 THE
UNIVERSALIST CHURCH OF AMERICA
Robert Cummins
WHAT IS IT that we who call ourselves Universalists 1
have in view? What called us into being, and what purposes do we now serve? What
is there about us that is distinctive?
We believe those persons are wrong who tell us man is inevitably selfish,
that cut-throat competition is the law of life, that war is the means by which
the strong will ever overcome the weak. We hold that such doctrine is atheism of
the worst kind-an utter denial of the best in religion. We insist God created
man in His own image, that is, God gave to man a mind to understand the right, a
will to choose the right, and the capacity to attain such relationship with the
Creator as will enable him to live righteously. As a child of God, this is man's
spiritual heritage; and the responsibility is his of developing it by putting it
to use.
Almost certainly there are some erroneous impressions which call for
correction. It may be helpful, therefore, to suggest some of the things we are
not.
We are not merely a company of men and women seeking to build another
denomination. Most churches attempt to justify their separate existence by
identifying their own organization or their particular faith with that of the
"primitive church"- the church as it was during the early centuries of the
Christian era; but such basis for separateness is scarcely tenable. The
scholarly research of so eminent and unbiased a student as the late Canon B. H.
Streeter 2 of Queens College, Oxford, proves beyond
doubt that the early church possessed no single, distinct form, that its forms
were many and varied, and that, while any one of today's churches might rightly
claim to be patterned after one or another of the early churches (for there were
several, not just one, so also might every other. In any event, what virtue
would there be in such a claim, even were it true? Five of the seven schools
extant in those early days were Universalist in their sympathies. Therefore,
theologically, we may be said to have been in the majority and holding the
"orthodox" viewpoint; but it would not occur to us to claim our right to
separate existence today by reason of the situation which then prevailed.
Nor are our dominant characteristics a more elastic theology and a more
humane doctrinal outlook. If these-and only these-were our dominant
characteristics, our mission would cease to exist, for other churches are
tending swiftly in the same direction. There are those who look upon us as a
creedless church in which dwells the spirit of freedom, and, while this is true,
it could scarcely be judged sufficient to warrant our being. Our intent is to be
plain-spoken yet humble. Instead of regarding ourselves as a company of people
who have already "arrived" theologically (religiously), we prefer to conceive of
ourselves as learners, keeping our minds open, consulting unprejudiced
scholarship, respecting human experience, refusing to conceive God's revelation
as confined to so many properly dotted is and crossed t's, or
enclosed within the covers of a single Book.
Nor is it true that we are a people who merely "don't believe." The technique
just referred to leads inevitably to the conclusion that there are some things
we do not believe. Such matters as those over which, down across the years, the
Christian Church has fought, bled, and all but died -belief in the Trinity, the
Virgin Birth, the Immaculate Conception, miracle-working power of the
Sacraments, literal interpretation of all portions of the Old and New
Testaments-any and all of these, most Universalists do not accept; but we do not
make the grave mistake of prescribing that our people shall not accept
them. They may or they may not, as they choose; and, therefore
(significantly), they do not. We hold a man's relationship with God is too
sacred a thing to be tampered with from without. After all, who are we-who is
anyone else-to dictate the terms of such relationship? As a matter of fact, such
beliefs make no real difference anyway,-no difference, that is, morally
and ethically. They are matters of opinion only and have nothing to do
with richness of character, personal or social, which should constitute the
primary concern of the church.
Universalism did begin as a protest, and properly so; but it was a moral
protest, theological in form. There were in those early days a few souls who had
the courage to rise up in protest against what they conceived to be a cruel,
Moloch-worshiping Calvinism, and to call the Christian world back to Jesus'
conception of God as Father of all His Creation. Universalists were the
protestants of the Protestants, branded as heretics and rebels; but they proved
to be in the vanguard of theological thought, pioneers in social reform,
gadflies to themselves and others, one of the most humanitarian movements in the
history of the Christian Church.3 Yet all this is
only a lesser aspect of the thing we are banded together to do.
It is our judgment we are different; but we are not so simply because
we wish to be. We are different because the very logic of the situation makes it
inevitable. Universalism, by the very nature of the case, is an inclusive
gospel. Universalist Fellowship is inclusive in character, that is, any
exclusion is self-exclusion. We attempt to stand not only for a more
liberal kind of religion, but for a point of view so radically at variance with
most of the existing faiths as to make ours a different religion. The conception
we have of the Church itself is fundamentally unlike that held by most of the
established institutions of religion.
Orthodoxy (by this we mean that phase of religious life which includes both
Catholic and Protestant friends) conceives of religion as constituting a body of
truth to be believed. There may be differences of opinion as to what the
truth is, and there may be an endless variety of interpretation of the same
truth; but, beneath all opinions and interpretations, there is common agreement
that religion is inevitably associated with a body of truth.
The second major proposition of orthodoxy is that the acceptance of this body
of truth is essential to salvation. In other words, faith is belief in the truth
which saves-and to be outside belief in such truth is to be both in error and in
danger. The "elect" are on the inside, that is, on the inside of the right
church or denomination. The "Church" is distinct from the world. It is a
separate society whose primary functions are to provide fellowship for believers
and to win them in ever increasing numbers. Thus, as viewed by the
Universalists, there goes on and on this process of divisiveness, separating
believers from non-believers, the saved from the unsaved, saints from sinners,
the evangelical from the unevangelical; but, in all this (and frequently
escaping notice), is the fact that, underlying the orthodox conception, there is
the conviction that religion is something one obtains from outside oneself,
something one "catches" (as one catches measles), something one "puts on" (as
one puts on one's hat and coat). Man is not by nature a child of grace. Religion
is not his natural environment, his native endowment. Rather, it is a
relationship he enters through faith-an act of volition; or, it is an experience
which enters him. In any event, we become truly religious only through faith.
Here is the Universalist's real point of departure. He starts with the
assumption that religion is man's natural environment, is native to him,
not foreign. A man may have a special kind of religious experience, or he may go
through life without it; but religion, as such, is a permanent attribute of his
nature. There is no distinction as among us between believers and unbelievers,
redeemed and lost. To us, that sort of thing is not an act of faith, or a
particular relationship into which one enters of his own volition. We build on
the assumption man is religious, in much the same sense he is gregarious, needs
shelter, clothing, food, falls in love, marries, and begets children, or enters
into any other of the thousand and one perfectly natural and normal
relationships of life. And it would seem the social sciences substantiate this
assumption.
Universalists part company with most churchmen by reason of this, -their
conception of human nature. We emphatically repudiate the idea of original sin
resulting from the fall of man. There never was "a fall" of man. If there is
truth to be gleaned from modern knowledge, it is that man has come up from
primitive origins. Our first ancestors were not an innocent pair in a garden,
eating its fruits in peace. They were primitive creatures in a forest, fighting
wild beasts, living upon roots and nuts and captured prey. Just how
self-consciousness arose, or how the first personality developed, we do not
know; and we find ourselves under no necessity to settle these problems of human
origins, except to recognize that there never could have been an innocent, free
being meeting a single fateful test which was to determine the moral nature of
his descendants for all time.
We regard the doctrine of man's degradation, with its penal consequences, as
one of the most ghastly ideas ever to misdirect the thoughts of men,-a concept
altogether unworthy of an intelligent human being or a good God. We hold,
rather, to confidence in the moral potentialities of man, and in salvation as a
matter of human cooperation with God in organizing life so that the rude
instincts which are our biological inheritance may become habits of a
cooperative society animated by love.
For us, then, religion need not be associated with a prescribed set of
beliefs, although it may result in beliefs. We have beliefs, and those we
have are great indeed. Our present Great Avowal, for example, reads:
The Bond of Fellowship in The Universalist Church shall be a common
purpose to do the will of God as Jesus revealed it and to cooperate in
establishing the Kingdom for which he lived and died. To that end, we avow
our faith in God as Eternal and All-Conquering Love, in the spiritual
leadership of Jesus, in the supreme worth of every human personality, in
the authority of truth known or to be known, and in the power of men of
good will and sacrificial spirit to overcome all evil and progressively
establish the kingdom of God.4
But the agreement between us is comparable to the agreement between
scientists. Beliefs held by scientists are not prescribed. Scientific truth
issues from use of the scientific method: laboratory testing and
experimentation; unhampered and unbiased research. All we insist upon is that
our beliefs do not result from revelation; nor are they essential either to our
personal salvation or to the life of our Church. They are inferences, fruit of
the scientific method as applied to religion. They are-as they should be-working
hypotheses, used as hypotheses are used in every other department of living,
as tools by use of which we are aided in our growth toward the state of
all-round maturity for which the privilege of life was given us and for which we
are intended.
Thus do Universalists have faith, but in a very different sense. Our faith is
not in doctrines and creeds, but in purposes and goals. Our faith
would liberate man from speculative dogmas which, in any case, cannot be
verified, and set him free to harness his spiritual energies to the realization
of ideals and values in his personal and social life. This is the very thing
which Jesus himself called faith, and the selfsame manner in which he used it:
the free, creative spirit of man at work on the stuff of life, saying to the
future, "It shall be thus and so, because -we will it to be!"
In other words, Universalists conceive of themselves as striving to be a
voluntary association of men and women, children and youths, seeking to apply
both intelligence and heart to the social organization of man's religious
endowment, in order to achieve desirable goals in individual and social living.
The supreme aim of The Universalist Church is not to glorify God (although it
may result in God's glory), or to win men to Christ (although it may prove a
most effective means of demonstrating the spirit exemplified by Jesus of
Nazareth). No; the Universalist Church is a very human institution, created
solely for the purpose of enriching, enlarging, and fulfilling the life which is
man's.
There are approximately eighty thousand persons known to be associated with
the four hundred forty-eight Universalist churches in the United States.
Doubtless, there are an even greater number (uncounted, but avowed
Universalists) residing in communities where there are no
Universalist churches. Together they constitute an earnest fellowship, utilizing
much the same form of organization as is used by the several other denominations
practicing congregational polity. Here is a fellowship led by a well-trained and
able ministry; sponsoring its own publishing house; utilizing as a matter of
course the most up-to-date methods and scholarly materials in the field of
religious education; responsible for the founding of several colleges,
universities, and theological schools;5 carrying on,
through its women, perhaps the most outstanding work being done for diabetic
children, under the leadership of America's famed specialists in diabetes;
6 maintaining for Negroes a kindergarten, health clinic,
and social betterment unit;7 administering relief in
both Europe and Asia to the sufferers of war; working hand in hand with several
commissions of the National Council of Churches (although deprived of membership
in that body) ; striving to care for its aged and infirm; 8
encouraging sex education and birth control, opposition to war, rights of labor
to organize; and advocating one of the most advanced of the "social creeds."
Here is a fellowship bringing to men the vision of religion as a liberating
force, setting minds free, and, in that process, begetting spiritual liberty
also, removing hidden phobias and directing the gaze to horizons unclouded by
dogmas, inviting men to venture uncharted seas, and gripping the heart with the
dynamic of a creative faith to which all things are possible.
Universalism brings to its people a message of assurance. Based squarely upon
the firm conviction that man is naturally religious, it brings to many who have
felt themselves outside the pale an appreciation of their own religious
impulses, and encourages the spiritual longings and aspirations which are theirs
to become more articulate. Fellowship in the Universalist Church is a perfectly
natural and rational thing. While we guard zealously against the practice of
proselytizing, we endeavor to welcome into full fellowship former members of any
and all churches, or of none. Generally speaking, Universalist churches are not
made up of residents of the neighborhood only. Constituents are widely scattered
and often travel many miles to services. Their association issues from
conviction. Over fifty per cent of the ministers have come from non-Universalist
background. This influx of laity and clergy alike is due, in part at least, not
to the mood of mere tolerance on the part of Universalists, but to a growing
respect for their assumption that the inclusion of differing viewpoints is both
democratic and educationally acceptable. Ours is an inclusive fellowship.
Any exclusion becomes self-exclusion. Here, in embryo, is the kind of fellowship
which, if the world is to survive, the world must have.
Universalism has produced persons who have dared to live courageous lives, to
think new thoughts, to perform pioneering deeds.
In 1790 in Philadelphia (years before Lincoln was born), Universalists-the
first body of religionists so to do-went on record as opposing human slavery in
any form. One of the twelve charter members of the first Universalist church to
be organized on American soil was "Gloster Dalton, An African."
Hosea Ballou's (1771-1852) A Treatise on Atonement, in 1805, was the
first book published in America advocating the strict unity of God. This was ten
years prior to the famous Unitarian controversy in 1815 between William Ellery
Channing and Samuel Worcester.
Lombard (a Universalist college) and Oberlin were the first of all American
colleges and universities to adopt co-education. Universalists were among the
first to champion public schools free from ecclesiastical control.
Adin Ballou, a Universalist at Hopedale, Mass., was instrumental in founding
the Hopedale Fraternal Community, 1842, one of the early cooperative communities
which endeavored to apply to social and economic life the ideals of religion.9
The Universalist Church was the first to sponsor women for its ministry, not
because they were women but because they were persons. The very first
body of women in America to organize on a national scale was a body of
Universalist women. The first journal10
devoted to the welfare of working women was edited by a Universalist minister.
The first official State Labor Conciliator was the Rev. Le Grand Powers, a
Universalist minister appointed to that post by the Governor of Minnesota in
1887.
Universalists were first to sponsor prison reforms. The Rev. Charles Spear
edited The Prisoners' Friend, the first prison paper. Spear paved the way
for successful prison reform movements in which some of his Universalist
descendants, such as Orlando F. Lewis and Thomas Mott Osborne, were active.
Universalists were first to propose parole; first to oppose capital punishment.
Benjamin Rush, Universalist layman (Philadelphia physician) and signer of the
Declaration of Independence, was a pioneer in the field of temperance education;
he helped organize the first anti-slavery society. In 1791, he founded the First
Day Sunday School Society,
which met January 5, and, three months later, established the first nonsectarian
Sunday School in America.
The Rev. Charles H. Leonard, then minister in Chelsea, Mass., and later to
become the beloved Dean of the School of Religion at Tufts College, founded
Children's Day.
William E. Barton's Lincoln's Religion contains the following: "The
religious spirit of Abraham Lincoln was in harmony with Universalism. He
censured his friend, Peter Cartright, the evangelist, for the latter's attack
upon Universalism. `Pastor,' said he, `I used to think it took the smartest kind
of man to defend and uphold Universalism. But now I think differently. They have
the whole Scripture on their side and so many witnesses it would be impossible
to lose.'"
It is an accepted fact that the influence of Thomas Starr King, a
Universalist minister, kept the state of California in the Union during the
Civil War.
Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was a Universalist.
The first Universalist church, organized in Gloucester, Mass., in 1779, was
destined to "make history." A man named Gregory visited the town in 1769,
bringing with him the writings of the London preacher, James Relly (1722?-1778).
This book, Union, caused great interest. Universalism, per se, was then
unknown; but Relly taught "universal salvation" and Gloucester followers became
known as "Relly-ites." The Universalist Church in America dates from the advent
from England in 1770 of the Rev. John Murray (1741-1815)11,
(denominational organization was achieved in 1790). Murray was a Relly convert
from English Wesleyanism; and the small group of "Relly-ites" in Gloucester
called him to serve as their leader. The book, Union, only needed public
proclamation by Murray to unite these people organizationally, and to
crystallize the opposition. An attack was made upon Murray after his second
appearance in Boston in 1774. He and his followers were forced to continue their
meetings in private homes, chief of which was the home of Winthrop Sargent. In
January of 1779, they achieved formal organization as a church, and on Christmas
Day the following year their new meeting house was dedicated.
Opposition again asserted itself, this time on the question of taxation.
Assessors of the First Parish held that the persons who had withdrawn to follow
Murray were still liable to taxation for the support of the First Parish.
Universalists countered by insisting that the Bill of Rights12
attached to the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts provided for
the support by each and every individual of the religion of his choice. First
Parish then claimed that Murray's congregation was not religious in character,
nor was it incorporated, and that Murray himself was not properly ordained.
Property of Universalist people was seized for non-payment of taxes and sold
at public auction; whereupon, Universalists brought suit to recover. The case
came to trial in 1783 and continued in litigation on appeal and review until
1786, at which time the Universalists obtained a favorable verdict. This verdict
(by judge Dana) freed Universalists of Gloucester from the necessity of
supporting a church in which they could not believe. This was the first test
case of its kind, and is a landmark in the history of free religion. Gloucester
Universalists and their leader, Murray, were fighting the battle of freedom for
other religious groups as well as for themselves.
While Universalist ideas reach back twenty-five hundred years to the obscure
author of the Book of Malachi ("Have we not all one Father? Hath not one
God created us?"), Universalism finds itself peculiarly at home in free-born,
democratic America. In fact, it is one of the few religious denominations of
purely American origin.
Its genius is its liberty. Its fathers dared challenge tyrannies of
ecclesiastical authority, interpreting life in larger, more triumphant terms.
Its beginnings were linked with stormy days of political and industrial
revolution. Its prophets were stoned and ostracized.
One of its most admirable characteristics is its determination to uphold the
right of every person to interpret the fundamentals of religion according to his
conscience. Absolute freedom of utterance and latitude for adventure are secured
for laity and clergy alike. It has pledged itself to struggle for complete
emancipation.
The Universalist Church offers a moral and spiritual fellowship of persons
whose ideal is the drawing together in the spirit of fraternity all men,
learning and teaching the values of basic religion, and devoting themselves to
such obviously essential tasks as the relief of suffering, the rebuilding of
that which war has destroyed, and the establishment of moral principles of world
government.
Universalist churches adhere strictly to congregational polity, calling or
dismissing their ministers, and, in other ways, determining their own destiny.
Churches within an area are sometimes gathered, for purposes of fraternity and
teamplay, as "associations"; but the major unit of organization between the
parish-church and the denomination as a whole is the state convention (composed
of churches within the state). Delegates of these local churches and state
conventions, together with ordained clergymen, meet biennially in General
Assembly (constituting the governing body of the Church). The Assembly elects a
president (who serves as moderator of the Assembly and may serve as chairman of
the denominational Board of Trustees) and a Board of Trustees. The Trustees, in
turn, elect a General Superintendent, a Treasurer, and a Secretary,-the
Superintendent serving as ecclesiastical head and chief executive officer of the
denomination.
The denomination is organized so as to function by departments: Depts. of the
Ministry, Church Extension, Service Projects, Education (with Divisions:
Children, Youth, Adults), Public Relations, Publications, Business
Administration, and Survey & Evaluation. Each department has its executive
director, a member of the denominational staff. Each department operates through
its department board (members are chosen by the Trustees), the chairman of which
is a Trustee. Denominational auxiliary groups are: the Association of
Universalist Women; the National Association of Universalist Men; the
Universalist Youth Fellowship; and the Universalist Publishing House. The
denominational journal is The Universalist Leader. Executive offices are
at denominational headquarters: 16 Beacon Street, Boston 8, Mass.
The program of relief and rehabilitation in Hungary, the Netherlands, and
Germany, sponsored by The Universalist Church, has been cited as most
outstanding by the International Relief Organization of the United Nations.
Modern missions are established in Japan; and groups akin to and affiliated with
American Universalists may be found both in England and Holland (London and
Amsterdam).
Now, in conclusion, it must be understood that, with respect to theological
views, not all my fellow Universalists would accept these statements of mine. We
have no accredited theology. The truth makes men free, and when they are free
they are free to differ. Universalists are united by no hierarchy, by no set of
mandates agreed upon, but by a common spirit, a mutual purpose, and a freedom
for all. Frankly, we do not know what we shall believe eventually, for our faith
is not set in authorities and infallibilities. It is meant, rather, to be a
growing, developing, broadening, deepening thing-now from some new insight of
philosophy or science, now from some fresh revelation of human goodness, now
from some mystic experience of God which surpasses the power of lips to utter,
now from some simple fellowship of those who join hands to make this a better
world, a happier nobler place for the children of God. The Universalist believes
all each day's experience enables him to believe.
NOTES
1 What Universalism is:
Universe; universal; universalism; all-pervading; embracing or comprehending
the whole; general. The doctrine that all men will ultimately be saved.
-Webster's New Standard
Dictionary.
"We have all one Father who will succeed in his purpose of love. The entire
family of mankind will finally attain to the spirit that is in Jesus . . . Good
will triumph over evil, and God will be all in all."
-Scriptural cornerstone of
Universalism.
Universalism's message is based squarely upon: (1) the primacy of man; (2)
the unity of the human family; and (3) the universality of truth. And this is
God's own message, its truth inscribed on every page of man's recorded rise.
Universalism is the philosophy and religion of the all-inclusive. The whole
is greater than its parts. It interprets life in terms of universals and
unities, levels barriers, abjures prejudice, renounces all that sets man against
his fellow man, endeavors to integrate humanity into one harmonious co-operating
society. Universalism is found wherever men work together for a better world,
embraces all religions, works with science to create a finer, happier world.
Universalism is being re-born. It is a "one world" faith in the making. It
must come because without it the world cannot continue, except on the present
path which leads toward suicide. Universalism is a reconciling, unifying faith;
more than a negative protest against errors of the past, more than a mere social
credo. It is a faith broad enough and deep enough to command the loyalty of all
men.
2 The Primitive Church (New York, 1929).
3 "As for the Universalists, the record of their fidelity as
a body to the various interests of social mortality is not surpassed by that of
any other people." (From BACON'S History of American Christianity.)
4 This "Great Avowal" of Universalists (adopted in 1933 at
Worcester, Massachusetts, and ratified in 1935 at Washington), represents the
latest affirmation of faith made officially by The Universalist Church of
America.
The earliest "Profession of Belief" was adopted in 1803 at Winchester, New
Hampshire: "We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament
contain a revelation of the character of God and of the duty, interest and final
destination of mankind.
"We believe that there is one God, whose nature is Love, revealed in one Lord
Jesus Christ, by one Holy Spirit of Grace, who will finally restore the whole
family of mankind to holiness and happiness.
"We believe that holiness and true happiness are inseparably connected, and
that believers ought to be careful to maintain order and practice good works;
for these things are good and profitable unto men."
And this was followed (1899, at Boston) by the "Five Principles":
"The Universal Fatherhood of God. The Spiritual Authority and leadership of
His Son, Jesus Christ. The trustworthiness of the Bible as containing a
revelation from God. The certainty of just retribution for sin. The final
harmony of all souls with God."
5 Tufts College and Tufts College Schol of Religion; St.
Lawrence University and Canton Theological School; Lombard College; Akron
University (Buchtel) ; Goddard College; Clinton Liberal Institute; Westbrook
Junior College; Dean Academy.
6 Dr. Elliott P. Joslin and his medical staff.
7 Jordan Neighborhood House, Suffolk, Va.
8 Foxboro, Mass.; Jamaica, Long Island, N. Y.; Philadelphia,
Pa.
9 It was to Ballou's book, Christian Socialism, that
both Tolstoi and Gandhi attributed the source of their philosophies.
10 The Star of Bethlehem, edited by A. C. Thomas and
T. B. Thayer, Lowell, Mass.
11 Perhaps the earliest preacher of Universalism in America
was Dr. George de BenneVille (1741, a physician, in Pennsylvania).
The place of Elhanan Winchester in the early history of the Universalist Church
has never been adequately appreciated. He was an eloquent and popular Baptist
preacher, a man of wider learning and profounder Biblical scholarship than
Murray, who had been converted to Universalism largely by the influence of
George de Benneville. He was one of the pre-Murray Universalists in this country
whose earlier seed-sowing helped prepare the ground for Murray's work. When
Winchester became convinced of the truth of Universalism, he left his great
Baptist church in Philadelphia, led in the formation of a Universalist church in
that city, and cast his lot with the (then) despised heretics.
Dr. Charles Chauncy, who graduated from Harvard in 1721, and was ordained
pastor of the First Church (Congregational) in Boston in 1727, was distinguished
for his learning and patriotism. He became a Universalist some years before
making a public avowal of his convictions, though he expressed himself freely to
his friends, and submitted to them his writings on the subject.
About the year 1750 he undertook a close and critical study of the
Scriptures, particularly of the epistles of Paul, in which he occupied seven of
the best years of his life. As a result, he came into the belief of
Universalism.
12 "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment
of religion or prohibiting the free exercise therof." (From the First Amendment
of the Constitution of the United States of America.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHURCH ORGANIZATION, ADMINISTRATION, PROGRAM
Charter, Constitution & By-Laws of The Universalist Church of America.
ROBERT CUMMINS, Parish Practice to Universalist Churches (UPH,* 1946).
Laws of Fellowship, Government & Discipline.
Year Book & Directory.
One Humanity-Dept. of Service Projects. Education-Dept. of Education.
Teamwork-Universalist Ministerial Association.
The Bulletin-Association of Universalist Women.
Youth Leader-Universalist Youth Fellowship.
The Universalist Leader-(UPH).
HISTORY OF UNIVERSALIST THOUGHT
J. W. HANSON, Universalism in the First Five Hundred Years of the
Christian Church (UPH, 1899).
ADIN BALLOU, Primitive Christianity and Its Corruptions (UPH, 1870).
JOHN COLEMAN ADAMS, Short Studies in the Larger Faith (UPH, 1918).
FREDERICK W. BISBEE, From Good Luck to Gloucester (UPH, 1920).
ROGER SHERMAN GALER, A Layman's Religion (UPH, 1921).
BRUCE W. BROTHERSTON, A Philosophy of Liberalism (Boston, 1934).
CLARENCE R. SKINNER, The Social Implications of Universalism (UPH, 1915).
Liberalism Faces the Future (New York, 1937).
A Religion for Greatness (Murray Press, 1945).
Human Nature and the Nature of Evil (UPH, 1939).
A Symposium, Tufts Papers on Religion (UPH, 1939).
RICHARD EDDY, History of Universalism in America, 2 vols. (UPH, 1886).
Universalism in Gloucester (Proctor Bros., 1892).
_____
* UPH-Universalist Publishing House.
A. GERTRUDE EARLE, Beginnings of Universalism (UPH, 1940).
ROBERT CUMMINS, An Authoritarian or a Free Church? (UPH).
Religious Implications of the Democratic Process (UPH).
JOHN M. RATCLIFF, Lifting Life to a Religious Level (UPH).
IDA M. FOLSOM, The Christian Citizen at Work in the World (UPH).
E. G. BROOKS, Our New Departure (UPH, 1874).
EDGAR R. WALKER, The Life and the Way (Teachings of Jesus) (UPH).
FREDERICK WILLIAMS PERKINS, Beliefs Commonly Held Among Us (UPH).
HOSEA BALLOU II, Ancient History of Universalism (Marsh & Capen, 1829).
A Symposium, Life's Inevitables (UPH).
A Symposium, Universalism-The Bond of Fellowship (UPH).
MAX A. KAPP, These Universalists (UPH)
JOHN E WOOD, Charter of Our Faith (UPH).
CLARENCE R. SKINNER, and ALFRED S. COLE, Hell's Ramparts Fell (UPH).
CLINTON LEE SCOTT, Your Church and You (UPH).
Universalism, A Philosophy for Living (UPH).
E. H. LALONE, And Thy Neighbor As Thyself (UPH)
Pioneer Personalities (UPH).
Universalism Speaks to the Economic Problems of Our Time
(UPH).
ALBERT F. ZIEGLER, Universalism Speaks to the Atomic Age (UPH).
JOSEPH W. BEACH, Universalism Speaks to You and Me (UPH).
C. H. MONBLEAU, Universalism Speaks a Reasonable Philosophy for a New Age
(UPH).
ALFRED S. COLE, Our Liberal Heritage (Boston, 1951).
FRED GLADSTONE BRATTON, Legacy of the Liberal Spirit-Men and Movements in the
Making of Modern Thought (New York, 1943).
THEOLOGY
J. S. CANTWELL, ed., Manuals of Faith and Duty (UPH):
I JOHN COLEMAN ADAMS, The Fatherhood of God (1890).
II STEPHEN CRANE, Jesus the Christ (1890).
III ISAAC M. ATWOOD, Revelation (1891).
IV W. S. WOODBRIDGE, Christ in the Life (1890).
V O. CONE, Salvation (1893).
VI CHARLES FOLLEN LEE, The Birth From Above (1891).
VII CHARLES ELLWOOD NASH, The Saviour of the World (1895).
VIII HENRY W. RUGG, The Church (1891).
IX CHARLES SUMNER WEAVER, Heaven (1892).
X WILLIAM TUCKER, Atonement (1893).
XI GEORGE HENRY DEERE, Prayer (1893).
ABEL TOMPKINS, Treatise on Atonement (1852) ; HOSEA BALLOU (UPH, 1902).
E. E. GUILD, Universalist's Book of Reference (UPH, 1901).
J. W. HANSON, A Pocket Cyclopedia (UPH, 1895).
Bible Proofs of Universal Salvation (UPH, 1888)
J. D. WILLIAMSON, An Examination of the Doctrine of Endless Punishment
(UPH, 1890).
JOSEPH SMITH DODGE, The Purpose of God (UPH, 1894).
BIOGRAPHY
OSCAR F. SAFFORD, Hosea Ballou (UPH, 1889).
W. H. MCGLAUFLIN, Faith With Power, A Life Story of Quillen H. Shinn
(UPH, 1912)
SUMNER ELLIS, Life of Edwin H. Chapin (UPH, 1882).
MARION D. SHUTTER, James Harvey Tuttle (UPH, 1905).
DEVOTIONAL
Antiphonal Readings for Free Worship (UPH, 1933), arranged by L.
Griswold Williams.
Hymns of the Spirit (UPH and Beacon Press, 1937), prepared jointly by
Unitarian and Universalist commissions.
Beacon Song and Service Book (UPH and Beacon Press, 1935), prepared
jointly by Unitarian and Universalist commissions.
Advent and Lenten Manuals (UPH), published annually.
Reprinted from: THE AMERICAN CHURCH, edited by Vergilius Ferm
Published by Philosophical Library, Inc.
15 East 40th Street, New York 16, N. Y.
U.P.H. 1953
|
