William Ellery Channing, the most celebrated and influential Unitarian theologian America. has produced, was born at Newport, R. L, Apr. 7, 1780; d. at Bennington, Vt., Oct. 2, 1842. His father was an honored judge and a moderate Calvinist; his mother, a refined and pious woman. Under such influences he early manifested a deeply religious nature, and chose the clerical profession. He traced his conversion to the influence of the funeral of his father, and a religious revival which then swept over New England. After his father's death he passed under the tuition of his uncle at New London, the Rev. Henry Charming, and then went to Harvard College, being graduated in 1798. For two years be acted as private tutor in Richmond, Va., and while there had such mental agony from religious doubts that he was physically enfeebled, and returned to Newport in 1800 " thin and pallid," with a constitution permanently impaired. At home he associated much with the Rev. Dr. Samuel Hopkins-- the famous Calvinist, and pupil of Jonathan Edwards-- for whose character he felt the deepest reverence. In 1802 he returned to Harvard, where he had been elected regent. The same year he was licensed to preach, and at once distinguished himself by his fire, his unction, and his elegant style. On June 1, 1803, he was ordained and installed pastor of the Congregational Church in Federal Street, Boston, his only pastoral settlement. Here he introduced a new era in preaching, and enlivened the pulpit by themes of Christian philanthropy and social reform. A new edifice was erected in 1809 to accommodate the increased congregations. At the close of his sermons Charming was often physically exhausted. In the earlier period of his ministry he was as indefatigable in pastoral visitation as in his pulpit.
Not long after this time, it became apparent that many of the Congregational churches of New England, especially in Boston and its neighborhood, had, through various influences, become Antitrinitarian and Anti-Calvinistic (see CONGREGATIONALISTS, I., 4, § 8; UNITARIANS). In the separation which followed, Channing allied himself with the so-called " Liberal " party, and became its acknowledged head. In a famous sermon at the installation of Rev. Jared Sparks as pastor of the Unitarian Society in Baltimore in 1819 he gave a clear statement of the points wherein he diverged from the orthodox churches of the time. He is commonly called a Unitarian; but, in his own language, he wished to regard himself as " belonging not to a sect, but to the community of free minds, of lovers of truth, and followers of Christ, both on earth and in heaven. I desire to escape the narrow walls of a particular church " (Sermon at the installation of Rev. M. J. Motte, 1828). This catholicity of spirit secured him the esteem of men of all schools and parties. In a letter of May 8, 1841, he declared: " I have little or no interest in Unitarianism as a sect. I can endure no sectarian bonds. With Dr. Priestley, a good and great man who had much to do in producing the late Unitarian movement, I have leas sympathy than with many of the ` Orthodox ' " (Memoir, ii. 105). In a letter of Aug. 29, 1841, addressed to an Englishman, he expressed the noble sentiment: " As I grow older . . . I distrust sectarian influence more and more. I am more detached from a denomination, and strive to feel more my connection with the Universal Church, with all good and holy men. I am little of a Unitarian, have little sympathy with the system of Priestley and Belsham, and stand aloof from all but those who strive and pray for clearer light, and look for a purer and more effectual manifestation of Christian truth " (Memoir, ii. 106). From this confession some have inferred that toward the close of his life he leaned more to orthodoxy; but this is emphatically denied by his nephew and biographer, and by E. S. Gannett, his colleague and successor. In another letter written three months later (Nov., 1841), he says: " I value Unitarianism, not because I regard it as in itself a perfect system, but as freed from many great and pernicious errors of the older systems, as encouraging freedom of thought, as raising us above the despotism of the Church, and as breathing a mild and tolerant spirit into all the members of the Christian body " (Memoir, ii. 121).
Channing opposed, on the one hand, the still, cold, Puritan orthodoxy of his day, and combated vigorously the traditional views on the Trinity, the atonement, and total depravity; on the other hand, he opposed equally the rationalistic and radical Unitarianism, and sought a middle way. He was averse to creeds and precise doctrinal statements, and laid stress on freedom and individuality in belief and religious experience. He insisted upon
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