Charles Chauncy

Charles Chauncy (1705-87), American Congregationalist clergyman, who was prominent in the liberalization of American Puritanism and helped prepare the way for Unitarianism.

Born in Boston, Chauncy graduated from Harvard College in 1721 and served as minister of the First Church in Boston from 1727 until his death. When the religious revival known as the Great Awakening swept the colonies in the 1740s, he condemned its emotionalism in letters and pamphlets and in a full-length book, Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England (1743).

Chauncy's later religious writings reveal a clear divergence from Calvinistic doctrines of total depravity, election, and predestination. Instead, he argued that God will assist those who sincerely strive to lead a righteous life and, indeed, that ultimately all souls will be saved (see Universalism). Chauncy has been described as second only to Jonathan Edwards in his influence on religion in colonial New England.