Trinitarians and Unitarians

Happy Easter. This may be the time that Christians and others celebrate Jesus Christ and his resurrection. At the council of Nicaea in the 4^th century, there was a great deal of controversy about the life and times of Jesus.

Essentially, the Roman Emperor indicated that there must be one definition of Jesus. Although there were a number of parties represented, the Emperor wanted political stability and thus the council.

Two major parties emerged. One headed by Athanasius and the other by Arians. The first were Trinitarians. They believed that Jesus died, resurrected, and then became part of God. The Arians indicated that God is one is more defensible in terms of reason and that Jesus was the supreme Son of God. He died and went to heaven. He has a special place in heaven, but did not merge with the Holy Spirit and the God of Abraham.

In some ways all the most dominant religions have a personality, a connection (Holy Spirit) to God (anthropomorphic or pantheistic) at this time of Easter, most Christians are Trinitarians.  It is the author’s stance that Unitarianism should be considered a subset or derivation of Trinitarians. Why?

Trinitarians takes a polytheistic God and merges the three together and Jesus is God. This is not going to wither away. Rather, Unitarians are more reasonable, but Trinitarians are more majestic. In the pantheon of beliefs Jesus becomes even more important.

Unitarian-Universalism combines both. Most Unitarians today may be many things including Trinitarian Christianity. In the merging of Unitarian-Universalism in 1961, Universalists were generally Trinitarians.

Further, Universalists did not belief in cheap grace. Rather one paid for their sins in the afterlife and then went onto heaven. At the grassroots level, it is the author’s belief that we are coming together in a general way that we can agree to disagree. That Christianity will carry on with other world religions and the secular.

Prof. Joel Snell

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