Resources on Unitarian Universalist History

Pythia’s comment on the Carolyn McDade post has brought to my attention the need to post about UU history resources.

Religious history is exciting. Religious history is the story of theological controversies, social revolutions, passionate people of faith. As each of us learns about the religious history of our own and other traditions, we explore deeper questions about what we believe and how we live out those beliefs.

The following are some resources for exploring Unitarian Universalist history. There are probably many others of which I am not aware, and if you can recommend some, please comment!

Books:

The UUA’s Ministerial Fellowship Committee’s required reading list is a good resource. Although this list is designed for those seeking to be credentialed as Unitarian Universalist ministers, it covers topics of interest to laypeople, including Unitarian Universalist history.

There are a couple books from this list that I read as a newcomer to Unitarian Universalism and especially enjoyed:

Cynthia Grant Tucker’s Prophetic Sisterhood: Liberal Women Ministers of the Frontier, 1880-1930. Tucker uses a biographical approach in presenting the experiences of early women ministers.

Charles Howe’s The Larger Faith: A Short History of American Universalism, which explains the history of Universalism in a succinct and engaging style.

Warren Ross’s The Premise and the Promise: The Story of the Unitarian Universalist Association offers a straightforward account of the major developments in how the denomination is organized.

Another book that is my go-to-first for American religious history is Sydney Ahlstrom’s A Religious History of the American People. I use this book more like an encyclopedia, since it covers the evolution of almost every Christian denomination in this country, and has a great index in the back. It has a chapter on the development of Unitarianism and also a shorter section on Universalism, and a couple chapters on New England Puritanism.

Conrad Wright’s books on Unitarian Universalism are classics, including his Congregational Polity.

Mark Morrison Reed’s Black Pioneers in a White Denomination “tells the stories of two pioneering black ministers. Includes accounts of some of today’s more integrated UU congregations and biographical notes on past and present black Unitarian, Universalist and UU ministers.”

Online resources:

The following two are very short and great for beginners:

Mark H. Harris offers a very brief introduction to UU history, with a reading list, on the UUA website.

Unitarian Universalist Women and Religion’s Herstory page explains the history of the UU Women and Religion movement of the late 20th century.

For those who want to go into more depth about Unitarian Universalist history:

The Unitarian Universalist Historical Society has an almost overwhelming list of resources covering many aspects of Unitarian Universalist history.

UniversalistChurch.net has collected many firsthand sources on Universalism from Google.

Happy reading! And please do comment with your recommendations for UU history resources.

Update 8/30/07:

Philocrites recommends the UU World’s Looking Back columns, the UU Historical Society’s Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography, and the Harvard Square Library’s Notable American Unitarians.

The “Looking Back” series is excellent. These are short essays which focus on individuals, events, and symbols in Unitarian Universalist history. The Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography offers biographies of Unitarians and Universalists; scroll down to the bottom of the page to browse them by category. Notable American Unitarians is also a collection of biographies, sorted by profession.

Update 8/31/07

Fausto recommends Errand into the Wilderness, by Perry Miller, and An American Reformation, by Sydney Ahlstrom with Jonathan Carey. An American Reformation is also on the MFC reading list.