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s
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Christian Sects
Unitarianism
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
Acceptance of one another and encouragement to
spiritual growth in our congregations;
A free and responsible search for truth and
meaning;
The right of conscience and the use of the
democratic process within our congregations and in
society at large;
The goal of world community with peace, liberty
and justice for all;
Respect for the interdependent web of all existence
of which we are a part
5
Now, we turn to the trinity
Go, therefore, and make
disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the
name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit
Matthew 28:19 KJB
Trinity in the early Church
• Christianity began within
Judaism
• “Christ”, Greek for
Messiah
• Anointed One who will
lead to time of universal
peace (Talmud)
• A leader sent by God, but
not necessarily God-like
Trinity in the early Church
• The Word became flesh and
made his dwelling among us
… [the] Son, who came from
the Father …. John 1:14
• Word = Logos = Holy Sprit.
Divine principle regulating
all things
• Competing ideas:
Gnosticism, Adoptionism,
Sabellianism, Arianism,
Trinitarianism
Trinity at Nicaea and the aftermath
Humans < Jesus < God the Father
Jesus has eternal divinity,
same substance as God the
Father
Trinity at Nicaea and the aftermath
Trinity at Nicaea and the aftermath
• “Now the Catholic faith
is this: that we worship
one God in a Trinity and
the Trinity as a unity …
the divinity of the
Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit, is
one, the glory eternal,
the majesty co-eternal”
Trinity in the early Reformation
• Humanism + printed
bibles = discovery
• Indulgences and
simony = Thesis
• Calvin and Luther
• Augsburg Confession:
Lutherans confirm
Trinity
Trinity and Michael Servetus
Lyon, France
Writes Restoration of Christianity,
Lyon, France
Geneva, Switzerland
rejecting
infant
baptism;
conceives
of
Villanueva
de
Sigena,
Spain
Spends 15 years living
While
as Michael
bound de
for Italy, is spotted in
universe
a manifestation
Rome,
Italy of God.
ReadsasBible
in Hebrew,
Villeneuve
GenevaLatin,
Exchanges
letter
with
angers
Part
of Calvin;
delegation
at Emperor
and
Works
asGreek
an editor and
Arrested,
doctortried, burned at the stake
Calvin
tremendously
Charles
coronation.
Perplexed
by
lack ofV “Trinity”,
Disgusted by opulence
“Persons” “Essence”,
Decided
to become a
“Substance”
in scripture
reformer
Basel, Switzerland
Writes on the Errors of the Trinity
Lyon,
HolyFrance
Spirit is not a “Personal”, Christ is
Calvin
and friends alert the French
not eternal
inquisition
Book was banned and panned
Sentenced
to deathby
but
escapes! in
Servetus wanted
inquisition
Spain and France
Early Unitarians in Poland
Bohemian
Polish
Brethren
Bohemian
Brethren
Brethren
Catholic
Catholic
Calvinist
Calvinist
Lutheran
Lutheran
Tolerance:
Debates:
“no one wishing to
impose his
faith
Modal
views
upon
Jesusanother
as Man
[could],
Ditheismsince this
is the gift of God”
Tritheism
Early Unitarians in Poland
Racovian Catechism
• Bible is source of truth, manmade additions are destructive
• Jesus is the human son of God
• Word (Logos) is the power of
God in this world
• Strict morality: ten commands
and sermon on the mount
• No predestination or original sin
Faustus Socinus
“Egy az Isten”:Transylvanian Unitarians
• King Sigismund and
the Edict of Torda:
toleration
• Unitarian became a
“received religion”
• First and only
Unitarian King
• Unitarianism survives
to this day in
Hungary/Transylvania
Trinity in Britain
Isaac Newton
• “This most beautiful system of the sun,
planets, and comets, could only
proceed from the counsel ... of an
intelligent Being” = Natural Theology
• Hidden theology comes to light 1936,
Newton private letters auctioned
• Arian: Trinity was a Hellenistic
corruption. Only the Father was God.;
Jesus was united in will, not substance.
• Love thy God, Love thy Neighbor
(reciprocity!)
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
• Polymath: calculus, library
science, politics, finance,
computer science (binary
notation)
• Emphasized rational nature of
religion
• World is imperfect but is the best
among all possible worlds
• Theology and philosophy cannot
contradict; both “gifts of God”
David Hume
• Very likely an atheist
• Natural History of
Religion: basis of religion
is fear of unknown, not
reason. Polytheism
predates monotheism
• Argued against Argument
by Design and Argument
by Revelation (miracles)
Richard Price
• Unitarian minister
• Free agency, immateriality of
the soul, perfectability of
human nature, miracles,
immutability of right and wrong
• Influenced Bayes, Malthus,
Wollstonecraft, American
Fathers, Priestly, Lindsay
Adam Smith
• Not much is known: personal
letters burned
• Very quirky: absent-minded,
imaginary friends, talked to
himself
• Likely a deist. Obit: “disciple
of Voltaire in matters of
religion”
Albert Einstein
• Secular Jew -> religious Jew -> deist
• “If something is in me which can be
called religious then it is the
unbounded admiration for the
structure of the world so far as our
science can reveal it”
• Spinoza’s God: God as the natural
world
• Atheists “in their grudge against
traditional religion as the 'opium of
the masses‘ cannot hear the music
of the spheres”
John Maynard Keynes
• Attended Church in his teens,
but was agnostic by university.
• Regarding Christians: “they
don't want to admit that a
position they've taken up with
confidence is untenable”
Appendices
Bloosmsbury Group
Biblical passages supporting Trinity
• Go, therefore, and
make disciples of all
nations,
baptizing them in the
name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to
•
observe all that I
have commanded
you.
And behold, I am with
you always, until the
end of the age.
Gospel of Matthew
28:19-20
Crucially, it is “name”
not “names”
Biblical passages supporting Trinity
• The grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the
love of God and the
fellowship of the Holy
Spirit be with you all.
Corinthians 13:14
Biblical passages supporting Trinity
•
THE BAPTISM OF JESUS
In those days Jesus came from
Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized
by John in the Jordan.
And when he came up out of the
water, immediately he saw the
heavens opened
and the Spirit descending upon him
like a dove;
and a voice came from heaven,
"Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I
am well pleased." Gospel of Mark 1:911
THE ANNUNCIATION
Then the angel said to her, "Do not be
afraid, Mary, for you have found favor
with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your
womb and bear a son, and you shall
name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son
of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the
throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of
Jacob forever, and of his kingdom
there will be no end."
But Mary said to the angel, "How can
this be, since I have no relations with a
man?"
And the angel said to her in reply, "The
Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born will be
called holy, the Son of God. Gospel of
Luke 1:30-35
Biblical passages supporting Trinity
•
THE TRANSFIGURATION
About eight days after he said this,
he took Peter, John, and James and
went up the mountain to pray.
While he was praying his face changed
in appearance and his clothing became
dazzling white.
And behold, two men were conversing
with him, Moses and Elijah,
who appeared in glory and spoke of
his exodus that he was going to
accomplish in Jerusalem.
Peter and his companions had been
overcome by sleep, but becoming fully
awake,
they saw his glory, and the two men
standing with him.
As they were about to part from him,
Peter said to Jesus,
"Master, it is good that we are here;
let us make three tents,
one for you, one for Moses, and one
for Elijah." But he did not know what
he was saying.
While he was still speaking, a cloud
came and cast a shadow over them,
and they became frightened when
they entered the cloud.
Then from the cloud came a voice that
said,
"This is my beloved Son; listen to him."
Gospel of Luke 9:28-35
Biblical passages supporting Trinity
• Jesus said to him,
"Have I been so long with
•
you, and yet you have not
come to know Me, Philip? He
who has seen Me has seen
the Father; how can you say,
'Show us the Father'? "Do
you not believe that I am in
the Father, and the Father is
in Me? The words that I say
to you I do not speak on My
own initiative,
but the Father abiding in Me
does His works. Gospel of
John 14:9-10
"But the Counselor, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will
send in my name,
he will teach you all things,
and bring to your
remembrance all that I have
said to you.
Peace I leave with you; my
peace I give to you;
not as the world gives do I
give to you." Gospel of John
14:26-27
Biblical passages supporting Trinity
•
THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT
1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have
dealt with all that Jesus began to do
and teach,
2 until the day when he was taken up,
after he had given commandment
through the Holy Spirit to the apostles
whom he had chosen.
3 To them he presented himself alive
after his passion by many proofs,
appearing to them during forty days,
and speaking of the kingdom of God.
4 And while staying with them he
charged them not to depart from
Jerusalem,
but to wait for the promise of the
Father, which, he said, "you heard
from me,
5 for John baptized with water, but
before many days you shall be
baptized with the Holy Spirit." Acts of
the Apostles 1:1-5
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be
with you all. Second Letter of St. Paul
to the Corinthians 13:13
Because you are sons, God sent the
Spirit of his Son into our hearts,
the Spirit who calls out, "Abba,
Father." St. Paul to the Galatians 4:6
Biblical passages supporting Trinity
•
For to us God revealed them through
the Spirit;
for the Spirit searches all things, even
the depths of God.
For who among men knows the
thoughts of a man
except the spirit of the man which is in
him?
Even so the thoughts of God no one
knows except the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of
the world,
but the Spirit who is from God, so that
we may know the things freely given
to us by God,
which things we also speak, not in
words taught by human wisdom,
but in those taught by the Spirit,
combining spiritual thoughts with
spiritual words.
But a natural man does not accept the
things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness to him; and he
cannot understand them,
because they are spiritually appraised.
But he who is spiritual appraises all
things, yet he himself is appraised by
no one.
For who has known the mind of the
LORD, that he will instruct him?
But we have the mind of Christ. First
Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians
2:10-16