Unitarianism

Unitarianism is a Christian movement that rejects the Trinity, instead holding that God is a single, unique creator. Its theology criticizes the traditional Christian view of God as three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—calling it a later corruption. Unitarians see God as one unified entity, and while they hold Jesus Christ in the highest regard as an unmatched spiritual and moral teacher, they consider his divine status as the Son of God subordinate to God the Creator. Most Unitarians believe Jesus was divinely inspired in his teachings and serves as humanity’s savior, but they do not consider him equal to God. They reject the authority of ecumenical councils and creeds, placing themselves outside mainstream Christianity, and aim to restore what they see as primitive Christianity before later corruptions. Many also reject the doctrine of original sin. The movement includes both liberal denominations and more conservative ones, often called biblical Unitarians.

Unitarianism emerged around the mid-16th century, near the Radical Reformation, appearing almost simultaneously among the Polish Brethren in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and in the Principality of Transylvania. The first known Unitarian denomination was the Unitarian Church of Transylvania, founded by preacher and theologian Ferenc Dávid (c. 1520–1579). Its early followers included many Italians who fled to Bohemia, Moravia, Poland, and Transylvania to escape persecution from Roman Catholic and Magisterial Protestant churches. Early leader Demeter Hunyadi worked to catechize believers. The first Unitarian confession of faith, the Consensus Ministrorum, affirmed a unitary view of God and taught that Jesus Christ should be adored. The Complanatio (1638) established infant baptism and the Eucharist as necessary sacraments. The widely used Racovian Catechism (1605) of the Polish Brethren explained Unitarian faith from a Socinian perspective, using biblical proof-texts.

In the 17th century, severe repression in Poland led many Unitarians to flee or be killed. In Britain, from the 16th to 18th centuries, Unitarians faced political persecution, including figures like John Biddle and Theophilus Lindsey. The first Unitarian church in England opened in 1774 on Essex Street, London, where British Unitarian headquarters remain today. Unitarianism is not a single denomination but a collection of related and unrelated Christian groups sharing the belief in God’s unitary nature. Unitarian communities have developed in Central Europe (mostly Romania and Hungary), Ireland, India, Jamaica, Japan, Canada, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In British America, Unitarian theology spread first in New England and then the Mid-Atlantic states. The first North American congregation to officially accept Unitarianism was King’s Chapel in Boston, where James Freeman began teaching Unitarian doctrine in 1784 and became rector. In 1785, he created a revised Unitarian Book of Common Prayer based on Lindsey’s work.

Terminology: Unitarianism is a proper noun, used like other Christian theologies (e.g., Calvinism, Anabaptism). The term existed before it named a distinct tradition, so it can also describe any nontrinitarian belief that denies the Trinity or sees God as one person—but not all such beliefs are part of the Unitarian movement. For instance, Unitarianism has never accepted the divinity of Jesus, so it excludes groups like Oneness Pentecostalism, the United Pentecostal Church International, the True Jesus Church, and the writings of Michael Servetus, which all maintain Jesus is God as a single person. Unitarianism is distinct from Unitarian Universalism. In the 1890s, the American Unitarian Association began allowing non-Christian and non-theistic churches and individuals into its fellowship. Over time, people without Unitarian beliefs came to be called Unitarians simply because they belonged to those churches. After several decades, non-theistic members outnumbered theological Unitarians.

History: Unitarianism as a theology and denominational family developed in Poland, Transylvania, England, Wales, India, Japan, Jamaica, the United States, and elsewhere from the 16th century onward. Though common beliefs existed among Unitarians in these regions, the movement has always been diverse.