A Short History of Unitarianism and Universalism

Because there have always been men and women who question the religion handed them in childhood, a religion of the free mind, like today's Unitarian Universalists, was inevitable.  If the specific events and personalities that shaped this religious movement had never existed, other religious liberals would have filled the vacuum. Though it would be known by a different name, this religion of the free mind would exist today.

Nevertheless, there are those illustrious personalities who forged the way during difficult times. Struggling against ostracism, violence, and even murder, they moved through history down the separate paths to Unitarianism and Universalism.

The Unitarian and Universalist movements both germinated in specific religious issues.

Both grew to encompass religious doubters of many views, and both eventually welcomed to their ranks all thoughtful men and women who would accept the right of others to have different views.

Though Jesus had been dead several hundred years before the word "Unitarian" came into use, the movement that eventually acquired that label began shortly after his death. Then, many who knew Jesus talked of his humanity and his teachings, while others who had only heard of him touted his divinity and began to construct a religion that was more about him than of him.

The issue that polarized the inheritors of these philosophical differences was the doctrine of the Trinity, adopted in 325 AD by means more political than religious. The Trinitarians, who believed in "God the Father, God, the Son, God the Holy Ghost," said that those who stressed the unity of God (later known as Unitarians) were heretics.  Many of the Unitarians were executed for their beliefs. Best known of these martyrs is Michael Servetus (pictured), who was burned at the stake in 1553 for writing "On The Errors of the Trinity."