Unitarian Christianity
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Unitarian Christianity (not to be confused with the Unity Church) is a form of Christianity that promotes the teachings and example of Jesus Christ, as found in the New Testament. Unitarian Christians believe that the exemplar model of how men and women should live was lived by Jesus of Nazareth, who was a man and a prophet of God. Unitarian Christianity encourages open-minded, freethinking views of God, Jesus, the world and purpose of life as revealed through reason, scholarship, science, philosophy, scripture and other prophets and religions.
Unitarian Christians 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. Unitarian Christians would be considered Rationalist Unitarians in terms of the various schools of thought of Unitarianism. Unitarian Christians are Christian in that they follow the teachings and example of Jesus Christ and view him in the same regard as Jews view Moses and Muslims regard the Prophet Mohammed.
Unitarian Christians differ from Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and other Christian denominations in that their belief system is structured around "following the religion OF Jesus, not a religion ABOUT Jesus". They do not "pray to Jesus", but to God, as Jesus taught. They also do not require belief in creeds or have any dogmatic structure to their faith. 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. Members generally accept religious pluralism and find value in all teachings, but remain committed to their core belief in Christ's teachings. Unitarian Christians value a secular society.
Some Unitarian Christians differ from Unitarian Universalism, arguing that the Unitarian Universalists have moved away from the traditional Christian roots of Unitarianism. They believe that the larger Unitarian-Universalist organizations are becoming too political and liberal to be considered a religious movement or faith.
In the United States, a few Unitarian Christians feel that the mainstream UUA churches are not accepting of Christians, and therefore have decided to join the American Unitarian Conference, a splinter group from the Unitarian Universalists, while many Unitarian Christians have chosen to stay within the Unitarian Universalist church as, for example, [the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship]. Finally, others prefer to join other Christian churches (sometimes with a dual membership).
Distinctions between Unitarians
As Unitarian Christians are Unitarian in the traditional sense, they have no creeds or dogmatic requirements for fellowship. Unitarian Christians, do however differ from Unitarian Universalists (UU) in that Unitarian Christians profess a common regard and supreme respect for Jesus Christ and his teachings. Unitarian Universalists are considered revisionist Unitarians, as they are syncretic and open to new ideas and concepts to the point of replacing their original principles of the Unitarian faith, resulting in a complete evolution of their belief system.
Unitarian Christians generally do not believe in the Virgin Birth, the deity of Christ, or Biblical inerrancy. Some Unitarian Christians may share some of the beliefs of Biblical Unitarians, which are considered to be the forerunners of the modern Unitarian movement. An example of Biblical Unitarian churches are those originally found in Transylvania that continue to closely follow principles of Arianism, Servetism, and/or Socinianism.
Evangelical Unitarians came out of the Evangelical or Revivalist movements of the 19th century in America. Examples include Jehovah's Witnesses and Christadelphians.
Principles of Faith
Unitarian Christians 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 religions.
Although there is no specific authority on these principles, the following represent the most generally accepted -
- the belief in One God and the oneness or unity of God.
- the life and teachings of Jesus Christ is the exemplar model for living ones' own life.
- that reason, rational thought, science, and philosophy together with religion and faith are not mutually exclusive.
- that man has the ability to exercise free will in a responsible, constructive and ethical manner with the assistance of religion.
- the belief that human nature in its present condition is neither inherently corrupt nor depraved, but capable of both good and evil, as God intended.
- the conviction that no religion can claim an absolute monopoly on the Holy Spirit or theological truth.
- the belief that the works of the Bible are inspired by God, but were written and edited by humans and therefore subject to human error.
- the rejection of traditional doctrines that malign God's character or veil the true nature and mission of Jesus Christ, such as the doctrine of predestination, eternal damnation, the Trinity, and the vicarious sacrifice or satisfaction theory of the Atonement.
Unitarian Christians believe there is no evidence in the Bible or other sources that Jesus claimed to be God or that his teachings hinted that he was God or that God is a Trinity of persons. To the contrary, they point to numerous sayings of Jesus wherein Jesus talks about God separately from himself and superior to himself. Jesus refers similarly to the Holy Spirit which is believed to be the influence of God on the human soul, rather than one of three persons of God. In addition, no tradition concerning the Trinity was ever formulated from the millennia of study of the Old Testament, prior to the time of Jesus.
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 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 their political activities and a secular society is the most viable, just and fair society.
History
Unitarianism as a school of thought and branch of Christianity has existed since the pre-Nicene Creed period of the ancient Christian church. Unitarianism evolved from the early conflicts over the nature of Jesus Christ, specifically whether or not Jesus was God, a god, created, or un-created. These arguments amongst the early bishops and priests of the church came to a head mainly with the events surrounding Arius, son of Ammonius, who was a popular priest appointed presbyter for the district of Baucalis in Alexandria in 313. His views of the nature of Jesus, although not original, conflicted with the views held by Bishop Alexander of Alexandria. Bishop Alexander's position (and that of a majority of priests in his jurisdiction) was that Jesus was God, in human form.
The issue ultimately resulted in the Nicean Creed adopted at the First Council of Nicaea in 325, wherein with the involvement of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, the issue was settled and the adoption of Alexander's view became the orthodox doctrine and all other views were heresy and officially suppressed. At the Second Ecumenical Council in 381, the position that God was actually the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost was agreed and the formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity was complete. Those believing that God is a single oneness are Unitarians and those believing in a Godhead made up of three equal persons are Trinitarians. The vast majority of those calling themselves Christian in the world today, including Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, and other denominations, are Trinitarians.
Unitarians, it can be argued, made up a majority of the peoples claiming to be Christian prior to Christianity becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire. This based simply on the fact that the doctrine of the Trinity was not developed and adopted as a basic tenant of Christian faith until more than three centuries after Jesus' death.
In the intervening millennia between the time of Christ and modern times, there have been centuries of persecution and suppression of any teachings deemed heretical because they were not part of official Nicean Creed or Dogma of the Roman Catholic Church or Eastern Orthodox churches. The results are that only a small fraction of today's Christians are Unitarians. It is very common with mainstream denominations and "non-denominational" Christian groups to teach that any religion that does not adhere to the basic tenants formulated by the Nicean Creed, are not Christian.
Modern Unitarianism developed in the 1600's during the Protestant era of the evolution of the Christian church with strongholds in Eastern Europe and eventually Britain and the North Eastern parts of the United States. As liberal Christians and Freethinkers, these small congregations developed into more formal associations of churches. In America, 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 has made great efforts to be inclusive in its scope. With a tradition of being politically active, the group has also taken up political causes (e.g. Women's Suffrage and Civil Rights) that have resulted in positive social changes in the US. With the passage of time, however, the UUA has evolved into a more and more liberal organization that no longer focuses on the core teachings of Jesus Christ or Christianity. Many Christian centered Unitarians believe that the forefathers of Unitarianism in the US would no longer recognize the organization they created.
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 roots of Unitarianism in Christianity is the American Unitarian Conference (AUC), formed in 2000. The AUC's stated goal is to formulate and promote classical Unitarian based, Christian centric, unifying religious convictions, which balance the needs of members with a practical approach to inclusion and progressive free thought.
See also
- Unitarianism
- Unitarian Universalism
- American Unitarian Conference
- Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship
- Unitarian Christian Groups and Publications
External links
- [American Unitarian Conference (official website)]
- [God, Optional (from OpinionJournal)]
- [Unitarians seeking more piety, less politics (from Beliefnet)]
- [Theological stirrings in Unitarian circles (from Christian Century)]
- [Unitarian group changes name, settles lawsuit (from Christian Century)]
- [Unitarian Christianity: A Very Short Introduction]
- [Unitarian Christians Yahoo Group]
- [Traditional Unitarian Literature]
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