the level of participation that you bring to the conversation. Allow everyone a chance to speak before you speak again.

• You always have permission to “pass.” Unitarian Roots in Europe, part 3 (almost done!)

3 Timeline

• Origen, On First Principles (230 CE)

• Arius vs. Athanasius at the Council of Nicea (325 CE) • [GAP…Desert Ammas/Abbas…Beguines…Franciscans, etc.] • Johannes Gutenberg invents moveable-type printing press (1450); • Gutenberg Bible (1455)

• Columbus “discovers” New World (1492)

• Martin Luther posts “95 Theses” on church door in Wittenberg, Germany, launching Protestant Reformation (1517)

• Miguel/, On the Errors of the (1531)

• Church of England separates from Rome [Henry VIII] (1534)

• Copernicus, On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres (1543) Timeline

• Ferenc Dávid (Francis David) preaches first “Unitarian” sermon (1566)

• Edict of Torda (1568) — Unitarian King John Sigismund

• Martyrdom of Frances Dávid in Prison (1579) [last words, “God is One.”]

• Racovian (1605)

• King James Bible (1611)

• Beginning of African Slave Trade in the U.S. colonies (1619)

• , XII Arguments Drawn Out of the Scriptures (1647)

• Cambridge Platform (1648)

• John Biddle banished to Scilly Isles by Cromwell for rejecting Trinity (1654) Great Britain: Precursors to

• John Wycliffe (c. 1330-1384): translated the Vulgate (Latin Bible) into English. Called for the Roman to give away its money/property and require priests to live among the poor.

• Lollards (mid-1300s): encouraged individual study of Bible, which led to anti- Trinitarianism.

• William Sawtrey (d. 1401) - first person executed for religious beliefs in England was a “Unitarian” and a Lollard.

• 1534: Henry VIII leads Church of England to separate from Rome.

• John Biddle (1615-1662) - “father of English Unitarianism”

• 1662: Beginning of liberal dissent in England, when 2,000 ministers left the Church of England because the Act of Uniformity required all clergy to use the new prayer book.

• 1774: organized beginnings of Unitarianism in England with Theophilus Lindsey’s Essex Chapel in London. John Biddle (c. 1616 - 1662) “father of English Unitarianism”

• Spent much of the final 17 years of his life in prison for heresy.

• Believed one was “obligated to be very Rational” in interpreting scripture [Liberal Turn]

• Began to study the Bible on his own, which led him to deny the deity of the Holy Spirit.

• 1647: published XII Arguments Drawn Out of Scripture, which extended his incarceration. [Banned Questions about the Bible.]

• Published a biography of Faustus Socinus as well as his own catechism based on the .

• 1655: banished for life to the Scilly Islands. Thomas Emlyn (1663 - 1741)

• Published to defend himself against a member of his congregation who — after 11 years of successful ministry — noticed he never mentioned the Trinity.

• Arian, not Socinian

• [sins of (c)ommission]

• Imprisoned for two years. Last dissenter to be imprisoned for anti-Trinitarianism.

• First minister willing to take the Unitarian name. 1702 Theophilus Lindsey (1723-1808) [God-lover, Lk 1] [//: James Freeman at King’s Chapel in Boston,1785]

• Anglican priest who discovered he no longer believed in the Trinity. [what do you do?!] • Resigned his pastorate, and turned an auction room on Essex Street in London into a chapel. • 1774: Among the 200 people in attendance at the first service were Benjamin Franklin and Joseph Priestley. • Lindsey later published a book questioning historical validity of the Gospels and miracles [//: 19th c. Unitarians and Transcendentalists] • Said that the fully human Jesus was subject to the same frailties and errors as everyone else. • Omitted the Apostle’s Creed from the final version of the liturgy he produced. [comma] American Unitarianism, Origins to 1850: Development, & Early Controversies

10 Timeline

• Miguel/Michael Servetus, On the Errors of the Trinity (1531); martyred (1553) • Ferenc Dávid (Francis David) preaches first Unitarian sermon (1566) • Edict of Torda (1568), King János Zsigmond (John Sigismund) • Martyrdom of Frances David (1579) [last words: “God is One”] —————— • Racovian Catechism (1605) • John Biddle, XII Arguments Drawn Out of the Scriptures (1647), banished (1654) • Cambridge Platform (1648) —————— • Theophilus Lindsey’s Essex St. Chapel in London (1774) • James Freeman’s King's Chapel changes prayer book (1785) • Joseph Priestley's library burned in Birmingham, England (1791) Timeline

• Second Great Awakening (c. 1790–1840) • Oldest Pilgrim church in America (f. 1620, Plymouth, ) becomes Unitarian (1802) • Louisiana Purchase (1803) • Jefferson Bible (1804) • , Sr. appointed Professor of Divinity, Harvard (1805) [Ware Lecture] • Dedham Case (1818) • Channing preaches "Unitarian Christianity," Baltimore, MD (1819) • American Unitarian Association founded at Channing’s Federal Street Church, now Arlington Street UU in Boston (1825) • Ralph Waldo Emerson preaches "Divinity School Address” (1838) • Theodore Parker preaches "Transient and Permanent in Christianity” (1841) • Margaret Fuller, Women in the 19th.century (1845) (d. 1850) • Seneca Falls Convention (1848) Unitarianism in U.S.: “Predecessors”

• “We would worship without that Episcopacy, that common-prayer, and those unwarrantable ceremonies, with which the land of our forefathers sepulchers has been defiled; we came because we would have our posterity settled under the pure dispensations of the gospel, defended by rulers that should be of ourselves.” • [Cambridge Platform (1648): autonomous church governance] • [First sentence of Channing’s “Likeness Unto God” (1828): “To promote true religion is the purpose of the Christian ministry” Cotton Mather, Puritan Minister (1663 - 1728) • [TP: “Transient and the Permanent (1841)] Unitarianism in U.S.: Influences

• Wave of evangelical pietism • Old Light (anti-revival) - • Arminian emphasis on human reason and God’s love. • Human choice needed to accept salvation. • Against excessive emotionalism of revivals • Concerned that itinerants upset the established order, leaving settled ministers to address fall out. George Whitfield, • New Light (pro-revival) First Great Awakening • reemphasis on Calvinist doctrines. (1730s & 1740s,) • Conversion experiences Unitarianism in U.S.: Predecessors

• (1742) Enthusiasm Described and Caution’d Against [responding to Jonathan Edwards] • commitment to logic/reason in • Strict biblicism, but with historical- critical analysis • Morality/ethics focus of Christianity • Humans inherently good (contra ’s total depravity) • Trinity can’t be justified through rational reading of scripture

Charles Chauncy (1705 - 1787) leader of the “Old Lights,”anti-revivalists Unitarianism in U.S.: Predecessors

• (1743) Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New-England • Position: state of grace reached gradually not through moment of conversation Anti-revivalists increasing “liberal,” relying on reason and teaching free will. • publicly against Original Sin. • privately explored idea of universal salvation. Anonymously published The Mystery Hid from Ages and Generations (1784)

Chales Chauncy (1705 - 1787) leader of the “Old Lights,”anti-revivalists Unitarianism in U.S.: Predecessors

• Three Leading Liberals of the time: Charles Chauncy, Jonathan Mayhew, and Ebenezer Gay • 1759 Dudleian Lecture at Harvard on “Natural Religion” - God gave humans reason and ability to discern way to salvation

Ebenezer Gay (1696-1787) “father of American Unitarianism” (?) Unitarianism in U.S.: Multiple Origins

• Problem: Could no longer in good conscience lead a Trinitarian liturgy • Risk: Preached sermon series on why he had come to disbelieve in the Trinity. • Assumption: would have to resign • Good news: congregation agreed with him and voted to create the Book of Common Prayer According to the Use of King’s Chapel • Classic liberal religious move: reason & experience trump traditional/authority • Story: how “the 1st Episcopal Church in New England became the 1st Unitarian Church in the New World” (1785) James Freeman (1759 - 1835) “first avowed Unitarian minister in U.S.” King’s Chapel, Boston (first declared Unitarian church in the U.S. in 1785) 19 Correction to Single-origin of Unitarianism

• Earl Morse Wilbur: uniquely American faith (New England-centric)

• Conrad Wright - “indigenous to New England”

• David Robinson - “largely a New England affair” with qualification that English Unitarianism “not without its impact”

• Robert Schofield - Priestley’s influence was “anticlimax” and left no lasting impact on Unitarianism.

Penn State UP, 2007 Joseph Priestley (1733 –1804)

• born in 1733 to strict Calvinist family, but by his early twenties already experimenting in theology & science. • Experiment: leave a mint plant sealed in a jar with a candle. When the candle burned out, he knew that no more “wholesome air” would remain.” • Ten days later, “when he went to light a candle in the glass… ‘it burned perfectly well in it.’” It seemed “that plants were restoring something fundamental to the air, or they were creating the air itself” • awarded the Copley Medal (“the Nobel Prize of its day”), “by the Royal Society in London ‘on account of the many curious and useful Experiments contained in his observations on different kinds of Air.’” Joseph Priestley (1733 –1804)

• Introduction to his Observations on Air: “This rapid progress of knowledge…will I doubt not, be the means…of extirpating all error and prejudice, and of putting an end to all undue and usurped authority in the business of religion, as well as science…. The English hierarchy (if there be anything unsound in its constitution) has equal reason to tremble at an air pump, or an electrical machine)” [//: Servetus publishing theology and science together] • 1774 (two years after Priestley won the Copley medal) - when Theophilus Lindsey led first Unitarian worship service in England, among the 200 people in attendance were Benjamin Franklin and Joseph Priestley. Joseph Priestley (1733 –1804)

• Almost a decade later, Priestley published History of the Corruptions of Christianity criticizing later corruptions like the Trinity to restore a focus on Jesus’ ethics and teachings • Helped inspire The Jefferson Bible • Jefferson to Adams, “I have read [Priestley’s] Corruptions of Christianity, and Early Opinions of Jesus, over and over again; and I rest on them…as the basis of my own faith. These writings have never been answered.” Joseph Priestley (1733 –1804)

• 1791 Birmingham Riot led to Priestley’s move to U.S. in 1794 • Businesses, private dwellings, laboratory, and chapels belonging to Priestley and his fellow dissenters were all destroyed while the law looked on. • Riots sparked generally by preexisting political controversy and specifically second anniversary of the fall of the Bastille. Attacks on suspected liberalism and connections with France. • [French Revolution 1789-1799; Bastille a prison symbolic of Royal power.] • Context: riots in Birmingham in 1791, 1793, 1810, 1813, 1816, and 1837. Penn State University Press (1997/2004) 25 Jeffersonian Sidebar Liberal Turn in Religion (Then back to Priestley as bridge to Channing) 27 Forrest Church: Continuing Influence of Jefferson Bible

• In 1956, when his father, Frank Church, elected to U.S. Senate, presented with a copy of the Jefferson Bible on the day he was sworn in (custom since 1904) • When gave the book two years later to the ten-year-old Forrest, he quoted a passage from Jefferson’s letters: “It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read.” • HDS: master’s thesis on the Jefferson Bible. • [Discussion Question: How do we choose to introduce children to religion?] Thomas Jefferson

• Regular donor to St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Charlottesville (on vestry) and

• Also known to worship at Joseph Priestley’s Unitarian church in .

• Independent deist side: “I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know” (letters)

• UU forebear side: “The population of my neighborhood is too slender, and is too much divided into other sects to maintain any one preacher well. I must therefore be contented with being a Unitarian by myself.” Thomas Jefferson

• Reverence for TJ: President Kennedy at 1962 dinner in honor all living recipients of the Nobel Prize, “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”

• Name change: Thomas Jefferson District of the UUA to Southeast District

• Voted overwhelmingly at 2011 annual meeting. In 1997 and 2010, failed to reach two- thirds majority (2nd vote falling only three votes short)

• Celebrate: courageous stands for reason and religious liberty

• However: troubling views/(in)actions about American Indians and African Americans.

• Catalyst for name change: 1993 GA in Charlotte: “Thomas Jefferson Ball” in which attendees were “invited to attend in period costume.”

• African-American UU minister: wear “rags and chains” for their period costume?!

• Galvanized 18-year movement to change the name of Thomas Jefferson District. Thomas Jefferson

• American Indians: “I would never stop pursuing them while one of them remained on this side of the Mississippi”

• Slavery: owned more than 600 slaves over the course of his life: “Inherited 150 (from his father & father-in-law) and bought roughly 20: most of others were born into slavery on his lands. From 1774 to 1826, Jefferson tended to have about 200 slaves at any one time (the range ran from 165 to 225).”

• Early in his career: unable to pass law in Virginia to emancipate “all [slaves] born after a certain day.” Contingent upon “deportation at a proper age.”

• DNA tests: multiple children with the enslaved Sally Hemings, who was the half-sister of Jefferson’s wife. (Jefferson’s father-in-law had six biracial children with Sally Hemings’ mother of whom Sally was the youngest.)

• “In one case the resemblance was so close, that at some distance or in the dusk the slave, dressed in the same way, might be mistaken for Mr. Jefferson. But Jefferson never betrayed the least consciousness of the resemblance.” Letter (1822) “I rejoice that in this blessed country of free enquiry and belief, which has surrendered its creed and conscience to neither kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of only one God is reviving, and I trust that there is not a young man now living in the U.S. who will not die a Unitarian.” • // today? Correction to Single-origin of Unitarianism

• Priestley, An History of Early Opinions concerning Jesus Christ (1786): “In my opinion, those who are usually called Socinians (who consider Christ as being a mere man) are the only body of Christians who are properly entitled to the appellation of Unitarians” • Channing: conflict • “With Dr. Priestley, a good and great man, who had most to do in producing the late Unitarian movement, I have less sympathy than with many of the ‘Orthodox’” • “I have felt that [Socinian] doctrine… Penn State was a millstone around the neck of UP, 2007 Unitarianism in England.” Correction to Single-origin of Unitarianism

Liberals:

• denied association with English Unitarians (perceived as extremists and polemical).

• Content to remain within congregationalism…then hand forced with Unitarian Controversy

Socinians

• felt connection with the Arians/ Liberals. Penn State • more open/public UP, 2007 William Ellery Channing (1780-1842) • Emerson’s breakout book Nature (1836) at the end of Channing’s life. Emerson called him “our bishop” as a sign of esteem. • Emerson:“Dr. Channing, whilst he lived, was the star of the American church, and we then thought, if we do not still think, that he left no successor in the pulpit” • 100th anniversary birth: elaborate public celebrations throughout the U.S., in Great Britain, Ireland, and Europe. Enthusiastic tributes flowed from Asia. • Bellows: “Of Channing, we do not say that he was, but he is, a burning and shining light; and the season has not even reached its meridian, when the Church and the world are willing to rejoice in his light.” William Ellery Channing (1780-1842) • Whereas Emerson, George Ripley and others left their pulpits, Channing stayed for almost four decades (1803-1842) in the same Unitarian congregation, Federal Street Church in Boston (now known as Arlington Street Church). [//: Parker, Bellows]

• Age 23 when Federal Street ordained and installed him. Stayed the rest of his life

• Only five-feet tall, weighed only about 100 pounds, and was sickly and weak most of his life. “The Father’s Love for Persons” (1873???)

• “All Souls” UU congregations

• Channing: “I am a living member of the great Family of All Souls; and I cannot improve or suffer myself, without diffusing good or evil around me through an ever-enlarging sphere” The Sunday-School: Discourse before the SS Society

“The great end in religious instruction is not to stamp our minds upon the young, but to stir up their own;

Not to make them see with our eyes, But to look inquiringly and steadily with their own

Not to give them a definite amount of knowledge, but to inspire a fervent love of truth;

Not to form an outward regularity, but to touch inward springs.

Not to bind them by ineradicable prejudices to our particular sect or peculiar notions, But to prepare them for impartial, conscientious judging of whatever subjects may be offered to their decision;

Not to burden the memory, but to quicken and strengthen the power of thought;

Not to impose religion upon them in the form of arbitrary rules, but to awaken the conscience, the moral discernment.

In a word, the great end is to awaken the soul, to excite and cherish spiritual life.” William Ellery Channing (1780-1842) • Rejected the Trinity as irrational and unscriptural,

• Continued to think that both Jesus and Christianity were special and superior:

• “Jesus Christ is more than a man …existed before the world …literally came from heaven to save our race …still acts for our benefit, and is our intercessor with the Father” (Letter to Rev. Thatcher, 1815) William Ellery Channing (1780-1842)

• Negative epithet: Self-perception was that being “Unitarian” or “Anti-trinitarian” not the most interesting thing about them.

• God is love (as opposed to the orthodox/ Calvinist God of judgement and fear)

• We have free will and tremendous potential for doing good in the world (as opposed to orthodox/Calvinist doctrines of Original Sin and predestination),

• Jesus’ ethics and teachings (as opposed to beliefs about Jesus). 3 Phases of Unitarian Controversy

• 1805: Catalyst was election of Henry Ware as Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard

• 1835: Ended about thirty years later with Unitarians as a community by themselves. 3 Phases of Unitarian Controversy beginning, 1805 - 1815

• Dominating Figure: Jedidiah Morse (pictured)

• Dispute: “system of exclusion and denunciation in religion” (Channing)

• refusal to exchange pulpits

• exclusion from Christian fellowship

• boycotting of ecclesiastical councils (ordination exams, settle conflicts)

• Battling pamphlets and reviews 3 Phases of Unitarian Controversy What Was the Debate? Orthodox Perception - Authoritative doctrines, particularly in Westminster Confession, being denied (1646) Liberals Perception - Doctrinal differences of small consequence compared to what both sides agreed about: • Unity of God (differed on Trinity) • Humans accountable to God (differed on human nature) • Hope in divine mercy (differed on method of salvation) • Jesus came to deliver humanity from sin and consequences (disagreed how) 3 Phases of Unitarian Controversy What Was the Debate? Hollis bequest: “sound & orthodox principles” Orthodox Perception: implies Calvinist & requires assent to Westminster Confession Liberals Perception: “Generous Orthodoxy” Thomas Hollis: Baptist, whose minister rejected Westminster Confession as test of orthodoxy, claiming Bible as only authority. Explicitly specified: only article of belief to be required should be that, “the Bible is the only and most perfect rule of faith and practice” which should be interpreted “according to the best light that God should give him.” Hollis Chairholders & denomination (oldest endowed chair in U.S.)

• Edward Wigglesworth (1722-1765) - Calvinist

• Edward Wigglesworth (son; 1765-1792) - Calvinist

• David Tappan (1792-1803) - Calvinist

• Henry Ware (1805–1840) - Unitarian

• David Lyon (1882-1910) - Baptist

• James Ropes (1910-1933) - Trinitarian Congregationalist

• (1934-1954) - Quaker

• Amos Niven Wilder (1956-1963) - Congregationalist

• (1963-1980)-Unitarian

• (1980–2009) - Baptist

• Karen King (2009-present) - Episcopalian William Ellery Channing (1780-1842)

• Channing: “Can never suffer by admitting to christian fellowship men of irreproachable lives, whilst it has suffered most severely from that narrow and uncharitable spirit, which has excluded such men for imagined errors.” (Remarks on Rev. Worcester’s 2nd Letter)

• Worcester: “The God whom you worship is different from ours. The Savior whom you acknowledge is infinitely inferior to ours; the salvation which you preach is immensely diverse from that which we preach.” [Perceived liberal arguments as hypocrisy and concealment.]

• Differences began to be sharpened and language became increasingly polemical/ provocative. 3 Phases of Unitarian Controversy Pulpit Exchanges

• Advantage for minister: not having to prepare two sermons every Sunday for same folk. • Advantage for congregation: Diversity of voices with long/lifetime pastorates. • 1785-6: twenty-seven half-day exchanges with Salem-North Church • 1816-7: Northborough in own pulpit half the time. • 1817: In Charlestown, in six months following ordination, preached fifty times, half away from home. • 1822-3: In Salem, eleven different ministers preached for him when away. Preached at home 28/53 times. Discussion Question: Why don’t we exchange more today? Movement vs. “Cult of Personalist” [Pulpit-palooza] 3 Phases of Unitarian Controversy beginning, 1805 - 1815

• Harvard President Willard: “sooner cut off his hand than lift it up for an Arminian professor”…but then he died too

• Result: not only Ware’s election (33-23 vote), but also liberal successor as president.

• Andover Seminary established as alternative to Harvard two years later in 1807

Henry Ware, Jr. 3 Phases of Unitarian Controversy midpoint, 1815-1825

• Theological Discussion, culminating in Channing’s 1819 Baltimore sermon, “Unitarian Christianity” (claim on own terms vs. least charitable terms of opponents) • (Leonard) Woods at Andover Newton and (Henry) Ware debates over human nature [more than 800 pages!] • Not fresh insights: final stage of a confrontation that had been developing for two generations between “Arminian vs. Calvinism” and “Arian vs. Trinitarian.” • Even Channing’s sermon was not a break from tradition of Chauncy, Mayhew, and Gay. • Did change the ecclesiastical institutions (polity): “Standing Order”