History Of Unitarians And Universalists In U. S., Allen, 1894, X-lib., Fair

Description: Book is tight, solid; has a few pages of underlining, ex lib ,marks minimal. A good solid copy. FREE SHIPPING WIKIPEDIA: Unitarianism (from Latin unitas 'unity, oneness') is a nontrinitarian branch of Christianity.[1] Unitarian Christians affirm the unitary nature of God as the singular and unique creator of the universe,[1] believe that Jesus Christ was inspired by God in his moral teachings and that he is the savior of humankind,[1][2][3] but he is not equal to God himself. Accordingly, Unitarians reject the Ecumenical Councils and ecumenical creeds, and sit outside traditional, main-stream Christianity.[1][2][4] Unitarianism was established in order to restore "primitive Christianity before later corruptions set in".[5] Likewise, Unitarian Christians generally reject the doctrine of original sin.[6][7] The churchmanship of Unitarianism may include liberal denominations or Unitarian Christian denominations that are more conservative, with the latter being known as biblical Unitarians.[8][9] The birth of the Unitarian faith is proximate to the Radical Reformation, beginning almost simultaneously among the Protestant[10] Polish Brethren in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and in the Principality of Transylvania in the mid-16th century;[11] the first Unitarian Christian denomination known to have emerged during that time was the Unitarian Church of Transylvania, founded by the Unitarian preacher and theologian Ferenc Dávid (c. 1520–1579).[11] Among its adherents were a significant number of Italians who took refuge in Bohemia, Moravia, Poland, and Transylvania in order to escape from the religious persecution perpetrated against them by the Roman Catholic and Magisterial Protestant churches.[11][12][13][14] In the 17th century, significant repression in Poland led many Unitarians to flee or be killed for their faith.[12] From the 16th to 18th centuries, Unitarians in Britain often faced significant political persecution, including John Biddle, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Theophilus Lindsey. In England, the first Unitarian Church was established in 1774 on Essex Street, London,[15] where today's British Unitarian headquarters is still located.[16] As is typical of dissenters and nonconformists, Unitarianism does not constitute one single Christian denomination; rather, it refers to a collection of both existing and extinct Christian groups (whether historically related to each other or not) that share a common theological concept of the unitary nature of God. Unitarian Christian communities and churches have developed in Central Europe (mostly Romania and Hungary), Ireland, India, Jamaica, Japan, Canada, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In British America, different schools of Unitarian theology first spread in the New England Colonies and subsequently in the Mid-Atlantic States. The first official acceptance of the Unitarian faith on the part of a congregation in North America was by King's Chapel in Boston, from where James Freeman began teaching Unitarian doctrine in 1784 and was appointed rector. Later in 1785, he created a revised Unitarian Book of Common Prayer based on Lindsey's work.[17] Terminology Unitarianism is a proper noun and follows the same English usage as other Christian theologies that have developed within a religious group or denomination (such as Calvinism, Anabaptism, Adventism, Lutheranism, Wesleyanism, etc.).[18] The term existed shortly before it became the name of a distinct religious tradition, thus occasionally it is used as a common noun to describe any understanding of Jesus Christ that denies the doctrine of the Trinity or affirms the belief that God is only one person. In that case, it would be a Nontrinitarian belief system not necessarily associated with the Unitarian movement.[19][20][21] For example, the Unitarian movement has never accepted the Godhood of Jesus, and therefore does not include those nontrinitarian belief systems that do, such as Oneness Pentecostalism, United Pentecostal Church International, the True Jesus Church, and the writings of Michael Servetus (all of which maintain that Jesus is God as a single person). Recently, some religious groups have adopted the 19th-century term biblical unitarianism to distinguish their theologies from Unitarianism.[22] Unitarianism is a Christian theology and practice that precedes and is distinct from Unitarian Universalism.[23][24][25][26] In the 1890s the American Unitarian Association began to allow non-Christian and non-theistic churches and individuals to be part of their fellowship.[27] As a result, people who held no Unitarian belief began to be called Unitarians because they were members of churches that belonged to the American Unitarian Association. After several decades, the non-theistic members outnumbered the theological Unitarians.[28] HistoryMain article: History of Unitarianism Further information: Radical Reformation and Reformation in the Kingdom of Hungary This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Ferenc Dávid holding his speech at the Diet of Torda (1568), in the Kingdom of Hungary (today Turda, Romania). Painting by Aladár Körösfői-Kriesch (1896). Unitarianism, both as a theology and as a denominational family of churches, was defined and developed in Poland, Transylvania, England, Wales, India, Japan, Jamaica, the United States, and beyond in the 16th century through the present.[29][30] Although common beliefs existed among Unitarians in each of these regions, they initially grew independently from each other. Only later did they influence one another and accumulate more similarities.[31] The Ecclesia minor or Minor Reformed Church of Poland, better known today as the Polish Brethren, was born as the result of a controversy that started on January 22, 1556, when Piotr of Goniądz (Peter Gonesius), a Polish student, spoke out against the doctrine of the Trinity during the general synod of the Reformed (Calvinist) churches of Poland held in the village of Secemin.[32] After nine years of debate, in 1565, the anti-Trinitarians were excluded from the existing synod of the Polish Reformed Church (henceforth the Ecclesia maior) and they began to hold their own synods as the Ecclesia minor. Though frequently called "Arians" by those on the outside, the views of Fausto Sozzini (Faustus Socinus) became the standard in the church, and these doctrines were quite removed from Arianism. So important was Socinus to the formulation of their beliefs that those outside Poland usually referred to them as Socinians.[33] The Polish Brethren were disbanded in 1658 by the Sejm (Polish Parliament). They were ordered to convert to Roman Catholicism or leave Poland. Most of them went to Transylvania or Holland, where they embraced the name "Unitarian". Between 1665 and 1668 a grandson of Socinus, Andrzej Wiszowaty Sr., published Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum quos Unitarios vocant (Library of the Polish Brethren who are called Unitarians 4 vols. 1665–1669).[citation needed] The Unitarian Church in Transylvania was first recognized by the Edict of Torda, issued by the Transylvanian Diet under Prince John II Sigismund Zápolya (January 1568),[34] and was first led by Ferenc Dávid (a former Calvinist bishop, who had begun preaching the new doctrine in 1566). The term "Unitarian" first appeared as unitaria religio in a document of the Diet of Lécfalva, Transylvania, on 25 October 1600, though it was not widely used in Transylvania until 1638, when the formal recepta Unitaria Religio was published.[citation needed] The word Unitarian had been circulating in private letters in England, in reference to imported copies of such publications as the Library of the Polish Brethren who are called Unitarians (1665). Henry Hedworth was the first to use the word "Unitarian" in print in English (1673), and the word first appears in a title in Stephen Nye's A Brief History of the Unitarians, called also Socinians (1687). The movement gained popularity in England in the wake of the Enlightenment and began to become a formal denomination in 1774 when Theophilus Lindsey organised meetings with Joseph Priestley, founding the first avowedly Unitarian congregation in the country. This occurred at Essex Street Church in London.[15] Official toleration came in 1813. The first official acceptance of the Unitarian faith on the part of a congregation in America was by King's Chapel in Boston, which settled James Freeman (1759–1835) in 1782, and revised the Prayer Book into a mild Unitarian liturgy in 1785. In 1800, Joseph Stevens Buckminster became minister of the Brattle Street Church in Boston, where his brilliant sermons, literary activities, and academic attention to the German "New Criticism" helped shape the subsequent growth of Unitarianism in New England. Unitarian Henry Ware (1764–1845) was appointed as the Hollis professor of divinity at Harvard College, in 1805. Harvard Divinity School then shifted from its conservative roots to teach Unitarian theology (see Harvard and Unitarianism). Buckminster's close associate William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) was settled over the Federal Street Church in Boston, 1803, and in a few years he became the leader of the Unitarian movement. A theological battle with the Congregational Churches resulted in the formation of the American Unitarian Association at Boston in 1825. Certainly, the unitarian theology was being "adopted" by the Congregationalists from the 1820s onwards. This movement is also evident in England at this time.[35] The first school founded by the Unitarians in the United States was the Clinton Liberal Institute, in Clinton, Oneida County, New York, founded in 1831. Christian universalism is a school of Christian theology focused around the doctrine of universal reconciliation – the view that all human beings will ultimately be saved and restored to a right relationship with God. "Christian universalism" and "the belief or hope in the universal reconciliation through Christ" can be understood as synonyms.[1] Opponents of this school hold that eternal damnation is the ultimate fate of some or most people. The term Christian universalism was used in the Christian Intelligencer in the 1820s by Russell Streeter—a descendant of Adams Streeter who had founded one of the first Universalist Churches on September 14, 1785.[2][3][4] Some Christian universalists claim that in Early Christianity (prior to the 6th century), this was the most common interpretation of Christianity.[5] As a formal Christian denomination, Christian universalism originated in the late 18th century with the Universalist Church of America. There is no single denomination uniting Christian universalists, but a few denominations teach some of the principles of Christian universalism or are open to them. Instead, their membership has been consolidated with the American Unitarian Association into the Unitarian Universalist Association in 1961. Beliefs In his Plain Guide to Universalism, the universalist Thomas Wittemore wrote, "The sentiment by which Universalists are distinguished, is this: that at last every individual of the human race shall become holy and happy. This does not comprise the whole of their faith, but, merely that feature of it which is peculiar to them and by which they are distinguished from the rest of the world."[6] The remaining central beliefs of Christian universalism are compatible with Christianity in general: God is the loving parent of all people (see Love of God).Jesus Christ reveals the nature and character of God and is the spiritual leader of humankind (see New Covenant).Humankind is created with an immortal soul which death does not end—or a mortal soul that shall be resurrected and/or preserved by God—and which God will not wholly destroy.[7]Sin has negative consequences for the sinner either in this life or the afterlife. In 1899 the Universalist General Convention, later called the Universalist Church of America, adopted the Five Principles: the belief in God, belief in Jesus Christ, the immortality of the human soul, that sinful actions have consequence, and universal reconciliation.[8] Views on hell Christian Universalists disagree on whether or not hell exists. However, they do agree that if it does, the punishment there is corrective and remedial, and does not last forever.[9] Purgatorial hell and patristic universalism Purgatorial universalism was the belief of some of the early church fathers, especially Greek-speaking ones such as Clement of Alexandria,[10] Origen,[11] and Gregory of Nyssa.[12] It asserts that the unsaved will undergo hell, but that hell is remedial (neither everlasting nor purely retributive) according to key scriptures and that after purification or conversion all will enter heaven. Fourth-century Christian theologian and Bishop Diodorus of Tarsus wrote: "For the wicked there are punishments, not perpetual, however, lest the immortality prepared for them should be a disadvantage, but they are to be purified for a brief period according to the amount of malice in their works. They shall therefore suffer punishment for a short space, but immortal blessedness having no end awaits them ... the penalties to be inflicted for their many and grave sins are very far surpassed by the magnitude of the mercy to be shown to them."[13] Ilaria Ramelli, a scholar of the early Patristic history writes, "In the minds of some, universal salvation is a heretical idea that was imported into Christianity from pagan philosophies by Origen" (c. 185–253/54).[14] Ramelli argues that this view is mistaken and that Christian theologians were the first people to proclaim that all will be saved and that their reasons for doing so were rooted in their faith in Christ. Eastern Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart makes the case on the basis of the earliest Christian writings, theological tradition, scripture, and logic, that if God is the good creator of all, he is the savior of all, without fail.[15] In his book, That All Shall Be Saved, he calls opponents of the school, who believe that some or all people are condemned to eternal damnation, "infernalists".[16] Eternal hell in Christian history Christian Universalists assert that the doctrine of eternal Hell was not a part of Christ's teachings nor even the early church, and that it was added in.[17][self-published source?] According to theologian Edward Beecher, in the first four centuries there were six main theological schools and only one of them advocated the idea of eternal hell.[18] Origins of the idea of hell as eternal Christian universalists point towards mistranslations of the Greek word αιών (aion – an epoch of time), as giving rise to the idea of eternal hell.[19] Dr. Ken Vincent writes "When it (aion) was translated into Latin Vulgate, aion became aeternam which means 'eternal'." He also states that the first written record of the idea of an eternal hell comes from Tertullian, who wrote in Latin. The second major source of the idea of hell as eternal was the 4th-century theologian Augustine. According to author Steve Gregg, it was Tertullian's writings, plus Augustine's views and writings on eternal hell, which "overwhelmed" the other views of a temporary hell. First Augustine's views of hell were accepted in the early Latin Church, Up until the Reformation Augustine's view of hell as eternal was not questioned.[20] Mistranslation of the Greek word aion About the word aion as having connotations of "age" or "temporal", the 19th-century theologian Marvin Vincent wrote: Aion, transliterated aeon, is a period of longer or shorter duration, having a beginning and an end, and complete in itself. Aristotle (peri ouranou, i. 9,15) says: "The period which includes the whole time of one's life is called the aeon of each one." Hence it often means the life of a man, as in Homer, where one's life (aion) is said to leave him or to consume away (Iliad v. 685; Odyssey v. 160). It is not, however, limited to human life; it signifies any period in the course of events, as the period or age before Christ; the period of the millennium; the mythological period before the beginnings of history. The adjective aionios in like manner carries the idea of time. Neither the noun nor the adjective, in themselves, carry the sense of endless or everlasting. They may acquire that sense by their connotation, as, on the other hand, aidios, which means everlasting, has its meaning limited to a given point of time in Jude 6. Aionios means enduring through or pertaining to a period of time. Both the noun and the adjective are applied to limited periods. Words which are habitually applied to things temporal or material cannot carry in themselves the sense of endlessness. Even when applied to God, we are not forced to render aionios everlasting. Of course the life of God is endless; but the question is whether, in describing God as aionios, it was intended to describe the duration of his being, or whether some different and larger idea was not contemplated.[21] Arguments against the idea of eternal hell Author Thomas Talbott states that if one believes in the idea of eternal hell or that some souls will be destroyed, one must either let go of the idea that it is God's wish and desire to save all beings, or accept the idea that God wants to, but will not "successfully accomplish his will and satisfy his own desire in this matter".[22] Author David Burnfield defends the postmortem view[23] that God continues to evangelize to people even after they die (1 Chronicles 16:34; Isaiah 9:2; Romans 8:35–39; Ephesians 4:8–9; 1 Peter 3:18–20; 4:6). HistorySee also: History of Christian universalism According to the New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (1912), over the first five hundred years of Christian history there are records of at least six theological schools: four of these schools were Universalist (one each in Alexandria, Antioch, Caesarea, and Edessa–Nisibis), one taught conditional immortality (in Ephesus), and the last taught eternal Hell (in Carthage or Rome). However, the Encyclopedia also notes that most contemporary scholars would take issue with classifying these early schools as Universalist.[24][unreliable source?] An important figure in early American Christian Universalism was George de Benneville, a French Huguenot preacher and physician who was imprisoned for advocating Universalism and later emigrated to Pennsylvania where he continued preaching on the subject. De Benneville was noted for his friendly and respectful relationship with Native Americans and his pluralistic and multicultural view of spiritual truth which was well ahead of his time. One of his most significant accomplishments was helping to produce the Sauer Bible, the first German language Bible printed in America. In this Bible version, passages teaching universal reconciliation were marked in boldface.[25] Other significant early modern Christian Universalist leaders include Elhanan Winchester, a Baptist preacher who wrote several books promoting the universal salvation of all souls after a period in Purgatory, who founded the first Universalist church in Philadelphia, and founded a church that ministered to enslaved African Americans in South Carolina;[26][27] Hosea Ballou, a Universalist preacher and writer in New England;[28] and Hannah Whitall Smith, a writer and evangelist from a Quaker background who was active in the Holiness movement as well as the women's suffrage and temperance movements.[29] The Unity School of Christianity, founded in 1889 by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, has taught some Universalist beliefs such as God's total goodness, the divine nature of human beings, and the rejection of the traditional Christian belief that God condemns people to Hell.[30]

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