Unitarians

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unitarians deny the deity of Christ. They believe that only the Father should be worshipped, but their attitude to Jesus varies, reflecting their application of reasoned individual judgement to the Bible, and their reluctance to formulate creeds. Their views developed with the Reformation, notably through Michael Servetus (1511–53), the physician burned in Geneva, Bernardino Ochino (1487–1564), the friar turned Lutheran whom Cranmer invited to England in 1547, and Lelio and Fausto Sozzini. By the 17th cent. they had communities in Poland, Hungary, and England, where John Biddle's (1615–62) XII Arguments qualify him as the father of English unitarianism. They grew congregationally in the 18th cent. from presbyterian, independent, and general baptist churches, although avowed unitarianism only became legal in 1813. Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) and Theophilus Lindsey (1723–1808) were that century's outstanding unitarians; the former had been an independent and the latter an Anglican clergyman. With no co-ordinating body before the British and Foreign Unitarian Association of 1825, superseded in 1928 by the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, they none the less produced a distinctive social, political, and intellectual culture, represented by such families as the Martineaus, Chamberlains, Wicksteeds, and Holts, and such institutions as Manchester College, Oxford. In Scotland, where Thomas Aikenhead's mockery of the trinity led to Britain's last execution for blasphemy (1697), their corporate existence dates from 1776; in Ireland their strength lies with the non-subscribing presbyterians originating in the early 18th cent. and reinforced after 1829.

Clyde Binfield

Unitarianism. A religious movement connected with Christianity. Unitarians are those who reject the Trinitarian understanding of God. Although there are many antecedents, the specific point of origin for the movement is usually taken to be the work of Servetus, and of the Sozzinis (i.e. Socinianism). The first Unitarian congregation in England was formed in 1774, and in the USA in 1782, but the movement did not become fully organized until the Baltimore sermon of W. E. Channing in 1819, on ‘Unitarian Christianity’. The American Unitarian Association was founded in 1825. In 1961, the Unitarians merged with the Universalists, the joint movement becoming known as the Unitarian Universalist Association. It is characterized by an emphasis on members seeking truth out of human experience, not out of allegiance to creeds or doctrines. There is no hierarchical control, each congregation being self-governing. There are more than a thousand congregations, mainly in the USA and Canada.

unitarians deny the deity of Christ. They believe that only the Father should be worshipped, but their attitude to Jesus varies, reflecting their application of reasoned individual judgement to the Bible, and their reluctance to formulate creeds. Their views developed with the Reformation, notably through Michael Servetus (1511–53), the physician burned in Geneva. By the 17th cent. they had communities in Poland, Hungary, and England, where John Biddle's (1615–62) XII Arguments qualify him as the father of English unitarianism. With no co‐ordinating body before the British and Foreign Unitarian Association of 1825, they none the less produced a distinctive social, political, and intellectual culture, represented by such families as the Martineaus, Chamberlains, Wicksteeds, and Holts.

U·ni·tar·i·an / ˌyoōniˈte(ə)rēən/ • n. Theol. a person, esp. a Christian, who asserts the unity of God and rejects the doctrine of the Trinity. ∎  a member of a church or religious body maintaining this belief and typically rejecting formal dogma in favor of a rationalist and inclusivist approach to belief. • adj. of or relating to the Unitarians. DERIVATIVES: U·ni·tar·i·an·ism / -ˌnizəm/ n.

Unitarianism Version of Christianity that denies the Trinity, accepts God as the father, and rejects the divinity of Jesus Christ. Originally considered a heresy, it flourished in Poland in the 16th century. John Biddle (1615–62) first preached Unitarianism in England in the 1640s. Unitarianism in the 20th century has been identified with liberal politics and the movement for world peace; it has taken an increasingly humanist point of view.

Unitarians. Arab. al-Muwaḥḥidūn can be translated as ‘the Unitarians’, and it occurs particularly, in Islam, in Ismāʿīlī and Sūfī movements, where the unity of Being is stressed, with human (or sometimes all) appearances being manifestations of that one Being. See also Almohads in Ibn Tumart; Druzes.

Unitarian a person, especially a Christian, who asserts the unity of God and rejects the doctrine of the Trinity; a member of a Church or religious body maintaining this belief and typically rejecting formal dogma in favour of a rationalist and inclusivist approach to belief.

unitarian one who affirms the unipersonality of the Godhead. XVII. f. modL. ūnitārius, f. L. ūnitās UNITY; see -ARIAN.

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