Unitarianism
<p><b>Unitarianism</b> is a <a title="Christian theology" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_theology">theological</a> <a title="Sociological classifications of religious movements" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociological_classifications_of_religious_movements">movement</a>, named for its understanding of <a title="God in Christianity" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_in_Christianity">God</a> as one person, in direct contrast to <a title="Trinity" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity">Trinitarianism</a>, which defines God as three <a title="Hypostasis (philosophy)" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypostasis(philosophy)">persons</a> coexisting <a title="Consubstantiality" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consubstantiality">consubstantially</a> as <a title="Homoousian" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homoousian">one being</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarianism#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup> Unitarians maintain that Jesus is in some sense the "son" of God, but not the one God.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Miano_2003_15_2-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarianism#cite_note-Miano_2003_15-2">[2]</a></sup> Unitarianism is also known for the rejection of several conventional Christian doctrines besides the Trinity,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarianism#cite_note-3">[3]</a></sup> including the <a title="Soteriology" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soteriology">soteriological</a> doctrines of <a title="Original sin" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_sin">original sin</a> and <a title="Predestination in Christianity" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predestination_in_Christianity">predestination</a>,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarianism#cite_note-4">[4]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarianism#cite_note-5">[5]</a></sup> and, in more recent history, <a title="Biblical inerrancy" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_inerrancy">biblical inerrancy</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarianism#cite_note-6">[6]</a></sup> In <a title="J. Gordon Melton" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.Gordon_Melton">J. Gordon Melton</a>'s <i>Encyclopedia of American Religions</i> it is classified among "the '<a title="Liberal Christianity" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Christianity">liberal</a>' family of churches".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarianism#cite_note-7">[7]</a></sup>
The Unitarian movement, although not called "Unitarian" initially, began almost simultaneously in Poland-Lithuania and <a title="Principality of Transylvania (1570–1711)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Transylvania(1570%E2%80%931711)">Transylvania</a> in the mid-sixteenth century. Among the adherents were a significant number of Italians.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-8"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarianism#cite_note-8">[8]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarianism#cite_note-9">[9]</a></sup> In England the first Unitarian Church was established in 1774 on Essex Street, London, where today's British Unitarian headquarters are still located.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-10"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarianism#cite_note-10">[10]</a></sup> The first official acceptance of the Unitarian faith on the part of a congregation in America was by <a title="King's Chapel" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Chapel">King's Chapel</a> in Boston, from where <a title="James Freeman (clergyman)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Freeman(clergyman)">James Freeman</a> began teaching Unitarian doctrine in 1784, and was appointed rector and revised the Prayer Book according to Unitarian doctrines in 1786.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarianism#cite_note-11">[</a></sup></p>