II.

History

At the time of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, theologians all over Europe began questioning many doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, including the doctrine of the Trinity. According to this doctrine, God exists in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—who are united in one being. However, only Poland and the principality of Transylvania tolerated Unitarian belief—that is, belief that God is one person.

Unitarian refugees, primarily from Italy, found they were welcomed in Poland, and from 1548 to 1574 they were able to form a separate church, which flourished until the mid-17th century. In Transylvania the preacher to King John Sigismund, who ruled from 1540 to 1571, converted to Unitarianism because he could find no basis in the Bible for the doctrine of the Trinity. Elsewhere in Europe Unitarians were regarded as heretics for claiming there was no basis for the worship of Jesus Christ and preaching that people should follow his teachings rather than worship him as a divinity.

In England, in 1548, a priest named John Ashton was accused of Arianism—in effect, of denying the equal divinity of the three persons of the Trinity. Ashton escaped death only by recantation; during the next half-century a few others suffered martyrdom on similar charges. Socinianism, named for the Italian Polish Unitarian leader, Fausto Socinus (see Socinus), exercised considerable influence in England during the reign of King James I (1603-1625). Thereafter, the Unitarians (with the exception of a society formed in London by John Biddle, which did not survive its founder) had no organized existence. The Toleration Act, passed in 1689, failed to grant religious rights to Unitarians. The first Unitarian congregation in England, the Essex Street Chapel, was founded in London in 1774 by Theophilus Lindsey, a former Anglican clergyman. Later Unitarian leaders in England included Joseph Priestley and James Martineau. In 1813 the Unitarians were legally classed in England with other dissenters—groups that dissented from the national church, the Church of England—thereby gaining certain rights.

In the United States Unitarianism grew out of a split among the Congregationalist clergy in New England. The more liberal branch of the clergy reacted against the Calvinist doctrines of unconditional predestination and original sin. These doctrines dominated American Protestantism, especially during the Great Awakening, a religious revival that swept the New England colonies in the 1740s. Congregationalist clergyman Charles Chauncy condemned the emotionalism of the Great Awakening and argued against predestination and original sin. Chauncy’s belief—and the beliefs of others—in free will and in God’s benevolence toward those who lead righteous lives paved the way for Unitarianism.

In 1796 King’s Chapel in Boston officially adopted Unitarianism and left the Episcopal Church. By imperceptible degrees many of the New England churches became Unitarian, but not until 1815 did the name begin to be much used. In 1819 Congregational minister William Ellery Channing delivered a sermon titled “Unitarian Christianity” that formulated the basic principles of Unitarianism. In the early decades of the 19th century, 120 Congregational churches in New England adopted Unitarian principles. Most important in shaping American Unitarianism during the 19th century was the transcendentalist movement (see Transcendentalism). Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Parker, and other transcendentalists influenced the direction of Unitarianism toward social issues by vigorously championing the abolition of slavery and other social reforms.

The American Unitarian Association was formed in 1825; a national conference was added in 1865. Local churches retained their independence, in accordance with Congregational polity. In 1961 the association joined with the Universalist Church of America to form the Unitarian Universalist Association, with headquarters in Boston, Masschusetts. See Universalism.