UNITARIANISM AND UNIVERSALISM

liberal religious movements that have merged in the United States. In previous centuries they appealed for their views to Scripture interpreted by reason, but most contemporary Unitarians and Universalists base their religious beliefs on reason and experience. Unitarianism as an organized religious movement emerged during the Reformation period in Poland, Transylvania, and England, and later in North America from the original New England Puritan churches. In each country Unitarian leaders sought to achieve a reformation that was completely in accordance with the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament; in particular, they found no warrant for the doctrine of the Trinity accepted by other Christian churches. Universalism as a religious movement developed from the influences of radical Pietism in the 18th century and dissent in the Baptist and Congregational churches from predestinarian views that only a small number, the elect, will be saved. Universalists argued that Scripture does not teach eternal torment in hell and with Origen, the 3rd century Alexandrian theologian, they affirmed a universal restoration of all to God. Additional reading Earl Morse Wilbur, A History of Unitarianism, 2 vol. (1945), which remains basic for understanding Unitarianism; C. Gordon Bolam et al., The English Presbyterians, from Elizabethan Puritanism to Modern Unitarianism (1968); Conrad Wright, The Beginnings of Unitarianism in America (1955, reissued 1976), which portrays the 18th century; and Conrad Wright (ed.), A Stream of Light: A Sesquicentennial History of American Unitarianism (1975). Richard Eddy, Universalism in America, 3rd ed., 2 vol. (189194), still useful, has been followed by Russell E. Miller, The Larger Hope, vol. 1, The First Century of the Universalist Church in America, 17701870 (1979), and vol. 2, The Second Century of the Universalist Church in America, 18701970 (1985). Ernest Cassara (ed.), Universalism in America: A Documentary History, 2nd ed. (1984); and George Huntston Williams, American Universalism: A Bicentennial Historical Essay, 2nd ed. (1976), are important supplements to Miller. David Robinson, The Unitarians and the Universalists (1985), is a study of the merged denominations. John Charles Godbey