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William Ellery Channing (1780-1842)
by bro.Muhammad Ata ur-Rahim
William Channing was born in 1780.At the age of twenty-three he came to Boston and began his ministry which was to have a great influence on unitarian thought. Channing never accepted the doctrine of Trinity, but it was then not considered safe to denounce it openly. Together with other Unitarian ministers, he was accused to secretly spreading his views against the doctrine of Trinity. Channing replied that their views on Trinity were not concealed, but that they preached as if this doctrine had never been known. Channing said they had adopted this approach so as not to divide the Christians against each other. Thus, at this stage, the unitarian movement had not come out into the open.
In 1819, Channing gave a discourse at the ordination of the Reverend Jared Sparks. In his inimitable way, he outlined the salient features of the unitarian belief. He said that the New Testament was based on the Old Testament. The teaching dispensed to the Christians was a continuation of the Jewish one. It was the completion of a vast scheme of Providence which required a vast perspective to be understood.
Keeping this in mind, he said, he affirmed the belief that God never contradicts in one part of the Scripture what He teaches in the other, and "never contradicts in revelation, what He teaches in His works and providence, And we therefore distrust every interpretation, which after deliberate attention, seems repugnant to any established truth". Channing was insistent that man should make use of his reason :"God has given us a rational nature, and will call us to account for it. We may let it sleep, but we do so at our peril. Revelation is addressed to us as rational beings. We may wish, in our sloth, that God had given us a system demanding no labour of comparing, limiting, and inferring. But such a system would be at variance with the whole character of our present existence; and it is the part of wisdom to take revelation as it is given to us, and to interpret it by the help of the faculties, which it everywhere supposes, and on which it is founded". He went on to say that "If God be infinitely wise He cannot sport with the understanding of His creatures. A wise teacher discovers his wisdom in adapting himself to the capacities of his pupils, not in perplexing them with what is unintelligible, not in distressing with apparent contradictions . . . .It is not the mark of wisdom to use an unintelligible phraseology to communicate what is above our capacity, to confuse and unsettle the intellect by appearance of contradictions . . . . .A revelation is a gift of light. It cannot thicken our darkness and multiply our perplexity ".
Up until 1819, the congregations of the Unitarians were held either in private houses or in the hall of the Medical College in Barclay Street, in Boston, in 1820, the construction of a building for unitarian worship was started. It was completed in 1812. Despite this proof of their becoming more established, the unitarians were still called "a crew of heretics, infidels, or athiests"2. However, this year saw a reversal of the policy of cautious preaching by the unitarians. Channing , who had so far received the narrow and bitter attacks from the pulpits of the orthodox church without retaliating, felt that the time had come for him to strike back with all the forces at his command and speak out boldly in support of his faith, and against the prejudices of orthodoxy. In his book, " A History of Unitarianism", E. M. Wilber writes of Channing that, "His theme was that the Scriptures, when reasonably interpreted, teach the doctrine held by the Unitarians. It took up the main doctrines on which the Unitarians depart from the orthodox and held them up one by one for searching examination . . . . it made an eloquent and lofty appeal against a scheme so full of unreason, inhumanity and gloom as Calvinism. . . . and impeached the orthodoxy of the day before the bar of the popular reason and conscience"3.
The cause of Unitarianism in America was further helped by a convention held at Massachusetts in 1823, when the orthodox church made an unsuccessful attempt to impose a doctrinal test on ministers who wished to preach to Unitarian congregations. This failure, however, succeeded in bringing the unitarian movement out into the open, and served to unite its different members in the defence of a common cause.
In 1827, a second church was opened with a famous sermon by Channing. To him, writes E. M. Wilber, should go the credit of being primarily responsible for the result that "even if not explicitly acknowledged, the doctrine of Trinity, even if still formally confessed, had ceased to be old emphasis; and that the outstanding doctrines of Calvinism had received new interpretations which the fathers would have rejected with horror"4. These developments did not take place without resistance. In 1833, the Unitarians were attacked as "cold-blooded infidels" and abuses were hurled that were "unparallel even in the days of theological intolerance and bigotry "5. It is recorded that as late as 1924, thirty or forty unitarians met in Boston and formed an Anonymous Association. This indicates that although there was no likelihood of their sharing the same fate as earlier Unitarians, there was still an element of danger for a Christian who affirmed the Divine Unity.
Channing remained a firm Unitarian to the end of his days. To him, Jesus was not only human, but also an inspired prophet of God. In contrast with the Calvin doctrines of human depravity, the wrath of God, and the atoning sacrifice of Christ, Channing proclaimed "one sublime idea" which he defined as "the greatness of the soul, its union with God by spiritual likeness, its receptivity of His spirit, its self-forming power, its destination to the ineffable and its immorality"6. This was a refreshing change from the cold logic and over emphasis on the phenomenal word of Priestly. It breathed life into the Unitarian movement, not only in America, but also in England. Priestly was after all a physical scientist. His reasoning was sound, but his outlook was materialistic. Channing elevated it to sublime spiritual heights. His words made a deep impression on both sides of the Atlantic when he said, "man's rational nature was from God"7. He protested against every form of sectarian narrowness. Denominational aggression was foreign to his nature and this spirit was infused in the leaders of the movement which culminated in the founding of the Divinity School of Harvard University in 1861.
Part of its constitution reads, "It being understood that every encouragement be given to the serious, impartial and unbiased investigation of Christian truth and that no assent to the peculiarities of any denomination be required of either the students or professors or instructors"8. In 1825, the American Association was formed, the same year as was done in England. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), resigned the pulpit in Boston and he breach between the old and the new thinking was complete. The religion of Jesus was proclaimed to be the love of God and service of man and this was an "absolute religion"
Unitarianism within Christianity has continued up to the present day. Many of the Christian sects, although they have little access to the existential reality of Jesus-of how he behaved towards people and conducted his transactions with them, of how he did everything and lived his life-do believe in One God and seek to live according to the Bible's precepts, despite the contradictions within it. However, the confusion caused by the doctrines of atonement and redemption and Trinity, together with the absence of any real guidance as to hw to live the way Jesus lived, have caused the now almost complete rejection of Christianity. Today the churches lie empty.
Reference
Anti-Trinitarian Biographies, A. Wallace
A History of Unitarianism, E. M. Wilbur , p.424
A History of Unitarianism, E. M. Wilbur
Anti-Trinitarian Biographies, A. Wallace
The Epic of Unitarianism, D. B. Parke
Challenge of a Liberal Faith, G N. Marshall
A History of Unitarianism, E. M. Wilbur
from the Book : Jesus - A prophet of Islam
Author : Muhammad Ata ur-Rahim
(ICRA)