William Ellery Channing

William Ellery Channing (April 7, 1780 – October 2, 1842) was the foremost <a title="Unitarianism" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarianism">Unitarian</a> preacher in the <a title="United States" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States">United States</a> in the early nineteenth century and along with <a title="Andrews Norton" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrews_Norton">Andrews Norton</a>, (1786-1853), 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. Channing's religion and thought were among the chief influences on the <a title="New England" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England">New England</a> <a title="Transcendentalist" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendentalist">Transcendentalists</a>, though he never countenanced their views, which he saw as extreme. The beliefs he espoused, especially within his "<a title="Baltimore Sermon (page does not exist)" class="new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Baltimore_Sermon&action=edit&redlink=1">Baltimore Sermon</a>" of May 5, 1819, at the ordination of a future famous theologian and educator in his own right, <a title="Jared Sparks" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Sparks">Jared Sparks</a>, (1789-1866), as the first minister (1819-1823) of the newly organized (1817) "First Independent Church of Baltimore" ((later the "<a title="First Unitarian Church (Baltimore, Maryland)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Unitarian_Church(Baltimore,Maryland)">First Unitarian Church of Baltimore (Unitarian and Universalist)</a>"). Here he espoused his principles and tenets of the developing philosophy and theology of "<a title="Unitarianism" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarianism">Unitarianism</a>" resulted in the organization later in 1825 of the first Unitarian denomination in America (<a title="American Unitarian Association" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Unitarian_Association">American Unitarian Association</a>) and the later developments and mergers between Unitarians and Universalists resulting finally in the <a title="Unitarian Universalist Association" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Universalist_Association">Unitarian Universalist Association of America</a> in 1961.

William Ellery Channing

Attachments