Unitarianism in America | Page 3

The New
Theological Position Organization of the Free Religious Association
Unsuccessful Attempts at Reconciliation The Year Book Controversy
Missionary Activities College Town Missions Theatre Preaching
Organization of Local Conferences Fellowship and Fraternity Results
of the Denominational Awakening
IX. GROWTH OF DENOMINATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS "The
Western Issue" Fellowship with Universalists Officers of the American
Unitarian Association The American Unitarian Association as a
Representative Boy The Church Building Loan Fund The Unitarian
Building in Boston Growth of the Devotional Spirit The Seventy-fifth
Anniversary
X. THE MINISTRY AT LARGE Association of Young Men Preaching
to the Poor Tuckerman as Minister to the Poor Tuckerman's Methods
Organization of Charities Benevolent Fraternity of Churches Other
Ministers at Large Ministry at Large in Other Cities
XI. ORGANIZED SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK Boston Sunday
School Society Unitarian Sunday School Society Western Unitarian
Sunday School Society Unity Clubs The Ladies' Commission on
Sunday-school Books
XII. THE WOMEN'S ALLIANCE AND ITS PREDECESSORS
Women's Western Unitarian Conference Women's Auxiliary
Conference The National Alliance Cheerful Letter and Post-office
Missions Associate Alliances Alliance Methods
XIII. MISSIONS TO INDIA AND JAPAN Society respecting the State
of Religion in India Dall's Work in India Recent Work in India The
Beginnings in Japan
XIV. THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL The Beginnings
in Meadville The Growth of the School
XV. UNITARIAN PHILANTHROPIES Unitarian Charities Education
of the Blind Care of the Insane Child-saving Missions Care of the Poor
Humane Treatment of Animals Young Men's Christian Unions
Educational Work in the South Educational Work for the Indians
XVI. UNITARIANS AND REFORMS Peace Movement Temperance
Reform Anti-slavery The Enfranchisement of Women Civil Service
Reform

XVII. UNITARIAN MEN AND WOMEN Eminent Statesmen Some
Representative Unitarians Judges and Legislators Boston Unitarianism
XVIII. UNITARIANS AND EDUCATION Pioneers of the Higher
Criticism The Catholic Influence of Harvard University The Work of
Horace Mann Elizabeth Peabody and the Kindergarten Work of
Unitarian Women for Education Popular Education and Public
Libraries Mayo's Southern Ministry of Education
XIX. UNITARIANISM AND LITERATURE Influence of Unitarian
Environment Literary Tendencies Literary Tastes of Unitarian
Ministers Unitarians as Historians Scientific Unitarians Unitarian
Essayists Unitarian Novelists Unitarian Artists and Poets
XX. THE FUTURE OF UNITARIANISM
APPENDIX. A. Formation of the Local Conferences B. Unitarian
Newspapers and Magazines

UNITARIANISM IN AMERICA.
A HISTORY OF ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT.

I.
INTRODUCTION.--ENGLISH SOURCES OF AMERICAN
UNITARIANISM.
The sources of American Unitarianism are to be found in the spirit of
individualism developed by the Renaissance, the tendency to free
inquiry that manifested itself in the Protestant Reformation, and the
general movement of the English churches of the seventeenth century
toward toleration and rationalism. The individualism of modern
thought and life first found distinct expression in the Renaissance; and
it was essentially a new creation, and not a revival. Hitherto the tribe,
the city, the nation, the guild, or the church, had been the source of
authority, the centre of power, and the giver of life. Although Greece
showed a desire for freedom of thought, and a tendency to recognize
the worth of the individual and his capacity as a discoverer and
transmitter of truth, it did not set the individual mind free from bondage
to the social and political power of the city. Socrates and Plato saw
somewhat of the real worth of the individual, but the great mass of the
people were never emancipated from the old tribal authority as

inherited by the city-state; and not one of the great dramatists had
conceived of the significance of a genuine individualism.[1]
[Sidenote: Renaissance.]
The Renaissance advanced to a new conception of the worth and the
capacity of the individual mind, and for the first time in history
recognized the full social meaning of personality in man. It sanctioned
and authenticated the right of the individual to think for himself, and it
developed clearly the idea that he may become the transmitter of valid
revelations of spiritual truth. That God may speak through individual
intuition and reason, and that this inward revelation may be of the
highest authority and worth, was a conception first brought to distinct
acceptance by the Renaissance.
A marked tendency of the Reformation which it received from the
Renaissance was its acceptance of the free spirit of individualism. The
Roman Church had taught that all valid religious truth comes to
mankind through its own corporate existence, but the Reformers
insisted that truth is the result of individual insight and investigation.
The Reformation magnified the worth of personality, and made it the
central force in all human effort.[2] To gain a positive personal life, one
of free initiative power, that may in itself become creative, and capable
of bringing truth and life to larger issues, was the chief motive of the
Protestant leaders in their work of reformation. The result was that,
wherever genuine Protestantism appeared, it manifested itself by its
attitude of free inquiry, its