page_title: Congregationalism in the United States
section_title: Unitarian controversy
hierarchical_section_title: Congregationalism in the United States / History / 19th century / Unitarian controversy
caption_attribution_description: Boston Common, Park St. Church
context_page_description: Congregationalism in the United States consists of Protestant churches in the Reformed tradition that have a congregational form of church government and trace their origins mainly to Puritan settlers of colonial New England. Congregational churches in other parts of the world are often related to these in the United States due to American missionary activities.
  Congregational churches have had an important impact on the religious, political and cultural history of the United States. Congregational practices concerning church governance influenced the early development of democratic institutions in New England, and many of the nation's oldest educational institutions, such as Harvard University and Yale University, were founded to train Congregational clergy. Congregational churches and ministers influenced the First and Second Great Awakenings and were early promoters of the missionary movement of the 19th century. The Congregational tradition has shaped both mainline and evangelical Protestantism in the United States. It also influenced the development of American Unitarianism and Unitarian Universalism.
context_section_description: Since the 17th century, Congregationalists had managed to maintain unity despite disagreements over the role of man and God in salvation and the adoption by liberals of nontrinitarian theological ideas. By the start of the 19th century, however, there was less willingness to tolerate theological liberalism. The Second Great Awakening had initiated a new wave of revivalism and a more aggressive stance from conservatives. Old Calvinists and Edwardseans, while not ignoring their own differences, agreed that they needed to work together to defend the "evangelical truth" from liberalism. The "orthodox" or evangelicals, as they came to be known, were united around the omnipotence of God, the necessity of conversion, a converted church membership, and the literal truth of the Bible. They were actively involved in evangelism and expansion through voluntary societies.
  By the 19th century, the liberals had evolved into Unitarians. Not only did they deny the doctrine of the Trinity as unscriptural, they believed the Bible should be interpreted rationally, not in a literal manner. Their preaching focused on ethics rather than on doctrine and did not limit church membership to the converted. Unitarians did not participate in evangelistic societies due to their conviction that people informed by reason and scripture should be free to believe what they wanted. When they did organize, they tended to focus on education and philanthropic causes.
  The Unitarian controversy was initiated when conservatives, led by Yale-educated geographer and Boston-area minister Jedidiah Morse, opposed the appointment of liberal Henry Ware to the Hollis Chair of Divinity at Harvard University in 1805. While unsuccessful, Morse was able to form a network of conservative ministers from the Boston area, mainly outside the city itself as Boston's churches were overwhelmingly liberal. Conservatives began closing their pulpits to liberal ministers, and Park Street Church was established in 1809 to provide Boston with an evangelical church. In the years after the Ware controversy, Harvard became increasingly partisan, supporting only the liberal party. In 1808, Edwardseans and Old Calvinists joined forces and established Andover Theological Seminary as an alternative to liberal Harvard. Andover was the first Protestant seminary in North America.
  In 1815, Morse published Review of American Unitarianism, which accused Unitarians of infidelity and heresy. William Ellery Channing, pastor of Boston's Federal Street Church, responded by accusing conservatives of instigating theological controversy. In 1819, Channing went on to deliver an important sermon in defense of liberal religion titled "Unitarian Christianity".
  The split was complete by 1825 when the liberals established the American Unitarian Association, thereby acknowledging a separate denominational identity.
caption: Park Street Church in Boston, c. 1890
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