Cassara "Brief" Historical "Sketch"

First point:  "brief" historical "sketches" aren't 44 pages long.

He tracks through 14 points, which I outline here:

1.  Universalism rose from a time in American history (right before the revolutionary war) that everything was being questioned and was in flux.  Rationalism became deism and deism paved the way for universalism.

2.  Unitarianism grew along a similar path among the more affluent.  [I'm not sure how this cuts right here, but I'll go with it.]

3.  The Universalist and the Unitarians were similar in that they were both a compromise along the Christian trajectory somewhere between the desist who had emerged for the enlightenment and the Calvinists.

4.  The Universalists were not the only faith group with a concept of universal salvation they see the only group who stressed it.  Along with these other groups, there were also other individuals who pave the way for a more openly universalist worldview.  The two mentioned here are deBenneville, a FrenchHuguenot  doctor and Chauncey, whose primary focus was a move away from Edwards' emotionalism.

5.  Is a quick biography of John Murray, who came of a bit here as disorganized and unlucky.  Interestingly he knew Benjamin Rush and met John and Abigail Adams on an ocean voyage.

6.  Is a quick biography of Elhanan Winchester, who moved around a bit, MA, SC, PA, UK.  He shared a pulpit with Priestly in PA.  His theology was that man would endure some 50,000 years of hell to clean their souls prior to moving on to heaven.  Universalist purgatory.

Also knew and was supported by Benjamin Rush who is turning out to be everywhere.

7.  Here, the biography is Ballou, who had been covered in quite some depth in previous readings.  New insight here is that he was heavily influenced by Ethan Allan, and that he was informed by having read other universalists such as Winchester and Chauncey.

Interesting quote:  Ballou's God is a man-centered God who loves man and seeks to make him happy, as compared to most of Christianty in which a "fallen" man must suffer to glorify God, Ballou's God glorifies himself by making man happy.

8.  Is a "biography" of ultra universalism and the squabble that it kicked up when Ballou finally confessed it.  The squabble is about worldly accountability in the absences of after-worldly punishment.  Interesting pint is that the restorationist camp ended up becoming the dominant theological perspective i none church after Ballou's death.

9.  This section goes through what little denominational organization they had.  A many of  the Universalists came from Baptist churches with congregational polity, the assumption was that this polity would work, and it did, until the denomination grew to over 800,000 members.  The lack of a voice made the group crack under its own weight.  They started to organize general assemblies of a sort and. Even. Draftees a creed (again Benjamin Rush was involved).

10.  The Universalists were socially shunned and ostracized.  In some places, they were not allowed to serve on juries.  This ostracizing continued to schools and caused traveling students to end up in religious conflicts with their parents.  These conflicts incented the group to start religious schools such as Tufts, and newspapers, they apparently had a lot of newspapers.

11.  The simultaneous arrival of Darwinsim and biblical historical criticism from Germany had almost no effect on the Universalist because they had always looked at the bible critically using reason.  Therefore, unlike other Christian churches whose infallible resource was being proved wrong with movements in science, Universalism had not such threat, and therefore no fundamentalist reaction.

12.  This section zips rather haphazardly through missionary work all the way to the consolidation without much coherence.

13.  This section walks through the Universalist functioning in the Humanist Movement and the humanist manifesto, which of course, it is not a surprise they had no objections to, as through theology, they were essentially humanists already, or at least not far from it.

14.  This quickly summarizes the position of the Universalists at consolidation as being weaker in number and finances.

Great quote:

Universalists are often asked to tell where they stand.  The only true answer to give to the question is that we do not stand at all.  We move.