(ALMOST) EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISM (FOR BEGINNERS)

The Unitarian Universalist Association was formed in 1961 as the result of the consolidation of two existing religious organizations: the American Unitarian Association (founded in Boston in 1825), and the Universalist Church in America (c. 1785, leading to the eventual creation of the “Philadelphia Convention of Universalists” in 1790). Both these institutions in turn represented still earlier ecclesiastical organizations and theological traditions which, in some cases, can be traces back to the earliest days of Christianity.

• Unitarianism: the belief that God is One. (i.e. Jesus is not God).

• Universalism: the belief that ultimately All Souls shall be reconciled with their Creator (i.e. “no hell” or Universal Salvation).

Nowadays there is some question about how “UUism” is best understood:

1. is it a form of “liberal Christianity,” and the historical successor of these two earlier ecclesiastical bodies?

2. is it a “post-Christian” Protestant heresy, embracing wisdom and inspiration from ALL of the world’s great faith traditions?

3. is Unitarian Universalism its own “New Religion?”

Of course it is also possible that we may be all of the above, or even NONE of the above but something entirely different instead (such as “secular Humanism in religious clothing,” or “the Democratic party at prayer”).

But however one chooses to understand “Our Liberal Movement in Theology,” it’s important to acknowledge that Unitarian Universalism’s most direct, powerful and immediate historical roots are Biblical, and are derived from a certain method for reading the Bible, which was eloquently articulated by William Ellery Channing in his 1819 Baltimore Sermon entitled “Unitarian Christianity.”

“Our leading principle in interpreting Scripture is this, that the Bible is a book written for men, in the language of men, and that its meaning is to be sought in the same manner as that of other books...[through] the constant exercise of reason.”

Channing and his fellow Unitarians were accused at the time of elevating human reason above the word of God. Nowadays, this method of interpreting Scripture is basically universal throughout the academic community; the Fundamentalist doctrine of “verbal inerrancy” (“God said it, I believe it, that settles it”) is an early 20th century backlash against what is now known as the “historical-critical” method of Biblical scholarship.

What Channing REALLY did was privilege the authority of what was known as “Natural Theology” over that of Supernatural Revelation. In other words, Scripture (ALL Scripture) is best understood as a testimony of human experience, which may contain or reflect a “revelation” of the Divine, but which is always mediated through the personality and peculiarities of the authors, and their own particular historical and cultural context and assumptions.

In a subsequent generation, this principle led to a notion called “Absolute Religion,” which was believed to be true regardless of whether or not human beings believed or understood it, but which was to some degree or another reflected by every authentic “historical” religion. In other words, what is True is True whether we believe it or not, and is true for everyone regardless of our differing levels of understanding. But Absolute Truth is also ultimately mysterious and unknowable, since (after all) we’re only human, and not God. The task of religion is one of “Self-Culture” -- a growing understanding of “the Truth” in the context of our own lives, through a humble and disciplined, free and responsible search not just for “Truth,” but even more importantly for “Meaning.”

THREE VERY IMPORTANT AND CLOSELY RELATED CONCEPTS:

FREEDOM: we are “a Church Without a Creed.” Rather than organizing ourselves around a shared confession of belief, members of UU congregations enter into a Covenant to “walk together” in a relationship of mutual trust and support.

REASON: UUs are not free to believe whatever we wish; we are COMPELLED to believe what our reason and our experience tell us to be true.

TOLERANCE: UU churches are governed by Congregational Polity, which means that local church members retain the right to elect their own leaders and select their own ministers, and to manage their own affairs through both consensus and “majority rule,” with the rights and opinions of “dissenters” honored for the integrity of their different point of view. We can agree to disagree without being disagreeable.

The ATTITUDES that accompany Freedom, Reason, and Tolerance are Integrity, Humility, and Respect. And together they create the environment through which we work to bring out the best in one another, and make the world a better place for everyone.