Religious Faiths VII: The Principles and Polity of the Unitarian Church

RELIGIOUS FAITHS.

VII.

THE PRINCIPLES AND POLITY OF THE UNITAR- IAN CHURCH. BY THE REVS. R. A. AND M. T. MAYNARD, FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH, SALT LAKE CITY.

"The system which would unite in sublime synthesis, all the past forms of human belief, which accepts with triumph- ant alacrity each new development of science, having no stereotyped standard to defend, and which represents the human mind as pursuing on the highest subjects a path of continual progress toward the fullest and most transcendent knowledge of the Deity. A system which makes the moral faculty of man the measure and arbiter of faith." This is Mr. Lecky, the historian's definition of rationalism, which he affirms is characteristic of every department of thought and activity in modern society, and the result of countless agencies having their root in every nation, and in every church and school of thought. Yet no definition could better summarize the position of the Unitarian Church. In other words, that church seeks to give an organic form to the growing, ripening thought of each generation in its relation to human aspiration and endeavor. — A widely accepted definition of Unitarianism is: "The free and progressive development of historic Christianity which seeks to be synonomous with universal religion and universal ethics." Some one has formulated the four fundamental

Unitarian principles as follows, and these would be univers- ally accepted. ist. — Freedom of reason, and freedom of conscience, the method in religion instead of tradition and authority. — Fellowship the 2nd. religion instead of sec- spirit in

tarianism. — Love and service, the aim religion instead of 3rd. in

salvation for self.

— Moral purpose, the 4th. religion, instead of test in

ritual or creed. It will be seen from these statements that perfect free- dom is allowed the individual in matters of belief. As will be shown later, there are many points of belief in which the great majority of Unitarians concur, but freedom to differ from the majority and freedom to grow within the church is itsmost characteristic principles. The church aims to allow the same freedom in the search for truth, that is allowed in the world of scholarship.

HISTORY.

The possibility of this frank freedom within the church is due to the Congregational polity out of which it had its rise. The Free church movement arose in England after the Refor- mation. During the time when it was uncertain what party should take possession of the English church. Catholic, Calvinist, or a compromise, the Protestant churches made their organization as flexible as possible awaiting develop- ments in the Established Church. From this came the Free church polity of the Presbyterians in England and the Con- gregational Puritanism of the Massachusetts colonists. The Independent movement represented a more pronounced theory of simplicity and freedom in church government. This was the church of the Pilgrims whose flight to Holland and settlement in Plymouth is so well known. These Pil- grims had a distinct ideal of free growth within the church. The last address of their leader, John Robinson, on their de- parture, urged them to keep their hearts and minds open for new truth; saying that it was not reasonable to suppose that having been out of the old corrupt church so short a time,

RELIGIOUS FAITHS.

opened to them. Oa this basis yet that all of truth had as started, and through its mfluence the Plymouth colony was throughout New England, gradually the Puritan churches government. took on theIndependent Congregational form of specific creeds. The creeds Very few of the churches had Congregational churches, were introduced so common now in controversy had led to the sharp largely after the Unitarian heresy. This controversy, drawing of lines and the fear of growing liberality of many in the Congre- occasioned by the crisis in 1815. It was then, gational churches, reached a that under the fire of conservative criticism and the leader- the unconscious liberalism, ship of William Ellery Channing, generations, became conscious that had been growing for two Calvinism, outspoken in its opposition of its divergence from opprobrium which had been and finally accepted the term of used against it— Unitarian. churches became Unitar- In the large cities most of the School through the convictions ian The Harvard Divinity new movement, and has smce re- of its faculty went with the mained Unitarian in its sympathies. before this movement took on a de- It was long however Its leaders were afraid to finitedenominational character. barriers. And when hamper their freedom by denominational pre- missionary purposes, every they finally organized for perfect freedom to individual and caution was taken to insure numerically its growth has not been congregation. While general religious great yet its influence in liberalizing the confessedly marked. thought of the century, has been

POLITY.

inferred from its his- The Unitarian polity will be readily individual church, tory The supreme power resides in the national and local conferences and the churches co-operate in and church extension for mutual encouragement association is the chief busmess The American Unitarian association for church propaganda. church is extremely The organization of the individual with the necessary officers to simple, a board of trustees control the management of its affairs.

CONCENSUS OF FAITH.

Authority :—'^Q.{oxG^ enumerating the points commonly believed among Unitarians, the authority on which these views are held should be stated. "Truth for authority and not authority for truth" is often quoted from Lucretia Mott as a summary of the position of the Liberal Church in this matter. Neither the Bible nor the historic church is re- garded as infallible authority. The truth in these must be judged, as all churches practically do judge it, from the stand- point of reason and the moral and spiritual consciousness. One of the supreme prerogatives of humanity is this search for the truth, and no revelation has ever been given which relieves mankind from the responsibility divinely im- posed upon it of sifting truth from error. — "Why judge ye not for yourself what is true," is a question which admits no evasion. Religious truth is one with all truth, and must be found by the same law. Observation of facts and reasoning based upon those facts is the method of the modern truth- seeker. The facts of nature are the most unquestioned revela- tions of the God of nature and are therefore authoritative. Whenever science thus demonstrates any principles or dis- covers any facts, they must be accepted, however difficult it may seem to reconcile them with former conceptions. Of course every theory of a scientist is not a demonstrated law or a discovered fact. But the points actually established must be accepted. Religion has to do also with another realm of facts — — those of the moral and spiritual consciousness. viz: The inner world of experience, the realm of the emotional life, speaks with voice no less authoritative than external facts. Wherever a voice of the past or present truly gives expres- sion to the facts or experience of external or human nature, it comes with the sanctity and authority of divine revelation. Bible: —The attitude regarding the Bible is suggested in the preceding paragraph. Its only authoritative elements are those which deal with the living spiritual experiences of souls consecrated to the service of the Highest. Because it contains so much of this it is incomparably valuable to the re- ligious life. No miracle, however, has protected it from the

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errors of the people among whom it was written. It is a most

inspiring record of the growth of a people, with a peculiar genius for religion, out of barbarism, into a noble and in- telligent enthusiasm for a high form of moral and religious faith. The Bible, is the depository of religious therefore, truth progressively revealed to man in the long ago past, but its truths are not more sacred and authoritative than the truths

revealed through scientific investigation and human ex- perience. Theism: — "We believe in God, the One, the Eternal, the Life Immanent in the Universe as well as the love, light and law indwelling in the human soul." One in whom we literally live, move and have our being. This thought of God as im- manent and omnipresent is fundamental, as will be seen, in all the other elements of Unitarian faith. Whatever science proves to have been the order of the developement of the un- iverse is accepted reverently as a revelation to us of the divine method. "We believe in Evolution as the life of God unfold- ing itself in the universe, through rock, flower, brute, ascend- ing to man, and to higher man, and to higher than man." Any attempt at definition of God must necessarily be inade- quate, for the finite cannot comprehend infinity. But we can know His attributes in some measure through the revelations of Himself in external and human nature. Revelation-. —The growing conviction of science that all the elements of nature have their basis in a fundamental unity, corroborates and makes more easy of comprehension this modern theism. If all things proceed from one life, then whatever is most real and powerful anywhere is a revelation of this Indwelling Life. All nature then and all human nature is a revelation, most true as it is most universal and most

high. Not an atom but partakes of the infinite life of God and is in some way making toward the eternal purposes of spiritual life. Back of it all, within it all, there is the infinite and eternal One, "the self that is higher than ourselves." The Person who is so much more than we can conceive of personality but which we can only express in terms of our own natures magnified to infinity. This divine life has been manifesting itself more and more in higher and higher forms.

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until it has come to the more perfect expression in the con- scious life of man. In the reason, conscience and sympathies of human life there is the key. to all that has gone before. Man reveals God. In man are the attributes of the universal life incarnated — imperfectly, with much deformity; but man gives by his aspirations, ideals and struggles, some revelation of that infinite purpose which is tending onward eternally. And in human nature the paramount quality is love. This quality is so transcendent in its power, so universal in its

scope as to literally demonstrate the truth of the assertion made by John, the beloved disciple of Jesus, that "God is love." "Love that holds the planets constant on their way, Guides the swallows flight to sunny skies, Leads the nations upward to the perfect day. Yet reveals itself in baby eyes."

Jesus: — Thus it will be seen that the life of Jesus has especial significance to Unitarians as to others, for in what- ever man is found the fullest expression of love, in that man is found the highest revelation of God. This significance, however, arises from the fact that the life of Jesus is a mani- festation of the one great universal law underlying all nature. Jesus was divine not through miracle, but because he was true to that divine life which is in all humanity. He is the most supreme revelation to us, in that he manifested so fully the Christ spirit of self-surrendering love for every child of earth. He gave himself most fully and freely to the weak, — the sinful, and the wretched to all who most needed his helpful tenderness. This church believes that it is most loyal to the teachings of Jesus, in basing its fellowship on this spirit of love, rather than upon creedal tests. The National Unitarian Conference of 1894 adopted unanimously the fol- lowing preamble to its constitution: "These churches accept the religion of Jesus, holding in accordance with his teach- ing that practical religion is summed up in love to God and love to man." Immortality — Unitarians believe in personal immortality. The views of individual members differ widely in their reasons for this faith and in their conception of where and what the

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iuture may be. There is no attempt to dogmatize regarding the future life, for more fundamental than details of belief i» the trust in the Infinite Goodness. Whatever is best for the development of the human soul will surely come to it. Heaven is a condition of spiritual achievement. All ideas of reward and punishment center in the element of character "sin, shame and hell on the one hand — repentance, forgive- ness, regeneration, salvation and heaven on the other are suc- cessive experiences of the soul" as it grows into the knowl- edge and joy of the higher life. It is perhaps needless to add that no Unitarians accept the idea of eternal punishment. Unhappiness comes as the inevitable accompaniment of wrong doing. The quality of one's life determines the spirit- ual condition. Evil: —With such a faith in the immanence and omni- presence of God, evil cannot be regarded as a permanent and absolute entity. Evil is always a relative term made real by ideals of good growing to where it can be seen that past actions are unworthy. "Actions became evil only after better actions were realized as possible. Selfishness became bad only after the neighbor-regarding feeling became conscious, only after unselfish acts began to take precedence over the self-regarding sort. Sin will ever consist in following a lower when man sees a higher way." The good means obedience to the ever evolving and growing ideals of human- ity. The bad means remaining in what was and i?. The past and the present become bad as soon as the better future is conceived. Character and Universal Brotherhood: — All intellectual theories are, however, subordinated to the all-important requis- ites of character and human fellowship. It is less important that a man believe a special thing to be true than that he devoutly wishes to know the truth and be loyal to it when

known. The quality of manhood is the supreme thing in life. Character is the all-important test. "We believe that to love the good and live the good, is the supreme thing in re- ligion." This is why the basis of fellowship is made the moral purpose rather than any theological assent. By character is meant something more vital than any aggregate of respectable

508 IMPROVEMENl ERA.

deeds. It must be a living dynamic force in the heart causing

"right action in the outward life. It must be the summation of those fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, faith. All these high beliefs are of im- portance only as they yield this fruitage of the spirit; all wor-

ship and all religious fellowship have their reason for exist- ence only as they develop this quality of life. Supreme among all the forces which create this element of character is the spirit of good-will to men. The sense of human brother- hood is the crowning result of both religion and civilization. All of modern study has tended to reinforce this principle of human unity. "Whoso loseth his life for my sake, shall find it" said Jesus, thereby voicing the most profound law of spir- itual life. Nothing but the spirit of love and service can bring the rich fruits of character, or lift the race to the heights of joy and goodness which is its heritage. "And now abideth these' three, faith, hope, love, but the greatest of these is love."