The New Universalism
Universalism arrived on this continent very early in the history of European settlement.
The Mennonites, the Dunkers, the Amish, and the Moravians who settled in Pennsylvania
in the 17th and 18th Centuries held the conviction that a loving God would not condemn any of his children to endless punishment. While this universalism was not
the defining conviction of any of these groups, it was a commonplace article of faith
among them, and as these groups--especially the Moravians--sent out missionaries,
it was part of the gospel they carried into the wilderness and spread along the New Jersey
Shore.
Traditionally, Universalists pointed to the arrival of an English lay preacher, John
Murray, in 1770, as the beginning of the movement in North America. From a ship
becalmed off Barnegat Bay he was sent ashore to find provisions, only to encounter
an illiterate farmer named Thomas Potter who talked him into preaching in his chapel. And
thus began Murray's career as preacher and then founder of Universalism in the New
World.
Other preachers, too, soon began preaching the universalist gospel. In Philadelphia,
Elhanan Winchester founded a congregation of Universalist Baptists. Caleb Rich founded
several Universalist societies in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. And the Universalist Congregation which would subsequently ordain John Murray as its minister, began
among a group of lay people in Gloucester, Massachusetts, as a result of their reading
and discussing a book left behind by a British seaman. Universalism was in the air.
This early Universalism focused on one central teaching held to be firmly rooted in
the Bible and in the teachings of the early church fathers: that God is love, and
a loving God would not condemn any of his children to an eternity of pointless punishment. Murray and the others still accepted the doctrines of original sin, the triune nature
of God, the Divinity of Jesus and the atoning quality of his death, and the authority
of the Bible. Some even accepted the existence of Hell, but they disagreed with
those who insisted on an eternity
of punishment, believing instead that, after sufficient punishment, the wicked would
be restored to harmony with God.
As the 19th Century dawned, Hosea Ballou moved Universalism to a new formulation by
wedding this central faith of universalism to the rationalism of Thomas Paine and,
especially, Ethan Allen. Son of a New Hampshire farmer and part-time Baptist preacher,
Ballou's formal education was scant. Nonetheless, the young man read everything he
could find to read and among the books he encountered was REASON, THE ONLY ORACLE
OF MAN by Ethan Allen, in which the Revolutionary War hero argued forcefully for
the primacy of reason in all areas of human endeavor, including religion.
Hosea Ballou embraced Universalism in 1790. Three years later, at a convention of
Universalists, Elhanan Winchester spontaneously ordained him, and his career was
set. Ballou published A TREATISE ON ATONEMENT in 1805. Employing sharp reasoning
and homespun parables, and true to his insistence that true religion cannot be unreasonable,
Ballou presented God as a god of love, not of wrath; God did not need to be reconciled
to people, but human beings needed to understand God's love as shared by all. Ballou found no basis in scripture or reason for the doctrine of the trinity, noting, "If
the Godhead consists of three distinct persons, each infinite, the Godhead amounts
to infinity times three" Within ten years of the publication of the Treatise, the
theology of Murray and the founders was bypassed, and the Universalist movement had become
unitarian in its theology.
It was this blend of Rationalism and Christian faith which Universalists carried with
them west and south from New England and New York as they joined the conquest of
the frontier. With an evangelical passion, Universalist itinerants carried the good
news of God's irresistible love to every place they could find an audience. Universalism
was called "the reigning heresy of the day." At one time, it was reported to be
the sixth largest denomination in the country.
During this period of rapid growth, the Universalists organized themselves into state
conventions, and created the General Convention of Universalists. They established
schools and colleges-- Tufts University, St. Lawrence University, Akron University,
Lombard College, Clinton Liberal Institute, Cal Tech. They published journals and magazines,
exploring the implications of their faith for the social issues of their day as they
worked in behalf of temperance, prison reform, an end to the death penalty, anti-slavery activities, education and welfare reform.
Universalism had its share of theological mavericks. A close friend of Hosea Ballou,
Reverend Abner Kneeland began to have doubts about the central tenets of Christianity.
The story is told that he sometimes would bring his Bible into the pulpit, read
from it passages concerning menstruation, then hurl the book across the room, proclaiming
that it was not fit to be read. Kneeland became something of an public embarrassment
to the Universalists; so the editor of the Universalist Trumpet asked him to declare himself in a way which would make it clear that he was no longer a representative
of the denomination. Kneeland replied:
...I still hold to universal philanthropy, universal benevolence, and universal charity.
In those respects I am still a Universalist. Neither do I believe in punishment
after death; so in this also I agree with Universalists. But as it respects all
other of their religious notions in relation to another world, or a supposed state of conscious
existence, I do not believe in any of them; so that in this respect I am no more
a universalist than I am an orthodox Christian. As for instance.
- Universalists believe in a god which I do not; but believe that their god, with
all his moral attributes, (aside from nature itself,) is nothing more than a chimera
of their own imagination.
- Universalists believe in Christ, which I do not; but believe that the whole story
concerning him is as much a fable and a fiction, as that of the god Prometheus, the
tragedy of whose death is said to have been acted on the stage in the theatre at
Athens, 500 years before the christian era.
- Universalists believe in miracles, which I do not; but believe that every pretension
to them can either be accounted for on natural principles or else is to be attributed
to mere trick and imposture.
- Universalists believe in the resurrection of the dead, in immortality and eternal
life, which I do not; but believe that all life is mortal, that death is an eternal
extinction of life to the individual who possesses it, and that no individual life
is, ever was, or ever will be eternal.
Hence as Universalists no longer wish to consider me as being of their faith, and
I no longer wish to be considered as belonging to their order, as it relates to a
belief in things unseen, I hope the above four articles will be sufficient to distinguish
me from them and them from me. ...
His statement not only enough distinguished him from the Universalists--it proved
the effective reason for him to be arrested by the civil authorities on a count of
blasphemy. Kneeland served sixty days in jail, then moved to Iowa, where he is fondly
remembered as one of the founders of that state.
This shock to the Universalist system happened in 1833, five years before Emerson
would utter his heresies at Harvard Divinity School.
The golden age of Universalist expansion and growth was interrupted by the Civil War.
But in 1870, they celebrated the centennial of Murray's arrival in America with
a national convention which also provided the occasion for the creation of the Association of Universalist Women, the first nation-wide women's organization in the country.
The last decades of the century were largely consumed in the effort by conservatives
to protect the Biblical and Christian basis of Universalism. Universalists began
wrestling with the implications of Darwin's theory of evolution, and German Biblical
Criticism in 1860. Even at the height of the Civil War, they were engaging in theological
discussions of the significance of these important challenges to traditional religion.
Their commitment to the notion that true religion could not be unreasonable led
them to more openness to scientific theory than was true of many other religious groups--the
Universalists noting that "the spheres of science and religion do not conflict, but
complement each other, science speaking of the 'how' of things, while religion speaks of the 'whence.'"
By 1880, Universalists were talking about a god who worked constantly through nature
and natural law, not through miraculous events. At the same time, Biblical Criticism
drove Universalists to a recognition of the Bible as a human document, prone to the
errors of all human documents. So, by the end of the century, Universalism, like
Unitarianism, had largely made peace with Parker and Emerson, even if it had not
yet caught up with Kneeland.
Two major events occurred in the 1890's which challenged Universalists to think more
carefully about their relationship to Christianity. In 1890 the Universalists established
a mission in Japan--sending three missionaries to establish schools and a church. This action had long-term consequences. In the past, Universalism had seen its
role in terms of countering the distortions, the "partialism," of Christianity as
taught by the other denominations. In Japan they dealt with people who had never
been Christian.
In 1893, the Universalists were major participants in the World Parliament of Religion
in Chicago. The Rev. Augusta Chapin organized the women's section of the parliament,
and a number of prominent Universalists addressed the gathering. Confronted by a
vast number of religious alternatives, the Universalists were challenged to see themselves
as part of a much broader universe beyond the Christian community.
One need not be Christian to be saved, seemed the message to Universalism emerging
from the World Parliament of Religion, and Universalism must be more than a critique
of Christianity seemed the message emerging from the mission to Japan.
Universalists, like most Americans, entered the twentieth century on a wave of optimism
and enthusiasm for what was hailed "the Christian Century." Like many religious
groups, the Universalists were involved in creating a just society. A declaration
of social principles implicit in the Universalist faith was adopted by the General Convention
in 1917, calling for
- An economic order which shall give every human being an equal share in the common
gifts of God, and in addition, all that he shall earn by his own labor
- A social order in which there shall be equal rights for all, special privileges
for none, the help of the strong for the weak until the weak become strong.
- A moral order in which all human law and action shall be an expression of the moral
order of the universe.
- A spiritual order in which we shall build out of the growing lives of men the growing
temple of the living God.
The First World War and its consequences made the bright hopes with which the century
had been greeted seem foolish and naive. Many religious groups were forced to rethink
their mission. This was especially true of the Universalists, who also could no
longer ignore the long, slow decline which now avalanched into near disaster.
Several factors undermined the Universalist movement. The First World War had made
irreversible, the urbanization of American culture. For Universalists, with much
of their strength in small towns and rural areas, the movement of the population
to major urban centers was a catastrophe. Then too, Universalism was the victim of its own
success. Over time, their compelling central message, that the universe is centered
in love and that a loving God would not, could not doom any part of creation to eternal
punishment had permeated the culture. Mainstream Protestant churches had left off
preaching hell-fire and focused instead on the Social Gospel movement so that it
was not easy to distinguish the message of such churches from the message of Universalism.
By the mid 1920's Universalists were seriously seeking a response to the crisis of
decline. Some saw the problem in the drift of the movement from its Christian roots.
Others looked to a new identity for their church--an identity shaped by the impact
of the Japan Mission and the World Parliament of Religions. Several factors conspired
to undercut the arguments of those who dreamed of Universalism as part of the larger
Protestant Christian movement. In 1933, the appearance of the Humanist Manifesto
challenged traditional religious assumptions. Of the signers of the Manifesto, only one
was a Universalist minister, though two more held joint ministerial fellowship with
the Unitarians and the Universalists. Many Universalists were not supportive of
the Manifesto with its call of for this-worldly, reason-based, non-theistic, non-supernatural
religion. However, the appearance of the Manifesto demonstrated anew the need for
Universalists to restate their message to a changed and changing world.
In 1935, the General Convention, meeting in Washington, D. C., adopted, with little
debate or controversy, a new "Bond of Fellowship and Statement of Faith." The statement
was a remarkable departure from previous statements. It reflected a new Christology--Jesus as a leader, a spiritual model but his relation to God left unspecified.
It reflected a changed eschatology-- gone was the concern about life after death;
instead, the Kingdom of God was seen as the gradual result of human effort. The
Bible was not mentioned. By 1935, if Universalism had not yet fully departed from Christianity,
it had opened the door to a much broader understanding of its mission.
One who would walk through that door was Robert Cummins. Elected General Superintendent
in 1938, Cummins set about to revitalize a demoralized movement suffering from decades
of decline. At his suggestion, the General Convention of Universalists became the Universalist Church of America in 1942, and its delegate body came to be known
as the General Assembly. Addressing the Assembly the following year Cummins said:
Universalism cannot be limited either to Protestantism or to Christianity, not without
denying its very name. Ours is a world fellowship, not just a Christian sect. For
so long as Universalism is universalism and not partialism, the fellowship bearing
its name must succeed in making it unmistakably clear that all are welcome: theist
and humanist, unitarian and trinitarian, colored and color-less. A circumscribed
Universalism is unthinkable.
Cummins was not yet speaking for all Universalists. Many were still deeply committed
to their Christian heritage. But his message was given added impetus by the reaction
of the larger Christian community. In 1942 and again in 1944, the Universalist Church of America sought admission to the Federal Council of Churches. On both occasions
it was rejected on theological grounds: the Council decided Universalists were insufficiently
Christian since they did not condition membership upon an affirmation of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
>From 1946 through 1954 a group of younger ministers organized, as "The Humiliati,"
sought to renew the denomination by encouraging a "universalist Universalism. Critics
suggested that there was nothing humble about these recent graduates of Crane Theological School. Nevertheless, out of their discussions and concern emerged a new symbol
for Universalism--a cross off-center in a circle, intended to demonstrate that while
Universalism had emerged from the Christian tradition, Christianity was no longer
central to the Universalist gospel. Those who took offense at this graphic representation
of the New Universalism were given another cause for alarm when one of the Humiliati
refused to be ordained to the Christian
ministry and insisted instead on being ordained to the Universalist
ministry.
In 1949, the New Universalism was incarnated in institutionalized form, when the Massachusetts
State Convention, under the leadership of its new Superintendent, Clinton Lee Scott,
established a new congregation in Boston--Charles Street Meeting House--and Rev. Kenneth L. Patton was hired to be its minister. Patton, who had been minister
of the Unitarian Society in Madison, Wisconsin, and noted for his preaching and writing,
was charged with breaking new ground and offering a clear alternative to the tradition-bound Unitarian churches in the city. He went to work, creating a church in the
round, decorated with symbols and art from the world's great religions and cultures,
all centered around a mural of the great nebula in Andromeda. Instead of an altar,
Patton installed a shelf of books-- scriptures from around the world.
Patton wrote and published poems, readings, hymns all reflective of a naturalistic
mysticism celebrating the human experience in its natural setting. He sang of salvation
in this world; he called for justice in this world; he rejoiced in the rhythm of
the seasons; and he celebrated life and death. Meeting House Press, established by Patton,
made the work and the experience of the experimental congregation available to the
larger movement. It must be admitted that he had little patience with more conservative and traditional forms, and his lack of tact not only won him few friends among
those who disagreed with him but sometimes exasperated his supporters. For a while,
Charles Street Meeting House became the focus of the struggle between the conservative
and liberal wings of the Universalist denomination. But the die was cast. Kenneth
Patton's liturgical vision shaped the thinking and the worshiping of Unitarians and
Universalists alike, providing them a common language and common experiences which
prepared the road to merger. Without a doubt, Kenneth Patton's was one of the most important
influences upon Unitarian and Universalist thought in the twentieth century. It
was Patton who taught a stumble footed humanism to dance and a monotone rationalism
to sing. After him, Unitarian Universalism would never again be the same.
As a result of the efforts of the Humiliati and others who dreamed an emergent, a
larger, a New Universalism, and the talent and commitment of Kenneth Patton the Universalists
brought to the merger with the Unitarians in 1961 an incredible richness resulting from decades of struggling for a new identity and a greater sense of the role of
liberal religion in relation to Christianity and to the new world which was becoming
a global village.
The sermon in a Unitarian Universalist setting is never the last word
on any subject, but rather an invitation to further dialog.
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