William Ellery Channing

From New World Encyclopedia

This article is about Dr. William Ellery Channing, the Unitarian theologian. For the Transcendentalist poet, see William Ellery Channing (poet).

Dr. William Ellery Channing (April 7, 1780 – October 2, 1842) was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton, one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. He was known for his articulate and impassioned sermons and public speeches, and as a prominent thinker in the liberal theology of the day. Caught between the opposing factions of Calvinism, - conservative Protestanism - and the new more liberal thinking of the Transcendentalists, he was forced to take a stand in defense of the new direction that Christianity was taking in New England. His outspoken advocacy for man's more intimate relationship to Christ and God was soon heralded as the new religion of Unitarianism. Channing is sometimes referred to as the "Father of Unitarianism."

Biography

Channing was born in Newport, Rhode Island to William and Lucy Ellery Channing. He was a descendant of Declaration of Independence signer William Ellery. He was also a descendent of the puritan poet Anne Bradstreet whose progeny numbered among them many notable Americans. His father graduated from Princeton University in 1769. His mother's father, William Ellery had graduated from Harvard College in 1747. Thus two contrasting academic traditions - the conservative Protestantism of Princeton and the liberalism of Harvard - competed for attention in the young boy's life. [1]

Channing lived with his uncle's family in Cambridge for four years while attending Harvard and graduated in 1798. After graduation he spent two years in Richmond Virginia working as a tutor for a wealthy family. His health suffered from this time onward in his life and he struggled immensely with the rigors of his public calling. Returning to Harvard in 1802, he became a "regent" and proctor and began studying for the ministry. In 1814 he married his cousin Ruth Gibbs.

In 1803 Channing was installed and ordained as pastor of what was then called the Arlington Street Church and what is presently known as the Federal Street Church in Boston. (It was at this church that the Massachusetts State Convention met and ratified the United States Constitution on February 7th, 1788.) Channing, who drew large crowds at his sermons, served as pastor there until his death in 1842.

Increasingly caught between the religous tensions in New England that were fomenting between the new liberals and the traditionalists, Channing, who held moderate views, felt forced to align himself with the developing liberal faction.[2] While Channing regarded the views of the Transcendentalists as extreme, he was to have a powerful affect on their rise in American life and culture.

In later years Channing addressed the topic of slavery, although members of his own congregation did not agree with his abolitionist stand. He wrote a book in 1835 titled, Slavery in which he condemned slavery as an "unspeakable evil." However, he was also opposed to war and dreaded the idea of a Civil War, although his talks and pamphlets did much to prepare people to understand Abraham Lincoln. (See also The Abolitionist, 1836 and Open Letter to Henry Clay, 1837, Duty of the Free States, 1842.) His last public address, in August 1842, was on behalf of emancipation. He died the following October. [3]

Channing died in Old Bennington, Vermont, where a cenotaph is placed in his memory. He is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Statues of Channing are located on the edge of the Boston Public Garden, across the street from the Arlington Street Church that he served. A pedestal on the base of one statue reads, He breathed into theology a humane spirit. [4]The garden faces Channing Memorial Church, built in Newport, RI in 1880, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Two of Dr. Channing's nephews were prominent Transcendentalists:

  • William Ellery Channing (1818–1901), usually known as Ellery Channing, was the son of his brother Walter Channing (1786–1876, a Boston doctor);
  • William Henry Channing was the son of his brother Francis Dana Channing.

In 1880, a younger Unitarian minister in Newport, Charles Timothy Brooks, published a biography, William Ellery Channing, A Centennial Memory.

The "Unitarian Controversy"

In the late 1700s, liberal and conservative wings emerged in the Congregational churches of New England, the liberals affirming the Unity of God and the conservatives affirming the Trinity. Additionally, the movement reacted against Calvinistic doctrines that emphasized human sinfulness and the predestination of some souls to heaven and some to hell. Unitarians (and Universalists) argued that such doctrines were inconsistent with the concept of a loving God, were unbiblical, and contrary to reason. After 1805 the dispute between liberals (Unitarians) and conservatives (Congregationalists) became so bitter that many churches divided, and organized separate religious bodies. It was Channing at Federal Street Church who most powerfully championed and defined the new Unitarianism. The term Unitarian referred to the belief in one God, as opposed to God in three persons

Nevertheless he became the primary spokesman and interpreter of Unitarianism when he preached the ordination sermon of Jared Sparks in Baltimore in 1819; it was entitled "Unitarian Christianity." In that address he explicated the distinctive tenets of the Unitarian movement, only one of which was the rejection of the Trinity. Other important tenets were the belief in human goodness and the subjection of theological ideas to the light of reason.

In 1828 he gave another famous ordination sermon, entitled "Likeness to God." The idea of the human potential to be like God, which Channing advocated as grounded firmly in scripture, was seen as heretical by the Calvinist religious establishment of his day. It is in this address which Channing first advocates the possibility for revelation through reason rather than solely from scripture.

Legacy

Therefore, he often chose to remain separate from organizations and reform movements. This middle position characterized his attitude about most questions, although his eloquence and strong influence on the religious world incurred the enmity of many extremists. Channing had an enormous influence over the religious (and social) life of New England, and America, in the nineteenth century.

Notes

  1. "William Ellery Channing." Dictionary of American Biography. American Coucil of Learned Societies. 1928-1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007.
  2. "William Ellery Channing." Dictionary of American Biography. American Coucil of Learned Societies. 1928-1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007.
  3. William Ellery Channing." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thmson Gale. 2007.
  4. "William Ellery Channing." Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies. 1928-1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • "William Ellery Channing." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thmson Gale. 2007.
  • "William Ellery Channing." Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies. 1928-1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007.

External links

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Unitarian Christianity
  • Channing biography at the Unitarian Universalist Association [1]
  • Online works by Channing, including "Self-Culture," and "Likeness to God." [2]
  • Channing article from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica. [3]
  • E-texts of Channing's collected works. Making of America
  • An image of Channing. [4]
  • Channing Memorial Church, Newport, Rhode Island. [5]


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