The Unitarians: A Short History

by Leonard Smith

This short history of Unitarianism concisely explores the origins and progress of a worldwide liberal religious tradition committed to principles of freedom, reason, and tolerance.Unitarians have exercised an influence out of proportion to their minority status. Through their agency, Poland and Transylvania enjoyed periods of religious toleration. In Great Britain, as pioneers of early modern higher education in Dissenting Academies, they applied Enlightenment reasoning to the study of religion, science, and the humanities. In the United States, they led the Transcendentalist movement, the first major flowering of American intellectual culture.This book traces the history of the separate but related Unitarian (and Unitarian Universalist) denominations in Europe, Great Britain, and the United States, and touches on the new groups that have arisen, or are in the process of emerging, elsewhere in the world.

Genres: History, Christianity

222 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

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Reviews

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book! Whereas many of the histories of Unitarianism are very complicated and detail oriented, Smith's volume is very easy to read and focuses on the major events. But while doing this he makes sure to describe the connections between things. One of the best strategies he uses is simply saying something like "Of course, there were other more minor issues involved in this dispute, but that goes beyond the scope of this work." Thus, Smith lets us know that there is more to the story but he doesn't get too bogged down into details.

The best feature of this book is the examination of Continental European Unitarianism, English Unitarianism and American Unitarianism. I have been independently studying Unitarianism for about 18 months and this is the first book that provides a solid understanding of the differences between Arianism, Sociniarism, Latitudinarians and Sabellianism. I also learned a great deal from Smith's discussion of the regional/social differences within the United States between Unitarianism in New England and the Priestly version of Unitarianism that was gaining popularity within elite circles.

In short, this was a great purchase and I plan to keep this book on my bookshelf for many years to come.