A new feature has been added to this blog. If you look to the right-hand side of the page, you will find a blogroll of blogs that deal with the history of Unitarianism, Universalism, and related subjects. This blogroll is the result of discussions on the Unitarian Universalist Historical Society listserve. Hopefully a more comprehensive [...]
This is another refreshed (i.e. rewritten and reposted) post from the first version of Transient and Permanent, looking once again at the classical roots of Unitarianism. There probably aren’t many UUs who aren’t aware of Ralph Waldo Emerson; but on the other hand, there also aren’t that many who’ve made it all the way [...]
This is a refreshed version of a post that ran on the original version of Transient and Permanent, part of a series that looked at classic sources in Unitarianism. For some students of UU history these are probably a bit tired at this point, but there are still so many UUs unaware of them [...]
OK, running off to class, going to have to make this a quick one. The issue of presidents and moderators of the UUA came up yesterday, and it was pointed out that the president is a paid position that has always been occupied by ministers. So here’s the question, which has only a few possible [...]
“Consider, further, how is it possible for good men to whom the happiness of heaven is promised, to have any enjoyment of that happiness themselves, if those for whom they cannot but have the strongest affection, especially their children and other near relations and friends, be, I do not say consigned to everlasting torments, but [...]
Reading through works on Buddhism by 19th century Unitarians and their liberal religious kin is a humbling exercise. Their hermeneutical tunnel vision is at times painful to behold, particularly because it raises obvious doubts about our own understandings. The only consolation can be that in the modern academy we at least attempt a [...]
The post-bellum period in 19th century America saw the rise of several important strands of religious liberalism. For Unitarian-Universalists, the most significant is the Free Religious Association, largely founded and run by Unitarians. It was a fascinating experiment with total freedom in religion, one that was not entirely successful.
Every association is [...]
Conrad Wright’s 1970 collection of essays The Liberal Christians is a classic of American church history, especially for those of us who work on the more liberal streams of the tradition. Wright is a major historian of Unitarianism in particular, and it is with the Unitarians that The Liberal Christians is concerned. Perhaps [...]
William Ellery Channing was one of the founding fathers of American Unitarianism, and is among the three or four most important figures in the history of Unitarian-Universalism. His nephew, the Unitarian minister William Henry Channing, published a large biography of W.E. Channing in 1880 on the centenary of his birth. Among the interesting [...]
Religious liberals of the past often argued that they were returning Christianity to the Bible after it had been corrupted by non-Biblical dogmas. They were keen to point out how much of Christianity has no clear Biblical sanction, not because they mocked Christianity, but because they respected the Bible and wanted to save it [...]
