To The Glory of God and My Neighbor’s Good:

Universalism in America

Tim Kraus

FirstUnitarianChurch of Cincinnati

536 Linton Street

Cincinnati, Ohio45219

513.281.1564

September 28, 2014

Call To Worship from Forrest Church: “What I Believe”

Religion is our human response to the dual reality of being alive and knowing we must die. We are not so much the animal with tools or the animal with advanced language as we are the religious animal. Knowing we must one day die, we cannot help but question what life means. Unitarian Universalism doesn't offer a single set of answers to life's unanswerable questions. We seek meaning in life, not the meaning of life. But we do have a clear sense of life's purpose, I believe. The purpose of life, and its truest test as well, is to live in such a way that our lives will prove worth dying for.

Forrest Church did have it right. Religion is the human response to the realization that we are alive and also that we must die. There is a space between the moment we are born to the moment we inevitably die. What we do with that space is vitally important. Universalism is truly a sane response to these existential questions about the meaning and purpose to our lives. We will go more into that later, but first let us start with some definitions.

Universalism in its simplest and pure form is an understanding that all life shares the same destiny. All life is ultimately reconciled with the cosmic forces of the universe that caused it to become alive. This is a belief and an observational statement that can be embraced by Atheists, Agnostics and Theists alike. The noted Astro-Physicist, Neil DeGrasse Tyson was once asked by a religious heckler what his last response would be if he was about to be executed. He said: “I would request that my body, in death, be buried, not cremated, so that the energy content contained within it gets returned to the earth, so that flora and fauna can dine upon it, just as I have dined upon flora and fauna throughout my life.” That is the purely scientific explanation for Universal Salvation—all life is ultimately made one with the universe. Now our religious ancestors in both the Unitarian and Universalist traditions would not have necessarily answered that question exactly the way Neil DeGrasse Tyson did. They would have proclaimed, however, their absolute assurance that they were going to be welcomed into the presence of God. What they both are concerned about is how they are going to spend the time between the moment of their birth and the moment of their death. And that is what this story is all about.

Unlike fundamentalist Christianity we do not share a pre-occupation with life after death and because of that and other things, we are considered heretics. We are not considered orthodox. Two thousand years ago, however, this understanding of Universalism was not a heresy, in fact it was an orthodoxy, among many other orthodoxies, which developed around the teachings and legacies of the prophet Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph. The first four centuries of Christianity witnessed a multiplicity of beliefs and practices drawing from the life, teachings and followers of Jesus. In this milieu, the idea of Universal Salvation was among the most dominant, particularly in Egypt and the areas of modern day Turkey and Greece.

When reading the words of the Old and New Testaments with a Universalist Filter it is easy to find many supportive scriptural passages for Universal Salvation. One passage in the book of Acts (Acts 3:17-21) refers directly to the Universal Restoration of all souls with God. In Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth (I Corinthians 15: 20-22) he said, “For as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.” He didn’t say “some” he said “all”. That is pretty unequivocal. And then many of Jesus’ parables refer to the universal nature of God’s redemption—the shepherd abandons the entire flock to save the one lost sheep, the prodigal son returns after squandering his inheritance to the open arms of his father, the vineyard workers are all paid the same regardless of how long or short of a time they are working. The list goes on and the tradition of unconditional love and salvation runs deep. But one of the most compelling arguments of the Universalist case is the logic that no deity that is characterized by unconditional love and forgiveness could ever condemn its creation to eternal torment. Thomas Starr King once quipped while trying to describe the difference between Unitarians and Universalists that, “The Universalists believe that God is too good to damn [humanity], while the Unitarians believe that [humanity] is too good to be damned by God.” These are obviously two sides of the same coin, Universalists tend to explain things from the side of human humility and Unitarians tend to explain things from the side of human arrogance.

There is also a continuum for belief in Universal Salvation that starts on one end of the spectrum with the idea of Universal Restoration and on the other end a Radical Universalism. Universal Restoration contends that some people require an indeterminate time of repentance and reconciliation with God for their earthly deeds before they can enter heaven. This most closely resembles a type of purgatory or temporary Hell for the cleansing and reconciling of one’s soul. Radical Universalists, on the other hand, see no place for a Hell or a purgatory. You can pretty accurately guess where modern day UUs fall in this continuum, but that was not always the case. Most, but not all, early Christian Universalists and many prominent 18th and 19th Century Universalists held firmly to the understanding that there needed to be some coming to terms with our worldly transgressions before we could enter into God’s near presence. It could also be that the Catholic concept of Purgatory was an attempt by the early Roman Catholic Church to win over some of these Universalist heretics. After that anyone who refused to join this new Christianity of the Empire then was killed or driven into hiding. Most all of their literature then was systematically destroyed so as to create the illusion of theological unity, certainty, and authority about all issues. But as we all know, it is hard to kill an idea that makes sense to the rational mind, no matter how hard a civilization tries. Some of that banned and destroyed literature did survive, however, and we know it as the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Gnostic Gospels, and other heretical texts of the times. Universalism also survived and resisted the centuries of repression hidden in remote areas away from the reach of the Church of the Empire and in many ways we Unitarian Universalists are the religious descendants and inheritors of that resistance. The Ezidis, (also derogatorily called Yazidis) that minority religious sect in Syria and Iraq most recently persecuted by Islamic fundamentalists are also descendants of that underground Universalist movement. They have suffered equally from fundamentalist Christians and Muslims.

All this angst and persecution about something (life after death and who gets it) that is not provable one way or another seems rather silly on its face. But as in most debates of this sort there are larger implications. What does all of this say about our understanding of God? How does it help us answer the existential questions about the meaning and purpose of our lives that both George Harrison and Forrest Church raised? If we are pre-occupied with an eternal after-life comprised of either paradise or torment, of what consequence is this short period of earthly time when compared to eternity? If Universalists are assured of a wonderful eternity doesn’t it make sense to stop focusing on the future we don’t control and do all we can to make the current reality a reflection of the eternal reality?

Many early Christian Universalists thought that was exactly the message that Jesus brought to the world. That was the “Good News” of the Gospels. In event after event, story after story, teaching after teaching Universalists saw Jesus ushering in a Kingdom of Heaven on Earth not in Heaven. In the Lord’s Prayer he said, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth, as it is in Heaven.” When he started his ministry Jesus proclaimed “release for the captives” and a redistribution of all wealth according to the Old Testament Year of Jubilee. He said the last shall be first and that the weak and the peacemakers shall inherit the earth. Through the Universalist prism then, heaven and earth shall be one—we shall live as though the Kingdom is already here. And as for Hell, if translated accurately, Gehenna or Hell, was the garbage dump outside Jerusalem, an earthly place created by humans and used for refuse that burned constantly.

These early Christian communities lived very radical lives, sharing their worldly goods in a communal fashion and, centuries later, they became models for Christian Communalist groups that sprung up in Europe and America. You can also begin to understand why this form of Christianity was not compatible with the needs of an Empire. An Empire wants an ideology that proclaims itself superior to all others and is willing to justify the mass slaughter of all who are in the way. The 4th Century Empire version of the new orthodox Christianity demanded absolute obedience and proclaimed only they possess the path to paradise. It perfectly fit the needs of the Emperor Constantine. With an angry and jealous God at his side Constantine could proceed with his campaign of “Shock and Awe” in pursuit of world domination. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Fast forward now many centuries later to that 400 year period in European and American History marked by the Reformation and the Enlightenment (roughly 1500 to 1900). This is when the intellectual, religious, and political grip of the Holy Roman Empire gave way to an era of more independent thinking driven by science and technology. Throughout those intervening years Universalism survived in an underground only periodically sticking its head above ground. Now, however, the printing press, scientific discovery and the growth of religious diversity that came out of the Reformation and the Enlightenment provided the fertile ground for Universalism to gain a new intellectual and religious parity. This was driven by intellectuals (and ordinary citizens who taught themselves to read) who pushed themselves to engage in historical-critical analysis of religious texts similar to the ways they studied science and the natural world. Enlightenment philosophers celebrated Universalism and Unitarianism as products of reason applied to religion. That is why so many early political leaders of our country, like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Rush, and John Quincy Adams identified themselves as Unitarians, Universalists, or both. They were also, for the most part, confirmed Deists, believing that God created a universe that would be guided by natural laws that would require no more divine intervention to sustain itself. Science and the study of natural laws became a religion for people like Benjamin Franklin and his close Unitarian friend, Joseph Priestly.

But Universalism satisfied more than the intellectual and rational side of enlightened people.It addressed matters of the heart regarding our purposes in life and put people in a closer relationship with the divine, sometimes in mystical ways. Among the very first Universalists to arrive in North America were refugees from religious persecution in Europe and England. At the invitation of William Penn, German Baptist Brethren (or Dunkers), later known as the Church of the Brethren, came to Philadelphia to quietly pursue their lives of religious devotion in the late 1720’s. They settled in Germantown and were known as Anabaptists or “rebaptisers” because they believed Christian conversion should be an adult decision followed by an adult baptism, just as Jesus did. This was an act of rebellion that brought upon all Anabaptists the death penalty if they were ever caught. Furthermore, they chose to live a Primitive Christianity that emulated the Christianity of the early church, which included the doctrine of Universal Restoration. These were my religious ancestors. Both my wife, Lois, and I grew up within the Church of the Brethren and we both attended a Brethren College.

One leader in the Philadelphia Brethren community was the German printer, Christopher Sauer. In contrast to the rest of the Brethren in Germantown, Sauer was an outspoken Universalist. The Brethren, by contrast, were closet Universal Restorationists. They did not talk openly about a Universal Salvation, but did write about it. They wanted converts who chose to follow Jesus, not converts seeking easy salvation. Sauer never actually joined the church, even though all of his children did. He preferred to move more freely among the Quakers, the Mennonites and the Brethren. Benjamin Rush, one of the Enlightenment Universalists who signed the Declaration of Independence, considered the Sauer family among his close friends. Sauer took Jesus’ saying from Matthew seriously. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’ Sauer paraphrased Jesus to create the motto that hung above his print shop door: “To the Glory of God and My Neighbor’s Good.” If there ever was a Universalist motto this would be it. He captured the Universalist spirit of his day and their concern for the well-being of all in the here and now, not the afterlife. Incidentally, this is also still today one of the mottos of the Church of the Brethren.

The Brethren influence far outstretched their size because of Sauer’s printing press and the support of Dr. George de Benneville, the most important American Universalist itinerant preacher before John Murray, Elhanan Winchester or Hosea Ballou started their ministries. De Benneville was a mystic and Universalist refugee who came to America in 1741. De Benneville came to his Universalism in Germany through a mystical dream like experience created by a deadly illness where he was guided through both heaven and hell. His care-takers declared him dead for more than 40 hours. He awoke in his casket just before he was to be buried with the revelation that all are saved and that Hell was a creation of the deeds of man. Upon arriving in America he encountered the Brethren and Christopher Sauer. Sauer with de Benneville’s assistance printed the first German language bible in America with all of the Universalist passages highlighted. They also printed Universalist tracts and books. Elhanan Winchester credits one of those books with turning his life toward a Universalist Ministry. Later on they even printed Winchester’s book, The Universal Restoration. Even after the Sauer family quit the printing business the Brethren continued to publish many Universalist works until just before the Civil War.

Universalism was not without its controversy within the Brethren. In 1732 a breakaway Universalist Brethren group formed the first religious commune in America, the Ephrata Cloister (60 miles west of Philadelphia), based on merging Universalism and other Anabaptist beliefs with the traditions of Judaism and celibacy. In a way they were the first American Hippies. They stood up for women’s rights and elevated women into many leadership positions. George de Benneville developed a close relationship with Ephrata and for a period of time Maria Christina Sauer (Christopher’s wife) was a member and a leader in the community. The Cloister survived for over 200 years with the last surviving resident member, Maria Bucher, dying in 2008. In another breakaway from the mainstream of Brethren life and thought, the Brethren settlements nestled away in rural areas pushed a more Radical Universalism further than any other group during that time period. These Virginia and Carolina Brethren believed in: 1) no other heaven but what exists inside man; 2) no other hell but what exists in man; 3) that God has no form or shape; 4) that God is not wrathful and would not punish anyone; and 5) that the dead will not rise. It would take the rest of American Universalism quite a while before they embraced such a radical theology. The more conservative Restorationist Brethren kicked them out of the church in the 1790s. These religious rebels in turn moved further west and spread into the Western Territories of Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Northwest territories. They became known in Kentucky as the “No Hellers”. These “No Hellers” disappear from any histories of religion but there is speculation that they found a spiritual home in the hollers of Appalachia ultimately becoming more Pentacostal in nature but never giving up their Universalism. Others joined up with newly expanding Universalist congregations in the Ohio valley.