by Lewis Loflin, Bristol, Virginia
I ground my worldview in science and reason—they excel at explaining the physical world but fail as moral guides. For morality, I turn to traditional faiths, filtered through reason to strip away irrationality. Deism, to me, supplements these religions, not replaces them, offering a rational lens on a purposeful universe. This perspective shapes my view of Christianity’s rise in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when culture shifted from reason to emotion and revelation.
Christianity outpaced rational thought by addressing existential fears with mysticism and faith. Classical Humanism—born of Hellenism—advanced reason, science, and democracy, yet Eastern mystical religions persisted. By the Late Roman Empire (3rd–5th centuries), philosophy waned against myth.
Church Fathers bent Jewish scripture to fit theology. Original Sin and the Trinity—absent from Jesus’ words and lacking clear biblical roots—defy reason. Prioritizing revelation, some distanced Christianity from Jesus’ focus on love and humanity, fostering superstition and intolerance from 450–1000 CE, often called the Dark Ages.
Today, New Age beliefs, occultism, and Eastern religions rise, clashing with Christian conservatives and Secular Humanists. The West’s blend of Classical Humanism and Judeo-Christian thought falters. Losing reason and faith’s moral core risks irrationality’s return.
History reveals this tension’s roots.
Humanism values dignity and self-realization through reason. Born in Greece and Rome, it shaped law and philosophy—Classical Humanism.
Plato tied reality to reason. Zeno’s Stoicism saw a rational Logos in Nature, influencing Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus. Epicurus embraced atomic materialism, rejecting supernaturalism—gods, if real, are material—seeking tranquil pleasure. Aristotle merged mind and matter, viewing form shaping matter.
Aristotle saw nature’s purpose in matter’s evolution. Reason, universal and free, drives knowledge beyond sensation. The soul blends plant nutrition, animal appetite, and human rationality—reason near-divine.
Classical Humanists held reason as worth’s core, guiding rational lives.
Yet Greece and Rome faltered morally—slave states normalizing brutality, incest, pedophilia, and infant exposure. Reason didn’t ensure ethics and could objectify. God stayed abstract until humanism embraced divinity.
Christianity and Classical Humanism anchor the West. Modern individualism fuses Humanism’s autonomy with Judeo-Christian dignity. Christian Humanism blends faith with learning.
As Rome declined, Christianity’s dynamism ensured survival, retaining Greco-Roman elements and high morality, shaping medieval Europe.
Their worldviews differ: Christianity’s Jewish roots cast God as purpose—a personal being known through faith, promising eternity. Greek philosophy’s God was impersonal order, grasped by intellect. Humanism exalted reason; Christianity saw knowledge fail without God.
Christianity reshaped Humanism. The polis offered justice; Christianity tied good to eternity, envisioning Christ’s kingdom. Faith eclipsed antiquity.
Life’s aim shifted to salvation—Augustine’s heavenly city. Earthly gain paled without revelation.
Classical history lacked purpose; Christianity gave it meaning—from Adam’s fall to Christ’s return.
Humanism saw ethics as reason’s natural laws. Medieval Christianity deemed them God’s will—sinful humans needed grace.
Science couldn’t perfect us; faith was key. Classicism sought good through thought; Christianity, through loving God.
Early Christians molded Greek philosophy into faith—a pivotal shift.
Christianity valued individuals—God seeks each soul. Jesus’ universal sacrifice reflected love, echoing Humanism’s focus.
Plato’s mental-physical dualism shaped Christianity, later Neoplatonism’s material-spiritual divide—souls in a flawed world.
Philo (20 BCE–50 CE) fused Judaism’s God with Stoicism and Neoplatonism, shedding pantheism. Stoicism’s Logos—rational order—likely shaped John’s Gospel (John 1:1), influencing Augustine, Calvin, and Luther.
Alexander’s conquest (332 BCE) and Rome’s roads spread Eastern religions. As Classical Humanism faded, mystery cults and occultism overwhelmed a crumbling empire.
Salvation-focused cults outstripped reason. Civilization stagnated, altering Christianity and Judaism. Gnosticism—today’s New Age kin—emerged.
Gnosticism mixed Eastern religions, occultism, pantheism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Egyptian beliefs, astrology, Greek thought, and Christianity—intuition-driven, allegorical.
Branded heresy, Gnosticism influenced Christianity. Judaism’s direct God-man tie clashed with Gnostic mediators.
Dogma absorbed Platonic mysticism, Stoicism, and Gnosticism. Monasticism mirrored Eastern asceticism. Zoroastrian dualism—good vs. evil—blended with Plato, casting matter as evil, contra Genesis’ "good" creation, shaping Augustine’s sin theology via Manicheanism.
Post-Nicaea (325 CE), Christianity turned hierarchical—a control tool. Interpretation became heresy. From 450–1300 CE, theocentrism brought superstition and intolerance, sidelining Jesus’ moral focus by favoring revelation over reason.
The Renaissance (circa 1300) revived Aristotle via Aquinas, Maimonides, and Avicenna/Averroes, seeding Unitarianism, Deism, Quakerism, and Reform Judaism.
The Reformation boosted science, empiricism, and reason, countering Calvin’s extremes with Unitarianism and Deism.
Jesus’ ethics outshone Calvin’s wrath. Scripture scrutiny found no Trinity or original sin from Jesus. Freer inquiry spurred denominations and persecution.
Michael Servetus (1511–1553) wrote *De Trinitatis Erroribus* (1531) and *Dialogues on the Trinity* (1532), calling the Trinity irrational. His *Christianismi Restitutio* (1553) led to execution in Geneva, October 27, 1553.
Faustus Socinus (1539–1604) unified Polish Antitrinitarians by 1588. Socinianism thrived in Krakow until Catholic suppression circa 1658, fleeing to Holland or Transylvania. It prioritized tolerance, Jesus’ humanity, and Gospel over Paul, rejecting original sin via reason.
Francis David (1510–1579) founded Transylvanian Unitarianism, briefly a state faith (1568), preserved by local autonomy, linking to English Unitarians in 1821.
English Unitarian John Biddle (1615–1662) died in prison, favoring reason. Richard Hooker (1554–1600) lifted reason against Calvinist superstition.
Deist Sir Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) questioned Noah’s Ark in *History of the World* (1614). His "The Skeptick" embraced doubt. Executed in 1618, he wasn’t atheist.
Unitarianism, Arianism, and Deism overlapped. John Locke (Arian) and Isaac Newton (Unitarian) allied; Locke’s *Reasonableness of Christianity* (1695) leaned Deist, tied to Herbert of Cherbury (1583–1648) and Collins (1676–1729).
Deism sought unity, merging into Protestantism via Unitarianism and Arminianism. Newton’s science bolstered Deism, but in France, it turned anti-faith—Voltaire’s anti-Semitism irked Unitarians like John Adams. Deism peaked in the 18th century, shaping science and faith.
American Unitarianism grew post-Great Awakening (1740). Thomas Jefferson, Unitarian-leaning, saw Jesus as a moral guide, urging Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) to America.
George Fox (1624–1691) founded Quakers, jailed for opposing war/slavery. Emigrants fled; Fox aided the 1689 Act of Toleration. William Penn (1644–1718) founded Pennsylvania (1681), advancing tolerance—Quakers led on gender equality.
Penn and Roger Williams (1603–1683) pioneered church-state separation. Williams, exiled from Massachusetts, wrote *The Bloody Tenet of Persecution* (1644). Thomas Paine’s *Age of Reason* (1794) echoed Quaker-Deist ideals.
Quakers and Mennonites opposed slavery in 1688. Methodists, Unitarians, and British Evangelicals (1787) rejected biblical defenses.
Philosophes like Condorcet (1743–1794) fought superstition and slavery, yet French secularism bred terror—private bigotry lingered.
William Pitt (1759–1806) and Charles Fox (1749–1806) advanced abolition in Britain; Paine’s "African Slavery in America" (1775) did so in the U.S.
Corliss Lamont’s humanism rejects supernaturalism, favoring reason, science, and compassion—near atheism. Secular and Religious Humanism align closely.
It claims Enlightenment roots—Unitarians, Quakers, Deists—but this is contested.
Secular Humanism grew from Ethical Culture (19th century) and Unitarian Universalism (20th century), shifting Unitarian churches. America’s theistic founders wouldn’t fully embrace it. Theistic faith, not atheistic humanism, drove abolition and freedom. Reason defines us; God gives moral purpose.
True tolerance demands firm morals, not relativism or political correctness. Unitarians can lead, upholding one God—Jesus’ God—guiding liberal Christians, Deists, Jews, and Muslims beyond fundamentalism or secular overreach.
Spiritualism surges—Eastern religions, New Age, and pantheistic earth-worship (cloaked as environmentalism) devalue reason. Fundamentalism matches this irrationality.
Unitarianism must hold firm; the 2004 American Unitarian Conference offers hope. We can’t shun reason or lose monotheism’s moral anchor.
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP)
Our Unitarian Heritage (1925) by Earl Morse Wilbur
Apostle Paul, Founder of Christianity by Lewis Loflin
2004 American Unitarian Conference
Acknowledgment: Thanks to Grok, an AI by xAI, for aiding in refining this article. The content and perspective are mine.
