William Ellery Channing | |
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| Born | (1780-04-07)7 April 1780 Newport, Rhode Island, U.S. |
| Died | 2 October 1842(1842-10-02) (aged 62) Old Bennington, Vermont, U.S. |
| Resting place | Mount Auburn CemeteryCambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Education | Harvard University |
| Occupation | Unitarian preacher |
| Parent(s) | William Channing Lucy Ellery |
| Relatives | William Ellery (grandfather) William Francis Channing (son) William Ellery Channing (nephew) William Henry Channing (nephew) |
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William Ellery Channing (April 7, 1780 – October 2, 1842) was the foremostUnitarian preacher in theUnited States in the early nineteenth century and, along withAndrews Norton (1786–1853), one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. Channing was known for his articulate and impassioned sermons and public speeches, and as a prominent thinker in the liberal theology of the day. His religion and thought were among the chief influences on theNew EnglandTranscendentalists although he never countenanced their views, which he saw as extreme. His espousal of the developing philosophy and theology ofUnitarianism was displayed especially in his "Baltimore Sermon"[1] of May 5, 1819, given at the ordination of the theologian and educatorJared Sparks (1789–1866) as the first minister of the newly organizedFirst Independent Church of Baltimore.
Channing, the son of William Channing and Lucy Ellery, was born April 7, 1780, inNewport, Rhode Island. He was a grandson ofWilliam Ellery (1727–1820), a signer of theUnited States Declaration of Independence, Deputy Governor of Rhode Island, Chief Justice, and influential citizen. As a child, he was cared for by the formerly enslaved womanDuchess Quamino, who later influenced his views onabolitionism.[2] He became aNew Englandliberal, rejecting theCalvinist doctrines oftotal depravity anddivine election.
Channing enrolled atHarvard College at a troubled time, particularly because of the recentFrench Revolution. He later wrote of these years:
College was never in a worse state than when I entered it. Society was passing through a most critical stage. The French Revolution had diseased the imagination and unsettled the understanding of men everywhere. The old foundations of social order, loyalty, tradition, habit, reverence for antiquity, were everywhere shaken, if not subverted. The authority of the past was gone.[3]
Graduating first in his class in 1798, he was elected commencement speaker though he was prohibited by the Harvard College faculty from mentioning theRevolution and other political subjects in his address.[3]
In opposition to traditional American Calvinist orthodoxy, Channing preferred a gentle, loving relationship with God. He opposedReformed Christianity for
... proclaiming a God who is to be dreaded. We are told to love and imitate God, but also that God does things we would consider most cruel in any human parent, "were he to bring his children into life totally depraved and then to pursue them with endless punishment"
— Channing 1957: 56.[4]
Channing's inner struggle continued through two years during which he lived inRichmond, Virginia, working as a tutor forDavid Meade Randolph. He came to his definitive faith only through much spiritual turmoil and difficulty. Channing was called as pastor of theFederal Street Church in Boston in 1803, where he remained for the rest of his life. He lived through the increasing tension between religious liberals and conservatives and took a moderate position, rejecting the extremes of both groups. In 1809 he was elected aFellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences.[5]
In 1815, Channing engaged in a noted controversy on the principles ofUnitarianism withSamuel Worcester, (1770–1821).[6] A review of a pamphlet on American Unitarianism (American Unitarianism; or a Brief History of the Progress and Present State of the Unitarian Churches of America), attributed toJeremiah Evarts, was published inThe Panoplist in June 1815. Channing objected to the way Unitarians in the United States were portrayed in the review. Worcester replied to this objection, and an exchange of pamphlets followed.[7]
Notwithstanding his moderate position, Channing later became the primary spokesman and interpreter of Unitarianism, after sixteen years at Boston's Federal Street Church. He was invited to come south again toMaryland to preach the ordination sermon of the future noted educator and theologianJared Sparks (1789–1866), the first minister (1819–1823) called to the newly organized congregation (1817) inBaltimore known as theFirst Independent Church of Baltimore (located at West Franklin and North Charles Streets, in a landmark two-year-old structure designed by noted French émigré architectJ. Maximilian M. Godefroy), later known, after a merger with Second Universalist Church in 1935, as theFirst Unitarian Church of Baltimore (Unitarian and Universalist), which was forever after known as "The Baltimore Sermon".[1] The sermon, or address, was given on Wednesday, May 5, 1819, and was entitled "Unitarian Christianity". In it, he explicated the distinctive tenets of the developing Unitarian movement, one of which was the rejection of theTrinity. Other important tenets were the belief in human goodness and the subjection of theological ideas to the light ofreason. (The anniversary of the address is celebrated and observed annually by theMaryland churches of theUnitarian Universalist Association and itsJoseph Priestley District as "Union Sunday", with occasionalecumenical guests from other Christian bodies.) Based on these sermons, writer and criticJohn Neal in his 1824–25 critical workAmerican Writers called Channing one of the best preachers in the country. He said: "Such of his writings as have been published are remarkable for simplicity, clearness, and power."[8]
In 1828, he gave another famous ordination sermon, entitled "Likeness to God". The idea of the human potential to be like God, which Channing advocated as grounded firmly in scripture, was seen as heretical by theCalvinist religious establishment of his day. It is in this address that Channing first advocated the possibility for revelation through reason rather than solely from Scripture.American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia classes him as one of several figures who "took a morepantheist orpandeist approach by rejecting views of God as separate from the world."[9]
Even at the end of his life he adhered to the non-Socinian belief in thepreexistence of Christ:
I have always inclined to the doctrine of the preexistence of Christ, though am not insensible to the weight of your objections
— Boston, March 31, 1832[10]
In later years, Channing addressed the topic ofslavery although he was never an ardentabolitionist. Channing wrote a book in 1835 entitledSlavery.[11] Channing has, however, been described as aromantic racist.[12] He held a common American belief about the inferiority of African people and slaves and held a belief that once freed, Africans would need overseers. The overseers (largely former slave masters) were necessary because the slaves would lapse into laziness. Furthermore, he did not join the abolitionist movement because he did not agree with their way of conducting themselves, and he felt that voluntary associations limited a person's autonomy. Therefore, he often chose to remain separate from organizations and reform movements. This middle position characterized his attitude about most questions although his eloquence and strong influence on the religious world incurred the enmity of many extremists. Channing had an enormous influence over the religious (and social) life of New England, and America, in the nineteenth century.
Toward the end of his life, Channing embraced immediate abolitionism. His evolving view of abolitionism was fostered by the success of Britishabolition in theBritish West Indies in 1834 and the absence of the expected social and economic upheaval in the post-emancipatedCaribbean.
In 1837, Channing published a pamphlet, in the form of anopen letter to Senator Henry Clay, opposing the annexation ofTexas, arguing that therevolution there was "criminal."[13]
Channing wrote extensively about the emerging new national literature of the United States, saying that national literature is "the expression of a nation's mind in writing", and "the concentration of intellect for the purpose of spreading itself abroad and multiplying its energy".[14]
Channing died inOld Bennington, Vermont, where acenotaph is placed in his memory. He is buried inMount Auburn Cemetery,Cambridge, Massachusetts.[15]
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