Do UU Know Your History? Rev. Josh Pawelek, November 16, 2025

Photo of King's Chapel from a recent UUSE Affirmation class trip to Boston

I’m about to take you on a whirlwind tour of 1,840 years of Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist history. (I’ll be covering, on average, about 92 years every minute of this sermon). Please know everything I say is a generalization, and I am leaving out many important people, events, and trends. I’m offering primarily a theological history—Unitarian and Universalist are, after all, theological terms. I am doing this because my mother-in-law, Elaine, purchased a sermon at our goods and services auction last winter; when I asked her what she wanted me to preach on, she said, “I just want to know what Unitarian and Universalist mean. Like, where did you come from?” I interpreted this as a request for some historical information, which I am now presenting to you.

            Ready?

            We begin with the early Christian Church. For approximately three centuries after the execution of Jesus, the early Church Fathers[1] (which is how they are known in the historiography, and which of course makes women’s contributions invisible) debated a variety of questions about who Jesus was and the nature of his divinity; and who God was, what God’s intentions for the world were, and the role Jesus played in fulfilling those intentions.

            An orthodox theology emerged slowly and was eventually codified at the First Council of Nicaea in the year 325 AD. The Nicene Creed, as it came to be known, articulated the doctrine of the Trinity—the idea that three eternal entities, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, comprise one God, and all three are begotten of the same substance. Before and after 325, those who expressed opposing views were branded as heretics, punished, exiled, even executed, their books banned and burned. One heretic, Arius, a priest from Alexandria, Egypt, born in 256 AD, was a distant forerunner of modern Unitarianism. He argued that God and Jesus were not begotten of the same substance, that Jesus was not co-eternal with God, and that God made Jesus, presumably out of a less eternal substance. For Arius, Jesus was divine, but subordinate to God, closer to human. This may not sound like a big deal, but the Arian Controversy, as it came to be known, threatened to split the church. In fact, the Council of Nicaea was convened to put an end to Arianism. The final paragraph of the original Nicene Creed reads: “Those who … assert that the Son of God is of a different … substance, or created, or subject to alteration or change — these the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes.”[2] To anathematize is to condemn. That paragraph, which doesn’t appear in later versions of the creed, was referring to Arius, whom Emperor Constantine promptly exiled.

            A second early church figure important to our history is Origen, born in 185 AD, also in Alexandria. During his life he was regarded as a brilliant theologian. However, at the Second Council of Constantinople in 543 AD, almost 300 years after his death, some of his teachings were anathematized—deemed heretical. These included “subordinationism,” the idea that Jesus is subordinate to God, which overlapped with Arius’ heresy; and, most importantly for us, Apokatastasis, or universal salvation, the notion that eventually all beings would be restored to harmony with God. He was the first Christian Universalist to leave a written record.

            Throughout the history of European Christianity, Arianism and Universalism continued to pop up from time to time and get summarily squashed. During the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, a more extreme form of Arianism emerged, Unitarianism.  Unitarians rejected the doctrine of the trinity outright, arguing that God is one, not three, and that Jesus was human, not divine. They called for the use of reason in religion, specifically in Biblical interpretation. Three notable figures are: Michael Servetus, a Spanish physician and theologian whom the Calvinists burned at the stake in Geneva in 1553; Faustus Socinus, an Italian Unitarian theologian who fled Italy to escape the Roman Inquisition, and ultimately settled in Poland where his writings influenced a Protestant sect known as the Polish Brethren; and King John Sigismund of Transylvania, who adopted Unitarianism under the guidance of the Catholic-priest-turned-reformed-minister, Francis David. In 1568 Sigismund issued the first edict of religious toleration in European history. (That’s 1,383 years if you’re tracking.)

             Next, we turn to Britain’s American colonies, specifically Massachusetts, where Puritan immigrants established a network of local, parish-based Calvinist theocracies beginning in the early 1600s. They mixed their staunch Trinitarianism with a variety of orthodox ideas, including the doctrine of total human depravity: human nature is sinful and cannot be redeemed without God’s grace; and unconditional election: God has predestined certain individuals for salvation, and everyone else is bound for hell with no recourse. It gets worse. I’ll stop there.

            Despite everything we find abhorrent about their theology, the Puritans did bring the practice of congregational polity, meaning essentially that each congregation governs itself (which James Luther Adams referenced in our opening words, “I call that church free.”[3]) We inherit and still practice that tradition. The Puritans also brought the idea of covenantal relations among congregations. Each congregation is independent, yet all congregations work together and support each other. We inherit and still practice that tradition.

            We do not inherit Puritan theology. Over time, various colonial religious leaders began rejecting that theology. They objected to its negative view of humanity and its utter hopelessness. They objected to God’s abject cruelty. Imagine hearing for your entire life the message that you’re a sinner in the hands of an angry God and you’re destined for eternal punishment. You might live with some anxiety.

            Or you might start to think, maybe there’s another way. The European Enlightenment was having a liberalizing impact on European thought and society, and many colonists were paying attention. They put an increasing emphasis on using reason and science in the search for truth. They began questioning received doctrine and dogma. They began reading the Bible critically, as a historical document. They began doubting the miracles. They embraced natural religion, basing their beliefs more on observation of the natural world than on Biblical revelation. Some clergy began preaching openly about the right of private judgement: The dictates of my heart matter. My own conclusions about what is true matter. They increasingly rejected the Trinity as unscriptural. They increasingly spoke of Jesus more as a moral example, and less as a God. And they preached a more hopeful, universalist theology.

Throughout the 1700s, the orthodox Congregationalists had a name for them: Arians! Heretics! Eventually they had an even worse name for them: Unitarians! Heretics! (They actually weren't direct followers of Arius. If anything, they were taking some cues from the late 16th- and early 17th-century Dutch theologian, Jacob Arminius, whose attempts to reform Calvinism featured both Universalist and Unitarian ideas.) Despite its orthodox critics, this liberal religious movement was growing. In 1805 the Unitarians took control of Harvard Divinity School with the appointment of the Rev. Henry Ware, Sr. as the Hollis Professor of Divinity.[4] In 1819, the Rev. William Ellery Channing preached his Baltimore sermon, entitled “Unitarian Christianity,” in which he identified the foundational principles of Unitarianism. The congregational churches split, some remaining orthodox, others becoming Unitarian. 1825 witnessed the founding of the American Unitarian Association.

Universalism emerged as a denomination in the late 1700s, though not as a schism within the congregational churches. Often it was Baptists, Methodists or former Congregationalists who had gravitated to Universal Salvation and they founded churches to preach its profoundly hopeful message. As the early preacher John Murray put it, “give them not hell, but hope.” Universalists began organizing congregations and larger denominational structures in the 1780s and 1790s. They founded the Universalist Church of America in Massachusetts in 1793.

Both the Unitarians and Universalists were hopeful. Both trusted that God was good, benevolent and just, not for an elect few, but for all. Both had positive views of human nature and believed human beings could work to improve themselves, following the example of Jesus. They both sought to apply reason to their religious lives and the reading of scripture. And, in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, amidst the excitement and the promise that came with the founding of a new nation, both denominations seemed to capture and convey the new American spirit—its optimism, its focus on liberty, its humanism. They were not relics of old Europe. They had come of age with the young American republic and saw their destinies as intertwined with the nation’s destiny. I will add that, just as the nation continues to deal with the legacies of white supremacy, colonization and slavery, our denomination continues to confront those legacies as well.[5]

Both denominations were liberal Christian sects with theologies traditionally regarded as heretical. Unitarians tended to be urban, merchant class, elites. Universalists tended to be rural, farmers, working class. Both denominations were white, though there have always been people of color among us.

Throughout the 1800s and the first half of the 1900s, both denominations slowly departed form formal Christianity. Among Unitarians, the rise of the Transcendentalist movement in the 1830s, while initially unwelcome in the congregations, eventually had a profound impact. Transcendentalists saw the natural world as an ongoing source of revelation, and argued that no scripture contains the final word on truth. For them, Christianity was one among many path to God; other religions had valuable wisdom to teach. They preached self-reliance, and called for an unfettering of the human spirit. They learned to trust human intuition. They were mystical. They were idealists. Some created utopian communities. Others worked for social reform.

Later on, Unitarians were heavily influenced by Charles Darwin’s On The Origin of Species, which called into question the notion that God created everything in six days about 5,000 years ago. Many Unitarians eventually adopted theologies that aligned with the theory of evolution and other scientific discoveries. Some became atheists. A robust Humanist-Theist debate marked Unitarian congregations in the early 20^th century. By mid-century, religious humanism was the dominant theology within Unitarianism.

The Universalist departure from Christian identity took longer. By the early 20^th century many leaders spoke less about an eternity in Heaven, and more about creating heaven on earth through good works and social reforms.[6] By the mid-20^th century, Universalists were preaching about one universal religion, contending that all religions ultimately preach the same, basic golden rule message of ‘love for neighbor.’  They argued after peeling away the outer husk of any religion, one eventually arrives at this universal moral kernel, a core spiritual wisdom that transcends cultures, time periods, and dogmas.[7]

The American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America were both headquartered in Boston. The Unitarians were at 25 Beason St. The Universalists were a block away at 16 Beacon St. (If I have my facts correct, the Universalists were renting from the Unitarians!) The leaders knew each other and often spoke about merging. They published a joint hymnal in the 1930s. Their respective youth organizations merged in 1954, becoming Liberal Religious Youth. The denominations formally merged in 1961. (We’re now at 1,780 years!)  

Today, 65 years later, we are Unitarian Universalists. We are eclectic in our theology. We are Pagans, Buddhists, Christians, Humanists, Atheists, Agnostics, Jews. Muslims, Hindus and Taoists, and many others join us on occasion. Some of us are scientific in our faith. Others are mystical. We are searchers, mixing and matching, experimenting and playing. We gather around our congregations not around a shared theology, but rather around a set of seven principles and six values, all emerging from love at the center.

We are the spiritual descendants of early Christian heretics, Arius and Origen, whose spirit lives on in us.  

We are the spiritual cousins of radical European reformers, some, like Servetus, who paid with their lives; others like King John Sigismund who called on people of differing faiths and theologies to to live together in peace. Their spirit of protest against dogma, theocracy and inquisitions lives on in us.

We are the spiritual grandchildren of the Puritans, from whom we inherit the New England Congregational Way. As much as we may not want to admit it, their spirit lives on in us.

We are the spiritual children of American Unitarians who brought reason to religion, proclaimed that God is one, and that we human beings are good. Their spirit lives on in us.

We are the spiritual children of American Universalists, who taught that God is good.  Their vision not only of Heaven, but of a current world in which all are welcomed, valued, included and loved, lives on in us.

May we continue to nurture and proclaim these great legacies that live on in us.

Amen and blessed be.

[1] They are sometimes called the Apostolic Fathers.

[2] I’ve edited the text for ease. Here’s the actual text (translated into modern English): “But as for those who say, There was when He was not, and, before being born He was not, and that He came into existence out of nothing, or who assert that the Son of God is from a different hypostasis or substance, or is created, or is subject to alteraEon or change – these the Catholic Church anathematizes.” See: https://christthesavioroca.org/files/2020-Resurrection-Classes/The-Nicene-Creed-of-325.pdf.

[3] Adams, James Luther, “I Call That Church Free,” Singing the Living Tradition (Boston: Beacon Press and the UUA, 1993) #591.

[4] Harvard Divinity School became the nation’s premier liberal seminary and, in response, Yale Divinity School became the orthodox seminary.

[5] In the preached version of this sermon, I mention a recent youth group trip to Boston, which included a stop at King’s Chapel (the first Unitarian congregation in the country), where they are conducting research into the congregation’s various connections to slavery, including more than 200 enslaved people who have been identified as part of the congregation in the years when slavery was legal. See: https://www.memorial.kings-chapel.org/.

[6] An example is Clarence Russell Skinner’s 1915 book. The Social Implications of Universalism.

[7] This view is sometimes known as the perennial philosophy.