Unitarianism in America: A History of its Origin and DevelopmentCooke, George Willis
History
Unitarianism in America: A History of its Origin and Development
Cooke, George Willis
Unitarianism -- United States
The many and wide divergences of opinion which were an essential result of
the spirit and methods of Protestantism were shown from the first by the
Pilgrims and Puritans. In Massachusetts, stringent laws were adopted in
order to secure uniformity of belief and practice; but it was never
achieved, except in name. Antinomianism early presented itself in Boston,
and it was quickly followed by the incursions of the Baptists and Friends.
Hooker did not find himself in sympathy with the Massachusetts leaders, and
led a considerable company to Connecticut from Cambridge, Watertown, and
Dorchester. Sir Henry Vane could not always agree with those who guided the
religion and the politics of Boston; Roger Williams had another ideal of
church and state than that which had come to the Puritans; and Sir Richard
Saltonstall would not submit himself to the aristocratic methods of the
Boston preachers.
These are but a few of the many indications of the individualistic spirit
that marked the first years of the Puritan colonies. It was a part of the
Protestant inheritance, and was inherent in the very nature of
Protestantism itself. Although the Puritans had only in part, and with
faltering steps, come to the acceptance of the individualistic and rational
spirit in religion, yet they were on the way to it, however long they might
be hindered by an autocratic temper. In fact, the Puritans throughout the
seventeenth century in New England were trying at one and the same time to
use reason and yet to cling to authority, to accept the Protestant ideal
and yet to employ the Catholic methods in state and church. In being
Protestants, they were committed to the central motive of individualism;
but they never consistently turned away from that conception of the church
which is autocratic and authoritative.
[Sidenote: The Church of Authority and the Church of Freedom.]
Looked at from the modern sociological point of view, there are two types
of church, the one socialistic or institutional and the other
individualistic, the one making the corporate power of the church the
source of spiritual life, the other making the personal insight of the
individual man the fountain of religious truth. Such a church as that of
Rome may be properly called socialistic because of its corporate nature,
because it maintains that revelation is to, and by means of, an
institution, an organic religious body.[1]
Catholicism, whether of Rome, Greece, or England, makes the church as a
great religious corporation the organ of religious expression. Such a
corporation is the source of authority, the test of truth, the creator of
spiritual ideals. On the other hand, such a church as the Protestant may be
called individualistic because it makes the individual the channel of
revelation. It emphasizes personality as of supreme worth, and it makes
religious institutions of little value in comparison.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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