Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religious tradition that was formed from the consolidation of two religions: Unitarianism and Universalism. In America, the Universalist Church of America was founded in 1793, and the American Unitarian Association (AUA) in 1825. In May 2025, we celebrated the 200th anniversary of the founding of the AUA.

After consolidating in 1961, these faiths became the new religion of Unitarian Universalism through the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). Both religions have long histories and have contributed important theological concepts that remain central to Unitarian Universalism.

Since 1961, Unitarian Universalism has nurtured its Unitarian and Universalist heritages to provide a strong voice for social justice and liberal religion. To learn more about the history of Unitarian Universalism, please see the pamphlet, “Unitarian Universalist Origins: Our Historic Faith.”

Famous Unitarian Universalists

Arts

Louisa May Alcott Phineas Taylor (P.T.) Barnum Bela Bartok
Ray Bradbury Robert Burns E.E. Cummings
Charles Dickens Ralph Waldo Emerson Fannie Farmer
Robert Fulghum Margaret Fuller Greta Gerwig
Nathaniel Hawthorne Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Herman Melville John Milton Gary Merrill
Beatrix Potter Carl Sandberg Rod Serling
Henry David Thoreau Kurt Vonnegut Frank Lloyd WrightChristopher Reeeve

Education

Lant Carpenter Ezra Cornell Charles W. Eliot
Thomas H. Eliot Horace Mann Mary Tyler Peabody Mann
Randy Pausch Elizabeth Peabody Leland Stanford
George D. Stoddard

Politics

Abigail Smith Adams John Adams John Quincy Adams
John C. Calhoun Benjamin Franklin Horace Greeley
Charles Hudson Thomas Jefferson James Madison
Wendell Phillips Paul Revere Elliot L. Richardson
Robert Gould Shaw Adlai Stevenson II William Howard Taft

Science

Alexander Graham Bell Tim Berners-Lee Elizabeth Blackwell
Luther Burbank Peter Cooper Charles Darwin
Karl W. Deutsch Buckminister Fuller Edmund Halley
Lewis Latimer Samuel F.B. Morse Isaac Newton
Rev. Joseph Priestley Emily Stowe  

Social Justice

Susan B. Anthony Clara Barton Olympia Brown
William Ellery Channing Rev. James Freeman Clarke Clarence Darrow
Dorothea Dix Julia Ward Howe Thomas Starr King
Josephine Shaw Lowell Theodore Parker Carlton Pearson
Albert Schweitzer Caroline Severance Henry Solly
Lucy Stone Alfred T. White Whitney Moore Young, Jr.
Frank Forrester Church IV