Unitarian Universalist Theological Identity

Adapted from Engaging Our Theological Diversity,

A Report from the Commission on Appraisal of the

Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

Do all diverse Unitarian Universalists stand upon any shared theological ground? Respecting the identity of individual perspective we offer the following statements of who Unitarian Universalists are theologically.

1. We are a grounded faith. We are a faith with roots, however lightly held that go back two thousand years and more.

2. We are an ecological faith. In the West, the vision of interconnectedness has had an uphill struggle to displace a more hierarchical vision of the nature of the cosmos. We have placed the interdependent web squarely at the center of our shared worldview.

3. We are a profoundly human faith. We see our charge as loving our neighbor – our primary focus for religious action is the well-being of this world.

4. We are a responsible faith. At our best, we are able to respond to our deep sense of interconnectedness with both the natural and human worlds. We understand that humanity must take its responsibility for the state of the world seriously.

5. We are an experiential faith. We are focused more on experience – both our own and that of trusted others, past and present than on beliefs.

6. We are a free faith. We are free both as individuals and congregations. We are a faith of heretics, from the Greek word meaning to choose.

7. We are an imaginative faith. We engage with image and story, making a place where creativity can flourish.

8. We are a relational faith. While we support the individual journey, we ground it in caring community.

9. We are a convenantal faith. We are held together by our chosen commitment to each other rather than by creed, ecclesiastical authority or revealed truth.

10. We are a curious faith. We acknowledge that our perspective is limited; that we could be wrong; that we live in the midst of uncertainties, yet we are ever open to new insights.

11. We are a reasonable faith. We encourage the practice of disciplined inquiry toward personal and societal assumptions. We challenge idolatries, especially our own.

12. We are a hopeful faith. We are a faith of possibilities, aspiring to be a transformative faith – a justice-seeking faith creating a space for the ‘Beloved Community.”