The Canon · No. 077
Unitarianism
Unitarian Universalism; Socinianism
1565 CE – present · Abrahamic · Living · Transylvania, Poland, UK, US
VI. REFORMATION & EARLY MODERN — 1500 – 1800
How many
Roughly 800,000 worldwide; about 150,000 in the Unitarian Universalist Association in the US, and a long-established Hungarian-speaking church in Transylvania.
Who began it
Ferenc Dávid (c.1520–1579) in Transylvania; Fausto Sozzini (Socinus) in Poland. Michael Servetus, burned in 1553, is the movement's proto-martyr.
What it is for
To follow reason and conscience in religion, beginning with the conviction that the Trinity is not in the Bible.
What it worships
One God, undivided. Jesus is honoured as teacher and exemplar, not worshipped as God. Contemporary Unitarian Universalism includes members who are humanist, pagan, Buddhist or non-theist, so worship in any traditional sense is no longer a defining feature.
What it holds
Antitrinitarian from the start. Rejection of original sin, predestination, substitutionary atonement and eternal hell. Human reason and conscience as religious authorities alongside or above scripture. Merged in 1961 with Universalism, which taught that God saves everyone without exception. Modern UUism holds no creed at all and instead affirms shared principles including the inherent worth and dignity of every person and a free and responsible search for truth.
What it does
Congregational worship without required creed; congregational polity; strong commitment to social justice, which in practice is the tradition's centre of gravity; child dedication rather than baptism in most congregations.
After death
Historically universal salvation — the Universalist position that a loving God cannot damn anyone eternally, argued from scripture by Hosea Ballou and others. Contemporary UUs hold a wide range of views including none; the tradition treats the question as open.
Its texts
No binding scripture. Historic documents: the Racovian Catechism (1605); Channing's Unitarian Christianity (1819); the UUA Principles and Sources.
Its branches
Unitarian Universalist Association (US); General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (UK); the Hungarian Unitarian Church in Transylvania, which remains explicitly Christian.
Of note
A useful test case for where a religion's boundary lies. American UUism has kept the institution, the buildings and the ethics while making belief in God optional, which raises the question of what exactly a denomination is.
Its timeline
- 1553 CE Servetus burned at Geneva.
- <strong>1568 CE</strong> The Edict of Torda, issued by the Unitarian king John Sigismund of Transylvania at Dávid's urging, grants freedom of preaching to Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist and Unitarian alike — the first act of broad religious toleration in Europe.
- 1579 CE Dávid dies in prison for refusing to worship Christ.
- 1605 CE Racovian Catechism published in Poland.
- 1658 CE The Polish Brethren are expelled from Poland.
- 1774, 1785 CE First Unitarian congregations in London and in Boston.
- 1819 CE William Ellery Channing's Baltimore sermon defines American Unitarianism; New England Congregationalism splits.
- 1836–60s CE Transcendentalism — Emerson, Thoreau, Theodore Parker — emerges from and then criticises Unitarianism for being too tame.
- 1863 CE Olympia Brown becomes the first woman ordained by a full denomination in the United States (Universalist).
- 1961 CE Unitarians and Universalists merge into the UUA.
- 1965 CE James Reeb, a Unitarian minister, is beaten to death in Selma.
- 1970 CE Among the first denominations to affirm gay and lesbian members; performs same-sex unions from the 1980s.
Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.