A History of Humanism at UUAA

[The following is an excerpt of a UUAA History written by member Timothy Richards. For the full history, follow this link.]

A key event in the history of Unitarianism occurred in the summer of 1920, when the Unitarian magazine Christian Register asked our minister Sidney S. Robins, to interview Professor Roy Wood Sellars, a University of Michigan faculty member, a noted humanist philosopher and an active friend of our congregation . . ..  At this time, humanist views were controversial within Unitarianism. Opponents insisted that “we must avow our faith in God” and that “atheistic humanism” would lead to the death of Unitarianism.

Robins’ article, “What is a Humanist? This Will Tell You” appeared in the July 29, 1920 issue of the Christian Register. In it, Sellars stated “belief in God must not be a creedal element.”  The response to publication of Robins’ interview with Sellars “was vociferous” . . . .

In 1931 Professor Sellars was the chief author of “A Reflection on the University Mind,” which was signed by nineteen members of our congregation who were also University of Michigan faculty members. This statement included the ideas that human experience is the sole source of authority for any philosophy of life and that religion consists in the daily quest of the good life here and now. 

In 1932, the Secretary of the Western Unitarian Conference asked Professor Sellars to prepare a “definitive statement of humanism.” Eventually, the “Humanist Manifesto” was released on May 1, 1933.  It was signed by thirty-four prominent individuals, including Sellars and our congregation’s minister, Harold Marley.  The Manifesto included the notion that the scientific method is fundamental in acquiring and interpreting reality; it is possible to live an ethical life without God and that religion must formulate its hopes and plans in the light of the scientific spirit and the rejection of an afterlife.

Publication of the Manifesto elicited little reaction. What criticism it did receive focused on its “sweeping rejection of theism.” What is most interesting from our perspective is that two individuals, Sidney Robins and Roy Wood Sellars, who played important roles in formalizing religious humanism within Unitarianism in the 1920’s and early 1930’s were closely associated with the congregation whose ministers had vigorously opposed the Western Radicals in the nineteenth century. . . . .

In the years following publication of the Humanist Manifesto our congregation was firmly anchored to a humanist base, although there continued to be tension between theists and non-theists.  Marley and his successors, Edward H. Redman, Erwin A. Gaede, Kenneth W. Phifer, and Gail R. Geisenhainer were all humanists, although Redman described himself as “a humanist with reservations.”   During the 1950’s Redman introduced our congregation to religious ideas and practices from around the world in an effort to reach beyond theism and humanism to a broader understanding of the many ways to be religious.

Many who joined our congregation during the 1960’s and ‘70’s had left other religions, rejecting religious creeds and ritual. During this turbulent period there was tension over politics and tension between theists and non-theists in our congregation as people wrestled with such questions as “Who are we?” and “What do we stand for?”. . . .