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Unitarians This 19th century movement began in Boston, USA, with the attempt by William Channing to preach a ‘’Unitarian Christianity.’’ This was to make the faith ‘’reasonable’’ by rejecting all miraculous elements of the New Testament and of Christian doctrine. Thus the Trinity is rejected because if God is one then God is not three; if Jesus is a man, he cannot also be God. Channing and those who followed his teaching trusted in human progress to reach moral decisions and not on the divine Spirit. They did not hold to the atonement through the death of Christ but emphasised the wisdom and lasting power of the teaching of Christ.
This attempt at making the Gospel ‘’reasonable’’ drew followers in the USA and England so that Unitarians became a small denomination, mainly with middle class people. They established a training and research college in Oxford. But the attempt has not prospered. To jettison so much of the biblical material renders the message without any compelling force, and fails to explain why the Jewish authorities were determined to get rid of …show more content…
The ecumenical enterprise enabled the National Council of Churches to flourish and exert some influence on government policy, for example on US policy on apartheid and on conscientious objectors, while in 1957 the Reformed and Congregational churches joined to form the United Church of Christ. The churches were very much in unison in supporting the civil rights movement. Billy Graham was a global evangelist, drawing support from a wide spectrum of churches. But the pressure of the liberal campaign for the rights of homosexuals and, among Episcopalians, the right of women to be priests and bishops, was divisive and strained loyalty. Congregations outside the denominational framework became more prominent, such as the Sojourners and the Community Churches. Pentecostal groups were formed in all the
Unitarians This 19th century movement began in Boston, USA, with the attempt by William Channing to preach a ‘’Unitarian Christianity.’’ This was to make the faith ‘’reasonable’’ by rejecting all miraculous elements of the New Testament and of Christian doctrine. Thus the Trinity is rejected because if God is one then God is not three; if Jesus is a man, he cannot also be God. Channing and those who followed his teaching trusted in human progress to reach moral decisions and not on the divine Spirit. They did not hold to the atonement through the death of Christ but emphasised the wisdom and lasting power of the teaching of Christ.
This attempt at making the Gospel ‘’reasonable’’ drew followers in the USA and England so that Unitarians became a small denomination, mainly with middle class people. They established a training and research college in Oxford. But the attempt has not prospered. To jettison so much of the biblical material renders the message without any compelling force, and fails to explain why the Jewish authorities were determined to get rid of …show more content…
The ecumenical enterprise enabled the National Council of Churches to flourish and exert some influence on government policy, for example on US policy on apartheid and on conscientious objectors, while in 1957 the Reformed and Congregational churches joined to form the United Church of Christ. The churches were very much in unison in supporting the civil rights movement. Billy Graham was a global evangelist, drawing support from a wide spectrum of churches. But the pressure of the liberal campaign for the rights of homosexuals and, among Episcopalians, the right of women to be priests and bishops, was divisive and strained loyalty. Congregations outside the denominational framework became more prominent, such as the Sojourners and the Community Churches. Pentecostal groups were formed in all the