Literary notes about Unitarian (AI summary)
In literature, the term "Unitarian" is employed with a rich variety of nuances, reflecting both religious affiliation and broader cultural or ideological stances. It often designates formal religious or institutional membership—such as when a preacher delivers a sermon in a Unitarian church [1] or when addresses are made to Unitarian bodies like the Ministers' Institute [2][3]. At other times, the label serves to enhance character or denote an alignment with progressive thought, as when a preacher’s sermons are praised [4] or a minister holds both spiritual and political office [5]. Moreover, it can be used metaphorically to signify the overcoming of restrictive traditional beliefs, exemplified by Emerson's imagery of breaking "Unitarian fetters" [6]. Even discussions that involve differentiating doctrinal identities, as in the case of confusing a woman's religious affiliation with Unitarian orthodoxy [7] or linking Unitarianism with eclectic groups [8], illustrate the term's complex, multifaceted role in literary discourse.
- On the following Sunday I went to hear Mrs. Mott preach in a Unitarian church.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I - [ 1 ] Address delivered to the Unitarian Ministers' Institute at Princeton, Mass., 1881, and printed in the Unitarian Review for October of that year.
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James - [ 1 ] An Address to the Harvard Divinity Students, published in the Unitarian Review for September, 1884.
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James - I don't know whether I wrote you what a true man we have in the Unitarian Church, and what a treat his sermons are to me.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I - Charles W. Upham, minister of the First Unitarian church of Salem, afterward Representative in Congress, was State Senator that year.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I - Emerson, the younger of the two, had just broken his Unitarian fetters, and was looking out around him like a young eagle longing for light.
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson - Some of you reporters said she was a Unitarian, but it is not so; she is among the most orthodox, and so is her church.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I - She affiliated with the branch called "Hicksite," or "Unitarian Quakers."
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I