History of New Thought and Unity

Like Jim, growing up, I was unchurched. I realized, however that Christianity is infused deeply in every aspect of American culture. So after studying many religions and being attracted to and involved with Unity, I decided I needed to really understand Christianity. After all, Unity was (at the time) called Unity School of Christianity. So there must be something important there, right?

I studied the historical Jesus, studied the history of Christianity and the church fathers, read a lot of books, took a couple of classes at Unity village, read comparative religion studies, etc, for a few years to try to see if I could "get to the bottom" of understanding Christianity, or at least somehow incorporate it into my spirituality, authentically.

In the end, non-Unity Christians appear to require your answer to the following: 1) Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins? 2) Do you "believe in Jesus" so you can be "saved from your sins"? 3) And do you believe that Jesus was God?

From my Unity practices and studies, the answer to questions one and two are "No." The answer to question 3 is that Jesus was a great and influential spiritual teacher and example, but Jesus was not "God" any more than you and I are, or at least that we have the potential to be.

The more I thought about it and studied various ancient cultures and religions over 10,000 years, as well as the evolution of the human species over hundreds of thousands of years, the less I could accept that a spiritual leader and man that lived 2,000 years ago in a specific culture, time and place, could possibly be worshiped as "God," or worse, as "the only God."

So I lost interest in Christianity. And I am still studying all of those other cultures, religions, and the development and evolution of human beings. While I continue prayer, meditation, love, and service to others as my spiritual practices. Which is my simple version of the Unity way.