Unitarianism in America | Page 3

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 tendency to emphasize individual life and thought, and its break with the traditions of the past, whether in literature or in religion. The Reformation did not, however, bring the principle of individuality to full maturity; and it retained many of the old institutional methods, as well as a large degree of their social motive. The Reformed churches were often