WHAT MOVES US
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Adults
WORKSHOP 2: CHARLES CHAUNCY
BY REV. DR. THANDEKA
© Copyright 2013 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/29/2014 11:50:10 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
And let me tell you, if you have indeed been renewed in the spirit of your minds, it will [show] it self in your lives. — Charles Chauncy
This workshop introduces Charles Chauncy's Theology of Spiritual Renewal. The workshop translates Chauncy's mid-18th-century theological program for spiritual wholeness and moral action into viable theological steps relevant to our own lives today as Unitarian Universalists.
Called the "historical progenitor" of American Unitarianism in David Robinson's 1984 book, The Unitarians and The Universalists (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press), Chauncy was pastor from 1727 to 1787 at the First Church of Boston, the city's oldest and most prestigious congregational church. He was also the leading defender of the religious interests and political power of Boston's ruling elite merchant class against a rising tide of evangelical preachers of the Great Awakening. These evangelical preachers made public, intensely charged, emotional conversion experiences foundational to Christian faith. They condemned congregational ministers like Chauncy and urged the members of these ministers' churches to abandon ship and join the rising tide of revivalism.
Chauncy refused to accept emotional conviction as the sole criterion and foundation for religious faith. The human mind, he insisted, must also give assent to the written word of God, and human behavior toward self and others must also be transformed. His rigorous use of reasoning to find, analyze, and explain the fundamental human elements entailed in spiritual experience is his legacy to us. Can Chauncy's legacy help us construct a Unitarian Universalist Theology of Spiritual Renewal relevant to our lives today?
Before leading this workshop, review the Accessibility Guidelines for Workshop Presenters found in the program Introduction.
Preparing to lead this workshop
Read background information about the Great Awakening from Answers.com, About.com, or another encyclopedia and read the story, "Introducing Charles Chauncy."
Read the five excerpts from Charles Chauncy's sermon, A Sermon on the Out-pouring of the Holy Ghost, in Handout 2. As you read, reflect on some of the following questions, looking for connections he makes among emotion, reason, behavior, and what he calls a Christian spiritual state. Keep in mind that Chauncy was a traditional, conservative Christian whose own reasoning began to challenge the Christian Doctrine of Original Sin, which claims that humans, because of their fallen sinful nature passed down to them from Adam in the Garden of Eden, lack the capacity to call forth and participate in their own spiritual salvation.
You may wish to write your reflections in your theology journal.
First Excerpt
Second Excerpt
Third Excerpt
Fourth Excerpt
Fifth Excerpt
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Four Human Capacities | 20 |
Activity 2: Introducing Charles Chauncy | 25 |
Activity 3: Testing Chauncy's Ideas | 20 |
Activity 4: Reflecting on Personal Experience | 20 |
Closing | 5 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Reflect on the following questions, looking for connections between your theology and Chauncy's. You may wish to write your reflections in your theology journal.
WORKSHOP PLAN
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
We are here to abet creation and
to witness to it,
to notice each other's beautiful
face and complex nature
so that creation need not play to
an empty house.
Description of Activity
Welcome participants. Invite a participant to light the chalice while you read aloud Reading 418 in Singing the Living Tradition, "Come into the circle of love and justice" by Israel Zangwill (adapted) or share these words of Charles Chauncy:
Have you, in truth, been made partakers of the Divine nature... ? And let me tell you, if you have indeed been renewed in the spirit of your minds, it will [show] it self in your lives.
In one word, there will be an amendment of your carriage in all the relations you sustain. You will be better husbands and wives; better parents and children; better masters and servants: You will be better neighbours, better friends, better subjects yea, you will be better in every station, and in every condition of life: Nor other wise may you think you have been renewed after the image of him that created you. Let no man deceive you; he that doth righteousness, is righteous, even as he is righteous.
Invite participants to join in reading aloud the opening words you have posted on newsprint, "We are here to abet creation" by Annie Dillard.
ACTIVITY 1: FOUR HUMAN CAPACITIES (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Introduce Charles Chauncy as the "historical progenitor" of American Unitarianism, using these or similar words:
Chauncy was pastor from 1727 to 1787 at the First Church of Boston, the city's oldest and most prestigious Congregational church. He set out to shore up the religious traditions, practices, doctrines, and beliefs of the Boston's elite merchant class against the rising tide of evangelical preachers of the Great Awakening. These preachers not only condemned Congregational ministers like Chauncy, but also urged the members of these ministers' churches to abandon ship and join the rising tide of revivalism . Chauncy rejected the evangelical preachers' claims that public, highly charged emotional conversion experiences were a reliable foundation for faith. Instead, he put forth his own studied analysis of the four elements in human experience he deemed necessary for a true spiritual transformation: physical sensations, emotional feelings, thoughts (ideas and concepts), and modified behavior toward self and others.
Invite participants into an exercise to help them understand Charles Chauncy's concept of the four human capacities affected by a spiritually transforming experience. Ask them to pay attention to the four different ways in which they experience the sound of your voice as you speak. Explain:
Point out the four human capacities you have listed on newsprint. Explain that Chauncy's Theology of Spiritual Renewal is based, in part, on his analysis of how these four human capacities combine to create a spiritual experience. Invite participants to break down their own experience of listening to your voice into these four categories and to write four sentences in their journal, one for each respective aspect (sensations, emotions, thoughts, physical action) of their experience of your voice. Allow four minutes.
Ask participants to move into groups of three and use the following process to share with the other members of their group:
ACTIVITY 2: INTRODUCING CHARLES CHAUNCY (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Display or distribute Leader Resource 1, Charles Chauncy Portrait. Briefly introduce Charles Chauncy using these or similar words:
Chauncy was the leading opponent of the Great Awakening, the Protestant evangelical movement that swept through the British North American colonies between 1739 and 1745. Prompted by the verbal attacks of the evangelical preachers and his growing distrust of the mass outbursts of enthusiasm they stoked in their followers, Chauncy used his highly-disciplined, dispassionate, rational mind to analyze the major elements he believed were really involved in a personal, spiritual experience of religious conversion and renewal. In the process, he constructed a rational foundation for a theologically progressive but socially conservative liberal faith tradition, inadvertently sparking a new American liberal theological tradition.
Distribute Handout 1, which contains more detail about Chauncy's life, and invite participants to take it home.
Invite participants to explore whether Chauncy provides a useful frame to help us understand what we mean when we say we have or want to experience personal, spiritual renewal as Unitarian Universalists. Tell them you will use excerpts from his 1742 sermon, "The Out-pouring of the Holy Ghost" for this purpose. Mention that the excerpts include some paraphrasing.
Distribute Handout 2 and invite participants to take a few minutes to read it. If you have arranged for a participant or a guest to play the role of Chauncy, introduce that person and invite them to read aloud Chauncy's words.
When the reading is done, direct participants' attention to the list of Chauncy's four categories of experience and the reflection prompt you have posted. Invite participants to identify something they have experienced in a Unitarian Universalist worship service (a reading, story, sermon, music, prayer or meditation) and analyze it according to Chauncy's categories. Invite participants to use Chauncy's categories as a guide for learning new ways to think more concretely about what they mean when they talk about personal spiritual experiences as part of their liberal faith tradition. Allow five minutes for reflecting and writing.
ACTIVITY 3: TESTING CHAUNCY'S IDEAS (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to move into the same three-person groups they formed in Activity 1, and share their reflections about spiritual experiences using Chauncy's categories as a guide. Remind them of Chauncy's words: "[I]f you have indeed been renewed in the spirit of your minds, it will [show] it self in your lives."
Ask participants to each, in turn, share their analysis of an element of a Unitarian Universalist worship service. Then, invite participants to share thoughts about each posted question sequentially, so that each person speaks to the question at hand before the group moves on to the next question. Remind them that they are not critiquing the thoughts and feelings and experiences of others, but rather are sharing their own thoughts, feelings, experiences, and insights. Tell participants that after all who wish to have spoken in response to each of the questions, they might each, in turn, offer final reflections, feelings, and insights based on their experiences in this small group exercise.
ACTIVITY 4: REFLECTING ON PERSONAL EXPERIENCE (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to remain in their three-person groups. Post the two questions you have written on newsprint and explain participants will have a chance to reflect on them quietly, and then share responses within their triad, before sharing with the whole group. Remind participants they are not being asked to critique the thoughts, reflections, feelings, and experiences of others, but rather to disclose to the group their own thoughts, reflections, and feelings. If there is time, invite participants to share with the group further insights and reflections based on this exercise.
After ten minutes, invite participants to rejoin the large group. Invite persons to share their thoughts, feelings, and insights with the group, with each person speaking only once until all have had a chance to speak. If there is time, invite a second round of personal sharing.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather participants around the altar or centering table. Affirm the good work that participants have done in this workshop.
Distribute the Taking It Home handout. Explain that each workshop will provide a Taking It Home handout with ideas for continuing to explore the workshop's subject with friends, co-workers, housemates, and family. Mention that the Faith in Action activities included in the handout offer another extension opportunity.
Offer as a benediction Reading 527 in Singing the Living Tradition, Richard Jeffries' "Immortality" or these words of Charles Chauncy:
In one plain, short word, The great thing you have to get satisfied about is, whether you are the subjects of that change, which will, in the estimation of the gospel, denominate you new creatures... The great thing necessary is to experience a real and effectual renovation of heart and life; and as to the way and manner, how this, by the divine SPIRIT, was bro't about, it's not of so great importance: Nor is it of any importance, whether the SPIRIT OF GOD has gone on, in just the same method with you which he has taken with others. Be rather concern'd about the thing, than the way in order to get to it. Get satisfied you have been thus wro't upon, and you need be at no further pains.
Extinguish the chalice and invite participants to go in peace.
Including All Participants
Be inclusive of people with a variety of living situations—for example, living alone, with a significant other, in a multigenerational family, or with housemates—in the way you explain the Taking It Home activities.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
After the workshop, co-leaders should make a time to get together to evaluate this workshop and plan future workshops. Use these questions to guide your shared reflection and planning:
TAKING IT HOME
And let me tell you, if you have indeed been renewed in the spirit of your minds, it will [show] it self in your lives. — Charles Chauncy (1705-1787)
Think of a practice you might do to help you deepen your spiritual life. Try it and decide if, indeed, you have begun to construct a Unitarian Universalist Theology of Spiritual Renewal relevant for your life today.
Faith in Action
With the help of ministerial staff, arrange to meet with another group in the congregation—for example, a Coming of Age class, a youth group, a New UU Group, or with an interfaith group. Talk together about the ways spiritual experiences show themselves in our lives and in our actions. Offer this quote from Chauncy as a springboard for sharing: "[I]f you have indeed been renewed in the spirit of your minds, it will [show] it self in your lives."
WHAT MOVES US: WORKSHOP 2:
STORY: INTRODUCING CHARLES CHAUNCY
Charles Chauncy was the leading opponent of the Great Awakening, the Protestant evangelical movement that swept through the British North American colonies between 1739 and 1745.
Chauncy was born into the elite Puritan merchant class that ruled Boston. His great-grandfather, after whom he was named, was the second president of Harvard. His father was a successful Boston merchant. As one biographer puts it, "Chauncy was first and foremost a traditional Puritan cleric." Moreover, "As a rule, Chauncy throughout his life supported the clergy who observed the traditional decorum of the New England [ruling elite] way" (Charles H. Lippy, Seasonable Revolutionary: The Mind of Charles Chauncy (Chicago: Nelson Hall, 1981, p. 12). Although this Puritan stock had been dissenters in England (thus the liberals), in America they were the Standing Order, the ruling elite (and thus the conservatives against other religious groups like the Baptists and Quakers). Chauncy was thus a staunch and loyal supporter of the political, social, religious, and economic merchant class status quo.
Chauncy received both his undergraduate degree and his master's in theology from Harvard. He was ordained at the First Church in Boston in 1727, where he spent the rest of his life: 60 years as pastor of "Old Brick," as his church was called. Not only was it the oldest Congregational church in Boston, it was also one of the most important in New England.
In his book, Old Brick: Charles Chauncy of Boston, 1705-1787, Edward M. Griffin presents a thumbnail summary of Chauncy's life and work:
[Chauncy] played a role in the major events of his time: not only the Great Awakening, but also the French and Indian wars, the controversy over the proposed establishment of the Anglican episcopacy in America, political events from the Stamp Act through the Revolution, the rise of the Enlightenment, the growth of "liberal Protestantism", social changes in Boston, [and] the development of Unitarianism...
Chauncy organized American clergy and corresponded with English dissenting clergy to protest and prevent the encroachment of the Church of England in its colonies. Although his effort to unify the clergy ultimately failed, Chauncy received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the University of Edinburgh. He was a charter member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was recognized by the Massachusetts Historical Society (when his portrait was hung there) as "eminent for his talents, learning, and lover of liberty, civil and religious." He was, in short, honored as one of the leading intellects of 18th-century America. He was also an unapologetic elitist. Biographer Lippy wrote that Chauncy believed "the laymen should simply follow the lead of the clergy who were, after all, the theological professionals."
Chauncy published his major theology work, The Mystery Hid from Ages and Generations, in 1785, two decades after he had completed it. He had held back publication because he recognized the rigorous logic of his arguments ended up affirming an innate moral sense in humankind, a belief in human free will, an affirmation of universal salvation and thus the spiritual equality of all. These claims undermined the doctrinal traditions of his own Calvinist faith tradition and the social hierarchy he extolled from the beginning to the end of his life. The construction of a rational, Enlightenment foundation for a theologically progressive but deeply embedded, socially conservative liberal faith tradition began with Charles Chauncy. Thanks in no small part to Chauncy's life and work, by 1804 a liberal Christian view was the dominant one in Boston. This complex conservative man had inadvertently sparked a new American liberal theological tradition: American Unitarianism.
WHAT MOVES US: WORKSHOP 2:
HANDOUT 1: CHAUNCY'S FOUR CATEGORIES OF EXPERIENCE
By Charles Chauncy.
The Four Categories
First: Sensations
For traditional Christians like Chauncy, spiritual awakening is prompted by the minister's sermon, and thus his voice, the sounds of the words impressing themselves upon the bodies (eardrums) of the congregants become the sensations first entailed in a spiritual experience. Chauncy says the Spirit awakens our attention and brings us to consider our sins in a way we have never done before.
Second: Intense Emotions
Persons now feel emotional guilt. They become aware of how their actions, thoughts, and feelings have hurt others and compromised their own soul. Their emotional reaction to this awareness is a spiritual awareness prompted by what Chauncy calls at various times the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, or the Spirit of God. This conviction of sin is the first step towards the experience of religious conversion, Chauncy insists. Evangelists end their work here. But for Chauncy, it is only the beginning, an initial preparation step, as he puts it, for the conversion of the mind.
Third: New Thoughts
Persons now read the Christian scripture in a new way. They read it as Gospel Truth. Chauncy calls this new mindset "mental revelation." The Holy Ghost, Chauncy says, has transformed the human mind. It has produced in persons a true gospel faith, one much celebrated in the writings of the New Testament. This faith is not merely an assent of the mind to Gospel truths... The scripture is seen everywhere as full. This scriptural faith, Chauncy concludes, is the operation of the Spirit. It is the intentional work of God upon the mind of the sinner. (American Unitarian Christianity, in this way, began as a new way of reading and interpreting Christian scripture.)
Fourth: Physical Moral Behavior
With the alignment of emotions (step two) and thoughts (step three), a spiritual transformation of the heart is now produced. Now there is a change of religious and moral values within the person. The Spirit operates in such a way as to make such persons new creatures. This change of heart is spoken of under a variety of names, Chauncy says: as conversion, regeneration, resurrection, a new creation. This change is not physical, Chauncy insists; it is religious and moral. This change is wrought in the heart and in a person's life, in a person's inward principles as well as in altered outward behavior in the world. It is not the product of mere reason, Chauncy insists, nor of external revelation. It is not brought about by the bare influence of moral motives. It is the effect of the power of the Spirit, working effectually in persons that believe.
According to Chauncy, four results follow:
New inner strength, vigor, cheerfulness, and delight
The Holy Ghost excites sincere Christians to practice their duty, increases grace in them, preserves them unto the end. It excites good motions in them, animates their resolutions, quickens their graces and assists them in their exercise with strength and vigor, with cheerfulness and delight.
Comfort
The Holy Ghost provides support and consolation for persons who are suffering or in some way afflicted. Persons so inspired are ready to undergo the trial of cruel mockings and scourging, bonds and imprisonment. They willingly undergo such torment. They will endure anything for the honor of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Inward Joy
The Holy Ghost produces within persons an inward joy. This joy is the fruit of the Spirit ... This joy is not a mere effect of nature; neither does it result from the sole exercise of the mind, either upon itself, or the truths revealed in the Gospel, but is the produce of the Holy Ghost, which is given to them... . This joy is the testimony of our conscience... To be sure, whoever have this peace of God, this joy of the Lord, they are blessed persons, tho' they know not the meaning of those raptures some others may experience; and the state of mind they are brought to, they may assure themselves, is an effect of the Holy Ghost in them.
Self-esteem
The feeling of being spiritually accepted by God. The gift of the Holy Ghost is the witness of the Spirit that satisfied good Christians of their adoption into God's family. Some may expect an immediate whisper from the Spirit, or some secret extraordinary impulse, assuring them, they are children of God. This can happen, but this does not appear to be the way of the Spirit's witnessing. Moreover, it can be dangerous for persons to ground their hopes of heaven upon mere impulses and impressions, especially if they rely upon them instead of Scripture.
WHAT MOVES US: WORKSHOP 2:
HANDOUT 2: FROM A SERMON ON THE OUT-POURING OF THE HOLY GHOST
Charles Chauncy preached this sermon May 13, 1742, at the First Church of Boston. Printed by T. Fleet, for D. Henchman and S. Eliot in Cornhill, 1742. Excerpts 3 and 5 include paraphrasing as well as direct quotes from the sermon.
First Excerpt
The Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit, as the word is elsewhere translated; -- It's the name of the Third of the Sacred Three [names of God]. [The Holy Spirit] is otherwise [called] sometimes, by Spirit of God, the Spirit of grace, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of beliefs; sometimes, he is spoken of as the comforter, the Sanctifier, and the like. That glorious person is pointed out, under all these appellations, in whole name, as well as in the name of the Father and the Son, we are baptized, and by this instituted rite take upon us the character of Christians.
Only, let it be remembred [sic], where the Holy Ghost is spoken of as a gift from God, we are not to understand hereby the person, but the influences of this blessed Spirit. Not that the Holy Ghost is nothing more than an emanation, operation or influence, from the Father. He is often represented, in the bible, as an agent, as truly properly so, as either the Father or the Son. But tho' he be a real, living, active, infinitely glorious person, yet when he is spoken of as a gift, we are to understand hereby his influences and operations.
And these are either extraordinary or ordinary.
Second Excerpt
In the beginning of Christianity, the Holy Ghost was given to men, in an extraordinary manner, i.e., in miraculous gifts and powers. It does not appear, that the Holy Ghost, in this sense, was confin'd to the apostles, or their fellow labourers in the work of the Lord. The apostles [of Jesus Christ], 'tis true, were the first, after our Saviour's ascention [sic] up to heaven, to whom the Holy Ghost was thus given. It was upon them that he descended, on the day of Pentecost in cloven tongues like as of fire, to their being enabled to speak in various languages; yea, and to [show] signs and wonders, and to work miracles, to the astonishment and conversion of multitudes. [Acts 2: 1-4]. But it should seem, as if the gift of the Holy Ghost, in this extraordinary manner, was not the sole privilege of the apostles, or first ministers of the Christian religion. It rather appears to have been a gift bestowed upon Christians in common. Some of the persons, chosen from among the people to be Deacons, were thus miraculously endowed... . And in the Church at Corinth, there was a great diversity of these extraordinary gifts; and they seem to have been common among the people. To one was given, by the Spirit, the word of wisdom; to another, the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another, faith; to another, prophecy; to another, discerning of Spirits; to another, diverse kinds of tongues; to another, the interpretation of tongues. And perhaps there were few, in the first days of the gospel, but were endowed with some extraordinary gift of the Spirit or another.
Third Excerpt (includes paraphrasing)
Have you experienced that change, which will denominate you the children of God, and born from above? Be critical in your inquiry into this matter. Is the change you have passed under, a change only in your affections [i.e., your emotions]? Is it nothing more than a little outward reformation? Does it lie only in an attendance of sermons and lectures? Or is it indeed a change from the power of sin and satan, a change into the likeness of God? Have you, in truth, been made partakers of the Divine nature... ? And let me tell you, if you have indeed been renewed in the spirit of your minds, it will [show] it self in your lives.
In one word, there will be an amendment of your carriage in all the relations you sustain. You will be better husbands and wives; better parents and children; better masters and servants: You will be better neighbours, better friends, better subjects yea, you will be better in every station, and in every condition of life: Nor other wise may you think you have been renewed after the image of him that created you. Let no man deceive you; he that doth righteousness, is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the Devil. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the Devil: Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God, neither be that loveth not his brother.
Some, perhaps, may think these things of no great importance; but deceive not your selves, impose not on your Souls; the work of the Spirit, wherever it is savingly wrought, will have a influence upon the whole man, not only the heart, but the life...
Fourth Excerpt
[T]he outpouring of [God's] Spirit... . This is a necessary gift; that indeed without which nothing else will be effectual to our having that temper of mind formed in us, without which we shall never be qualified for an admission into the coming and eternal kingdom of God. We may not be sufficiently apprehensive of it, but 'tis a certain truth, 'tis only by the Spirit of God, sin can be rooted out of our hearts, and the dispositions of holiness implanted there. No means, nor instruments, will of themselves be able to effect this. It can be accomplish'd by no other power, but that of the divine Spirit. And is it then a needless thing to make our prayer to God for his Spirit? There is nothing we can go to him for, that is a matter of greater necessity.
And prayer upon this occasion is the more proper, as it's the way we are directed to in the bible, in order to our obtaining the Spirit. Our Saviour has commanded us to ask this gift of our heavenly Father [Luke 11:9]: And God himself has said, he will be inquired of by his people to bestow it upon them [Ezek. 36:39].
And O what encouragement have we to pray for the holy Spirit! Our Saviour promised, before he left the world, that his Spirit should abide with his Church for ever [sic]; and has expressly declared, that if we ask [Luke 11:9], we shall receive; if we seek, we shall find, if we knock, it shall be opened to us: Yea, he has condescended to argue with us, to convince us of the readiness of our heavenly Father, to give us his holy Spirit, if we suitably seek to him herefore. If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him [Ezek: 11:13]. 'Tis unreasonable, 'tis base and ungrateful to harbour in our minds the least doubt or hesitation as to this matter. For he is God and not man; and therefore infinitely more kind and merciful than the most tender-hearted parents on earth.
Fifth Excerpt (includes paraphrasing)
The Gift of the Holy Ghost to persons: There is a change wrought both in their hearts and lives, in all their inward principles as well as outward behavior in the world. They are, as it were, new molded and fashioned. They have other thoughts and sentiments, other springs of action, other views and aims; they are so altered as to be quite other persons, they have another temper of mind, another taste and relish, another heart and soul, and they lead another kind of life, are pious towards God, righteous towards men, and sober in respect of themselves.
WHAT MOVES US: WORKSHOP 2:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: CHARLES CHAUNCY PORTRAIT
WHAT MOVES US: WORKSHOP 2:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: CHAUNCY'S THEOLOGY IN THE CONGREGATION
This is a 30-minute activity.
Invite participants to explore ways Chauncy's theology might illuminate the place of spirituality in your congregation. Use these questions as a guide:
WHAT MOVES US: WORKSHOP 2:
LEADER RESOURCE 3: ENGAGING AS RELIGIOUS PROFESSIONALS
This is a 30-minute activity. You may wish to write reflection questions on newsprint, and post.
Invite participants to reflect on the place of Chauncy's theology in contemporary Unitarian Universalism. Provide these questions to guide their reflection:
FIND OUT MORE
Edward M. Griffin, Old Brick: Charles Chauncy of Boston, 1705-1787 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1980).
Charles H. Lippy, Seasonable Revolutionary: The Mind of Charles Chauncy (Chicago: Nelson Hall, 1981).
Conrad Wright, The Beginnings of Unitarianism in America (Hamden, CT: Archon Book, an imprint of The Show String Press Inc., 1976); published as a Beacon Paperback in 1966, copyright Starr King Press, 1955).