Howe For Faith and Freedom

This book is by a Unitarian Universalist history professor and is his attempt to make Unitarian history in Europe accessible.  It is largely a condensation of two much larger works, (2,600 pages between them).

In terms of the book, I especially appreciated the first chapter which extended from Christ through Luther from the perspective of Unitarian and Trinitarian conflicts as they occurred and how they were resolved (if you can call it that). 

I also appreciated the author’s opinion of the reason for the importance of Servetus, something that had previously seemed a little thin for me.  His two theories of Servetus’ importance were first that they were a seed for what would become religious tolerance and second, that they caused people to go back and look at scripture again to see that the “right” answers may not be the “only right answers”.

I did also appreciate the more detailed look at Socianism, which previously through other classes had been distilled to “a Unitarian heresy”.

But, in the end, I find the history of Unitarianism frustrating.  As much work as the author did on presenting this as a truly religious problem (can you pray to Christ or is that about the same as praying to ‘dead catholic saints’), the whole argument regarding the nature of God is silly.  When you add in the burnings at the stake, it goes from silly to a sad statement of the human condition.  The only reassurance I can find is that on nearly every instance of the Unitarian (or interestingly ‘non-trinitarian’) viewpoint being stuffed out was tied to an economic or power play.  For example, when the Socinians were ordered to leave in four weeks, the people doing the ordering knew darn well that they would not be able to sell their holdings, or at a minimum they would be selling into a very depressed market.  As cynically low a viewpoint of the state of humanity as this is, I take solice in the fact that it is at least not as low a viewpoint as someone who would kill over an argument regarding characteristics of a divine being whose characteristics should evade our knowledge.

In all, the Unitiarian/Trinitarian argument is just plain depressing and I’m glad I live in a period of time where that argument, at least for now, is not one of public interest.