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: 12/2/2003 Subject: Unitarian beliefs
Question Jon,
What do Unitarians believe and how do they regard Jesus?
Thanks
Rob
Answer Hello Rob -
I'll try to answer your two questions. Remember, I'm one of over 225,000 members and, if you ask another UU (Unitarian Universalist), you may get a different (but, hopefully, not conflicting) answer. I'd like to divide my
answer into three parts: a background of our association and then two answers to your two questions.
First - 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.
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.
Second - your first question - What do Unitarians believe?
There are no creeds, only statements of purpose. We pride ourselves in welcoming atheists and humanists. Recently (in the last four years), the UU organization took a survey to find out what we believe is important in our religious lives.
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. Our association has been enriched by the knowledge gained from the answers many UUs provided.
This survey began a process designed to reach out to all UU individuals and congregations called "Fulfilling the Promise." This Concept was set in motion by the Unitarian Universalist Association's Board of Trustees. Its
goal was to help us move toward agreement about why we come together as congregations and as an association, and what we hope to accomplish.
The survey questions came from individual UUs, as did the suggested responses. More than 500 people helped create this survey. We hope you will find your own experience reflected in the questions and answers, even if the exact language you would use is not perfectly captured here.
What follows are the total tabulations for the first 8118 surveys. At least one question deals with your question of "What do Unitarians believe?" Question number 30 results follow:
Please check the one of the following which best describes your theological perspective:
o Humanist: 46.1%
o Earth/Nature centered: 19.0
o Theist: 13.0
o Christian: 9.5
o Mystic: 6.2
o Buddhist: 3.6
o Jewish: 1.3
o Hindu: 0.4
o Moslem: 0.1
o Other: 13.3
The balance of the questions (age, sex, length of church membership, etc.), gave us a picture of who are demographically and as church persons. They provide a picture of what we say our values in religious community
are.
Rob, as you can see, the diversity of theological beliefs gives a slight hint of what Unitarians believe. We have a standard joke about our beliefs; if you ask 50 Unitarians what they believe about any subject/person, you'll get 50 different answers/opinions.
I might add that, in our own local church, we have agnostics, atheists, and followers of Native American customs (sweat lodges, vision quests, etc.) In the survey results, I'm sure those would be categorized as "Other"
Third - your second question - How do they (Unitarian Universalists) regard Jesus?
Rob, I did some research on this and came up with a reply to your question written by Benjamin Franklin on March 9, 1790, "As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, the best ... but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have ... some doubts as to his divinity, tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon."
The Unitarian Universalist Church allows every person to do whatever is right in his own eyes as long as he is sincere about it.
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
Rob, thank you for taking the time to question our beliefs.
