Just finished reading AMERICAN UNIVERSALISM by George Huntston Williams. © 1971 ©2002  The fourth edition (paperback) of an expanded address delivered  on the bicentennial of  the arrival of John Murray (founder of the Universalist Church) in America. Scholarly but readable it documents the contention that the Universalist clergy were consistently ahead of the Unitarians in what has become our (UU’s) nearly unique hallmark: Radical Inclusivism.

In the new Preface by Charles A. Howe points our “[b]cause the material is tightly focused, some background in theology and American Universalist history is needed for a good understanding of the book” but that should not deter anyone interested in a serious study of Universalism. ”   However, a quick reading of the first chapter of Ernest Cassara’s  “Universalism in American:  A Documentary History of a LiberalFaith” ©1971 would provide adequate background. DO NOT rely on the UUA’s pages on Universalism. I thought I knew a great deal about our Universalist heritage but on reading Williams discovered how little I knew.  Maybe that’s the highest praise one can give, “He showed me my ignorance.”