Unitarians

Unitarians are adherents to a noncreedal religious movement, derivative from Christianity yet in disjunction with it, denying the trinitarian character of God and open to insights from various faith traditions and intellectual positions. Although globally present, it is a minority group. It originates from 16th-century reactions to the Calvinist Reformation, stressing human free will, the goodness of humanity, and the use of individual reason. After Michael Servetus (1511–1553) attacked orthodox trinitarianism and was condemned for heresy, Faustus Socinus (1539–1604) augmented this teaching by denying Christ's divinity and preexistence. Unitarianism further developed as a modern liberal religious phenomenon with humanist sympathies, especially in continental Europe, England, and North America.

The first Unitarian church was founded in Poland in the 16th century, shortly followed by an officially recognized ...