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Unitarianism is the belief in the single personality of God, in contrast to the doctrine of the Trinity (three persons in one God).See "The Blessed Trinity," Catholic Encyclopedia, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15047a.htm It is the philosophy upon which the modern Unitarian movement was based, and, according to its proponents, is the original form of Christianity. Unitarian Christians believe in the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, as found in the New Testament and other early Christian writings, and hold him up as an exemplar. Adhering to strict monotheism, they maintain that Jesus was a great man and a prophet of God, perhaps even a supernatural being, but not God himself. Unitarians believe in the moral authority, but not necessarily the divinity, of Jesus. They do not pray to Jesus. Their theology is thus distinguishable from the theology of Catholic, Orthodox, mainline Protestant, and other Christian denominations, who hold the Trinity doctrine as a core belief.
Some Evangelicals hold a unitarian theology in that they see God as a single person, and are thus antitrinitarian, but because they perceive Jesus to be God himself do not fall into the general theology discussed here, which sees Jesus as subordinate to God and a finite being. Instead see: Sabellianism, Oneness theology, Oneness Pentecostalism, Monarchianism, Binitarianism.
While there are both religiously liberal and religiously conservative unitarians, the name "Unitarian" is most commonly associated with the liberal branch of this theology.
Conservative (Biblical or Evangelical) unitarians strictly adhere to the principle of sola scriptura and their belief that the Bible is both inspired and inerrant and uphold "fundamentals" of belief. This version of unitarianism is more commonly called Nontrinitarianism, rather than Unitarianism.
Unitarians sum up their faith as "the religion of Jesus, not a religion about Jesus." Historically, they have encouraged non-dogmatic views of God, Jesus, the world and purpose of life as revealed through reason, scholarship, science, philosophy, scripture and other prophets and religions. They believe that reason and belief are complementary and that religion and science can co-exist and guide them in their understanding of nature and God. They also do not enforce belief in creeds or dogmatic formulas. Although there is flexibility in the nuances of belief or basic truths for the individual Unitarian Christian, general principles of faith have been recognized as a way to bind the group in some commonality. Adherents generally accept religious pluralism and find value in all teachings, but remain committed to their core belief in Christ\'s teachings. Liberal Unitarians value a secular society in which government stays out of religious affairs.
Unitarians are not to be confused with members of the Unity Church or the Uniting Church in Australia.
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The term "Unitarian" has been applied both to those who hold a Unitarian theological belief and to those who belong to a Unitarian church. A hundred years ago, this would not have made much of a difference, but today it is a distinction that needs to be made.
Unitarian theology is distinguishable from the belief system of modern Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist churches and fellowships in several countries. This is because over time, some Unitarians and many Unitarian Universalists have moved away from the traditional Christian roots of Unitarianism. For example, in the 1890s the American Unitarian Association began to allow non-Christian and non-theistic churches and individuals to be part of their fellowship. As a result, people who held no Unitarian belief began to be called "Unitarians," simply because they were members of churches that belonged to the American Unitarian Association. After several decades, the non-theistic members outnumbered the theological Unitarians.See the results of a recent poll on theological self-identity among UUs in the Engaging Our Theological Diversity report, pp. 70–72. A similar, though proportionally much smaller, phenomenon has taken place in the Unitarian churches in the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, and other countries, which remain more theologically based.
The remainder of this article includes information about Unitarianism as a theology and about the development of theologically Unitarian churches in several countries around the world. For a more specific discussion of Unitarianism as it evolved into a secular liberal philosophy in the United States and elsewhere in more recent times, see Unitarian Universalism, Canadian Unitarian Council, General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, and International Council of Unitarians and Universalists.
Unitarianism can very loosely be divided into two categories. Both maintain that God is one being and one "person"—the one Jesus called "Our Father". Jesus is the (or a) Son of God, but generally not God himself. However, they differ as to particulars.
See main article: History of Unitarianism
Today\'s conservative (Biblical or evangelical) unitarian Christians generally hold similar beliefs to most other evangelical Christians, apart from their rejection of the Trinity doctrine.
Today\'s liberal Unitarian Christians, who more commonly go by the name "Unitarian Christian" than conservative unitarians do, generally do not believe in the Virgin Birth, the deity of Christ, or Biblical inerrancy.
They do not have a creed or formal statements of faith that must be believed in its entirety or used as a test of character in order to be accepted into fellowship with other Unitarian Christians. However, they have set out some basic principles that distinguish their faith from other Christian groups.
Although there is no specific authority on these principles, the following represent the most generally accepted:
Most Unitarian Christians would say that Jesus of Nazareth and his followers and disciples would today be defined as Unitarian Christians, and that Unitarian Christianity is the form of Christianity most closely following the direct teachings of Jesus. However, Unitarian Christians respect the beliefs of others and do not believe that the Unitarian Christian way is the only way to follow God\'s will.
Unitarian Christians believe Jesus did not claim to be God nor did his teachings hint at his divinity or the existence of a triune God. Unitarian Christians generally do not believe that Jesus was conceived in the womb of a virgin or performed miracles to the extent reported in the Gospels. Unitarian Christians give the most weight regarding the accounts of Jesus, his character, and his life to the four canonical Gospels (Mark, Mathew, Luke, and John). Most also accept other sources of information about Jesus including newly discovered Gospels that were not included in the original canon of the Bible (e.g. Nag Hammadi Library).
Unitarian Christians reject the doctrine of some Christian denominations that God chooses to redeem or save only those certain individuals that accept the creeds of, or affiliate with a specific Church or religion, from a common ruin or corruption of the mass of humanity. They generally do not believe that God merely demands belief in certain principles of faith and that no good works in life are required to be morally righteous.
Most contemporary Unitarian Christians believe that the mixing of political activism and religious fellowship is not an acceptable practice. Unitarian Christians believe that one\'s personal moral convictions will guide one\'s political activities and a secular society is the most viable, just, and fair society.
There are a number of associations, congregations and publications that can be considered as actively involved in the preservation and development of the distinct tradition known as Unitarian Christianity - started by Francis David in 1565.
Many American Unitarian Christians identify primarily with the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship, a sub-group of the Unitarian Universalist Association, which is the result of the consolidation of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America, and is located in the United States. In addition many Unitarian Christian groups are affiliated with the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists.
Some organizations, such as the American Unitarian Conference, are independent of the UUA and the ICUU. Others, such as Bét Dávid Unitarian Association, have recently become associated with the ICUU. They tend to contain a majority membership who express specifically Unitarian Christian beliefs as opposed to the religious pluralism of the UUA - nevertheless they remain liberal, open-minded and inclusive communities.
The Unitarian Christian Association (UK) and Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship (USA) maintain formal links with their national Unitarian-Universalist movements but again, have a membership that is majority Christian. This can also be said of numerous local congregations.
A final point to note is the Unitarian Church in Hungary and the Transylvanian Unitarian Church are affiliated with the ICUU but continue with the historical Unitarian Christian tradition established by Francis David. The Unitarian churches in Hungary and Transylvania are structured and organized along a more traditional church hierarchy that includes the election by the Synod of a national Bishop who serves as superintendent of the Church.
The majority of Unitarian Christian publications are sponsored by an organization and published specifically for their membership. They generally do not serve as a tool for missionary work or encouraging conversions.
Atherton, Lancashire, England (Chowbent) has long been a hot-bed of the Unitarian movement, its first Chapel being erected in 1645. This was demolished by the Lord of the Manor (a Royalist) for their support of Cromwell. [1]
In recent years there has been a relatively small, yet significant, growth in groups with a specifically Unitarian Christian outlook and ethos. The Congregazione Italiana Cristiana Unitariana (Italy) and Bét Dávid Unitarian Association (Norway) are two examples of this trend. There are also reports of the development of Unitarian Christian groups in African countries such as Burundi. Some of these groups are joining the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists, either as Emerging Groups or as Associates, as they gain a solid organizational structure.
There is a noticeable presence of Unitarian Christians on the internet, and online networks have been growing steadily for some time attracting members from across the world. Many Unitarian Christians who join these networks do not have a congregation in their locality and so rely on the internet as the main contact with their fellow believers.
As a tradition founded by dissenters from mainstream Christian churches, and traditionally denounced as heretics, it is difficult to see the emergence of groups in areas dominated by existing Christian denominations.
Despite the close friendship and shared heritage that exists between adherents to Unitarian Universalism and Unitarian Christianity, there is an element within Unitarian Universalism that opposes specifically Unitarian Christian groups, believing them to be exclusive and intolerant of non-Christian thought. Likewise, some Unitarian Christians also believe that Unitarian Universalists are intolerant of Christian thought and tend to marginalize Christians.
The American Unitarian Conference is open to non-Christian Unitarians - being particularly popular with non-Christian theists and deists. In addition, the Bét Dávid Unitarian Association (Norway) has forged positive and mutual friendships with Jewish groups.
At a local level, many Unitarian Christian groups - and individual Unitarian Christians - have links with tolerant congregations affiliated with the United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, Anglican Church and Unity Church. Indeed, some argue they feel more at home within these denominations than Unitarian-Universalism. A small proportion of Unitarian Christians also have links with Progressive Christianity.
An important point to note is the shared belief that exists between Unitarian Christians and their Muslim, Jewish and Sikh counterparts, who all adhere to strict monotheism - this common ground may form the basis of future friendship.
Unitarian Christians do not currently have any formal links with the \'Biblical Unitarian\' movements in the United States - the two communities should be regarded as separate and distinct.
In summary, it could be argued that Unitarian Christianity - unlike other Christian denominations - is not organized globally according to any formal structure or through any specifically Unitarian Christian body. Instead, it is a devolved, loosely affiliated movement with formal and informal ties to a number of other denominations. Whether it could be considered to even constitute a movement, or be more accurately described as a diaspora, is a topic for debate.
When Unitarianism developed in the 1600s during the Protestant era of the evolution of the Christian church, the strongholds in Transylvania, Poland (which practically disappeared after 1640) and eventually Britain and the North Eastern parts of the United States were firmly in the congregational tradition in the English-speaking countries. In the Hungarian-speaking territories it adopted a governance system that combined the Synodal and Episcopal models.
For those churches under the congregational model, each church governed itself independently of a hierarchical authority. These small congregations did belong, however, to more formal associations of churches. The American Unitarian Association, formed in 1825, was one of these. Later, in 1961, the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America merged to form the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), which is the largest organization of Unitarians in the US. The UUA is no longer an explicitly Christian organization and does not focus exclusively on the core teachings of Jesus Christ or Christianity.
Several Unitarian organizations still promote Christianity as their central theme including the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship (UUCF, an affiliate of the UUA), the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (GAUFCC) of the United Kingdom, and the Unitarian Christian Association (UCA, an affiliate of the GAUFCC).
In the US, the newest organization promoting a return to the theistic roots of Unitarianism is the American Unitarian Conference (AUC), formed in 2000. The AUC\'s stated goal is to formulate and promote classical Unitarian-based, unifying religious convictions, which balance the needs of members with a practical approach to inclusion and progressive free thought.
The adoption of Unitarian belief almost always entails severance of identification with "Christianity" as it is understood by the Nicene-Chalcedonian churches (Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and most Protestants). Unitarianism is outside of the fellowship of these traditions. Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants of various stripes insist on trinitarian belief as an essential of Christianity, and basic to a group\'s continuity of identity with the historical Christian faith.
Occasionally, especially in Protestant history, traditionally trinitarian groups grow friendly to, or incorporate, unitarianism. Friendliness toward unitarianism has sometimes gone hand-in-hand with anti-Catholicism. In some cases non-trinitarian or unitarian belief has been adopted by some, and tolerated in Christian churches as a "non-essential". This was the case in the English Presbyterian Church, and in the Congregational Church in New England late in the 18th century. The Restoration Movement also attempted to forge a compatible relation between trinitarians and unitarians, as did the Seventh Day Baptists and various Adventists. The unitarian tendency in these last-mentioned groups is probably due to the in-built skepticism about Catholic history as a reliable guide to the Christian tradition of interpretation.
In other cases, this openness to unitarianism within traditionally trinitarian churches has been inspired by a very broad ecumenical motive. Modern liberal Protestant denominations are often accused by trinitarians within their ranks, and critics outside, of being indifferent to the doctrine, and therefore self-isolated from their respective trinitarian pasts and heritage. In some cases, it is charged that these trinitarian denominations are no longer Christian, because of their toleration of unitarian belief among their teachers, and in their seminaries.
| The following religious groups are often confused with one another: Unification Church | Unity Church | Universal Life Church | Unitarian Universalist Association | Canadian Unitarian Council United and uniting churches: Churches Uniting in Christ | United Church of Canada | |
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