Editing William Ellery Channing (section)

===As Theologian===
In opposition to traditional American Calvinist orthodoxy, Channing preferred a gentle, loving relationship with God. He opposed [[Reformed Christianity]] for

{{quote|... proclaiming a God who is to be dreaded. We are told to love and imitate God, but also that God does things we would consider most cruel in any human parent, "were he to bring his children into life totally depraved and then to pursue them with endless punishment"|Channing 1957: 56.<ref name=Channing39>Channing, William Ellery. "The Moral Argument Against Calvinism". pp.  39–59 in ''Unitarian Christianity and Other Essays''. Edited by Irving H. Bartlett. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill; 1957 [1820]. Cited in Finlan, Stephen. "Jesus in Atonement Theories". In ''The Blackwell Companion to Jesus''.  Edited by Delbert Burkett. London: Blackwell; 2010: 21.</ref>}}

Channing's inner struggle continued through two years during which he lived in [[Richmond, Virginia]], working as a tutor for [[David Meade Randolph]]. He came to his definitive faith only through much spiritual turmoil and difficulty. Channing was called as pastor of the [[Federal Street Church (Boston)|Federal Street Church]] in Boston in 1803, where he remained for the rest of his life. He lived through the increasing tension between religious liberals and conservatives and took a moderate position, rejecting the extremes of both groups. In 1809 he was elected a [[Fellow]] of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]].<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter C|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterC.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=September 9, 2016}}</ref>

In 1815, Channing engaged in a noted controversy on the principles of [[Unitarianism]] with [[Samuel Worcester (theologian)|Samuel Worcester]], (1770–1821).<ref name=acab>{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Worcester, Noah (clergyman)|display=Worcester, Noah, clergyman|year=1889}}</ref> A review of a pamphlet on American Unitarianism (''American Unitarianism; or a Brief History of the Progress and Present State of the Unitarian Churches of America''), attributed to [[Jeremiah Evarts]], was published in ''[[The Panoplist]]'' in June 1815. Channing objected to the way Unitarians in the United States were portrayed in the review. Worcester replied to this objection, and an exchange of pamphlets followed.<ref name=dab>{{Cite DAB|title=Worcester, Samuel|author=Harris Elwood Starr|year=1936}}</ref>

Notwithstanding his moderate position, Channing later became the primary spokesman and interpreter of Unitarianism, after sixteen years at Boston's Federal Street Church. He was invited to come south again to [[Maryland]] to preach the ordination sermon of the future noted educator and theologian [[Jared Sparks]] (1789–1866), the first minister (1819–1823) called to the newly organized congregation (1817) in [[Baltimore]] known as the [[First Unitarian Church (Baltimore, Maryland)|First Independent Church of Baltimore]] (located at West Franklin and North Charles Streets, in a landmark two-year-old structure designed by noted French émigré architect [[Maximilian Godefroy|J. Maximilian M. Godefroy]]), later known, after a merger with Second Universalist Church in 1935, as the [[First Unitarian Church (Baltimore, Maryland)|First Unitarian Church of Baltimore (Unitarian and Universalist)]], which was forever after known as "The Baltimore Sermon".<ref name="American Unitarian Conference"/> The sermon, or address, was given on Wednesday, May{{nbsp}}5, 1819, and was entitled "Unitarian Christianity". In it, he explicated the distinctive tenets of the developing Unitarian movement, one of which was the rejection of the [[Trinity]]. Other important tenets were the belief in human goodness and the subjection of theological ideas to the light of [[reason]]. (The anniversary of the address is celebrated and observed annually by the [[Maryland]] churches of the [[Unitarian Universalist Association]] and its [[Districts of the Unitarian Universalist Association|Joseph Priestley District]] as "Union Sunday", with occasional [[ecumenical]] guests from other Christian bodies.) Based on these sermons, writer and critic [[John Neal]] in his 1824–25 critical work ''[[American Writers]]'' called Channing one of the best preachers in the country. He said: "Such of his writings as have been published are remarkable for simplicity, clearness, and power."<ref>{{cite book | last = Daggett | first = Windsor | title = A Down-East Yankee From the District of Maine | publisher = A.J. Huston | location = Portland, Maine | year = 1920 | url = https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007921667 | oclc = 1048477735 | page = 13}}</ref>

In 1828, he gave another famous ordination sermon, entitled "Likeness to God". The idea of the human potential to be like God, which Channing advocated as grounded firmly in scripture, was seen as heretical by the [[Calvinist]] religious establishment of his day. It is in this address that Channing first advocated the possibility for revelation through reason rather than solely from Scripture. ''American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia'' classes him as one of several figures who "took a more [[Pantheism|pantheist]] or [[Pandeism|pandeist]] approach by rejecting views of God as separate from the world."<ref>{{Cite book |title = American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia |author = [[John Lachs]] and [[Robert Talisse]] |year = 2007 |isbn = 978-0415939263 |page = 310 |publisher = Routledge }}</ref>

Even at the end of his life he adhered to the non-[[Socinianism|Socinian]] belief in the [[preexistence of Christ]]:

{{quote|I have always inclined to the doctrine of the preexistence of Christ, though am not insensible to the weight of your objections|Boston, March&nbsp;31, 1832<ref>''Memoir of William Ellery Channing: with extracts from his correspondence'', Volume{{nbsp}}2 p.{{nbsp}}416</ref>}}