Unitarianism and Universalism. The Unitarian Universalist Association was formed in 1961 by the union of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America. The two denominations shared a liberal approach to religion and ethics, but each has its own history. Though both originated in
New England, Unitarianism began among the upper and middle classes of urban areas along the seacoast, while early Universalism was more rural and appealed to the common people.
The American Unitarian Association was founded in 1825 as the outcome of prolonged theological controversy within the Congregational church of Massachusetts. Traditionally, the Congregationalists had been Calvinists, endorsing belief in original sin and the predestination of God's elect to salvation. By the mid–eighteenth century, however, a liberal wing of Congregationalism had emerged, affirming the freedom of the will. By the early nineteenth century, these liberals came to reject the deity of Jesus Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity and therefore were called Unitarians. Separation of the Unitarians from the orthodox Calvinists was complicated by the status of Congregationalism as the established church of Massachusetts until 1833. The Unitarians' most prominent leader during this formative era was William Ellery
Channing.
Universalism, also a protest against Calvinism, arose outside the established church. While the Unitarian protest focused on the Calvinist doctrine of original sin, the Universalists objected to the doctrine that some were elected by God to salvation and others to eternal damnation. Universalists acquired their name from their insistence that all people would eventually be saved. Their most important early leader was Hosea Ballou (1771–1852), pastor of the Second Universalist Society in
Boston and editor of the denomination's periodical.
Although both sects remained small, Unitarianism became the more intellectually influential. In the split of the Congregational establishment, the Unitarians had gained control of Harvard University and its divinity school. They counted among their members many leaders of American literature, education, and science. The Universalists founded Tufts University.
In the late twentieth century, while debating the extent to which they should retain their historically Christian identity, Unitarians and Universalists maintained their emphasis on the dignity of humanity and participated prominently in radical and reform politics.
See also
Antebellum Era;
Emerson, Ralph Waldo;
Protestantism;
Religion;
Romantic Movement;
Transcendentalism.
Bibliography
David Robinson , The Unitarians and the Universalists, 1985.
Daniel Walker Howe
