which formed (1830) the Remonstrant Synod, comprising three presbyteries. In 1910 the Antrim Presbytery, Remonstrant Synod and Synod of Munster were united as the General Synod of the non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland. They have 38 congregations and some mission stations. Till 1889 they maintained two theological chairs in Belfast, where John Scott Porter (1801-1880) was a pioneer in biblical criticism; they now send their students to England for their theological education, though in certain respects their views and practices are more conservative than those of their English brethren.
Irish Unitarian periodical literature began in 1832 with the Bible Christian, followed by the Irish Unitarian Magazine, the Christian Unitarian, the Disciple and now the Non-subscribing Presbyterian.
See generally R. Wallace's Antitrinitarian Biog. (1850); G. Bonet-Maury's Early Sources of Eng. Unit. Christianity, trans. E. P. Hall (1884); A. Gordon's Heads of Eng. Unit. Hist. (1895). (A. Go.*)
United States.—Unitarianism in the United States followed essentially the same development as in England, and passed through the stages of Arminianism, Arianism, anti-tritheism, to rationalism and a modernism based on a large-minded acceptance of the results of the comparative study of all religions. In the early 18th century Arminianism presented itself in New England, and sporadically elsewhere; this tendency was largely accelerated by the reaction from the excesses of the “Great Awakening” under Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. Before the War of Independence Arianism showed itself in individual instances, and French influences were widespread in the direction of deism, though they were not organized into any definite utterance by religious bodies.
As early as the middle of the 18th century Harvard College represented the most advanced thought of the time, and a score or more of clergymen in New England were preaching what was essentially Unitarianism. The most prominent of these men was Jonathan Mayhew (1720-1766), pastor of the West Church in Boston from 1747 to 1766. He preached the strict unity of God, the subordinate nature of Christ, and salvation by character. Charles Chauncy (1705-1787), pastor of the First Church from 1727 until his death, the chief opponent of Edwards in the great revival, was both a Unitarian and a Universalist. Ebenezer Gay (1696-1787) of Hingham, Samuel West (1730-1807) of New Bedford, Thomas Barnard (1748-1814) of Newbury, John Prince (1751-1836) and William Bentley (1758-1819) of Salem, Aaron Bancroft (1755-1836) of Worcester, and several others, were Unitarians.
The first official acceptance of the Unitarian faith on the part of a congregation was by King's Chapel in Boston, which settled James Freeman (1759-1853) in 1782, and revised the Prayer Book into a mild Unitarian liturgy, in 1785. The Rev. William Hazlitt (father of the essayist and critic), visiting the United States in 1783-1785, published the fact that there were Unitarians in Philadelphia, Boston, Charleston, Pittsburg, Hallowell, on Cape Cod and elsewhere. Unitarian congregations were organized at Portland and Saco in 1792 by Thomas Oxnard; in 1800 the First Church in Plymouth accepted the more liberal faith. Joseph Priestley came to the United States in 1794, and organized Unitarian Church at Northumberland, Pennsylvania, the same year, and one at Philadelphia in 1796. His writings had a considerable influence.
Thus from 1725 to 1825 a more tolerant and rational belief was developing in New England, and to some extent elsewhere. The first distinctive manifestation of the change was the inauguration of Henry Ware (1764-1845) as professor of divinity at Harvard College, in 1805. In the same year appeared Unitarian books by John Sherman (1772-1828) and Hosea Ballou (1771-1852), and another in 1810 by Noah Worcester (1758-1837). At the opening of the 19th century, with one exception, all the churches of Boston were occupied by Unitarian preachers, and various periodicals and organizations expressed their opinions. Churches were established in New York, Baltimore, Washington, Charleston and elsewhere during this period.
William Ellery Channing was settled over the Federal Street Congregational Church, Boston, 1803; and in a few years he became the leader of the Unitarian movement. At first mystical rather than rationalistic in his theology, he took part with the “Catholic Christians,” as they called themselves, who aimed at bringing Christianity into harmony with the progressive spirit of the time. His essays on The System of Exclusion and Denunciation in Religion (1815), and Objections to Unitarian Christianity Considered (1819), made him a defender of Unitarianism. His sermon on “Unitarian Christianity,” preached at Baltimore in 1819, at the ordination of Jared Sparks, and that at New York in 1821, on “Unitarian Christianity most favourable to Piety,” made him its interpreter. The result was a growing division in the Congregational churches, which was emphasized in 1825 by the formation of the American Unitarian Association at Boston. It was organized “to diffuse the knowledge and promote the interests of pure Christianity”; and it published tracts and books, supported poor churches, sent out missionaries into every part of the country, and established new churches in nearly all the states. Essentially non-sectarian, with little missionary zeal, the Unitarian movement has grown slowly; and its influence has been chiefly exercised through general culture and the better literature of the country. Many of its clergymen have been trained in other denominations; but the Harvard Divinity School was distinctly Unitarian from its formation, in 1816, to 1870, when it became an unsectarian department of the university. The Meadville (Pa.) Theological School was founded in 1844; and the Unitarian Theological School at Berkeley, California, in 1904.
Unitarian thought in the United States has passed through three periods. The first, from 1800 to 1835, was formative, mainly influenced by English philosophy, semi-supernatural, imperfectly rationalistic, devoted to philanthropy and practical Christianity. Dr Channing was its distinguished exponent. The second, from 1835 to 1885, profoundly influenced by German idealism, was increasingly rationalistic, though its theology was largely flavoured by mysticism. In 1865 the National Unitarian Conference was organized, and adopted a distinctly Christian platform, affirming that its members were “disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.” The more rationalistic minority thereupon formed the Free Religious Association, “to encourage the scientific study of theology and to increase fellowship in the spirit.” The Western Unitarian Association accepted the same position, and based its “fellowship on no dogmatic tests,” but affirmed a desire “to establish truth, righteousness and love in the world.” This period of controversy, and of vigorous theological development, practically came to an end soon after 1885; and its cessation was assured by the action of the national conference at Saratoga in 1894, when it was affirmed by a nearly unanimous vote: “These churches accept the religion of Jesus, holding, in accordance with his teaching, that practical religion is summed up in love to God and love to man. The conference recognizes the fact that its constituency is Congregational in tradition and polity. Therefore it declares that nothing in this constitution is to be construed as an authoritative test; and we cordially invite to our working fellowship any who, while differing from us in belief, are in general sympathy with our spirit and our practical aims.” The leaders of this period were Emerson, with his idealism, and Theodore Parker, with his acceptance of Christianity as absolute religion.
The third period, beginning about 1885, has been one of rationalism, recognition of universal religion, large acceptance of the scientific method and ideas and an ethical attempt to realize the higher affirmations of Christianity. It has been marked by harmony and unity to a degree perhaps found in no other religious body, by steady growth in the number of churches and by a widening fellowship with all other progressive phases of modern religion. This last phase has been shown in the organization of “The International Council of Unitarian and other Liberal Religious Thinkers and Workers,” at Boston on the 25th of May 1900, “to open communication with those in all lands who are striving to unite pure religion and perfect liberty, and to increase fellowship and co-operation among them.” This council has held biennial sessions in London, Amsterdam,
