n.
Belief in the salvation of all soul s.
Arising as early as the time of Origen and at various points in Christian history, the concept became an organized movement in North America in the mid-18th century. It maintains the impossibility that a loving God would bestow salvation on only a portion of humankind while dooming the rest to eternal punishment. It stresses the use of reason in religion and the modification of belief in light of the discoveries of science. Thus, the miraculous elements of traditional Christianity are rejected, and Jesus , while a worthy teacher and model, is not held to be divine. Universalist and Unitarian churches in the U.S. merged in 1961 (see Unitarianism ).