Spiritual Preparation, Workshop 2: William Ellery Channing, in the What Moves Us Program
Read Leader Resource 1, Likeness to God and Leader Resource 2, Memoir of William Ellery Channing — Excerpts.
As you read, reflect on some of the questions provided below. Write your reflections and responses in your theology journal. Discuss them with your co-facilitator, if you have one.
Before leading this workshop, review Workshop 1, Leader Resource 1, Accessibility Guidelines for Workshop Presenters.
Leader Resource 1
- Why does Channing fear he might be accused of mysticism? Of claiming he has directly experienced God?
- Channing believed that "God is another name for human intelligence," as he says later in this sermon. The source of our intelligence is God, Channing says. God is the perfection of human nature. What do you feel are the pros and cons of these claims?
- God, for Channing is "unbounded spiritual energy," as he says later in this sermon. He believes that in proportion as we receive this spiritual energy, we can discern rays of light and hope even in evil, "that dark cloud that hangs over creation." How do you define "spiritual energy? For you, is it mental? Emotional? Sensate?
Leader Resource 2
Section I
- Channing, after careful reflection, considers his contempt for the woman of "active benevolence" mistaken. What, according to Channing, was the source of his mistaken contempt?
- Why does Channing call his earthbound feelings "sloth," and "the bondage of [his] passions"?
- Why does Channing believe that to be "in the world," he must throw away his "ridiculous ecstasies?"
- Why does Channing believe it a mistake to call him a stoic, that is, someone who is ruled only by the dictates of virtue and is singularly disinterested in the external world and the passions and emotions linked to it?
- Do you think Channing despises a part of himself? If so, what part? Do you despise a similar part of yourself?
Selection II
- According to Channing, human nature is designed and created to love the God that the Bible calls upon us to love. This human awareness of God, Channing insists, produces a sublime, rational happiness in humans. Assume for a moment, that someone does not perceive the Infinite as Channing perceives it, as a source of unfailing happiness. How might Channing explain this? How would you explain it? Do you agree with Channing?
Selection III
- When Channing says we have "felt" a nature within us that is superior to our physical, brutish emotions, to what kind of feeling is he referring? In other words, what does Channing mean when he says we can feel our intellectual nature? What, according to Channing, is an intellectual feeling? Do you think of any of your feelings as intellectual? If so, which ones?
- Channing suggests that the "thought" of God has a certain "force." This force, for Channing, is an actual personal experience someone has when loving God and feeling/enjoying God's love and presence. When this feeling occurs within you, Channing concludes, you realize that God "is the most worthy object of your hearts." For Channing, is the feeling of being infinitely loved and accepted necessarily the same as the conviction that there is a God? Explain using arguments and inferences taken from all three excerpts. Is this also true for you? Explain using examples from your own life.
- What does Channing mean when he says we can enlarge ourselves beyond our present self?
- What does Channing mean when he says we can acquire a new rank in creation?
- When we feel wretched or guilty and when we feel our physical passions have us in bondage, what, according to Channing, prompts us to free ourselves from this "sloth?" In other words, what does Channing mean when he says that something eminently perfect invites us to move beyond our emotional bondage to earthly objects of pleasure? According to Channing, what is the nature and source of this invitation?
- For Channing, in what does true happiness consist?
- According to Channing, what prompts us to thirst for deliverance from sin?
- God, according to Channing, is the most worthy object of our hearts. How, according to Channing, does a feeling of God's eminence alter our consciousness of what our hearts should be fastened to?
Channing analyzed the interior rational and emotional motivations of persons that prompt their religious sentiments and moral (or immoral) actions. Channing's theology, in part, explains how he reconciled this conflict between his moral thoughts, sentiments, and actions, on the one hand, and his inner life of turmoil and struggle. How can a Unitarian Universalist theology help us make sense of our own struggles between what we deem to be our best and worst feelings and other aspects of our own personality?
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Last updated on Friday, December 9, 2011.
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