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
Question You seem to know about the ancient history of Unitarian Unaversalists. I was looking for what resources you might recommend for me to study and educate myself about the history. I am new to UU and wanting to learn more. So far all I have found on the web is the more recent history, but have got the impression it goes back further then 'ol Ralph. Any books or online direction would be most welcome!
Thanks!
Lisa
Answer Hello Lisa –
Unitarian Universalist (UU) history goes a lot further back than ‘ol Ralph Emerson.
The term Unitarian Universalist has taken on different meanings (according to history) at different times. I, too, have tried to find some ancient history and have come to the conclusion that UUs have changed what they believe at different times. My most respected source, a UU minister who died in 1992, is Dr. Jacob Trapp. He is the one who explained how UUs change what they believe based on their most recent knowledge (read history). UU minister, L.B. Fisher says “UUs are often asked to tell where they stand. The only true answer to give to this question is that we do not stand at all, we move.”
UUs do change what they believe based on what they (the UUs) find in their research. (It may be the only religion that allows this much change, since we don't have a hard and fast dogma to force on people) Your best source of ancient information is going to be looking for particular people and biographies of those individuals. Best place to do this is on the Web.
Your best source of ancient history are these three books:
1. “Hunted Heretic” by Roland Bainton (ISBN 0844615803)
2. “Great Christian Thinkers: Paul, Origen, et al (ISBN 08264006432)
3. “Making Christians: Clement of Alexandria & The Rhetoric of Legitimacy” (ISBN 0691059802)
As I've suggested before, 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
Keep in mind that we (UU) follow many great people and the best source of history might be their individual biographies to see why we follow today what they thought in history.
