Unitarian History at Theodore Parker Unitarian Universalist Church
West Roxbury, Massachusetts
Unit 5: From the Twentieth Century to the Twenty-First Century
It's taken us five years, but we're finally bringing our history of Unitarian Universalism
up to the present, using a book which didn't exist when we started, Dan McKanan's "A Documentary
History of Unitarian Universalism" (Boston: Skinner Books, 2017). We have the advantage that one
of the instructor's, David Parke, was an active UU minister from the beginning of the period
we will discuss.
Week 1 (April 9, 2019) Unitarianism Universalism in the 1960's
We started with David's interpretation of what was going on in the denomination after the merger with Universalism.
David Parke, 1982: Theological Directions off Unitarian Universalism for the Next 25 Years
Gary Dorrien, 2011: Theology in a Liberal, Post-Kantian, Postmodern Spirit
Week 2 (April 16, 2019) Setting the Stage Theologically
David Parke, 1982: Theological Directions off Unitarian Universalism for the Next 25 Years
Gary Dorrien, 2011: Theology in a Liberal, Post-Kantian, Postmodern Spirit
Week 3 (April 23, 2019) Conflicts in the 1960's
Movie:
Wilderness Journey: The Struggle for Black Empowerment and Racial Justice
Readings from "A Documentary History":
241 General Resolution on the Commission on Religion and Race (1963)
252 MARTIN LUTHER KING, IR. "A Witness to the Truth" (1965)
263 Emergency Conference on the Unitarian Universalist Response to the Black Rebellion "The Black Caucus Report" (1967)
267 JACK MENDELSOHN "The Church and the Draft Resisters" (1967)
HAYWARD HENRY "The Caucus Story" (1968)
273 FULLBAC "Questions and Answers on the Black Affairs Council" (1968)
275 JOSEPH L. FISHER "Guest Editorial" (1968)
277 HAYWARD HENRY "The Black Caucus: Toward a New Unitarian Universalism" (1968)
280 KENNETH CLARK "Racism for the UUA?" (1968)
283 SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE UUA Resolution (1968)
285 UNITARIAN-UNIVERSALISTS FOR BLACK AND WHITE ACTION Constitution (1968)
287 BLACK UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CAUCUS Constitution (1969)
290 BLACK UNlTARIAN UNIVERSALIST CAUCUS "BUUC Position on the Funding of BAWA" (1969)
292 HOMER JACK "Keeping the Backlash Liberal" (1969)
298 "UUA Budget Recommendations" (1969)
300 GLOVER BARNES "The Case for Integrated Unitarianism" (1969)
310 BLACK AFFAIRS COUNCIL "Statement of Disaffiliation of the Black Affairs Council, Inc., from the Unitarian Universalist Association" (1970)
318 MIKE GRAVEL "Introduction," The Pentagon Papers (1971)
325 WILLIAM R. JONES Is God a White Racist? A Preamble to Black Theology (1973)
Week 4 (April 30, 2019) Women and LGB People Get Closer to Equality during the 1970's and 1980's
Readings from "A Documentary History":
Everything from 1970 through 1990
Week 5 (May 7, 2019) Up to the Present
Readings from "A Documentary History":
The rest of Volume 2, up to 2016.
Week 6 (Sunday, May 19, 2019) Theodore Parker UU Church over the past 30 years
Julie McVay and John Lambert brought us through our church's hard times in the 1980's and 1990's.
Earlier Classes
Over the month of April, 2018, we covered the 20th Century to the 1960's, looking at how Humanists,
Theists, and those with other beliefs have been eventually able to coexist in one religion.
The text was Dan McKanan, editor: "A Documentary History of Unitarian Universalism"
(Boston: Skinner Books, 2017) in two paperback volumes (I to 1899, II from 1900).
What happened to Unitarianism after the Transcendentalists and the
Civil War? David Parke and Jessica Mink continued with a series of
discussions about the evolution of Unitarianism from the Civil War to
World War I. We met over the first four Mondays in November 2016 and
discussed major documents by some now-lesser-known religious thinkers.
Unit 2. Unitarianism Through Transcendentalism
In the fall of 2014, David Parke--yes, the person who over 60
years ago wrote the first text we used--and Jessica Mink led a study
using Conrad Wright's Three Prophets of Religious Liberalism:
Channing-Emerson-Parker. Week one was a discussion of the
introduction, then over succeeding weeks we read and discussed one
significant sermon each by William Eller Channing, Ralph Walso
Emerson, and Theodore Parker.
Unit 1. An Overview of Unitarian Hisory
In the winter of 2014, we read David Parke's 1957 The Epic of
Unitarianism: Original Writings From the History of Liberal Religion
with Julie McVay, covering the entire sweep of Unitarian history