Changes

===Emerson===

===Emerson===

[[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] was the most important American intellectual of the 1830s-1850s.  His influence was greater outside religious circles than inside--[[Abraham Lincoln]] read him closely.

[[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] was the most important American intellectual of the 1830s-1850s.  His influence was greater outside religious circles than inside—[[Abraham Lincoln]] read him closely.

A copy of [[David Friedrich Strauss]]'s ''Leben Jesu'' (1835), which argued that Jesus was not the sole prophet but that all human beings are the incarnation of the Word, reached Boston in 1836-37. It disturbed most Unitarians but inspired Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was struggling to see the authority of Christianity in the message and not the messenger, to deliver his 1838 "Divinity School Address," in which he followed Unitarian assumptions in transcending Christianity itself.  The controversy that greeted Emerson's "Divinity School Address" was a symptom of the erosion of basic assumptions about religion, truth, and social order. Strauss inspired Emerson, who was struggling to see the authority of Christianity in the message and not the messenger. Emerson's radical assertion of the individual's ability to perceive spiritual truth without the aid of scripture both reflected and contributed to a growing split between liberal and conservative tendencies in Unitarian theology. But the address became a sensation throughout Boston because Emerson's transcendentalist attack on institutional religious authority resonated with two political movements of the 1830s that similarly challenged the political, cultural, and moral authority of Boston elites. Although Unitarianism began as an insurgency against what it considered stale Congregationalist orthodoxy, when Emerson asserted that [[Transcendentalism]] implied that Unitarianism should reject the veracity of Christian miracles, moderate Unitarians asserted the existence of a new Unitarian orthodoxy that excluded Emerson's radical ideas.  

A copy of [[David Friedrich Strauss]]'s ''Leben Jesu'' (1835), which argued that Jesus was not the sole prophet but that all human beings are the incarnation of the Word, reached Boston in 1836-37. It disturbed most Unitarians but inspired Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was struggling to see the authority of Christianity in the message and not the messenger, to deliver his 1838 "Divinity School Address," in which he followed Unitarian assumptions in transcending Christianity itself.  The controversy that greeted Emerson's "Divinity School Address" was a symptom of the erosion of basic assumptions about religion, truth, and social order. Strauss inspired Emerson, who was struggling to see the authority of Christianity in the message and not the messenger. Emerson's radical assertion of the individual's ability to perceive spiritual truth without the aid of scripture both reflected and contributed to a growing split between liberal and conservative tendencies in Unitarian theology. But the address became a sensation throughout Boston because Emerson's transcendentalist attack on institutional religious authority resonated with two political movements of the 1830s that similarly challenged the political, cultural, and moral authority of Boston elites. Although Unitarianism began as an insurgency against what it considered stale Congregationalist orthodoxy, when Emerson asserted that [[Transcendentalism]] implied that Unitarianism should reject the veracity of Christian miracles, moderate Unitarians asserted the existence of a new Unitarian orthodoxy that excluded Emerson's radical ideas.  

The "Free Enquirers", led by former Universalist minister Abner Kneeland, an associate of the radical [[Frances Wright]], linked freethinking on social issues with a Tom-Paine-like radicalism akin to the Workingmen's movement. Abolitionists led by Unitarian [[William Lloyd Garrison]] made a broad-based assault on legal authority, attacking even the legitimacy of the Constitution. This emergent discursive pluralism reflected the pervasive effects of the transformations wrought by Jacksonian politics.<ref> Mary Kupiec Cayton, "Toward a Democratic Politics of Meaning-Making: The Transcendentalist Controversy and the Rise of Pluralist Discourse in Jacksonian Boston." ''Prospects'' 2000 25: 35-68. 0361-2333 </ref>  

The "Free Enquirers", led by former Universalist minister Abner Kneeland, an associate of the radical [[Frances Wright]], linked freethinking on social issues with a Tom-Paine-like radicalism akin to the Workingmen's movement. Abolitionists led by Unitarian [[William Lloyd Garrison]] made a broad-based assault on legal authority, attacking even the legitimacy of the Constitution. This emergent discursive pluralism reflected the pervasive effects of the transformations wrought by Jacksonian politics.<ref> Mary Kupiec Cayton, "Toward a Democratic Politics of Meaning-Making: The Transcendentalist Controversy and the Rise of Pluralist Discourse in Jacksonian Boston." ''Prospects'' 2000 25: 35-68. 0361-2333 </ref>  

===Darwinism===

===Darwinism===

Unitarians were among the first to accept Darwinian [[evolution]] views as applied to religion and "higher criticism" of the Bible and have continued to modify their theology to accord with new fads. Since the 1930s the Unitarians have been influenced greatly by religious humanism--the belief that mankind should set aside unsolvable theological problems and concentrate on the application of the scientific method to the task of creating a better life

Unitarians were among the first to accept Darwinian [[evolution]] views as applied to religion and "higher criticism" of the Bible and have continued to modify their theology to accord with new fads. Since the 1930s the Unitarians have been influenced greatly by religious humanism&#8212;the belief that mankind should set aside unsolvable theological problems and concentrate on the application of the scientific method to the task of creating a better life

===Modernity===

===Modernity===