Editing Unitarianism (section)

==== Arianism ====
[[File:Constantine burning Arian books (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Constantine I]] burning [[Arian]] books, illustration from a book of canon law, c. 825]]

[[Arianism]] is often considered a form of Unitarianism.<ref>{{cite web |title=Arianism |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arianism |website=Britannica |date=28 August 2023 |access-date=15 September 2022 |archive-date=27 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327091909/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arianism |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[Christology]] of Arianism holds that Jesus, before his human life, existed as the [[Logos (Christianity)|Logos]], or the Word, a being begotten or created by God, who dwelt with God in Heaven.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}} There are many varieties of this form of Unitarianism, ranging from the belief that the Son was a divine spirit of the same substance (called [[Subordinationism]]) or [[Homoiousian|of a similar substance]] to that of God (called [[Semi-Arianism]]) to the belief that he was an angel or other lesser spirit creature of a wholly different nature from God.{{citation needed|date=May 2011}} Not all of these views necessarily were held by [[Arius]], the namesake of this Christology. It is still Nontrinitarian because, according to this belief system, Jesus has always been beneath God, though higher than humans. Arian Christology was not a majority view among Unitarians in Poland, Transylvania, or England. It was only with the advent of American Unitarianism that it gained a foothold in the Unitarian movement.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}}

Among early Christian theologians who believed in a pre-existent Jesus who was subordinate to God the Father were [[Lucian of Antioch]], [[Eusebius of Caesarea]], [[Arius]], [[Eusebius of Nicomedia]], [[Asterius the Sophist]], [[Eunomius]], and [[Ulfilas]], as well as [[Felix, Bishop of Urgell]]. Proponents of this Christology also associate it (more controversially) with [[Justin Martyr]] and [[Hippolytus of Rome]]. Antitrinitarian [[Michael Servetus]] did not deny the pre-existence of the Christ so that he may have believed in it.<ref>{{citation |last=Odhner |first=CT |title=Michael Servetus, His Life and Teachings |url=https://archive.org/details/michaelservetush00odhn |page=77 |year=1910 |quote=It will be seen from these extracts how completely without foundation is the assertion that Servetus denied the eternal pre-existence of Christ.}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=March 2013}} (In his "Treatise Concerning the Divine Trinity" Servetus taught that the Logos (Word) was the reflection of Jesus, and "that reflection of Christ was the Word with God" that consisted of God himself, shining brightly in Heaven, "and it was God Himself"<ref name="Servetus 1553 75">{{cite book|last=Servetus|first=Michael|title=The Restoration of Christianity – An English Translation of Christianismi restitutio, 1553, Translated by Christopher A. Hoffman and Marian Hillar|year=1553|publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]]|location=[[Lewiston, New York]]|isbn=978-0-7734-5520-7|page=75}}</ref> and that "the Word was the very essence of God or the manifestation of God's essence, and there was in God no other substance or hypostasis than His Word, in a bright cloud where God then seemed to subsist. And in that very spot the face and personality of Christ shone bright."<ref name="Servetus 1553 75"/>) [[Isaac Newton]] had Arian beliefs as well.<ref>{{citation |last=Pfizenmaier |first=Thomas C. |title=Journal of the History of Ideas |issue=68 |pages=57–80 |year=1997 |contribution=Was Isaac Newton an Arian? |quote=Among contemporary scholars, the consensus is that Newton was an Arian.}}</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Wiles |first=Maurice F |title=Archetypal Heresy: Arianism Through the Centuries |page=133 |year=1996 |quote=Modern Unitarianism emerged after Newton's death.}}</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Nicholls |first=David |title=God and Government in an 'age of Reason' |page=44 |year=1995 |quote=Unitarianism ideas emerged after Newton's death.}}</ref> Famous 19th-century Arian Unitarians include [[Andrews Norton]]<ref>{{citation |title=A Statement of Reasons for Not Believing the Doctrines of Trinitarians |year=1859}}.</ref> and [[William Ellery Channing]] (in his earlier years).<ref>{{citation |title=The Works of WE Channing, DD |year=1841 |chapter=Unitarian Christianity}}.</ref>