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CHANNING, WILLIAM ELLERY (1780–1842)

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 845 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHANNING, See also:WILLIAM See also:ELLERY (1780–1842) , See also:American divine and philanthropist, was See also:born in See also:Newport, Rhode See also:Island, on the 7th of See also:April 1780. His maternal grandfather was William Ellery, a signer of the See also:Declaration of See also:Independence; his See also:mother, See also:Lucy Ellery, was a remarkable woman; and his See also:father, William Channing, was a prominent lawyer in Newport. Charming had as a See also:child a refined delicacy of feature and temperament, and seemed to have inherited from his father See also:simple and elegant tastes, sweetness of See also:temper, and warmth of See also:affection, and from his mother that strong moral discernment and straightforward rectitude of purpose and See also:action which formed so striking a feature 1 A See also:tod generally equalled 28 lb. of his See also:character. From his earliest years he delighted in the beauty of the scenery of Newport, and always highly estimated its See also:influence upon his spiritual character. His father was a strict Calvinist, and Dr See also:Samuel See also:Hopkins, one of the leaders of the old school Calvinists, was a frequent See also:guest in his father's See also:house. He was, even as a child, he himself says, " quite a theologian, and would chop See also:logic with his elders according to the See also:fashion of that controversial See also:time." He prepared for See also:college in New See also:London under the care of his See also:uncle, the Rev. See also:Henry Channing, and in 1794, about a See also:year after the See also:death of his father, entered Harvard College. Before leaving New London he came under religious influences to which he traced the beginning of his spiritual See also:life. In his college vacations he taught at See also:Lancaster, See also:Massachusetts, and in See also:term time he stinted himself in See also:food that he might need less exercise and so See also:save time for study,—an experiment which undermined his See also:health, producing acute See also:dyspepsia. From his college course he thought that he got little See also:good, and said " when I was in college, only three books that I read were of any moment to me: . . .

See also:

Ferguson on See also:Civil Society, . See also:Hutcheson's Moral See also:Philosophy, and See also:Price's See also:Dissertations. Price saved me from See also:Locke's philosophy." After graduating in 1798, he lived at See also:Richmond, See also:Virginia, as See also:tutor in the See also:family of See also:David See also:Meade See also:Randolph, See also:United States See also:marshal for Virginia. Here he renewed his ascetic habits and spent much time in theological study, his mind being greatly disturbed in regard to Trinitarian teachings in See also:general and especially See also:prayer to Jesus. He returned to Newport in 1800 " a thin and pallid invalid," spent a year and a See also:half there, and in 1802 went to See also:Cambridge as See also:regent (or general See also:proctor) in Harvard; in the autumn of 1802 he began to preach, having been approved by the Cambridge Association. On the 1st of See also:June 1803, having refused the more advantageous pastorate of Brattle See also:Street See also:church, he was ordained pastor of the Federal Street Congregational church in See also:Boston. At this time it seems certain that his theological views were not fixed, and in 1808, when he preached a See also:sermon at the ordination of the Rev. See also:John Codman (1782-1847), he still applied the See also:title " Divine See also:Master " to Jesus See also:Christ, and used such expressions as " See also:shed for souls " of the See also:blood of Jesus, and " the Son of See also:God himself See also:left the abodes of See also:glory and expired a victim of the See also:cross." But his sermon preached in 1819 at See also:Baltimore at the ordination of the Rev. Jared See also:Sparks was in effect a powerful attack on Trinitarianism, and was followed in 1819 by an See also:article in The See also:Christian See also:Disciple, " Objections to Unitarian See also:Christianity Considered," and in 1820 by another, " The Moral See also:Argument against Calvinism "—an excellent See also:evidence of the moral (rather than the intellectual) character of Unitarian protest. In 1814 he had married a See also:rich See also:cousin, See also:Ruth See also:Gibbs, but refused to make use of the income from her See also:property on the ground that clergymen were so commonly accused of marrying for See also:money. He was now entering on his public career. Even in 1810, in a Fast See also:Day sermon, he warned his See also:congregation of See also:Bonaparte's ambition; two years later he deplored " this See also:country taking See also:part with the oppressor against that nation which has alone arrested his proud career of victory "; in 1814 he preached a thanks-giving sermon for the overthrow of See also:Napoleon; and in 1816 he preached a sermon on See also:war which led to the organization of the Massachusetts See also:Peace Society.

His sermon on " See also:

Religion, a Social Principle," helped to procure the omission from the See also:state constitution of the third article of Part I., which made compulsory a tax for the support of religious See also:worship. In 1821 he delivered the Dudleian lecture on the " Evidences of Revealed Religion " at Harvard, of whose See also:corporation he had been a member since 1813; he had received its degree of S.T.D. in 1820. In See also:August 1821 he undertook a See also:journey to See also:Europe, in the course of which he met in See also:England many distinguished men of letters, especially See also:Wordsworth and See also:Coleridge. Both of these poets greatly influenced him personally and by their writings, and he prophesied that the See also:Lake poets would be one of the greatest forces in a coming spiritual reform. Coleridge wrote of him, " He has the Love of See also:wisdom and the wisdom of love." On his return to See also:America in August 1823, Dr Channing resumedhis duties as pastor, but with a more decided See also:attention than before to literature and public affairs, especially after receiving as colleague, in 1824, the Rev. See also:Ezra See also:Stiles Gannett. In 1830, because of his wife's See also:bad health, Channing went to the See also:West Indies. See also:Negro See also:slavery, as he saw it there, and as he had seen it in Richmond, more than See also:thirty years before, so strongly impressed him that he began to write his See also:book Slavery (1835). In this he insists that " not what is profitable, but what is right " is " the first question to be proposed by a rational being "; that slavery ought to be discussed " with a deep feeling of responsibility, and so done as not to put in See also:jeopardy the peace of the slave-holding states "; that " See also:man cannot be justly held and used as property "; that the tendency of slavery is morally, intellectually, and domestically, bad; that emancipation, however, should not be forced on slave-holders by governmental interference, but by an enlightened public See also:conscience in the See also:South (and in the See also:North), if for no other See also:reason, because " slavery should be succeeded by a friendly relation between master and slave; and to produce this the latter must see in the former his benefactor and deliverer." He declined to identify himself with the Abolitionists, whose See also:motto was " Immediate Emancipation " and whose passionate agitation he thought unsuited to the See also:work they were attempting. The moderation and See also:temperance of his presentation of the See also:anti-slavery cause naturally resulted in some misunderstanding and misstatement of his position, such as is to be found in Mrs See also:Chapman's Appendix to the Autobiography of Harriet See also:Martineau, Where Channing is represented as actually using his influence on behalf of slavery. In 1837 he published Thoughts on the Evils of a Spirit of See also:Conquest, and on Slavery: A See also:Letter on the See also:Annexation of See also:Texas to the United States, addressed to Henry See also:Clay, and arguing that the Texan revolt from Mexican See also:rule was largely the work of See also:land-speculators, and of those who resolved " to throw Texas open to slave-holders and slaves "; that the results of annexation must be war with See also:Mexico, embroiling the United States with England and other See also:European See also:powers, and at See also:home the See also:extension and perpetuation of slavery, not alone in Texas but in other territories which the United States, once started at conquest, would force into the See also:Union. But he still objected to See also:political agitation by the Abolitionists, preferring " unremitting appeals to the reason and conscience," and, even after the prominent part he took in the See also:meeting in Faneuil See also:Hall, called to protest against the See also:murder of See also:Elijah P.

Lovejoy, he wrote to The Liberator, counselling the Abolitionists to " disavow this resort to force by Mr Lovejoy." Channing's pamphlet Emancipation (1840) dealt with the success of emancipation in the West Indies, as related in See also:

Joseph John See also:Gurney's See also:Familiar Letters to Henry Clay of See also:Kentucky, describing a See also:Winter in the West Indies (1840), and added his own See also:advice " that we should each of us See also:bear our conscientious testimony against slavery," and that the See also:Free States " abstain as rigidly from the use of political See also:power against Slavery in the States where it is established, as from exercising it against Slavery in See also:foreign communities," and should free themselves " from any See also:obligation to use the powers of the See also:national or state governments in any manner whatever for the support of slavery." In 1842 he published The See also:Duty of the Free States, or Remarks Suggested by the See also:Case of the See also:Creole, a careful See also:analysis of the letter of complaint from the American to the See also:British See also:government, and a See also:defence of the position taken by the British government. On the 1st of August 1842 he delivered at See also:Lenox, Massachusetts, an address celebrating the anniversary of emancipation in the British West Indies. Two months later, on the 2nd of See also:October 1842, he died at See also:Bennington, See also:Vermont. Physically Channing was See also:short and slight; his eyes were unnaturally large; his See also:voice wonderfully clear, and like his See also:face, filled with devotional spirit. He was not a See also:great pastor, and lacked social tact, so that there were not many See also:people who became his near See also:friends; but by the few who knew him well, he was almost worshipped. As a preacher Channing was often criticised for his failure to See also:deal with the See also:practical everyday duties of life. But his sermons are remarkable for their rare simplicity and gracefulness of See also:style as well as for the thought that they See also:express. The first open defence of Unitarians was not based on doctrinal See also:differences but on the See also:peculiar nature of the attack on them made in June 1815 by the conservatives in the columns of The Panoplist, where it was stated that Unitarians were " operating only in See also:secret, . . . guilty of hypocritical concealment of their sentiments." His See also:chief objection to the See also:doctrine of the Trinity (as stated in his sermon at the ordination of the Rev. Jared Sparks) was that it was no longer used philosophically, as showing God's relation to the triple nature of man, but that it had lapsed into See also:mere Tritheism. To the name " Unitarian " Channing objected strongly, thinking " unity " as abstract a word as " trinity " and as little expressing the See also:close fatherly relation of God to man. It is to be noted that he strongly objected to the growth of " Unitarian orthodoxy " and its increasing narrowness.

His views as to the divinity of Jesus were based on phrases in the Gospels which to his mind established Christ's See also:

admission of inferiority to God the Father,—for example, " Knoweth no man, neither the Son, but the Father "; at the same time he regarded Christ as " the sinless and spotless son of God, distinguished from all men by that See also:infinite peculiarity—freedom from moral evil." He believed in the pre-existence of Jesus, and that it differed from the pre-existence of other souls in that Jesus was actually conscious of such pre-existence, and he reckoned him one with God the Father in the sense of spiritual union (and not metaphysical See also:mystery) in the same way that Jesus bade his disciples " Be ye one, even as I am one." See also:Bunsen called him " the See also:prophet in the United States for the presence of God in mankind." Channing believed in historic Christianity and in the See also:story of the resurrection, " a fact which comes to me with a certainty I find in few See also:ancient histories." He also believed in the miracles of the Gospels, but held that the Scriptures were not inspired, but merely records of See also:inspiration, and so saw the possibility of See also:error in the construction put upon miracles by the ignorant disciples. But in only a few instances did he refuse full See also:credence of the See also:plain See also:gospel narrative of miracles. He held, however, that the miracles were facts and not " evidences " of Christianity, and he considered that belief in them followed and did not See also:lead up to belief in Christianity. His character was absolutely averse from controversy of any sort, and in controversies into which he was forced he was free from any theological odium and continually displayed the greatest breadth and catholicity of view. The differences in New England churches he considered were largely verbal, and he said that " would See also:Trinitarians tell us what they mean, their See also:system would generally be found little else than a mystical See also:form of the Unitarian doctrine." His opposition to Calvinism was so great that even in 1812 he declared " existence a curse " if Calvinism be true. Possibly his boldest and most elaborate defence of See also:Unitarianism was his sermon on Unitarianism most favourable to Piety, preached in 1826, criticizing as it did the doctrine of See also:atonement by the See also:sacrifice of an " infinite substitute "; and the See also:Election Sermon of 1830 was his greatest plea for spiritual and intellectual freedom. Channing's reputation as' an author was probably based largely on his publication in The Christian Examiner of Remarks on the Character and Writings of John See also:Milton (1826), Remarks on the Life and Character of Napoleon Bonaparte (1827-1828), and an See also:Essay on the Character and Writings of See also:Fenelon (1829). An Essay on Self-Culture (1838) was an address introducing the See also:Franklin Lectures delivered in Boston See also:September 1838. Channing was an intimate friend of See also:Horace See also:Mann, and his views on the See also:education of See also:children are stated, by no less an authority than See also:Elizabeth See also:Palmer See also:Peabody, to have anticipated those of See also:Froebel. His See also:Complete See also:Works have appeared in various See also:editions (5 vols., Boston, 1841; 2 vols., London, 1865; r vol., New See also:York, 1875). Among members of his family may be mentioned his two nephews William Henry (1810-1884), son of his See also:brother See also:Francis See also:Dana, and William Ellery, commonly known as Ellery (1818-1901), son of his brother See also:Walter, a Boston physician (1786-1876). The former, whose daughter married See also:Sir See also:Edwin See also:Arnold, the See also:English poet, became a Unitarian pastors for some time in America, and also in England, where he died; he was deeply interested in Christian See also:Socialism, and was a See also:constant writer, translating See also:Jouffroy's See also:Ethics (1840), and assisting in editing the See also:Memoirs of See also:Margaret See also:Fuller (1852) ; and he wrote the See also:biography of his uncle (see O.

B. See also:

Frothingham's Memoir, 1886). Ellery Channing married Margaret Fuller's See also:sister (1842), and besides See also:critical essays and poems published an intimate See also:sketch of See also:Thoreau in 1873. See the Memoir by William Henry Channing (3 vols., London; 1848; republished in one See also:volume, New York, 188o) ; Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Reminiscences of the Rev. William Ellery Charming, D.D. (Boston, 188o), intimate but inexact; John See also:White See also:Chadwick, William Ellery Charming, See also:Minister of Religion (Boston, 19o3); and William M. See also:Salter, " Charming as a Social Reformer " (Unitarian See also:Review, See also:March 1888). (R.

End of Article: CHANNING, WILLIAM ELLERY (1780–1842)

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