Unitarianism

History of Unitarianism

The Protestant Reformation resulted in the development of Unitarianism in Poland and Transylvania in the 1560s. Within a decade, Transylvania accepted Unitarianism as a recognized religion. Since Unitarians opposed the Christian concept of the Trinity, traditional Christianity rejected Unitarianism. Its followers were persecuted for centuries. Unitarianism spread to North America. Its ideas were welcome in reaction to the Calvinist concepts of the Great Awakening of the 1740s. In 1819 William Ellery Channing gave a sermon called "Unitarian Christianity" which was significant in the development of North American Unitarianism. The American Unitarian Association was founded in 1825. North American Unitarianism was more humanistic than its European counterpart. Among its influences were the Transcendentalist concepts of writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. In 1961 the American Unitarian Association merged with the Universalist Church of America (established in 1793) to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.