Works
- A brief history of the Unitarians, called also Socinians: in four letters, written to a friend (published anonymously at London in 1687, expanded 1691).
- A letter of resolution concerning the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation, London, 1691.
- Considerations on the explications of the doctrine of the Trinity by Dr. Wallis, Dr. Sherlock, Dr. S-th, Dr. Cudworth, and Mr. Hooker [electronic resource] : as also on the account given by those that say the Trinity is an unconceivable and inexplicable mystery / written to a person of quality, London, 1693.
Although the term “Unitarian” was already known in England from the Latin Library of the Polish Brethren called Unitarians published in Amsterdam (1665-1668), and had been used in print before by Henry Hedworth (1673), Nye's book gave the term wider currency in English among antitrinitarian believers, and set off the Unitarian controversy. [3] Nye distinguished Unitarian views from those of Arius (Arian views) and Fausto Sozzini (Socinian views). [4] He called William Sherlock a tritheist, Robert South a Socinian, and John Wallis a Sabellian. [5] He faced much opposition from orthodox Anglicans, but had an ally in William Freke. [6] Thomas Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1695, discouraged those who wanted to continue the debate. [7]
Henry Hedworth (1626–1705) of Huntingdon was a Unitarian writer.
Arius was a Libyan presbyter and ascetic, and priest in Baucalis in Alexandria, Egypt. His teachings about the nature of the Godhead in Christianity, which emphasized the God's uniqueness and the Christ's subordination under the Father, and his opposition to what would become the dominant Christology, Homoousian Christology, made him a primary topic of the First Council of Nicaea, which was convened by Emperor Constantine the Great in 325.
Fausto Paolo Sozzini, also known as Faustus Socinus or Faust Socyn (Polish), was an Italian theologian and founder of the school of Christian thought known as Socinianism and the main theologian of the Minor Reformed Church of Poland.
Nye wrote also on natural religion; he corresponded with Henry Hedworth and published some of those letters. [8]
Natural religion most frequently means the "religion of nature", in which God, the soul, spirits, and all objects of the supernatural are considered as part of nature and not separate from it. Conversely, it is also used in philosophy, specifically Roman Catholic philosophy, to describe some aspects of religion that are said to be knowable apart from divine revelation through logic and reason alone, for example, the existence of the unmoved Mover, the first cause of the universe.
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
John Locke was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "Father of Liberalism". Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Sir Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social contract theory. His work greatly affected the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence.
Socinianism is a system of Christian doctrine named for Fausto Sozzini, which was developed among the Polish Brethren in the Minor Reformed Church of Poland during the 16th and 17th centuries and embraced by the Unitarian Church of Transylvania during the same period. It is most famous for its nontrinitarian Christology but contains a number of other unorthodox beliefs as well.
Samuel Clarke was an English philosopher and Anglican clergyman. He is considered the major British figure in philosophy between John Locke and George Berkeley.
Edward Fowler was an English churchman, Bishop of Gloucester from 1691 until his death.
The Polish Brethren were members of the Minor Reformed Church of Poland, a Nontrinitarian Protestant church that existed in Poland from 1565 to 1658. By those on the outside, they were called "Arians" or "Socinians", but themselves preferred simply to be called "Brethren" or "Christians," and, after their expulsion from Poland, "Unitarians".
Johannes Crellius was a Polish and German theologian.
Robert South was an English churchman who was known for his combative preaching and his Latin poetry.
William Sherlock was an English church leader.
Edward Stillingfleet was a British theologian and scholar. Considered an outstanding preacher as well as a strong polemical writer defending Anglicanism, Stillingfleet was known as "the beauty of holiness" for his good looks in the pulpit, and was called by John Hough "the ablest man of his time".
John Biddle or Bidle was an influential English nontrinitarian, and Unitarian. He is often called "the Father of English Unitarianism".
Biblical Unitarianism encompasses the key doctrines of nontrinitarian Christians who affirm the Bible as their sole authority, and from it base their beliefs that God the Father is a singular being, the only one God, and that Jesus Christ is God’s son, but not divine. The term "biblical Unitarianism" is connected first with Robert Spears and Samuel Sharpe of the Christian Life magazine in the 1880s. It is a neologism that gained increasing currency in nontrinitarian literature during the 20th century as the mainstream Unitarian churches moved away from belief in the Bible and, in the United States, towards merger with Universalism. It has been used since the late 19th century by conservative Christian Unitarians, and sometimes by historians, to refer to Scripture-fundamentalist Unitarians of the 16th–18th centuries. Its use is problematic in that Unitarians from the 17th to the 20th centuries all had attachment to the Bible, but in differing ways.
Unitarianism, as a Christian denominational family of churches, was first defined in Poland-Lithuania and Transylvania in the late 16th century. It was then further developed in England and America until the early 19th century, although theological ancestors are to be found as far back as the early days of Christianity. It matured and reached its classical form in the middle 19th century. Later historical development has been diverse in different countries.
William Manning (1630?–1711) was an English ejected minister and Unitarian writer.
Thomas Firmin was an English businessman and philanthropist, publisher and unitarian member of the Church of England.
George Harris was a British Unitarian minister, polemicist and editor.
John Edwards (1637–1716) was an English Calvinistic divine.
The Socinian controversy in the Church of England was a theological argument on christology carried out by English theologians for around a decade from 1687. Positions that had remained largely dormant since the death in 1662 of John Biddle, an early Unitarian, were revived and discussed, in pamphlet literature.
William Payne (1650–1696) was an English academic and cleric of the Church of England, known as a controversialist.
