More important to the general public is the question of ideas which now
prevail among Unitarians. Our preceding sketch has shown some of the
results of the freedom claimed by them in one generation after another.
We have now to see in what respects the nineteenth century effected a
further change.
In the first third of the century there can be no doubt that Unitarians
adhered tenaciously, but with discrimination, to the idea of the final
authority of the Bible. In this respect they were like Protestants
generally, and though they nevertheless brought 'reason' to bear on
their reading of the Scriptures, other Protestants did the same, if to a
less degree. Both in the United States and in England this attitude was
still common up till nearly the middle of the century, and instances
could easily be found later still. The miraculous element was thus
retained, though as we have seen as early as in Priestley's case there
was a tendency to eliminate some part of the supernatural. That a
thoroughgoing belief could be stated in good round terms is evident from
the following sentence taken from a book issued by _Dr. Orville Dewey_
(1794-1882), one of the most eloquent pulpit orators of his day. The
book is entitled _Unitarian Belief_, its date is 1839. Referring to the
Bible the author says, 'Enough is it for us, that the matter is divine,
the doctrines true, the history authentic, the miracles real, the
promises glorious, the threatenings fearful.' There is good ground for
taking this as a fair example of the ideas prevalent among American
Unitarians at that time. Perhaps the statement was made the more
emphatic in view of some remarks recently uttered by two young men whose
influence, along with more general tendencies, proved fatal to the old
doctrine.
One of these young men was _James Martineau_ (1805-1900), who at the age
of thirty-one was already known as a writer and preacher far above the
average. He was then resident in Liverpool, where he wrote a remarkable
little book with the title _The Rationale of Religious Inquiry_ (1886).
More than fifty years later he published an even more remarkable book,
_The Seat of Authority in Religion_. There is, indeed, half a century of
development between the two books, yet the germinal thought of the
second may be detected in the first. The point at issue is where the
ultimate appeal should lie in matters of religion. With the keen eye for
the weaknesses of his fellow-worshippers which always characterized him,
Martineau said, 'The Unitarian takes with him [to the study of the
Bible] the persuasion that nothing can be scriptural which is not
rational and universal.' This fixed opinion, which he ranks along with
the foregone conclusions of other types of theologian, was just that
which we have observed in the general course of liberals from Locke
onwards. Though in a note Martineau concedes that his words may somewhat
strongly accentuate the common opinion, he represents Unitarians as
virtually saying, 'If we could find the doctrines of the Trinity and the
Atonement, and everlasting torments in the Scriptures, we should believe
them; we reject them, not because we deem them unreasonable, but because
we perceive them to be unscriptural. For my own part, I confess myself
unable to adopt this language'--not, he says, but that he does think
them actually 'unscriptural.' 'But I am prepared to maintain, that if
they were in the Bible, they would still be incredible.... Reason is the
ultimate appeal, the supreme tribunal, to which the test of even
Scripture must be brought.' It abates nothing from the force of these
declarations that then, and for some time afterwards, Martineau himself
accepted the miracles. The 'old school' perceived the sharp edge of such
a weapon, and its wielder was during many years regarded as a
'dangerous' innovator.
The other young writer to whom reference has been made was _Ralph Waldo
Emerson_ (1803-82), son and grandson of ministers of the liberal
Congregational type in New England and himself for a short time minister
of the Second Church, Boston. Preferring the freedom of the lecturing
platform, Emerson had already withdrawn from the ministry, but in 1838
he gave an 'Address to the Senior Class' in the Divinity School,
Harvard, which proved a second landmark in the history of American
Unitarianism. Nineteen years before, Channing had decisively pointed out
that Unitarianism and orthodoxy are two distinct theologies. In the
Divinity School Address, Emerson maintained that the idea of
'supernaturalism' is rendered obsolete by a recognition of the reality
of things. Bringing a gift of pungent prose to the service of a poetic
imagination, Emerson startled the decorously dignified authorities of
the New England pulpit; he 'saved us,' says Lowell, 'from the body of
this death.' He pointed from the record of miracles past to an
ever-present miracle. To the illumination of 'reason,' which Unitarians
had followed so loyally--within the proviso of a special revelation--he
brought the light of a mystic intuition. Some of his elders judged it to
be 'false fire' perilously akin to the 'enthusiasm' which their
predecessors had so often condemned. In daring simplicity he urged that
there had been 'noxious exaggeration about the _person_ of Jesus.' 'The
soul knows no persons.' The divine is always latent in the human.
Revelation is not ended--as if God were dead!
The shock to the old-fashioned minds was immense. Long and far-sounding
debate followed, though Emerson, with provoking self-possession,
declined to argue. He simply 'announced.' This oracular attitude
certainly affected some of the younger men greatly, but fortunately for
the success of the new gospel one of these younger men translated the
oracular into a more popular and reasoned form. Three years after
Emerson's Address, _Theodore Parker_ (1810-60) completed the Unitarian
trilogy by a sermon on _The Transient and the Permanent in Theology_. It
may be said to have done for Emerson's message the kind of service
rendered by Huxley to Darwin's. Parker at once became a marked man; most
Unitarian pulpits were closed against him, but a large hall accommodated
the vast crowds that came to hear him. It is doubtful if such numerous
congregations ever listened to a Unitarian before or since. He continued
an arduous work for some fifteen years, but it wore him out before his
time. He was an erudite scholar and a prolific writer. Discarding the
claims of Christianity to be the only 'divine revelation,' he based his
clear and always optimistic theism on the broad facts of human
experience. Ardently interested in social and political questions, he
poured satire without stint on the religious defenders of slavery, and
himself dared all risks along with the foremost abolitionists. Such a
man could not but count for much; and though his radical views in
theology greatly disturbed for many years the conservatives in the
body--for Unitarianism itself had by this time a well-defined
conservative type--they could not fail to permeate the minds of the
masses.
Of Emerson's own life-work this is hardly the place to speak at large,
but in connection with the development of that 'Religion of the Spirit'
in which Dr. Martineau sees the culmination of the theological progress
of Unitarianism, Emerson's share must be allowed to be a large one. When
Dean Stanley visited America he is said to have reported that he had
heard sermons from many pulpits, but 'Emerson was the one preacher in
them all.' It is certain that at one time the style, if not also the
thought, of Emerson was extensively copied by the preachers, not always
to the gain of solidity. A degree of jauntiness appears in the worse
specimens of these imitations, and Lord Morley's criticism that Emerson
himself was too oblivious of the dark side of human suffering and guilt
would doubtless apply to much of the Unitarian eloquence at one time
inspired by his witching voice.
This, however, is but one side of the American message in the nineteenth
century; evidence abounds that a 'Christocentric' type of teaching, with
adhesion to much of old material of the Gospels, held its own till a
generation ago, and its peculiar accent is not without echoes to-day. On
the whole it is probable that, as at the beginning of the century, the
'liberals' in New England Congregationalism were somewhat shocked at
some of the daring views of the Priestleyan Unitarians in England, so
even towards its close the general position of thought was more
conservative there than was the rule here. Certainly, also, there was a
deep, tender tone manifested even where opinion was most radical among
the American Unitarians, and of this no better proof can be cited than
the large number of hymns of a high order both of thought and expression
which have been written among them. They serve to show that a frank
acceptance of the evolutionary philosophy by no means necessarily
entails the decay of devout personal piety or the loss of beautiful
ideals. Among the American hymnists the following are specially eminent,
and their productions are often to be found in 'orthodox' collections:
_Samuel Longfellow_ (brother to H.W.L.), _Samuel Johnson_, _W.C.
Gannett_, _J.W. Chadwick_, and _F.L. Hosmer_.
On the English side other sweet singers have appeared: 'Nearer, my God,
to Thee,' by _Sarah Flower Adams_, is a world-renowned hymn; and if the
names of Channing, Emerson, and Parker cannot be equally matched here in
their several spheres, there has been no lack of able and scholarly
representatives, and one name at least is of universal reputation. That
name, of course, is _Martineau_. The effective changes from the old
Unitarianism to the modern type are best displayed in the story of his
long life and the monumental books which bear his name. Reference has
been made to his early brilliance; its promise was amply fulfilled in
the course of a career more than usually prolonged. The note of original
thought sounded in the _Rationale_ (see p. 63[*]) was to be heard again
and again in other and more permanent utterances, and not seldom to the
perplexity and dismay of many of his Unitarian brethren. Alike in
religious philosophy, in attitude to the Scriptures, and in matters of
church organization, he found himself from time to time at variance with
most of those close around him. His philosophical and critical influence
was in large measure victorious; in regard to organization the results
were less satisfactory to himself. It will be instructive to observe his
progress.
[*: third paragraph of Modern Unitarianism: II. Ideas and Tendencies.]
As regards philosophy, it is necessary to remember the influence of
Priestley and Belsham. These Unitarian leaders, following Hartley's
psychology, stood for a _determinism_ which was complete. God was the
Great Cause of all; not the 'First Cause' of the deistic conception,
operative only at the beginning of the chain of events and now remote
from man and the world, but present and immediate, exhibiting his divine
purposes in all the beings created by him. Christianity, in the view of
this school, was the means by which God had been pleased to make known
the grand consummation of this life in a perfected life to come; Jesus,
the Messiah, was the chosen revealer of the divine will, and his
resurrection was the supreme and necessary guarantee that his message
was true. Martineau, like the rest of his generation, was brought up in
this necessarianism; but its tendency, as he reviewed and tested it, was
to do violence to certain irrepressible factors of the spiritual life.
It is only fair to say, there was even in this Priestleyan school room
for a mystical mood; but on the whole it appeared dry and intellectual,
lacking the warm and operative forces of a deeper devotion.
It is interesting to find that Martineau himself confessed that the
freshening touch upon his own inner life came in a closer contact with
evangelical piety. His mind was to the end of his many years readily
responsive to congenial impulses, let them come whence they would, and
no small part of his service to Unitarianism consists in the broader
sympathies which he generated in its circles. To Channing, also, he
expressed gratitude for helping to wake in him a new sense of the
meaning of life and religion. It was Channing's characteristic to insist
on the significance of personality. The worth, the depth, and also the
rights of the Human made so vivid an appeal to his mind as to react on
his conceptions of the Divine. Within, a few years after the _Rationale_
was published, Martineau is found making an obvious change of base. He
has realized that the externally communicated religion of the old
school, however sublime in its proportions, fails to meet the needs or,
indeed, to fit the facts of the inner life. Man's personality rises, in
his thought, into touch with God's; the revelation from without can only
be recognized as such by the aid of a revelation within; a real
activity, a genuine moral choice, and a resulting character, the marks
of a truly living Soul, these are indispensable to an adequate view of
the religious life. But all this involves two significant positions,
each far asunder from those hitherto put forth--there must be Freedom,
at least in the moral world; and the Divine assurances of moral values
and of loving aid to win them are no longer confined to an outer record.
Such a record may yield invaluable service as a heightener and
interpreter of individual experience; to the last we find Martineau
attaching a profound and quite special significance to the revelation in
Jesus of the life of sonship to God, and retaining tenaciously the
Christian attitude in preference to one of simple theism. But his system
is based on the internal; all the rest, the Church, the Bible, Nature,
however august and charged with meaning, is supplementary to that.
In the American field, under the influence of Emerson and the German
philosophy, what is called 'Transcendentalism' flourished midway in the
century, and there as well as in England its extravagances were
deplored. Martineau himself, while approaching so nearly to the egoistic
centre, was safeguarded from all such vagaries by an all-pervading sense
of duty. In his volumes of sermon the _Endeavours after the Christian
Life_, and _Hours of Thought on Sacred Things_, which remain among the
choicest of their kind in our language, his austerity of moral tone is
only relieved by an elevation of poetic mysticism till then unknown in
Unitarian literature. It was, indeed, his conviction that the body would
not write poetry for a generation or two, so dry and prosaic did he find
it; but at that very time his own efforts in hymnody on one side and on
the other his lyric prose, almost too richly ornate for general wear,
were touching new springs of feeling. By and by, he issued in
conjunction with others a set of liturgical services, which did much to
lend dignity to congregational worship. And what gave unique influence
to his ideas was his intimate connection from 1840 to 1885 with
'Manchester College,' London, one of the successors to the old
'Academies' (now after its several migrations handsomely housed at
Oxford). At this college, as professor of mental and moral philosophy
and for many years as Principal, he made a deep and lasting impression
on the minds of most of the leading scholars and preachers. His great
works. _Types of Ethical Theory_ and _A Study of Religion_, gathered up
the harvest of long study and exposition in these subjects, and are the
most important of their kind given by Unitarians to the world.
In accordance with what has been indicated, the later attitude of
Martineau, and naturally of his pupils--though the principle of free and
independent judgment is and always has been insisted upon--has been
radical in respect to Biblical, and especially to New Testament,
studies. An influence in this department more direct than his own was
formerly found in the writings and lectures of _John James Tayler_
(1797-1869), his predecessor as Principal. This ripe and fearless
scholar brought home to Unitarians the wealth of continental literature
on the subject. The 'old school' stood aghast as the tide of 'German
criticism' overflowed the old landmarks of thought; and when Tayler
himself issued a work strongly adverse to the apostolic authorship of
the Fourth Gospel distress was extreme. In these matters, however, the
tide proved irresistible, and the next generation of preachers and
students were among the most ardent translators and popularizers of the
new views of Jewish and Christian origins. The 'free' character of the
pulpits has made the way easier than in most other denominations for the
incoming of modern thought in this and other directions.
The influence of natural science upon the trend of Unitarian opinion has
hardly been second to that of Biblical criticism. Some names in the list
of prominent Unitarians are celebrated in this connection--_Louis
Agassiz_ (1807-73), for example, on the American side, _Sir Charles
Lyell_ (1797-1875) and _Dr. W.B. Carpenter_ (1813-85) on the English
side. A son of the last named, _Dr. J. Estlin Carpenter_, a man of wide
and varied scholarship, is now Principal of Manchester College. A field
in which he is specially expert is that of comparative religion, and
here also is a source of many considerations that have transformed
Unitarianism into one of the most liberal types of thought in the modern
religious world.
It is not to be inferred, however, that the 'radical' tendencies, while
predominant, have everywhere prevailed among Unitarians. The
'conservative' side continued in the third quarter of the nineteenth
century to yield important signs of its existence and fruitfulness, and
its vitality is far from exhausted still. The miraculous element has
even here been reduced to a minimum, but it has left a tinge on the
picture of Jesus which fills the imagination and kindles the reverent
affection of many. Among the more gifted representatives of this school
we may name the Americans _Dr. H.W. Furness_ (1802-96) and _Dr. J.
Freeman Clarke_ (1810-88), and the English _John Hamilton Thom_
(1808-94). Thom's sermons are ranked among the highest for spirituality
and penetration; they certainly had profound effect in stimulating the
wise and generous philanthropy of _William Rathbone_ and _Sir Henry
Tate_. A celebrated representative of this side of Unitarianism is _Dr.
James Drummond_, still living, the author of several works of European
repute among New Testament scholars, one being a defence of the
Johannine authorship of the Fourth Gospel. He succeeded Martineau as
Principal of Manchester College. His volume. _Studies of Christian
Doctrine_, is the most important statement of the Unitarian view
published in recent years.
As time went on, it fell to Martineau and other leading Unitarians to
take up a defensive attitude against the extreme forces of negation. In
particular, he came to be recognized as a champion of theism against
materialist evolution. Four volumes of 'Essays' contain some of his
acutest writings on the subject. An address presented to him on his
eighty-third birthday celebrated his eminence in this and other ways; it
bore the signatures of six hundred and fifty of the most brilliant of
his contemporaries, at their head being Tennyson and Browning.
All this strenuous progress, however, was for Martineau dogged by a
shadow of peculiar disappointment. In youth he was as ardent a
'Unitarian' as any; but, about the time of the Dissenters' Chapels Act
(1844), he and Tayler and some others felt increasing dissatisfaction
with the tendency of the more active Unitarians to degenerate into a
sect. As we have seen, the same divergence of feeling arose in America,
and Channing always strove to keep Unitarianism there from succumbing to
denominationalism. The ardour of those especially who had newly espoused
the Unitarian view and found it precious to themselves may be easily
understood, and they might be forgiven some impatience with the apparent
apathy of those who had no great desire to multiply proselytes. Some of
these eager spirits strove to rescue the body from what they evidently
regarded as a paralysing indefiniteness. From time to time it was argued
that Unitarianism must be 'defined' authoritatively; then, and then
only, might a triumphant progress be secured. Mixed with such notions
was apparently a desire to keep the imprudent and 'advanced' men from
going 'too far.' In one form or other this opposition has persisted till
the present; but its acrimony has sensibly lessened as, on the one hand,
the 'denominational' workers have more fully accepted the principle of
unfettered inquiry, and on the other, the lessons of experience have
shown that, however eager the Unitarians may be for the widest possible
religious fellowship, they are, in fact, steadily left to themselves by
most of the other religious bodies, especially in this country.
Martineau himself about forty years ago tried to form, along with
Tayler, a 'Free Christian Union' which should ignore dogmatic
considerations; but Tayler died, and so little encouragement was met
with outside the Unitarian circle that the thing dropped after two
years. Nearly twenty years later, at the Triennial Conference (held in
1888 at Leeds), a remarkable address was given by the now venerable
'leader' (whom, as he mournfully said, no one would follow), in favour
of setting up again an English Presbyterian system which should swallow
up all the many designations and varieties of association hitherto
prevailing among Unitarians. The proposal was considered impracticable,
and the dream of a 'Catholicity' which should embrace all who espoused
the free religious position, whatever their doctrines, seemed farther
than ever from fulfilment. In later years the idea has, however,
continued to be mooted, and some Unitarians hope still to see the
development of a 'Free Catholicism' in which the traditional distinction
between Unitarian and Trinitarian will be lost.
Meanwhile, as has been said, the extension of Unitarian worship and the
diffusion of literature goes on with a fair amount of success. In
America, thanks largely to the sagacious toil of a remarkable organizer,
_Dr. H.W. Bellows_ (1814-82), the Unitarian Association has proved a
strong and effective instrument for this purpose, and the British
Association, whose headquarters are now in the building where Lindsey
opened the first Unitarian Church in 1774, has also thriven considerably
in recent years. It is said that the rate of growth in the number of
congregations in the United Kingdom has been about 33 per cent during
the past half-century; in America the rate is somewhat higher.