What exactly is the point of Unitarian Universalism? You don’t even have to believe in anything supernatural to be UU. I saw an interview between an anti theist and a UU where the anti theist understood Christianity better than the UU. What’s the point?
Here's the timeline:
>believing Unitarianism
>believing universalism
>believing Unitarianism and universalism
>believing UU or anything else
>believing in vague enlightenment liberalism (the seven points)
And this year, they're replacing the seven points of vague enlightenment liberalism with anti racism
https://savethe7principles.files.wordpress.com/2024/01/a2sc-comparison-of-current-bylaws-w-a2sc-oct2023-proposal-w-flower-update-20240101.pdf
>Unifying Theology
>Support for the new Article 2 has emphasized from the beginning the need for
>Unitarian Universalism to find a theological core. Paula Cole Jones (chair of the Article
>2 Study Commission) explained that UUs have embraced so much theological
>diversity that they have no common core.3 However, she emphasized, the one thing
>UUs agree on, is social justice. Thus, social justice should become the theological core
>and the proposed rewrite of Article 2 is intended as a step in that direction.
>Center Anti-racism, Anti-oppression, Multiculturalism (ARAOMC)
>Supporters of the change want to intensify the UU anti-racist work, not just as a
>political call to action, but as the theological core of UUism. This was made explicit in
>the charge to the committee: 4
>They [the new principles and purposes] should ask us to choose Love in
>Action as the path forward. Our commitment to anti-racism, anti-
>oppression, and multiculturalism is love in action, and should be centered
>in any revision of Article II.
https://savethe7principles.files.wordpress.com/2023/07/gapro_conjuly1b-1.pdf
They are quite literally reinventing their theology around anti racism
So what's anti racism to the uua?
>The current UUA strategy emphasizes “shame and blame,” “confess your racism,” “all white people are racist,” and accusations of “white supremacy culture” within congregations.8
Lol
This is the picture of liberalism as an "anti-ideology" - if you go too far with freedom of conscience eventually you end up like the UUA with no common core values. Hence what some call the "successor ideology".
It's just liberalism as a religion. By the way, it really does explain the ultracalvinism hypothesis, since as you know the Puritans became UUs and they started the Ivy League schools.
Elaborate
How do the beliefs of people renouncing Calvinism prove anything about Calvinism?
Calvinism is hyper-rationalistic compared to other denominations of Christianity. As a result, they tend to be very skeptical towards anything supernatural or anything that seems "too Catholic" or "too pagan". Now, obviously as a Protestant some skepticism is good towards these things but Calvinists take it to another level, which led to something called disenchantment. The coiner of the term perhaps explains some of this better than I could:
https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2007/06/ultracalvinist-hypothesis-in/
>skeptical towards anything supernatural
Is this bait? Calvinism is a theological system, it's based on the supernatural.
Thanks for the link. I don't think it shows much theological awareness.
So called ultracalvinism sounds like what machen just called liberalism. It's a new religion made by apostates of Calvinist Christianity.
I mean towards supernatural phenomena in the present day. Calvinists tend to be cessationist, for instance.
Fair enough
I think you and the author are generally overstating things. The puritans and the congregationalists did not become unitarian, a minority of those left orthodoxy for Unitarianism. Unitarianism led to the UUA, but that also was another development. The original claim was nontrinitarianism.
Cessationism is the rejection of a kind of supernatural event, spiritual gifts. It's not the rejection of ongoing supernatural phenomena. Your point remains though
Not even going to get into whether this whole thing makes sense or not, but why call it "ultra"calvinism? When I think of calvinism, I think of a small group of chosen ones getting into heaven by god's decree while everyone else burns in hell forever. To propose that unitarian universalism is a more extreme version of that is kinda weird.
Because it takes Calvinist metaphysics (namely the hyper-skepticism and hyper-rationalism) to its logical conclusion. Also the "mandarinism" bears a resemblance to Calvinist views on the elect, and belief in the futility of violence implies a belief in sovereign providence ("Wrong side of history" you might hear)
>Because it takes Calvinist metaphysics (namely the hyper-skepticism and hyper-rationalism)
Citation?
The fact that they're cessationists for one thing. Also this:
https://www.christianstudylibrary.org/article/defending-faith-calvinism-and-rationalism
Highlight:
>What we object to in the Reformed theology is this, that in all doctrines in which it differs from the Lutheran Church and on which it has constituted itself as the Reformed Church alongside the Lutheran Church, it denies the Scriptural principle and lets rationalistic axioms rule.
Where's the hyper?
>hyper-skepticism and hyper-rationalism
That's not metaphysics, and I don't know whether I'd call either calvinists or UUs hyperskeptical or hyperrational.
Okay, epistemology. But you get the idea.
I really don't see the connection. Calvinists might be hyperrational in one sense, but UUs are definitely not. As for hyperskeptical, I don't know how you could apply that to someone who believes in sola scriptura.
It's Christianity except you don't have to deal with the difficult questions like "are babies/third worlders/people dying before 33AD going to hell?"
Non-Protestants generally believe non-Christian’s can be saved, and yet UU are closer to Protestants than to RC/EO/OO/etc
>Non-Protestants generally believe non-Christian’s can be saved
False
Short answer: Community and ritual structure for secular humanists who have whatever sort of spiritual inclinations, however ambiguous. Also serves to help people feel good about themselves, like all the other ones. Arguably the ONLY points of religious life of any kind are social, personal, and morally instructive. UU may be cringe but in this way it keeps the valuable functions of religious community and lets people believe whatever feelgood hocus-pocus they like, bypassing the drawbacks of a central religious dogma.
What's the point of accepting Jesus Christ as the son of God, who died for your sins etc? There's none in reality, but communing as a peer with people who are trying live out his moral instruction can in fact be very good for you. UU is like that, except everyone's middle-aged lesbians.
Wait i thought this was the religion from deadspace…it is REAL?!
The point is to be a wolf in sheep's clothing.
>Everyone gets saved but I decided to be a Christian for some random reason lol
It's important they pose as Christians in order to lure in actual Christians.