Unitarian Theology

Translators have historically held incredible power to influence millions of Bible-readers over the eons. Many impressive developments have occurred in the field of textual criticism and lexicology over the last century. Today we can access dozens of English translations, Greek interlinears, and lexical aids online for free. In no other age have Christians had better access to biblical tools for personal study than today. Even so, rather surprisingly, many Bibles contain wild distortions, especially on texts related to dogmas long ago etched in the stone of infallible tradition. In what follows I intend to expose one of the smoking guns of text tampering as it relates to the holy spirit. I want to delve into the world of how translators go about their task, of how Greek grammar translates into English, and how theology consciously or unconsciously gets injected into translations. In particular, I am interested in exposing one of the most flagrant (mis)translation practices found in virtually all English Bibles: rendering impersonal Greek pronouns as personal in English when referring to the holy spirit. What I present here is neither sectarian nor ground breaking. Anyone who can read Greek can verify what I am saying. I will cite mainstream Trinitarian scholars to backup these very points.

A memoir, of sorts, detailing my "search" for Satan in order to prove the existence of God. You can guess how this turns out (but at least it's more fun than the ontological argument!). In order to satiate your diabolical taste buds, I will include the table of contents.

TOC:

-Introduction:
The Wager: Why Tommy No Longer Works on the
Docks

-Chapter One: The Protestant Deification

The Devil is My DJ: The Fresh Prince of Baal Air

Decapitated Chickens as a Metaphor

Satan Gives Birth on the Galapagos Islands (and Kirk Cameron Goes Bananas)

-Chapter Two: Defying the Devil

Faith Force: “Exercising” Demons

“When in Doubt, Cast it Out!” PMS, Poverty, and Cindy Jacobs’ Pussycat

The Mason Tarwaters of this World Confront the Politics of Penis Fencing

-Chapter Three: Running with the Devil

Never Bet Against the House

The First Ethicist Discusses the Impossibility of His Fall

Turning Water into Wine and Demons into Swine

Mr. President, Who’s Your Daddy?

-Chapter Four: Denying the Devil

Unitarian Universalism: The Boring-ality of Evil

Druidian Capitalism

Some Satanist You Are, You Sound More Like a Christian

-Chapter Five: Finding, Binding, and “Get Behind Me” Satan

Now You Satan, Now You Don’t: Meet Bob “I Exorcised Death” Larson

Thelema and Louise, Or, Holy Smoke Baphomet!

I Sold My Soul to Satan and All I Got was this Lousy T-Shirt


-Epilogue

The Existence of God Revisited: Why Gina Still Works at the Diner

The Protest of Brother Ray (Or, Why I'm Probably Stuck with These Student Loans)

In Baptist histories, English preacher Matthew Caffyn (1628-1714), thanks to his unorthodox Christology, is regularly identified as a theological deviant, and one working under the influence of ‘eighteenth-century rationalism’ or other external forces. By reconsidering the progress of unorthodox Christology among the early Baptists and other Reformers, I argue that Caffyn’s Christology represents not a sudden aberration, but an unsurprising expression of the elemental Baptist instinct. This instinct includes a commitment to being scriptural, to primitivism, and to theological tolerance within the community. In this light, I argue that Caffyn’s place in the Baptist tradition must be revisited in future histories.

Unitarian-Universalism and Mormonism differ in myriad ways.  Mormonism obviously has much further to go toward embracing an ecological paradigm.  There are some untapped resources in Mormonism which could be used to facilitate this shift, including Joseph Smith’s vitalist teachings and the Word of Wisdom advice to eat meat sparingly.  However, there are major obstacles as well, some of which may be insurmountable, including Mormonism’s inherent anthropocentrism and doctrines and teachings that promote unrestricted childbirth.  For their part, UUs still have work to do as well.  While UUs are perhaps the most environmentally concerned of any religious group, it is also true that they are among most concerned about every other social issue of the day.  The sheer number of worthy causes may contribute to diminishing the resources which are available to UUs to work against what is shaping up to be a global ecological catastrophe.

References

In part one, I categorize and summarize what the New Testament documents say about the purpose of Christ's death, enumerating eight reasons: Jesus died to provide eternal life, to reconcile us to God, to express love, to defeat evil, to provide an example, to justify us apart from the Law, to free us from sin to live righteously, and for our sins. These biblical reasons are non-negotiable for any biblical atonement theory-not that each must find representation in a given theory, but that a theory should not contradict any of them. Next I consider seven atonement theories and evaluate each, including (1) ransom, (2) Christus victor, (3) moral exemplar, (4) satisfaction, (5) penal substitution, (6) governmental, and (7) communal substitution. Between theories (4) and (5) I take an excursus to consider advantages and disadvantages of believing in Christ’s deity in the context of atonement. In the end I suggest my own theory, drawing on (5), (6), and (7).

© goWare COPIA OMAGGIO © goWare COPIA OMAGGIO © goWare COPIA OMAGGIO Copertina Inizia a leggere Presentazione e Autore PRESENTAZIONE Sedicesimo secolo, la Riforma dilaga in Europa, sui roghi bruciano sia eretici protestanti che cattolici, c'è però chi propugna ideali di tolleranza e non violenza. Tra di essi spicca Fausto Socini. Discendente da una ricca famiglia senese di eretici, professori e alchimisti, a trent'anni Fausto organizzava feste all'università, scriveva poesie e non pensava lontanamente a laurearsi, fino a quando si trovò inaspettatamente a capo della più improbabile setta religiosa mai vista in Europa. Tra la fine del XVIII e l'inizio del XIX secolo i discepoli di Socini, i Sociniani, dettero scandalo con le loro dottrine non ortodosse, ma furono anche molto amati da scienziati e filosofi come Newton, Locke, Jefferson. Ormai dimenticato, Fausto Socini ha però gettato le basi filosofiche della nostra società contemporanea. *** © goWare COPIA OMAGGIO Non so come io appaia al mondo, ma per quel che mi riguarda mi sembra di essere stato solo come un fanciullo sulla spiaggia che si diverte nel trovare qua e là una pietra più liscia delle altre o una conchiglia più graziosa, mentre il grande oceano della verità giace del tutto inesplorato davanti a me. Isaac Newton 1687 © goWare COPIA OMAGGIO Dedicato al mio babbo Alberto © goWare COPIA OMAGGIO In t r o d u z io n e Anni fa mi capitò di ricevere in modo del tutto inaspettato una mail da Eric Eldred in cui si chiedevano notizie di uno storico senese, eretico, che a suo dire aveva una certa rilevanza nel dibattito politico che si animava intorno al presidente degli Stati Uniti di quegli anni, George W. Bush junior. Per chi non lo conoscesse, Eric Eldred è stato un attivista per i diritti civili, prima come obiettore di coscienza durante la guerra in Vietnam, poi promuovendo la diffusione libera e gratuita di opere letterarie libere dai vincoli di copyright. Nel 1999 fu promotore di una causa di fronte alla Corte Suprema degli Stati Uniti per opporsi al prolungamento del periodo necessario affinché le opere tutelate da diritto d'autore divengano di pubblico dominio, la causa prese appunto il nome di "Eric Eldred, versus John Ashcroft". Eric Eldred è stato soprattutto uno dei fondatori della organizzazione non-profit che ha definito le licenze Creative Commons, che regolano in modo nuovo i diritti di autore e che hanno dato un impulso fondamentale alla diffusione di contenuti di ogni genere sul web: Youtube e Wikipedia ad esempio ricorrono proprio a questo tipo di licenze. Eldred si chiedeva se Fausto Socini avesse influenzato in qualche modo i princìpi espressi nella dichiarazione di indipendenza degli Stati Uniti, ed era curioso di sapere che testimonianze si trovano oggi a Siena, sua città natale, di questo personaggio. Ho iniziato così ad occuparmi di questo eretico e del contesto in cui si colloca. Il risultato è stata un'opera che vuole essere prettamente divulgativa, che ha l'ambizione di rendere un po' più popolare un personaggio poco noto ma che ha influenzato il pensiero di Isaac Newton, Thomas Jefferson, Spinoza, Locke e molti altri pensatori che hanno contribuito a gettare le basi della società in cui viviamo oggi personaggi. Il Socinianesimo, il movimento che ebbe origine dagli scritti di Socini, ebbe una grande diffusione fino al XVIII secolo, specialmente in area anglosassone, finendo poi per essere dimenticato insieme al suo fondatore. Un curioso aneddoto a proposito della fama raggiunta da questo movimento si trova nel libro I ragazzi di Barrow [1] , quando l'esploratore Clapperton, impegnato nella ricerca del misterioso fiume Niger, si trovò nel 1824 a Sokoto nel cuore dell'Africa più nera, in un territorio mai esplorato prima © goWare COPIA OMAGGIO © goWare COPIA OMAGGIO L a f a m ig lia S o z z in i Le prime tracce della famiglia Sozzini risalgono alla fine del XIII secolo con Martinello da Percenna. Percenna è oggi un piccolissimo borgo nei pressi di Buonconvento in provincia di Siena, ma nel Duecento era un castello con giurisdizione su una vasta area della Valdarbia, Valdombrone e Valdasso. Sotto il vicariato di Percenna, detto anche delle Sette Terre, ricadevano diverse borgate fino a quando, nel 1212, quando Percenna fece atto di sottomissione al Comune di Siena. Dell'antico castello adesso non restano più tracce, è rimasta solo la cappella dedicata a San Lorenzo, salvata dalla rovina dal restauro del nobile Giulio del Taja nel 1830. Lo stesso proprietario depose nel 1839 una lapide commemorativa «a ricordanza dei posteri» dedicata a Mariano, Lelio e Fausto Soccini. Figura 3, Figura 4. Tracce degli antenati Sozzini, si trovano nel libro delle gabelle da cui risulta che già nel 1304 Ser Mino notaio, uno dei figli di Martinello da Percenna, si era trasferito con la propria famiglia da Percenna a Siena, probabilmente sistemandosi nella zona che ancora oggi prende il nome di Vicolo dei Percennesi, nei pressi del Duomo. Passano pochi anni e i membri della famiglia iniziano a ricoprire molte cariche nell'ambito della Repubblica Senese: sono ambasciatori, entrano a far parte della compagnia dei Dodici e vi fu persino un domenicano inquisitore. Tra tutti i discendenti è da ricordare in particolare Sozzino, che nel 1400 abitava nella contrada di Pantaneto: è lui infatti il capostipite della famiglia, eponimo del casato dei Sozzini, come era d'usanza a quei tempi. Il maggior lustro alla famiglia fu però dato dal figlio Mariano, passato alla storia grazie alla sua fama di giurista ed umanista [3] . Figura 5. Mariano Sozzini nacque a Siena nel 1397, ricoprì la cattedra di diritto canonico in numerose università italiane fino ad essere nominato avvocato concistoriale da papa Pio II, Enea Silvio Piccolomini. Mariano ed Enea erano amici sin dalla gioventù, come documentato da molte lettere. Particolarmente affettuosa e famosa è quella indirizzata da Vienna nel 1444 dal Piccolomini al cancelliere imperiale Kaspar Schlick. Nella stessa lettera, si continuano a tessere le lodi dell'amico, descrivendolo capace di interpretare la giustizia con saggezza quasi «divina», ma anche esperto in filosofia, cosmografia, geometria, aritmetica, storia, poesia, medicina, capace di eccellere anche © goWare COPIA OMAGGIO in agricoltura, pittura e scultura, nonché musica e calligrafia. Dopo la sua morte, il mito di Mariano crebbe ulteriormente e si disse addirittura che Mariano in gioventù avesse eccelso anche nella corsa, nella lotta, nella scherma, nel pugilato e anche nella danza. Si raccontava inoltre che sebbene non stesse mai in ozio, nel corso di tutta la sua vita non ebbe che tre volte la febbre e anche in quei rari casi «fu solamente lieve» [4] . Ovviamente dietro queste parole c'è una buona dose di esagerazione, ciò nonostante l'affetto di Enea Silvio Piccolomini fu sincero e Mariano fu veramente uomo di vasta cultura come testimoniato dal numero e dal prestigio degli incarichi ricoperti nella sua lunga carriera accademica oltre che dagli scritti che ha lasciato. Girolamo Gigli nel suo Diario Sanese, ipotizzava che fosse stato proprio Mariano ad avviare una delle prime accademie presso la sua villa di Scopeto. In effetti la tradizione delle accademie ebbe una grande diffusione a Siena e nel resto della Toscana tra il XVI e XVII secolo. Girolamo Gigli descrive queste «veglie erudite», si tenevano alla villa di Scopeto, sotto la guida di Mariano Sozzini, come serate in cui si svolgevano giochi di società secondo le usanze provenzali del XIII e XIV secolo. Nobili, virtuose matrone, giovani, accademici ed innamorati si incontravano per trattare prevalentemente questioni amorose. In questo modo i giovani di ambo i sessi si applicavano allo studio della morale, della poesia e delle favole. In realtà è probabile che a Scopeto si tenessero essenzialmente «lieti intrattenimenti» in cui la buona società senese si dilettava in giochi prettamente di tipo ludico e non veri e propri «convegni eruditi» come quelli svolti nelle accademie fiorentine dello stesso periodo. Non è però da escludere che alle allegre giornate a Scopeto partecipasse anche Enea Silvio. Nella lettera già citata del Piccolomini a Schlick, si racconta come il Sozzini avesse pregato l'amico di scrivere la storia di due amanti, invito raccolto dal Piccolomini che compose così la novella Historia de duobus amantibus [5] . Comunque, che si trattasse di vera accademia o di più informali incontri tra amici letterati, Scopeto fu certamente un luogo in cui Mariano amava ritirarsi a lavorare e a vivere. L'abitazione di città, dove il giureconsulto passò gran parte della sua vita, era il palazzo in Pantaneto noto adesso con il nome Sozzini-Malavolti, acquistato da Giovanni Sozzini, padre di Mariano nel 1443 [6] . Alex Gordon nel 1881 collocava invece l'abitazione di Mariano detta Casa della Saggezza, «dietro la strada in cui adesso si trova Piazza degli Alberghi, in via Cavour» [7] , che con la toponomastica attuale dovrebbe corrispondere a Piazza degli alberghi in via Montanini. La villa di © goWare COPIA OMAGGIO Scopeto, a circa 15 km dal centro di Siena, era una sorta di rifugio per Mariano, dove lavorare in tranquillità lontano dai tumulti cittadini e dalle epidemie che periodicamente vi si diffondevano. È infatti lo stesso Mariano a raccontare che nel 1457 si fosse ritirato a Scopeto per sfuggire alla peste che minacciava Siena. I suoi colleghi insegnanti gli chiesero di fare ritorno in città per riprendere le lezioni all'ateneo, ma Mariano declinò l'invito, preferendo continuare i suoi lavori nella pace di Scopeto. Mariano morì a settanta anni il 30 settembre 1467, lasciando l'eredità della famiglia ai figli Alessandro e Bartolomeo. Fu sepolto con funerali solenni nella basilica di san Domenico a Siena nella cappella di famiglia, a fianco dell'altare maggiore, dove ancora oggi si riconosce una lapide con lo stemma di famiglia e una iscrizione che ne ricorda le origini. Per la sua tomba fu...

The most Trinitarian verse in the Bible is found in 1 John 5.7 where the text reads "For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one."  Recently in conversation with an acquaintance, I was challenged to accept the doctrine of the Trinity on the basis of this text. However, this scripture is fraught with difficulties and its history is long and dubious, involving both Greek and Latin manuscripts. Before turning to examine the Latin and Greek histories, I will begin by comparing two of the best known and most influential translations in English and German to more recent ones so as to demonstrate the exact difference between them.

During the period of Japan’s modernization (1868-1945), many Japanese Christians rejected the doctrine of the Trinity and embraced unitarian theology.  Explanations of this phenomenon have appealed to a Japanese misunderstanding of the Trinity, an ignorance of church tradition, a preference for personal experience over the Bible, and a desire to syncretize Confucian ideology with Christianity.  This article explores the historical interaction between Japan’s cultural bedrock of Confucian ethics, the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, and the unitarian interpretation of church history and the New Testament, in order to clarify the theological concerns of the period.  As will be demonstrated, the reasons why many Meiji-era intellectuals rejected the Trinity were far more historically and biblically-motivated than previous studies have allowed

This paper is a counter-argument to the Trinitarian doctrine that the creator of the Genesis account is a Triune God, or Trinity Godhead. It addresses the how the Hebrew title "elohim" is being misinterpreted to fit the Trinity doctrine, as well as how the "word" in John 1 does not support Jesus being the creator in the beginning.

This paper is inspired by a few different areas of debate all relating to each other and correlating to answer, what is the correct Hebrew vocalization for the second "Lord" of Psalm 110:1? I reference the book of Judges to go over what I dub the "Masoretic Vocalization Conspiracy" being put forth by Trinitarian proponents, such as; Dr. Michael Brown and Dr. James White, in regards to the validity of the Masoretic vocalization of the Hebrew root word אדני (ADNY).

I'm assuming that you already have a basic understanding of the subject matter as this paper is not meant to exhaust all of the basic details.

There are four “us” texts in the Bible (Genesis 1:26; 3:22; 11:7; Isaiah 6:8).  These are verses in which God uses a plural pronoun when referring to something He will do.  Sometimes theologians have pointed to these Scriptures as evidence that God is somehow plural, but as we shall see, the best explanation is these are examples of God speaking to his heavenly court.

16. yy. Avrupa coğrafyasında meydana gelen Reformasyon Hıristiyanlık tarihi ve dünya tarihi açısından önemli bir dönüm noktasıdır. Bu yüzyıl zarfında Batı Hıristiyanlığının yeni bir biçim kazandığını ve bir yol ayrımına geldiğini görmekteyiz. Bu yeni şekillenme sürecinin dünyadaki diğer inançlar ve toplumlardan bağımsız olduğu düşünülemezdi. Dolayısı ile İslam ve Müslüman milletin bu dönüşümün hem teorik hem pratik boyutunda önemli bir etkiye sahip olduğu söylenebilir. Bu tebliğde Batı Hıristiyanlığının inanç ve fikir dünyasının gelişimi ve reform düşüncesinin pratik hayatta vücut bulması noktasında bir din olarak İslam’ın ve müntesiplerinin katkıları Protestan bir grup olan Ünitaryenizm bağlamında ele alınacaktır. Avrupa yayın faaliyetlerinin gelişmesi ile diğer dinlerin kutsal metinleri ile daha yakın bir temasa geçmiştir. Bu süreçte Kur’an tercümeleri ile tanışan Avrupalı düşünürler ve Avrupa toplumu kıtanın iki ucunda İber yarımadası ve balkanlardaki Müslümanlar hakkında gittikçe artan bir bilgi edinme sürecine girmiştir. Dolayısı ile İslam inanç öğretileri ve medeniyet geleneği Avrupa düşünce dünyasını etkilemeye başladı.
Batı Hıristiyan iktidarların Endülüs’teki çok kültürlü medeniyeti yıkma çabalarının hemen ardından sanki bu katliamın cezası niteliğinde bir kırılma ile yüz yüze gelmiştir. Reformasyon aslında Batı dünyası için bir hürriyet arayışının, akli düşünceye değer verilmeye başlamanın da tarihidir. Bu dönemde kendi doktrinlerini İncil’de bulmaya çalışan insanların İslam inancına ilgisinin farklı bir boyutu olduğunu söylemek mümkündür. Bu ilgi İslam’ı daha yakından tanımaya ve İslami ilkeleri kendi inançları içinde mezcetmeye kadar varmıştır. Örneğin Ünitaryen Hıristiyanların Teslis Doktrinini reddetmesi, Kutsal metin anlayışları, ruhbanlık sistemine karşı çıkmalarında İslami etkinin önemli rolü olduğu söylenebilir.     
Anahtar Kelimeler: Avrupa, İslam, Reform, Ünitaryen, Teslis, Hoşgörü, Din Özgürlüğü

This paper presents the idea that Jesus is called God because he represents God as his agent rather than being God in his nature.  I begin by building a definition of the word "God" from standard Hebrew and Greek lexicons, including Brown-Driver-Briggs, Friberg, and Thayer.  Next I look at several key examples from the Old Testament where Moses, the judges, and the Davidic king are called God.  Then I examine a key New Testament text (John 10.31-39) where Jesus himself employs God in a secondary or functional sense.  Lastly, I consider the two undisputed texts where Jesus is called God (Hebrews 1.8-9, and John 20.28) and conclude that the New Testament calls him God because Jesus is God's quintessential representative.

Unitarian-Universalism and Mormonism differ in myriad ways.  Mormonism obviously has much further to go toward embracing an ecological paradigm.  There are some untapped resources in Mormonism which could be used to facilitate this shift, including Joseph Smith’s vitalist teachings and the Word of Wisdom advice to eat meat sparingly.  However, there are major obstacles as well, some of which may be insurmountable, including Mormonism’s inherent anthropocentrism and doctrines and teachings that promote unrestricted childbirth.  For their part, UUs still have work to do as well.  While UUs are perhaps the most environmentally concerned of any religious group, it is also true that they are among most concerned about every other social issue of the day.  The sheer number of worthy causes may contribute to diminishing the resources which are available to UUs to work against what is shaping up to be a global ecological catastrophe.

instability, insecurity, economic stagnation, irrationality, absolutism and persecutions. Europe's transition from its medieval absolutist Old Regime to enlightened republicanism passed through the Islamic worldits religion, wealth, sciences, institutions, ideas and practices. The Islamically inspired Unitarian, rational, theological, radical reformation of Michael Servetus, Socinians, Unitarians, Deists and seventeenth-and eighteenth-century overseas trade with the Muslim East (both Atlantic and Mediterranean) played a fundamental role in such a transition. The Whiggish Eurocentric historians tend to ignore these historical facts. On the other hand, Western civilisation is presented as the superior mother of all civilisations, the true blessing to mankind. The West has achieved this climax on its own without any external non-Western help. Eric Wolf observes: "We have been taught, inside the classroom and outside of it, that there exists an entity called the West, and that one can think of this West as a society and civilisation independent of and in opposition to other societies and civilisations. Many of us even grew up believing that this West has a genealogy, according to which ancient Greece begat Rome, Rome begat Christian Europe, Christian Europe begat the Renaissance, the Renaissance the Enlightenment, the Enlightenment political democracy and the industrial revolution. Industry, crossed with democracy, in turn yielded the United States, embodying the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 1 Colonial Europe and its institutions are directly linked to ancient Rome without any intermediaries or interlocutors. According to Anthony Pagden, "the theoretical roots of the modern European overseas empires reached back into the empires of the Ancient World. It was, above all, Rome which provided the ideologues of the colonial systems of Spain, Britain, and France with the language and political models they required." 2 The superiority of Western civilisation, Judeo-Christian traditions and European manifest destiny are some of the underlying ethos of Eurocentrism and American specialism. It is argued that the West in general, and Europe in particular, is the cradle of democracy, modern science and civilisation while the East in general, and the Muslim world in particular, are the sources of ignorance, barbarism, paganism, irrationalism, economic stagnation, despotic feudalism and institutionalised patrimonial and parochial value system that impedes modernity in all its forms and expressions. Europe's so-called unique restless, rationalism, 3 liberal individualism, democratic value system, capitalism, moral ethos and manifest destiny are depicted as fundamental roots of the rise of Europe and regression of non-Europeans including the Muslims who lack the above-mentioned special traits and cannot keep up with the pace of European progress. 4 The process of modernisation and intellectualisation is unilateral and unilineal. It started with the Antiquity, moved through European Feudalism, crossed over to Enlightenment through medieval Renaissance humanism and resulted in Western Capitalism and Scientific/Industrial Revolution. Therefore modernity, science, mercantilism and capitalism all are the products of European rationalism, intellectualism and exceptionalism, and unique to Western mind and conditions; in fact, it is in European DNA. It is hereditary and an integral element of Europe's manifest destiny, imperialism and superiority. including Protestant churches were marred with irrationalism, internal wars, religious intolerance, persecutions, trade restrictions, absolutism and superstitions. Christendom, from the Dark Ages to the premodern times, was a persecutory society while the Muslim world promoted religious freedom, republican ethos, free trade, limited monarchy and rational discourse. Muslim theology overly emphasised simple Unitarianism and good works as the foundation of eternal salvation and divine grace-Christianity was orthodoxy while Islam was more orthopraxy. The Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, was himself a merchant and sanctified trade, profit and wealth accumulation by lawful means. Richness, profit and wealth were not condemned the way Christianity, including Puritanism, Calvinism, Lutheranism and Protestantism as a whole, berated mammonism over the centuries. Islam brought God and mammon together within the moral confines, and moral worldly pursuits were sanctified as foundational spiritual acts. Man was not arbitrarily destined to Paradise or Hellfire based upon divine whims, but depending upon his good or bad actions in this worldly life. Christianity in all its forms, Catholics and Protestant included, insisted upon absolute predestination, selection and grace. The relative Catholic encouragement of good works was negated by insistence upon the atoning death of Christ, sacramental efficacy, confessions and indulgences. Both Luther and Calvin utterly demolished the need for good works, insisting upon absolute predestination, selection and grace; good works were useless, and divine grace through the atoning death was considered supreme. The Anglican Calvinist theology was not much different from Calvin's diatribes against orthopraxy, and total dependence upon orthodoxy and right beliefs were highly emphasized by Anglican leaders. A long quote from M. H. Mackinnon is due here. Calvinist Synodal "doctrine is one of utter gloom and despair, complete with an omniscient and vengeful deity who has decreed for eternity the fortunate few for election, whereas the unfortunate majority has been doomed to perdition. Weber thus sees dogma in much the same way as Calvin, reporting that one's standing before God is made impossible by Calvin's system, of which Anglodogma is a complete reflection. Calvinism is unable to incorporate knowledge of assurance because of the complete transcendentality of its God and the inability to fathom His secret decrees. By Weber's account, unadulterated predestinarianism of this sort spurns the use of means (works): Man is the passive recipient of salvation. In Weber's mind the 'pure doctrine of predestined grace' was never entirely eliminated from Calvinism, inasmuch as acts of the individual could in no way influence God's election. By extension, the devout can never know their calling, which is 'both impossible to pierce and presumptuous to question'; personal salvation always; remains 'above the threshold of consciousness,' forever shrouded in 'divine mystery.' The elect are and remain God's invisible church." 18 Additionally, capitalism, science and modernity did not flourish in many areas where Calvinism was in the helms of affairs. Even the aesthetic Puritanism of Richard Baxter was far less insistent upon good deeds than Islam's positive reinforcement. Baxter's indirect, negative and foggy "The Aphorismes of Justification" (1649) was more directed towards free-spirited antinomians and their justification by grace alone reformed theology than positive insistence upon good works and profit accumulation. Baxter's emphasis upon human depravity, Christ's atoning death, grace-based salvation scheme and condemnation of mammonisn was no less emphatic than the Calvinist Anglican Church. His emphasis upon good works was relative, and did not fully reject the essential principles of Anglican predestinarian theology and grace-based salvation. He promoted "a modified 'neonomian' version of Calvinism." 19 Weber confessed overall Christian (including Puritan) exhortations against usury, riches and wealth accumulation, but still concluded that modern capitalism somehow originated with Puritans. 20 He somehow ignored the fact that Catholics, Jews, Muslims and Hindus were into private profit and money-making as anybody else. Many took it as their religious calling and profession to make money and be generous, charitable and kind to those in need. "It is a grim twist of irony that Weber would choose such a spiritually worthless vehicle to realise his causal ambitions." 21 Due to a multitude of theological and socioeconomic reasons scholars such as Mackinnon, F.

Christopher Rawdon was a merchant and philanthropist who resided in Anfield, Liverpool, during the first half of the nineteenth century. His father, also called Christopher though known as ‘Kit’, had also resided in Anfield, but had originated from Halifax in Yorkshire. ‘Kit’ had a connection with Liverpool through his wool business, and along with his wife, he had moved to Liverpool permanently by 1814. His three sons; Christopher born in 1780, James (b.1782) and Joshua (b.1785), had all followed suit by the early 1820s. Christopher became involved in local politics, banking and, like many Liverpool merchants of the nineteenth century, became an active philanthropist; his legacy being the founding of a library, drinking fountain and playground in Anfield. Rawdon was also involved in the development of a Liverpool school and was instrumental in the creation of the Ministers Stipend Augmentation Fund, a fund that served the Unitarian community, of which he was part of. I have been teaching a history group that meets in Anfield for quite a few years now, the history group being known as the Rawdon Residents, the group celebrating Christopher Rawdon’s work for their local community. The library which bore his name helped many of the residents throughout their lives, not just as a place to of education, but as a focal point to the community over the years. The local centre where the history group meets – in a Crypt of Holy Trinity Church on Lower Breck Road – is situated next to the library building, and a memorial to Christopher Rawdon is located on the wall of the library as part of a drinking fountain, a clean water source being important at the time and the memorial being a local monument for Rawdon, celebrating his work. Despite the library, the playground and the memorial, the details of the life of Christopher Rawdon, the full extent of his work for the community and his career are sketchy. Rawdon had been largely forgotten outside Anfield, and as a project for the history group, we decided to research his life using original documents and manuscripts, and to ultimately write a book that could be used to enlighten the local community about his life and work. The work done by Christopher Rawdon for Liverpool and the Unitarian community during a period where self-help was the only means of assisting the working-classes, can now be fully celebrated. It is hoped that the book will bring a rediscovery of the work of Christopher Rawdon and his family, and as a local philanthropist, he can finally join the ranks of other Liverpool humanitarians such as the Holt, Rathbone and the Melly families. The book also acts as a companion book of sorts to my other works on the Liverpool Masonic Rebellion and The York Grand Lodge, as the Rawdon family moved from York to Liverpool during the same period as these seismic Masonic events took place, and as prominent businessmen, the Rawdons moved in similar social circles to men mentioned in these two works. As we shall see, members of the family had business dealings with men who were Freemasons and some members of the extended family were also involved in Freemasonry. Christopher Rawdon died in 1858, and like the other philanthropic Unitarian Liverpool families, Christopher, with his brother James, were buried at the Ancient Chapel of Toxteth in the south of Liverpool. Another monument was erected to him at the Renshaw Street Chapel, Liverpool. I hope this book will be fitting tribute to his life and work.

Den ungarske unitarbiskop Ferencz József (1835-1928) skrev den første unitariske katekisme i 1864. Denne er fortsatt i bruk i unitarkirkene i Romania og Ungarn som følger den transilvanske unitartradisjon som går tilbake til unitarkirkens grunnleggeggelse ved kirkeediktet i Torda i 1568.

Til grunn for oversettelsen som her publiseres, ligger den 20. reviderte utgave av 1864-katekismen. Også tilgjengelig via https://archive.org/details/knut-heidelberg-unitarisk-katekisme/mode/2up

In this review I will critically analyse aspects of Dr Katrina C. Hoop’s article, entitled ‘Being in a Community Of Individuals: Collective Identity And Rhetorical Strategies In A Unitarian Universalist Church’ (2012), which was published in volume 38 of the International Review Of Modern Sociology. The article presents Hoop’s ethnographic research undertaken in the Prairie Meadows Unitarian Universalist Church in a large Midwestern city the United States of America. The study was carried out over a period of four months. I will conclude that this article is mainly good but has one significant flaw that limits its impact.

Foreword by Sir Anthony F. Buzzard, MA, MTh, Hon. PhD.

At a very early stage in Church history, influences from the Greco-Roman world forcefully pressed the traditional God of Judaism through a system of pagan philosophy. The theological battles which followed produced serious problems for Christianity, and imperial edicts made accepting philosophical statements about God a matter of life or death.
Today, scholars are inviting us to reexamine whether these philosophies played any role in the preaching of the historical Jesus. Could reacquiring the Jewish worldview of the first century help us to better understand Jesus' theology in our own time? Could revisiting Church history show us where we went wrong?

In The God of Jesus in Light of Christian Dogma, Chandler embarks on a dynamic investigation of the developmental history of orthodox theology and its impact on popular interpretations of the New Testament. Relayed in two parts, the first provides a panoramic view of Hellenic influence on the early Christian faith, while the second revisits biblical interpretation. Writing for both the dedicated Christian student and the interested public, Chandler boldly appeals to both ancient history and modern scholarship to inform us about the origins of our most sacred traditions, and challenges the reader to contrast those ideas with the words of Jesus.

In the first part of this investigation into the holy spirit and translation bias, I limited my focus to relative pronouns used to refer to the holy spirit. In what follows I will broaden my inquiry to include several other key texts and important concepts related to the God’s spirit. First I will discuss in detail the primary texts used to prove the personhood of the spirit on grammatical grounds, before I make the case that the biblical concept of God’s spirit resists categorization.

Den ungarske unitarbiskop Ferencz József (1835-1928) skrev den første unitariske katekisme i 1864. Denne er fortsatt i bruk i unitarkirkene i Romania og Ungarn som følger den transilvanske unitartradisjon som går tilbake til unitarkirkens grunnleggeggelse ved kirkeediktet i Torda i 1568.

Til grunn for oversettelsen som her publiseres, ligger den 20. reviderte utgave av 1864-katekismen. Også tilgjengelig via https://archive.org/details/knut-heidelberg-unitarisk-katekisme/mode/2up

One of the surprising features for modern readers of the works of John Owen (1616-1683), especially his commentary on Hebrews, is his constant and detailed interaction with a group known as the Socinians. In his context, however, it is neither unusual nor eccentric, and it makes good sense in the light of Owen’s previous career and contemporary agenda. In this article, we will put his conversation with the Socinians into historical perspective, and particularly assess the way he links the Socinians with others, especially Richard Baxter and Hugo Grotius, and the often political motives behind this.

In Medieval Europe, the central authority of the Pope as the head of the Church was widely-appreciated across Europe. In 1378, the Papacy itself was vacated by death, always an embarrassing nonsequitur, and was filled by first two and then three claimants who virulently and violently made broad a war of their dispute.  Theologian Phyllis Tickle notes that this event did two things:  The spectacle challenged the narrative and the prevailing illusion “that there was one Pope and that he was directly and specifically chosen of God…”.  Secondly, the contest evoked the question – “Where now is the authority?”  Some observers, and the millions of people whose hopes were waste in the chaos, may also be led to the parade of theodicies. At the very least, in Tickle’s word, Divine Right was “pocked”. 
In the Reformation, Martin Luther, provided the answer:  Sola Scriptura.  With great excitement, the public and even many of its perpetually mendicant scholars turned with great interest to The Word as the sufficient and ultimate Authority.  Scripture filled the Authority vacuum:  Literacy then became the unintended consequence, because Scripture needed to be read.  Readers “in turn accelerated the drive toward rationalism and from there to Enlightenment and from there straight into science and technology and literature and governments…”. 
By an irony few can appreciate, our world is again facing the spectacle of illegitimacy in leadership. 
We examine "ritual" --what it does and how it comforts us. The Reformation impulse divided, and remains divided over a ritual--the Eucharist.  We examine that gesture. As Friar Rohr, among other "emergent" leaders, introduces his homily on the Trinity as a sacred circle dance. As Unitarian Universalists, we can join because opening the table, the circle, is always the invitation of mystery and tolerance.  The essay is a reflection on why a ritual meant to bring community has been the one sacrament which Christians use to separate themselves from themselves.

Copying Strategies in the Textual Tradition of György Enyedi's Sermons

The sermon collection of György Enyedi (1555–1597), the third bishop of the Unitarian Church, is an especially large corpus representing a unique handwritten textual tradition. During the almost one hundred years of active copying, a large amount of variant were issued. Today we mostly know copies of triacases (thirty or thirty-three sermons in one block) or selected sermons in mixed collections. They can be easily identified by the copyists’ or users’ notes. Also, even if there are damages and disorders in the structure, the beginning and the ending of the texts – without taking no notice of the regular variability of synonyms or word order – are comparable and can help in identifying unnumbered and unmarked texts. In my paper I wish to introduce four new sermon variants. They can be found in Contiones vetustissimae (Romania, Cluj Napoca, Academia III., MS.U. 262.), a Unitarian codex with mixed content. Until now the first part of it, a collection of sermons in Hungarian language – mostly shortened and often edited – has been ignored. This part contains the bishop’s four sermons without identification signs. The closer examination of these new variants, in comparison with the other versions can help us to understand the strategies of the copyists. Also, we can examine more precisely why and how the textual details of these sermons remained or changed in any way during the 17th century.

The Hebrew Bible is the shared canonical text of Judaism and Christianity. It might even be the central common text of Western civilization. Yet this collection of books is also remarkable for the degree to which its meaning and authority for both believing Christians and believing Jews is so thoroughly embedded in, and even superseded by, later texts - the New Testament for Christians and the rabbinic corpus for Jews.

Nevertheless, over the centuries, in various places and against the backdrop of various contexts, certain persons and movements in both traditions have repeatedly sought to reclaim the authority or religious meaning of the Hebrew Bible in-itself, so to speak, alongside or instead of the Bible’s traditional embedded meaning, in the name of one or another restorationist, reforming, revisionist, or radical agenda. These persons and movements have often been suppressed, sometimes violently. But they keep appearing as a hodge-podge of distinct but oddly similar historical moments - Persian Karaites, Russian Judaizers, Christian Hebraists, Puritans, Calvinists, Reform Jews, Zionists, Old Testament theologians, and many others - to the point that it is fair to say that they represent a consistent, abiding, tendency, a counter-story to the main trends of both Judaism and Christianity.

This Article explores this recurring phenomenon. After a selective historical survey, it collects threads of that history to propose some common themes in the sporadic but insistent return to the Hebrew Bible in-itself. It then explores the complex task of reintegrating the Hebrew Bible-in-itself back into the larger complex of Jewish and Christian tradition and suggests some broader implications of that lure for the place of the Hebrew Bible in Western culture and the distinct, paradoxical, nature of its religious and textual authority.

An Humble Inquiry into the Scripture-Account of Jesus Christ (1702) by Thomas Emlyn - Updated Edition (Theophilus Press, 2021)
Introduction: "English Unitarianism and the Rise of Tolerance in the West" by Kegan A. Chandler
Edited by Dale Tuggy and Kegan A. Chandler

In 1702 the English Presbyterian minister and theologian Thomas Emlyn wrote An Humble Inquiry, a succinct and erudite argument for the subordination of Jesus Christ to God the Father. Because of his unitarian understanding of biblical christology and theology he was expelled by his denomination, and in 1703 he was tried for blasphemy by the state. Sentenced to prison and deprived of his wealth, Emlyn's persecution by both the state and his fellow Protestants became an exemplar of the need for religious tolerance.

This new Updated Edition makes Emlyn's potent and controversial eighteenth-century book accessible to twenty-first century readers, and is enhanced by notes, scriptural citations, a complete bibliography of Emlyn's writings, and a historical introduction.

The Trinitarian controversy in late seventeenth-century England saw the confrontation of Unitarian theologians, who drew on Socinianism and other theological traditions in denying the Trinity, and Trinitarian divines, who provided different justifications of the Trinitarian dogma, mainly through metaphysical speculation.* The Trinitarian controversy also gave some deist thinkers, such as Matthew Tindal and John Toland, the opportunity to express even more heterodox views than the ideas of Unitarians like Stephen Nye, who rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, but still affirmed the divine authority of Scripture and the saving power of Christian revelation. Some historiography has described Tindal’s Letter to the Reverend the Clergy (1694) and Reflections on […] the Doctrine of the Trinity (1695), and Toland’s Christianity Not Mysterious (1696) as essentially Unitarian books, indebted to Socinianism and Locke’s way of ideas. However, in their works of the mid-1690s, Tindal and Toland employed historical, critical, and philological methods that subjected Scripture to the criteria of unprejudiced reason and scholarship. Thus, they rejected the possibility of “truths above reason”, and reduced revelation to merely a “means of information”. In these writings, both Tindal and Toland actually adapted Locke’s way of ideas to their respective views and purposes. Tindal’s tracts on the Trinity prefigured the religion of nature that he later explained in Christianity as Old as the Creation (1730), whereas Toland’s Christianity Not Mysterious was significantly influenced by Spinoza’s biblical hermeneutics. Briefly, Tindal’s and Toland’s works of the mid-1690s were already deistic in essence.