(No) Faith No More?

November 5, 2005 7:28 PM

Recommendations for some good books on Deism and Unitarian Universalism? (Random thoughts also welcome).

Specifically, I'm interested in a couple of different things:
1) Histories of either faith. I would especially be interested in any books about Deism and the Founding Fathers like Jefferson, Washington, Adams and Franklin.
2) "Overviews" of both faiths - something like a Dummies guide to Deism/UU
3) Anything else that you think might be good for me.

A little background: I've been a pretty staunch athiest for the last fifteen years (and I'm only 26), but I've been wanting to explore the ideas behind Deism and UU for a while now. I'm especially attracted to the rational basis of both creeds and the conception of God as more of a Creative Force than an old bearded guy on a throne.

Any personal anecdotes that you may have regarding Deism or UU are welcomed!

posted by hobbes103 to Religion & Philosophy (12 answers total)

In terms of modern UUism, A Chosen Faith is currently the normal introduction book, with some historical information as well (it's written by a former president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, John Buehrens, and the minister at All Souls Unitarian Church in New York City, Forrest Church). The UUA website has other documents and there's several other books published by both Beacon Press (the UUA press which published both UU and general interest books) and Skinner House Press (meant to be more internal to UUs).

UU churches can vary quite a bit. They range from being humanist meeting houses (some still refuse to use the term church) to churches that use the English book of common prayers and give communion (like Kings Chapel in Boston). And everywhere in between. The majority are a mix of humanists holdovers from the 60s, pagans, and people otherwise unhappy with other dominionations.

I haven't read much about Deism itself, but remember that although many of the framers used the term "deist" to describe themselves, some of them had a view closer to the current Christian view of God than you may. Jefferson used deist, at some points, to mean, small-u unitarianism (that there was only one god). Many of them rejected Bibical inerrancy, knowing that the Bible was written down by men. Jefferson, unlike Adams, was not a large-u Unitarian, but did remark that he belived that Unitarianism would probably become the major religion of the United States. Jon Rowe has a pretty interesting post about this.
posted by skynxnex at 8:04 PM on November 5, 2005

I don't think UUs have a creed. My parents go to a UU church, and the congregation specifically sought out a minister that doesn't talk about god. There are Christians, Jews, pagans, spiritualists and atheists who are all members of the congregration.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 9:07 PM on November 5, 2005

unitarian jihad
posted by hortense at 9:19 PM on November 5, 2005

Q: What's a Unitarian Universalist?

A: An atheist with kids.

That about sums up my experience with UU's, as the child of an atheist. Most of the people at my church are people who like the sense of community they can get from a church, they just don't want to bother with that whole religon thing. It's something to do on Sunday mornings and a way to find out about volunteer projects. Most of the sermons lately have been about the current state of liberalism, not about anything spiritual.
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 7:16 AM on November 6, 2005

I don't think UUs have a creed.

We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote

• The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
• Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
• Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
• A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
• The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
• The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
• Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

The living tradition which we share draws from many sources:

• Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;
• Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
• Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
• Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
• Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
• Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision. As free congregations we enter into this covenant promising to one another our mutual trust and support.
posted by MarkAnd at 7:39 AM on November 6, 2005

Okay. Since nobody's done Deism yet, I'll chip in. (disclaimer: I am not a deist)

You want to start by reading "Age of Reason" by Thomas Paine. This is the primary source for many American Deists. The first bit is the best and most important, as Paine spends the rest of the text on a historically understandable but ultimately ill-advised quest to discredit Christianity.

Another text worth taking a look at is Ethan Allen's Reason, the Only Oracle of Man. Which is somewhat hard to read, but might be worth it if you're interested in historical roots. You can read it online if you like.

Another good book to read is Freethinkers, which is an interesting history of secularism in America that happens to include some information on Deists (including the founding fathers) and liberal Christianity.

Positive Deism has a bunch more Deist links. I find the online Deist community to be a little bit... weird, though. YMMV.

If you're interested in community, then I definitely recommend joining a UU church that appeals to you. You can then enjoy the freedom to explore your religious beliefs along with a bunch of other hopefully nice people. (disclaimer: I am also not UU)

Finally, I'm going to put in a plug for the Tao Te Ching. It's a very non-competitive text that might help you understand your beliefs, even if they have nothing to do with Lao Tzu.
posted by selfnoise at 7:49 AM on November 6, 2005

I'd recommend picking up the "essays & lectures" collection of Emerson, if you don't have it already - he was one U or the other (I think he wrote before the churches combined) and is just a thoughtful and poetic writer on essentially 'the meaning of life'...
posted by mdn at 9:19 AM on November 6, 2005

I'll take this opportunity to plug my UU joke page
posted by stoney at 9:21 AM on November 6, 2005

I grew up UU, being born in Chicago and until I was four my family attended the UU church in Oak Park that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Later my parents got divorced and my mother and us kids moved to Denver.

We didn't attend all the time, maybe 40% of the time or so. I liked our Sunday school as we were taught all sorts of stories and traditions from different religions. It was wide open.

In middle school, we did a unit called "Church across the street", where we visited different churches on several Sundays (and a synogogue on a Saturday). It was quite fascinating seeing for ourselves how different traditions did things in a different way.

When I was in 9th grade, I got to participate in one of the coolest things in my life. There is a tradition among four churches in the Denver / Boulder / Golden area to pool their 9th graders and do a bus trip in the spring to the Hopi and Navajo Indian reservations in New Mexico and Arizona. There were about thirty of us, and we prepared all school year long - lots of fundraising activities, a handful of retreats, lots of learning about the Hopi and the Navajo. We went on the ten-day bus trip around Easter, and it was amazing.

At the Navajo school at Rock Point, we were paired with kids our age and got to go to school with them. Some of us got to spend the night at our Navajo buddy's house (I was one of the lucky ones who got to do this). We also played basketball with the Navajo kids and they totally beat the pants off of us, it was great.

We also visited the Hopi reservation, which was equally amazing though in different ways. There are three mesas where the main villages are, and if you look over the edge of the mesa you see nothing but acre after acre of broken glass. Alcoholism is still a huge problem there, of course. We got to see Kachina dances, and the Hopi clowns, and were invited into the home of a potter who made gorgeous delicate little pots that many of us bought. We also saw Hopi High School, a brand new school built by the government (30 years late). It was a gorgeous building, and really nice. Just one thing - we went to the library, and there were no books. There was simply no budget for them. Row after row of empty shelves, and no books. There was one sad little shelf with books people had obviously brought in. That image has really stuck with me.

I hope I haven't gone on too long - there's more, but the whole thing was really emblematic to me of the spirit of the UU church, and I was proud to be part of the tradition. My sister and brother went on the same trip in the years previous to mine, and as far as I know it still continues on every year. One interesting thing was one of our ground rules for the group was "no put-downs". It's amazing how civil teenagers can be to one another when it is accepted by all that personal insults simply are not allowed, as part of the ethos. Oh sure, there was awkwardness and some kids were definitely the "popular" crowd, but it was quite a breath of fresh air to be among people who agreed on a lack of insults. (And just to be explicit - a person could still bring up their concerns and all of that, just not with personal attacks attached).

When I was in high school, 8 of us kids went on a trip to Boston to see the headquarters of the church, and some of the major old churches. It was a neat trip, and helped me to understand more about the variety of types of congregations that gather under the UU umbrella.

The older I got the more I felt the sermons and so on were just too... "wishy-washy" for me. I mean, it's all nifty and everything, but I longed for more trappings of tradition or something, and I found it kind of boring. I realize now I had grown to take things for granted too much, and didn't realize the value it gave me.

Now I live in Austin, and I've only been to the UU church near me once, but I really liked it. I am planning on going more soon, and I have a friend who is interested in coming with me.

There are many ways to be UU, and if the first congregation you come across doesn't quite feel like home to you, please try another, as they all have their distinctive flavors.

I hope you find what you are seeking, whatever you end up doing. Good luck.
posted by beth at 2:57 PM on November 6, 2005

I just want to add a clarification - when we visited the Hopi and the Navajo, we didn't go as any sort of missionary-type thing - quite the contrary. We felt privileged to be allowed to visit as respectful guests, to learn and to share.

A couple of my favorite UU jokes:

Q. How do you run a UU out of your neighborhood?

A. You go burn a question mark on his lawn

--

When asked if they would rather go to heaven or to a discussion about heaven, the UU will choose the discussion.

--

stoney, thank you for your joke page, I have found a few that are making me laugh out loud. By any chance do you have the file with all of the jokes in it online? I'd like to read through them all and I'm afraid I would miss some with the random joke-picking link you've got set up.
posted by beth at 3:09 PM on November 6, 2005

Here are some sermons about the origins
posted by hortense at 3:14 PM on November 6, 2005

I'll also put in a plug for my chosen path, Religious Science, or Science of Mind (link to "What We Believe"). Not to be confused with Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science.
posted by willmize at 3:44 AM on November 7, 2005