Brook Farm, a celebrated nineteenth-century New England utopian community, was founded by Unitarian minister George Ripley and other progressive, Transcendentalist Unitarians, to be, in Ripley’s words, a new Jerusalem, the “city of God, anew.” From its founding in 1841 until it went bankrupt in 1847, Brook Farm influenced many of the social reform movements of its day: abolitionism, associationalism, the workingmen’s movement, and the women’s rights movement.
Jerzy (George) Niemirycz (1612-1659) was an ambitious Arian nobleman and statesman in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During his later life the Commonwealth, which included the Ukraine, was nearly destroyed by Cossack revolt and Russian and Swedish invasion (a disastrous period in Polish history known as “The Deluge”).…
Giovanni Giorgio Biandrata (or Blandrata) (1516-May 5, 1588), physician and counsel to the courts of Eastern Europe, brought the ideas of Michael Servetus and the Italian Radical reformers to the Reformations in Poland and Transylvania. He was an organizer of Reform and Unitarian churches in both countries and used his influence with the ruling families to protect the fledgling churches.
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In 1969 the Universalist Historical Society (UHS) engaged Russell E. Miller, University Archivist and Dickson Professor of English and American History at Tufts University, a United Church of Christ layperson, to write a modern history of Universalism in America.
Jan (John) Kiszka (c.1552-1592) was a politician, magnate, patron and benefactor of Arianism in the 16th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Jan was the eldest son of Stanislaw Kiszka (d.1554), Palatine of Witebsk (wojewoda witebski) in today’s Eastern Belarus, and Princess Anna Radziwill (d.…
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The Czaplic family, nobles from Wołyń (Volhynia) in today’s Ukraine, were patrons and supporters of Arianism (Socinianism) on their estates. After the fall of Raków, their estate, Kisielin, was briefly the capital of Polish Arianism.…
David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851-September 19, 1931), an ichthyologist and an early teacher of evolutionary science, was president of Indiana University and Stanford University and a prominent peace activist. Brought up by Universalists, he associated with Unitarians and Universalists and their organizations, held liberal religious beliefs, and was treated as a philosophical spokesman by the American Unitarian Association, but did not join a Unitarian or Universalist church in adulthood and remained almost entirely aloof from organized religion.
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Fannie Barrier Williams (February 12, 1855-March 4, 1944) was an African American teacher, social activist, clubwoman, lecturer, and journalist who worked for social justice, civil liberties, education, and employment opportunities, especially for black women. A talented speaker, writer, and musician, she was welcomed in cultured white society in the North, but remained loyal to people of color, knowing that the advantages she enjoyed were not given to other blacks.
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Gabriel Hojski (ca.1555-1632) and his son Roman Hojski (ca.1585-1635), nobles from Wolyn (Volhynia) in today’s Ukraine and politicians in 16th and 17th century Poland, were patrons and supporters of Arianism (Socinianism or Unitarianism) in their estates.…
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Gabriel Hojski (ca.1555-1632) and his son Roman Hojski (ca.1585-1635), nobles from Wołyń (Volhynia) in today’s Ukraine and politicians in 16th and 17th century Poland, were patrons and supporters of Arianism (Socinianism or Unitarianism) in their estates.…
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Field Marshal Sir Neville Bowles Chamberlain (January 10, 1820-February 3, 1902), a significant figure in Britain’s wars on the Indian subcontinent, was the only person to have been appointed to the highest rank in the British Army while a member of a Unitarian church.
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Rammohun Roy (c.1772-September 27, 1833), a Hindu monotheist, who made early translations of Vedic scriptures into English, co-founded the Calcutta Unitarian Society, and later founded Brahmo Samaj. He successfully campaigned against sati, the practice of burning widows. He sought to integrate Western culture with the best features of his own country’s traditions.…