Unitarianism
Unitarianism,religious doctrine of the single personality of God, as contrasted with the Trinitarian concept. The name does not fully indicate the significance of the Unitarian movement, which lies in its liberal rationalism and its opposition to the doctrines of inherited guilt, loss of free will, eternal punishment, and vicarious atonement. Modern Unitarianism traces its origin to the Reformation, and its history in England and America began in the 17th and 18th centuries. More a cast of thought than a systematic theology, the movement in America was at first a reaction against the confining orthodoxy of New England Calvinism, and was to a large extent the result of liberal scientific thought. It was first evidenced in the rationalistic teachings of such divines as Jonathan Mayhew. Independently, the Anglicans of King's Chapel, Boston, adopted a liturgy eliminating the doctrine of the Trinity (1785) and so became America's first Unitarian church....
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