AboutJon Bond Expertise Will answer all questions regarding Unitarian Universalist (UU)church; including ancient history (Universalists go back to at least 250 A.D.) and medieval history (Unitarians look to 1553 A.D. as their beginning) up to merger of the two movements in 1961 and continuing up to present. Am familiar with Christian church organizations and relationship of UUs to traditional churches.
Experience Currently member of Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder, Colorado. Past vice-president of Board of Trustees and currently on Membership Committee. Have taught UU history for over 20 years. Have attended Unitarian Universalist General Assemblies (annual meetings held in June) for past 15 years.
Organizations Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder, Colorado
Expert: Jon Bond Date: 4/16/2004 Subject: Hello, I am doing a research...
Question Hello, I am doing a research project for a class of mine about Unitarianism and I can't seem to find some of the information I need on the web and I was hoping I could recieve some help from you. I cannot find the specific geographic origin of Unitarianism, or everyday behavoir/dress. I keep getting the main generalization of the denomination but nothing really specific. It would be a great help if you would be able to address those subjects of even give me a website. Thank you for your time and patience.
Answer Hello Taylor -
I'll try to answer your question. Remember, I'm one of over 250,000 people in our association and, if you ask another UU (Unitarian Universalist), you may get a different (but, hopefully, not conflicting) answer. Since you asked specifically about the specific geographic origin of Unitarianism, I can answer that one as a background (including where the two groups originated.)
The concept of Unitarianism generally looks to a Catholic priest, Michael Servetus, as a spiritual originator. Servetus was born in Spain in 1511 and died in 1553, after attacking the doctrines of the Trinity. Unitarianism is a doctrinal system characterized chiefly by a belief in the unipersonality of God and the normal humanity of Jesus, as contrasted with the Trinity and the eternal deity (divinity) of Jesus. Most Unitarians I've spoken with reject the divinity of Jesus, but do recognize him (Jesus) as a great moral teacher. The first official use of the term occurred in 1638 in Transylvania, a province of Hungary which became part of Romania after World War I. It referred to those who believed in the unity of God, but not in the dogma of the Trinity.
Universalism is the theological doctrine that all souls will ultimately be saved and that there are no torments of hell. Universalism has been asserted at various times in different contexts throughout the history of the "Christian church"--e.g., Origen in the 3rd century. The Universalists also denied the miraculous element in Scripture, and rejected such important Bible doctrines as the total depravity of man and the Trinity. The Unitarian Universalist Association was created in May of 1961 as a merger of Unitarians and Universalists.
Now, let's look at the second part of your question; the one that deals with "everyday behavior/dress." We UUs, of course, look like everyone else. Generally, we are much more liberal than mainstream churches. In order to understand this, let's go into some "deeper water" and I'll try to develop a long answer for you to see where/how/what we believe in and how that might relate to our "everyday behavior/dress."¨ Let's start with me; I'm a straight, married 25 years, male. I was a U.S. Navy officer and retired from IBM. Yet, I sometimes wear purple pants. Why would I do that?
Taylor, one reason I sometimes wear purple pants is to show a sign of diversity. Let me share with you some survey results on what our members believe. At least one question in a recent survey deals with our diverse theological perspective. Extending that diversity, you can see how diverse we might be in "everyday behavior/dress." Almost 10,000 Unitarian Universalists took the time to fill out and return the survey, giving us all an invaluable snapshot of who we are.
An example of our diversity is Question 30 - Please check the one of the following which best describes your theological perspective:
Taylor, you can now see that less than 10% of UUs follow the path of Christianity. Furthermore, Question #30 shows just how diverse we are. So, the short answer as to our "everyday behaviour/dress¨ is: "yes, we are diverse in how we dress and act"
Thank you for taking the time to question where Unitarians originated and our everyday behaviour/dress. For more information, please feel free to check out our web site http://uua.org/ A good book to check on is "The Unitarian Universalist Pocket Guide" ISBN 0-933840-45-4
