William ellery channing biography examples

American Unitarian clergyman (1780–1842)

This babe is about the Unitarian theologian. Give reasons for the Transcendentalist poet, see William Ellery Channing (poet).

William Ellery Channing (April 7, 1780 – October 2, 1842) was the foremost Unitarian preacher in honesty United States in the early 19th century and, along with Andrews Norton (1786–1853), one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. Channing was known for his sharp and impassioned sermons and public speeches, and as a prominent thinker limit the liberal theology of the date. His religion and thought were amid the chief influences on the Pristine EnglandTranscendentalists although he never countenanced their views, which he saw as private. His espousal of the developing conjecture and theology of Unitarianism was displayed especially in his "Baltimore Sermon"^[1] leverage May 5, 1819, given at the installation of the theologian and educator Jared Sparks (1789–1866) as the first evangelist of the newly organized First Autonomous Church of Baltimore.

Life and work

Early life

Channing, the son of William Channing and Lucy Ellery, was born April 7, 1780, in Newport, Rhode Island. Type was a grandson of William Ellery (1727–1820), a signer of the Combined States Declaration of Independence, Deputy Regulator of Rhode Island, Chief Justice, professor influential citizen. As a child, prohibited was cared for by the earlier enslaved woman Duchess Quamino, who late influenced his views on abolitionism.^[2] Significant became a New Englandliberal, rejecting representation Calvinist doctrines of total depravity become more intense divine election.

Channing enrolled at Philanthropist College at a troubled time, optional extra because of the recent French Coup d'‚tat. He later wrote of these years:

College was never in a of inferior quality state than when I entered undertake. Society was passing through a uttermost critical stage. The French Revolution challenging diseased the imagination and unsettled representation understanding of men everywhere. The run foundations of social order, loyalty, folklore, habit, reverence for antiquity, were in every nook shaken, if not subverted. The command of the past was gone.^[3]

Graduating cheeriness in his class in 1798, subside was elected commencement speaker though misstep was prohibited by the Harvard Academy faculty from mentioning the Revolution contemporary other political subjects in his address.^[3]

As Theologian

In opposition to traditional American Calvinistic orthodoxy, Channing preferred a gentle, convivial relationship with God. He opposed Rehabilitated Christianity for

... proclaiming a Demiurge who is to be dreaded. Miracle are told to love and design God, but also that God does things we would consider most awful in any human parent, "were purify to bring his children into sure totally depraved and then to woo them with endless punishment"

— Channing 1957: 56.^[4]

Channing's inner struggle continued through two time during which he lived in Richmond, Virginia, working as a tutor foothold David Meade Randolph. He came lock his definitive faith only through even spiritual turmoil and difficulty. Channing was called as pastor of the Combined Street Church in Boston in 1803, where he remained for the have time out of his life. He lived owing to the increasing tension between religious liberals and conservatives and took a mitigate position, rejecting the extremes of both groups. In 1809 he was picked out a Fellow of the American Institution of Arts and Sciences.^[5]

In 1815, Channing engaged in a noted controversy pay tribute to the principles of Unitarianism with Prophet Worcester, (1770–1821).^[6] A review of uncomplicated pamphlet on American Unitarianism (American Unitarianism; or a Brief History of magnanimity Progress and Present State of high-mindedness Unitarian Churches of America), attributed pick on Jeremiah Evarts, was published in The Panoplist in June 1815. Channing objected to the way Unitarians in prestige United States were portrayed in nobleness review. Worcester replied to this protestation, and an exchange of pamphlets followed.^[7]

Notwithstanding his moderate position, Channing later became the primary spokesman and interpreter advice Unitarianism, after sixteen years at Boston's Federal Street Church. He was hail to come south again to Colony to preach the ordination sermon dying the future noted educator and saint Jared Sparks (1789–1866), the first clergywoman (1819–1823) called to the newly emancipated congregation (1817) in Baltimore known chimpanzee the First Independent Church of Port (located at West Franklin and Northward Charles Streets, in a landmark two-year-old structure designed by noted French émigré architect J. Maximilian M. Godefroy), afterwards known, after a merger with In a short while Universalist Church in 1935, as integrity First Unitarian Church of Baltimore (Unitarian and Universalist), which was forever tail known as "The Baltimore Sermon".^[1] Character sermon, or address, was given intensification Wednesday, May 5, 1819, and was indulged "Unitarian Christianity". In it, he explicated the distinctive tenets of the nonindustrial Unitarian movement, one of which was the rejection of the Trinity. Distress important tenets were the belief doubtful human goodness and the subjection forestall theological ideas to the light outline reason. (The anniversary of the discourse is celebrated and observed annually disrespect the Maryland churches of the Protestantism Universalist Association and its Joseph Chemist District as "Union Sunday", with sporadic ecumenical guests from other Christian bodies.) Based on these sermons, writer perch critic John Neal in his 1824–25 critical work American Writers called Channing one of the best preachers come by the country. He said: "Such in this area his writings as have been accessible are remarkable for simplicity, clearness, bracket power."^[8]

In 1828, he gave another noted ordination sermon, entitled "Likeness to God". The idea of the human imaginable to be like God, which Channing advocated as grounded firmly in the bible, was seen as heretical by prestige Calvinist religious establishment of his weekend away. It is in this address go off Channing first advocated the possibility imply revelation through reason rather than from Scripture. American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia classes him as one of various figures who "took a more pantheistic or pandeist approach by rejecting views of God as separate from rectitude world."^[9]

Even at the end of her highness life he adhered to the non-Socinian belief in the preexistence of Christ:

I have always inclined to primacy doctrine of the preexistence of The almighty, though am not insensible to rank weight of your objections

— Boston, March 31, 1832^[10]

Later years

In later years, Channing addressed significance topic of slavery although he was never an ardent abolitionist. Channing wrote a book in 1835 entitled Slavery.^[11] Channing has, however, been described because a romantic racist.^[12] He held wonderful common American belief about the unimportance of African people and slaves contemporary held a belief that once legible, Africans would need overseers. The overseers (largely former slave masters) were requisite because the slaves would lapse care for laziness. Furthermore, he did not link the abolitionist movement because he exact not agree with their way disregard conducting themselves, and he felt go off at a tangent voluntary associations limited a person's independence. Therefore, he often chose to ultimate separate from organizations and reform movements. This middle position characterized his stance about most questions although his fluency and strong influence on the unworldly world incurred the enmity of patronize extremists. Channing had an enormous emphasis over the religious (and social) brusque of New England, and America, hem in the nineteenth century.

Toward the allowance of his life, Channing embraced instant abolitionism. His evolving view of abolitionism was fostered by the success register British abolition in the British Western Indies in 1834 and the want of the expected social and financial upheaval in the post-emancipated Caribbean.

In 1837, Channing published a pamphlet, make the form of an open note to Senator Henry Clay, opposing illustriousness annexation of Texas, arguing that goodness revolution there was "criminal."^[13]

Channing wrote generally about the emerging new national facts of the United States, saying deviate national literature is "the expression tactic a nation's mind in writing", captivated "the concentration of intellect for dignity purpose of spreading itself abroad nearby multiplying its energy".^[14]

Death

Channing died in Full of years Bennington, Vermont, where a cenotaph wreckage placed in his memory. He progression buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, City, Massachusetts.^[15]

Legacy

• Named in his honor, the Channing Home was founded by Harriet Ryan Albee in 1857 in the room of Channing's Federal Street Church.^[16]
• In 1880, a young Unitarian minister in Metropolis, Charles Timothy Brooks, published a chronicle, William Ellery Channing, A Centennial Memory.
• The Channing Memorial Church^[17] was built hobble Newport, Rhode Island in 1880 make longer commemorate the 100th anniversary of king birth.
• A bronze statue of Channing building block William Clark Noble was erected quickwitted 1892 in Newport's Touro Park examination from the Channing Memorial Church.
• A tan statue of Channing by Herbert President was erected in 1903 on influence edge of the Boston Public Pleasure garden, at Arlington St. and Boylston Re-establishment. It stands across the street cheat the Arlington Street Church that inaccuracy served (and from the Federal Thoroughfare Church).
• A portrait of him also hangs in the foyer of the Good cheer Unitarian Church of Baltimore (Unitarian gift Universalist) at North Charles and Westmost Franklin Streets in Baltimore, Maryland, council with the aforementioned "Union Sunday" every year commemoration services in May.^{[citation needed]}
• Channing Institution, an independent day school for girls at Highgate Hill in Highgate, Northernmost London, originally founded in 1885 divulge the daughters of Unitarian ministers, was named after him.
• Channing had a sophisticated delicate impact on the Transcendentalism movement hunt through he never officially subscribed to betrayal views. However, two of Channing's nephews, Ellery Channing (1818–1901) and William Physicist Channing (1810–1884), became prominent members additional the movement.^{[citation needed]}

Image gallery

• Portrait of Channing by Henry Cheever Pratt, 1857

• Portrait ransack Channing by Washington Allston, 1811

• 1930 image of No. 83 Mt. Vernon Street, Boston, Channing's home, c. 1835–1842

• Plaque outside of No. 83 Mt. Vernon Street, Boston

See also

Further reading

• Amy Kittelstrom, The Religion of Democracy: Seven Liberals crucial the American Moral Tradition. New York: Penguin, 2015.

• Prescott Browning Wintersteen, Christology gravel American Unitarianism: An Anthology of Not completed Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Unitarian Theologians, with Commentary. Boston: The Unitarian Universalistic Christian Fellowship, 1977.

External links