The Encyclopedia of World Religions

458 S Unitarianism

Unitarian churches appeared in England and the United States in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, largely as an outgrowth of, and in reac tion against, Calvinist ( see C ALVIN , John) P URITAN ISM . In North America, Unitarianism arose chiefly in New England, where the Puritan heritage was strong. The new outlook initially retained the Calvinist Creator-God and the Puritan’s stress on the importance of a good life while rejecting Calvinism’s gloomy notions of human depravity and of God’s “irrational” election of only some to salvation. The great Boston preacher William Ellery Channing (1780–1842), often considered the theologian and father of American Unitarian ism, proclaimed a rational Christianity based on the fatherhood of God, the essential goodness of humans despite SIN , and the example of Jesus as a perfect human being to be emulated. A number of once-Calvinist churches, largely in eastern Mas sachusetts, adopted this kind of theology. In 1825 they formed the American Unitarian Association as a separate denomination. Across the Atlantic, a British Unitarian Association was formed on the same day. As the 19th century advanced, Unitarianism in America spread westward with the frontier. At the same time, in both Britain and the United States, Channing’s rational, biblical Unitarianism was challenged by the more intuitive, mystical vision of the English romantics and of New England Transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82). In the 20th and 21st centuries, some Unitarians no longer call themselves Christians or believers in God but proponents of religious HUMANISM . While not endorsing a deity or anything supernatural, they consider churches and worship of the Unitarian type to be good settings for the celebration of the joys of human life and the affirmation of the highest human ideals. Unitarian churches are congregational; that is, each congregation has the authority to call its own minister and determine its own forms of worship and life. All advocate complete freedom of belief. In 1961 the American Unitarian Association joined with the Universalist ( see U NIVERSALISM ) church, another liberal body of New England background,

The famous psychologist Carl Gustav J UNG (1875–1961) has said that, for believers, UFOs rep resent “technological angels.” That is, they pres ent modern, space-age equivalents to ancient reli gious motifs: angels, gods, saviors, departed spirits descending to Earth from above. For a few people, the UFOs widely reported in the second half of the 20th century have taken on this role. Further reading: George Adamski and Desmond Leslie, Flying Saucers Have Landed (New York: British Book Centre, 1953); Douglas Curran, In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space (New York: Abbeville, 2001); Carl G. Jung, Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky (New York: Signet, 1969); Susan Palmer, Aliens Adored: Rael’s UFO Religion (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2004); Christopher Partridge, ed., UFO Religions (New York: Routledge, 2003). Unitarianism A liberal P ROTESTANT movement in Europe, Britain, and the United States originally based on denial of the TRINITY . Unitarian means emphasizing just the unity or oneness of G OD . Characteristically, Unitarianism likewise rejects other traditional doctrines related to the trinity, such as the divinity of J ESUS C HRIST and SALVATION exclusively through him, in favor of a view of Jesus as simply a great moral teacher and exem plary human being. Modern Unitarianism began with radical R EF ORMATION anti-Trinitarian movements in 16th- and 17th-century Poland and Transylvania, but these were eventually suppressed. The Enlightenment spirit of the 18th century, stressing the importance of reason and ethical conduct in religion while discounting supernaturalism, produced a revival of Unitarianism. The distinguished minister and scientist Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) advocated a liberal religion he called Unitarian Christianity in both England and America. Many eminent Ameri cans of that era, such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, have been considered Unitar ians in all but name.