In-depth About UU Beliefs

By Rev. Charles W. Eddis

Unitarians are people who want a straightforward, practical, ethical religion. The word "Unitarian" comes from the emphasis Unitarians four centuries ago put on the unity of God, in contrast to the Christian belief in the Trinity, God in three persons.

While Unitarianism was known by others primarily for its denial of one Christian doctrine, it was from the first much broader. It was a comprehensive programme for religious reform, rooted in humanism and the radical Reformation. It was as much a spirit as a programme. It stressed free intellectual inquiry, freedom, tolerance, and ethical living.

Unitarian views have evolved under the impact of science, philosophy, and the encounter of the world religions. Today there are some Unitarians who describe themselves as universal theists and others who call themselves humanists. Many feel uncomfortable with labels, whether Christian or other.

If you ask Unitarians just what they believe, you may find them stumped for a short answer. If you were to conclude from this, and from our diversity and our freedom, that we don't know what we think, or that one can believe anything one likes and be a Unitarian, you would be mistaken. In spite of appearances, we are remarkably united in our basic values and beliefs.

Beliefs

I have never met a Unitarian who did not accept the findings of science. I have never met a Unitarian who did not believe in evolution. I have never met a Unitarian who did not affirm the importance of this life, of living well in the here and now, as opposed to preparing now for a life to come. Unitarians hold that living well now is the only possible preparation for whatever may come after death - if anything.

I have never met a Unitarian who did not feel a sense of personal responsibility for how he or she lived his or her life, and for what happened to society and the world. I have never met a Unitarian who did not insist on the right to make up his or her own mind, rather than being told what to believe. I have never met a Unitarian who did not believe that Jesus was the son of normal human parents, conceived and born as you and I. I know of no Unitarian who regards this world as a puppet stage over which some higher inscrutable power from time to time pulls the strings.

I cannot be sure that no Unitarian will contradict me on some of this, but I venture to say that Unitarian agreement on these matters comes closer to unanimity than you will find in any other church.

We Unitarians are not distinguished from other religious groups by one or two simple points of belief where we differ from the accepted tradition. The question "What do Unitarians believe?" is almost too broad to answer. Ask what we believe about God, or Jesus, or the Bible, or about human destiny, and you will begin to get an answer to that one question.

Conflicts of belief with reason

One confusion in talking about Unitarian beliefs is that beliefs are often confused with credulity. Faith too often is thought of as the acceptance of beliefs which are beyond question, not subject to the test of experience and individual reason. In the sense of beliefs that cannot be questioned, Unitarians have no beliefs. We hold that all beliefs must be open to question and examination, and that they may then be accepted, modified, or rejected.

What of contradictions? In the event of a conflict between beliefs and reason, which should be modified or give way? Are beliefs superior to reason and beyond comprehension, or must they be modified in the light of reason? Are we to apply modern historical methods to the study of the Bible throughout, accepting the findings produced by them? Or are there certain crucial places in the Bible where beliefs that are beyond reason must take priority over historical judgment? Must beliefs conquer reason, the facts, our experience, history, and our personal judgment? This is a great watershed in religion, separating the religious liberals from the conservatives. This division cuts throughout most churches. You will, for instance, find Anglicans, Roman Catholics and United Church people on both sides of the issue. There can be no doubt, however, where Unitarians stand.

We affirm that beliefs must be subject to the scrutiny and the revision of reason and experience. We reject truth with a capital "T," the truth of a holy book that cannot be questioned, or the truth of an authoritative church. Truth is a function of persons, of people such as we, not of books beyond reason nor of churches beyond doubt.

Truth

We are firmly committed to truth with a small "t," to the right - indeed the duty - of personal judgment. Freedom of belief is not a licence for religious anarchy or irresponsibility. It is not a franchise for wishful thinking. It is an opportunity for careful, hard, honest thought. Every person should develop his or her own capacity for personal judgment so that she or he may, in the words of the apostle Paul, "Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good." Nor is it all a private matter: we believe in sharing personal convictions and beliefs with each other in an atmosphere of openness and mutual respect.

Much of our diversity, our variety of beliefs, lies on the surface. We each have our own perspective. Our experiences are our own, subtly different from everyone else's. Each of us interprets symbols a little differently. Each of us attaches slightly different meanings to words. Like all human beings, each of us to some extent speaks a private language, which no one else understands.

This is obvious when we speak of God. There is no "yes" or "no" answer to the question, "Do Unitarians believe in God?" There is no universally accepted meaning of the word "God" among Unitarians. Some Unitarians say they believe in God. Others say they do not. For the most part it is more a question of word usage than of basic beliefs. We tend to hold similar basic beliefs.

Unitarians believe first of all in truth in its supremacy and its authority. It does not need to be embalmed to be preserved for posterity. We jealously guard the right to know, to speak, and to argue freely, according to conscience, within our own church and in society at large. We are opposed to censorship, by church, state, or any other institution. We believe that truth stands the best chance of emerging under conditions of freedom.

We expect honesty of belief and integrity of convictions in each person. We do not say: "Think as you like, but say you believe." We say: "Think as you must, then say what you really believe."

The human potential

We have a fundamental and underlying faith in human possibilities. We believe our inherent powers are such that we can judge and know what is good and true.

We human beings can also act. We have the power and the ability to act constructively and creatively. We can, if we choose, make this life a good and happy one. We believe we should use our powers to this end. We believe in the good life for all people, with each person to decide for himself or herself what the good life is.

We believe, at the same time, in social responsibility. We believe in human rights; in basic human equality; in universal community, undivided by nation, race, sex, caste, or creed. We believe this is within our powers, within our capabilities, if we will but develop our capacities to know and to love.

Nature and evolution

We believe in the world, the universe, our home. It is a source of ecstasty and joy. It is, one must acknowledge, also a source of tornadoes, disease, pain and death. Yet it is dependable, orderly and, in its way, intelligible and predictable. We believe its evidence. We believe in evolution, because that is what the evidence indicates as to the origin of life on this our planet.

The past and the future

The only way we can understand the past is from our own perspective. We cannot draw on the Bible and the other great religions of the past using the interpretations people of old placed upon them. We draw on the past using our present insights. The past can only live in the present as appropriated by the present.

The future is contained within the present, too. It is within our hands. It is our responsibility and our concern, now, for what yet shall be.

The emotional and spiritual side of religion

While Unitarians enjoy intellectual stimulation and tend to be book lovers, we also enjoy the arts and music. We do not use free inquiry to make our religion complicated, but to make our perception of it so simple and direct, so free of obstacles and nonessentials it is sometimes hard to put into words. We are emotional people, like every one else. We value the emotional and spiritual side of religion. We recognize the depths to our selves the conscious mind can hardly take in. We have our dreams and our loves. While we meet to inquire, we meet more to celebrate and to share, to enrich and care for each other. If you are looking for such a community of people we invite you to celebrate and journey with us.

A brief history

The insight giving rise to the word "Unitarian" goes back to Michael Servetus (1511-1553), a Spanish doctor. In Spain in his time Jews and Muslims were being dispossessed, killed, and driven out of the country for denying the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. The Trinity is the concept that while God is essentially one, God is also three separate persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jews and Muslims hold that God's essential oneness entails that all human beings, including Jesus, while children of God, are nonetheless beings other than God.

Servetus discovered that in the uncorrupted Greek New Testament there was no text to justify the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. He published two books arguing that Christians should bring their views of God and Jesus into conformity with Jewish and Muslim monotheism. Hence the word "Unitarian" -- God as unity, or one.

The emphasis on sensible, ethical religion which characterizes Unitarianism goes back to a movement of Christians in Italy in the 1530s and 1540s who had a liberal, enlightened programme for the reform of Christianity. They were driven from Italy by persecution, spreading their ideas and those of Servetus as they dispersed.

One Italian, Faustus Socinus, settled among the Polish Brethren, a radical Reformation movement that tried setting up a large commune at Cracow. There an open university, with freedom in religious ideas (an unheard of innovation in those days) and a publishing press spread Unitarian ideas throughout Europe, winning over such in England as John Milton and Isaac Newton.

Mounting persecution drove the Polish Brethren (or Socinians) from Poland in 1659. Their ideas, however, took permanent root in Transylvania (now part of Romania) and Hungary, where there have been many Unitarian churches now for more than four centuries.

In England, the development of Unitarianism was slower, since professing Unitarian ideas was a criminal offence for a long time, and Unitarians were banned from public of fice until 1828. Unitarians there long went by other names, many by Presbyterian, a word denoting a form of church government.

Unitarianism came to this continent over two centuries ago. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams, leaders of the American Revolution, were Unitarians. Unitarianism took root in the liberal wing of the Congregational church, tied in with the Boston establishment throughout the 19th century. In the 1820s, Unitarians began showing up in Canada from England, Ireland, and New England. The Unitarian Church of Montreal was founded in 1842, the First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto in 1845.

About the author: Rev. Charles W. Eddis was the minister of the Unitarian Church of Montreal. He is now retired. He has served Unitarian congregations in Canada, the United States, and Great Britain. Dr. Eddis was one of the founders of the Canadian Unitarian Council and was its first president.