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Unitarianism, misc. information

Note my comments and additions are in bold red.

Socinianism: Unitarianism in 16th-17th Century Poland and Its Influence

Key dates

1539 - Faustus Socinus (Fausto Sozzini) b. in Siena (in Italy)

1542 - Catholic Inquisition begins.

1552 - Faustus publishes first book, declaring Jesus divine but not God

1553 - Michael Servetus, unitarian theologian, burnt at stake by John Calvin in Geneva.

1552-64 - Faustus spends 12 years as secretary to the sister of the Duke of Florence.

1579 - Faustus moves to Poland

1585-1638 - Most brilliant period of Socinian movement, centered in Racow, Poland

around 1600 - Death of Faustus

1660 - Socinians expelled from Poland by hostile Catholic king John Casimir

Late 17th century - Socinians influential in Netherlands and England, where, among other things, they inspires the development of Deism (a view more radical, because less tied to Scripture, than Socinianism)

Late 18th century - Joseph Priestley brings Socinian unitarianism to the United States, where it becomes a major strand in early 19th century American unitarianism

From http://www.wku.edu/~garreje/socinus.htm

Some Notes Toward a History of Socinianism

Faustus Socinus was born in Siena, Italy, in 1539. Faustus aspired to follow in his uncles footsteps, but because the liberal attitude of the Renaissance had begun to give way to the repression of the Counter-Reformation, Faustus wrote his books anonymously. In his anonymous first book (1552) he declared Jesus divine but not God.

He moved to Poland about 1579 and remained there until he died more than two decades later. At this time Poland and Transylvania were the safest places in Europe for religious reformers. Socinus became the leader of the Anti-Trinitarians who as a result became known as Socinians, but also occasionally as the Racovians. The Socinian movement was crushed in Poland in 1660 but many Socinians moved to the Netherlands. From here they influenced the development of the Western enlightenment that was just beginning.

Faustus Socinus and his followers held that

1) All religious authority depends on applying reason to Scripture

2) The doctrine of the Trinity is false because there is no Scriptural evidence for it

3) The ethical teachings of Jesus, particularly the Sermon on the Mount, are the main guide, not the words of Paul

4) Jesus was human, though an exceptional human; though not God, he was endowed with divine attributes of wisdom and virtue.

5) The resurrection was significant because it demonstrated the possibility of immortality

6) Jesus' death was not an atonement for our sins nor did God demand that someone suffer for our sins.

7) The following doctrines are false: original sin, predestination of the elect, the inherent depravity of human beings, and eternal damnation

8) We can have faith in the good and loving nature of God

9) Though well aware of how sinful human beings can be and often are, we can have faith in the human capacity for reason and goodness.

10) Religious thought should be free, and all creeds should be tolerated.

Protestant and Catholic leaders reacted by terming (10) "that Socinian dogma, the most dangerous of the dogmas of the Socinian sect."

There was a strong social justice commitment among the Socinians. They spoke out against the enserfment of the peasantry and were the first Christians to advocate separation of Church and state. Early on they seem to have been pacifists and opposed to participation in public and judicial office, but they gradually adopted a more moderate position advocating mutual love, support of the state's secular power, active participation in social and political life and defense of social equality.

The Socinians' defense of religious toleration and freedom of religious thought probably influenced the great British political philosopher John Locke. Locke's library included many Socinian works and his posthumously published work, The Reasonableness of Christianity, was close to the Socinian position in its emphasis on Jesus as an ethical teacher. However, Locke was probably an Arian rather than a Socinian Christian in the sense that he held Jesus to be a supernatural being dependent on but less exalted than God.

From http://www.islandnet.com/~jelrod/uni.html

The word "Unitarian" historically refers to the oneness of God as opposed to the Trinity of God, referred to as "Trinitarianism".

The word "Trinity" is not in the Bible, nor is the concept. The naming of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit hardly occurs; except as a echo of a baptismal formula. The doctrine dates from the early Middle Ages, as an effort to reconcile Jewish theology with Greek philosophy, and was adopted as doctrine at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD at the behest of Constantine.

At that time the unitarian position was called "Arianism" for its leader Arius of Alexandria. He and the idea were declared heretic, and was killed out except for a few remote Germanic tribes.

With the invention of the printing press, and the wide reading of the Bible, people discovered that the Trinity was not there, and Unitarians sprang up all over Europe like crocus. In most places they were killed. Calvin burned the best know Renaissance Unitarian theologian, Servetus, in Geneva. He was burned with a slow fire, taking half an hour to kill him, with his book strapped to his leg. Earlier he had been burned in effigy by Catholics. (Servetus was also doctor, and had discovered the pulmonary circulation of the blood.)

Many early Unitarians tended to be scientists or doctors. The Polish king's doctor was Unitarian, and Krakow, Poland, was one of the few place Unitarians were allowed to live without being killed. They gathered there from all over Europe, establishing a university and printing press. Books were smuggled to England, and Unitarianism took root there.

With a change in the throne (as in Bloody Mary in England) Unitarians in Krakow had to choose between death, becoming Catholic, becoming Jewish (since Jews were infidels rather than heretics they were not being put to death), or fleeing. Many became Jews, and many fled to Romania (near the border with Islam), and that is the only area with Unitarian church buildings more than 500 years old. The Communist government was in the process of destroying them when it fell.

Unitarianism came to America among the Pilgrims, and separated from Congregationalism in the early 19th century. You can tell which won the vote in each New England town; in some towns the Congregational building is the older, in others the Unitarian. I dispute this. There was a clear split in the late 18th Century.

Emerson was the first American Unitarian minister who influenced European Unitarianism. Emerson was also influenced by transcendentalism rejecting traditional Unitarianism for something similar to New Age religion of today.

Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine, Henry David Thoreau, Adlai Stevenson and Clara Barton were among American Unitarians, or have been claimed by Unitarianism as being in harmony with Unitarian thought of their time. Albert Schweitzer was probably the best known European Unitarian. Here we have the same problem again of claiming famous people to bolster a belief system. By the time both Emerson and Thoreau came along, Unitarianism was/would be undermined by non-Unitarian beliefs such as humanism and transcendentalism.

In the 1930's Unitarianism almost split between the Theists (those who believe in a personal god), and Humanists (who see human values as paramount). This argument has vanished today. In each congregation now you will find both, including those who manage to hold both positions simultaneously, as well as other concepts of ultimate reality. The fact is that the Unitarian Universalists are not Unitarians, liberal Christians, or traditional Deists. They're more a secular humanist social club embracing politics and the occult. That is illustrated below.

Those who entered Unitarianism in the past generation were primarily "come outers" from other more traditional traditions, and were in rebellion against what they regarded as superstitions. Younger people now coming to Unitarianism (often seeking a church school for their children) are more likely to be coming from a secular background and to be seeking spiritual meaning. While humanism remains in first place numerically among Unitarians, those with an "Earth/Nature" centered concept of ultimate reality are now in second place as opposed to the earlier Deists (God made the world but now leaves it alone, the concept of Franklin and Jefferson among others), or Theists.

These all have in common the idea that values are more important than belief, optimism about the nature of human kind, and valuing the use of reason. It has been said that Unitarians can tolerate anything except intolerance. That is just nonsense. Try bringing God up and watch the hostility.

They were the first denomination to ordain women and gays to ministry, and to perform gay weddings. They are not an historic peace church, but they joined Quakers and Mennonites in opposing the war in Vietnam. Social action is an important part of the life of the church. The first white man killed in the southern civil rights movement was a Unitarian minister. In other words they have adopted a left-wing political/social agenda and why not? After stripping all traditional Unitarian beliefs, what's left?

Unitarians tend to be more alike in their value system across socioeconomic and geographic lines, but differ in beliefs. Other denominations, from Catholic to Baptist, tend to hold the same beliefs across socioeconomic and geographical lines, but have widely differing values. In other words it's a social club dabbling in politics, etc.

Unitarians

  • Unitarianism and Deism
  • Why UU Humanism Requires Rejecting Our Humanity
  • Unitarianism, misc. information
  • Unitarianism Spreads in the Church of England
  • Humanism, the Early Church, and Rational Religion
  • Socinianism: Unitarianism in 16th-17th Century Poland and Its Influence

    • Christian origins, conflicts, and key players.

     

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