Love is the power that holds us together and is at the center of our shared values. We are accountable to one another for doing the work of living our shared values through the spiritual discipline of Love.

The great Universalist heresy—the one that so threatened evangelical and Calvinist groups in New England in the late 18th and early 19th century that they vehemently opposed it, denying Universalist preachers access to their pulpits and to positions of public power—was that the nature of God is Love. This love, embedded in the fabric of the universe, was strong, nurturing, and inclusive. It would not let go of anyone, ever. Grounded in this love, Universalists rejected any ideas of an afterlife that ultimately separated humankind into the “saved” and the “damned.” They rejected the violence and cruelty inherent in traditional notions of atonement which understood God as having ordained Jesus to suffer and die on behalf of humanity. Instead, with salvation as a given, the locus of religiosity became this world, rather than the next, among these people. The Universalists focused on the process of living as one of coming into greater alignment with love as a response to the unshakable foundation of knowing one was already, completely held in Love.

Following a similar thread, the early Unitarians in 19th century New England held an understanding of religious life as one of growing the soul towards likeness to God, whom they also understood as loving. They understood love as one of the capacities of the soul inherent in every human being. They did not suggest their parishioners should remove themselves from society in lives of contemplation and prayer, but rather that they “unfold the divine likeness” within themselves through the daily activities of living.

Through the years, Unitarian Universalists have broadened and, in some cases, released notions of God or the divine in religious life. We have troubled the imperialism toward which Universalism leans. We have embraced ever-widening understandings of who is included in the “divine likeness.” We have deepened our critiques of images of God that condone patriarchy, white supremacy, ableism, and violence. But we have held fast to Love. We affirm the power of Love to heal what is broken, to hold us together across pluralities of diverse religious practices and beliefs, to hold us when things fall apart, to grow our capacities, and to guide us as we return again and again in our families and communities to side with Love.

Return to the introduction of the full Theological Reflection on Shared Values. Read the next reflection on Interdependence.