What are the roots of the Unitarian Universalist church?

Answer 1

The origins of American Unitarianism began with some of the most historic congregations in Puritan New England where each town was required to establish a congregationally independent church that followed Calvinist doctrines. Initially these congregational churches offered no religious choice for their parishioners, but over time the strict doctrines of original sin and predestination began to mellow. By the mid-1700s a group of evangelicals were calling for the revival of Puritan orthodoxy. They asserted their belief in humanity's eternal bondage to sin. People who opposed the revival, believing in free human will and the loving benevolence of God, eventually became Unitarian. During the first four decades of the nineteenth century, hundreds of these original congregational churches fought over ideas about sin and salvation, and especially over the doctrine of the Trinity. Most of the churches split over these issues. In 1819, Unitarian minister William Ellery Channing delivered a sermon called "Unitarian Christianity" and helped to give the Unitarians a strong platform. Six years later the American Unitarian Association was organized in Boston, MA. Growing out of this inclusive theology was a lasting impetus to create a more just society. UUs became active participants in many social justice movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Universalists such as Charles Spear called for prison reform, and Clara Barton who went from Civil War "angel of the battlefield" to become the founder of the American Red Cross. Unitarians such as Dorothea Dix fought to "break the chains" of people incarcerated in mental hospitals, and Samuel Gridley Howe started schools for the blind. Unitarian preacher Theodore Parker was a prominent abolitionist, defending fugitive slaves and offering support to American abolitionist John Brown. Unitarian Universalists (UUs) became active in the Civil Rights Movement. James Reeb, a Unitarian Universalist minister, was murdered in Selma, Alabama, after he and twenty percent of the denomination's ministers responded to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s call to march for justice. For the last two centuries, Unitarians and Universalists have been at the forefront of movements working to free people from whatever bonds may oppress them. Above statements are based on information provided by the UUA at www . uua . org/beliefs/history/our-historic-faith Former answer: UU-ism is based off of many different religions, because it allows its members to believe in everything they think and believe they have found through their own journeys, and because the children are taught to respect all religions at a young age (4th grade). I know that Unitarians have their roots in Transcendentalism (the belief of power in simplicity and the belief that God, religion, and spirituality can be found outside of the church and particularly in nature) but they also draw from many other religions, as they have developed out of them instead being an older and established religion.