Jesus, Prophet of Islam - The Islamic Bulletin

Laier Unitarians in Christianity 243

also all prerogative in either forgiving or punishing

disobedience. IfGod punishes a Christian sinner on

the Day of [udgement, then it will mean that either

God will have committed a breach of faith - or else

that the doctrine of atonement is not true.

o o o o o

Up until1819, the congregations of the Unitarians in Boston were
held either in private houses or in the hall of the Medical College
in Barclay Street. In 1820, the construction of a building for Unitar­
ian worship was started. It was completed in 1821. In spite of this
indication that they were becoming more established, the Unitar­
ians were still called 'a crew of heretics, infidels, or atheists.' 62
There was, however, a change in their policy of cautious preach­
ing, and Channing, who had so far received the narrow and bitter
attacks from the pulpits of the orthodox Trinitarian Church with­
out retaliating, felt that the time had come for him to strike back
with all the force at his command and to speak out boldly in sup­
port of his faith, and against the prejudices of orthodoxy. In his book,
A History of Unitarianism, E. M. Wilber writes of Channing that:

His theme was that the Scriptures, when reasonably in­

terpreted, teach the doctrine held by the Unitarians. It

took up the main doctrines on which the Unitarians

depart from the orthodox and held them up one by one

for searching examination ... it made an eloquent and

lofty appeal against a scheme so full of unreason, inhu­

manity and gloom as Calvinism .,. and impeached the

orthodoxy of the day before the bar of popular reason

and conscience. 63

The cause of Unitarianism in America was further helped by a con­
vention held at Massachusetts in 1823, when the orthodox Church
made an unsuccessful attempt to have a doctrinal test imposed on
ministers who wished to preach to Unitarian congregations. This
failure in fact succeeded in bringing the Unitarian movement out
into the open, and served to unite its members in the defence of a
common cause.
In 1827, a second Unitarian church was opened with a famous
sermon by Channing. To him, wrote E. M. Wilber, should go the
credit for the fact that, 'even if not explicitly acknowledged, the

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