ABSTRACT
Revolutions had taken place in English and continental theology, but New England Calvinism had kept closely within the narrow confines of its creed, annually turning over the exhausted soil and reaping an ever scantier harvest. For two hundred years the dogmas of Calvin had lain as a heavy weight on the mind of New England. The traditional Calvinism defended itself with spirit, asserting so vehemently that it was still a living faith, that the corpse was not yet an authentic corpse, that it succeeded at least in postponing its own burial. Unitarianism, reversed the thought process of Calvinism. Unitarianism turned orthodox, and bent on erecting new dogmas, seemed to him treasonable to every liberal hope. Channing had evidently read his Political Justice to good effect, for the spirit of eighteenth-century liberalism had passed into his thought and given shape to his political philosophy.
