William Ellery Channing Center William Ellery Channing (1780-1842) was a pivotal figure in the literary and religious life in nineteenth-century America. Variously remembered as a Unitarian minister, a foe of slavery, and an essayist, much of his influence has now waned. This center's mission is to expose this great man to a new readership by publishing his best religious work electronically (some of which is now out of print in paper) and supply links to works about Channing.
Channing's Sermons

  • Duties of Children
  • Daily Prayer
  • Extracts from a Letter on Creeds
  • Likeness to God
  • Love to Christ, first discourse
  • Love to Christ, second discourse
  • "The Baltimore Sermon," see Unitarian Christianity
  • Honor Due All Men
  • Means of Promoting Christianity
  • Moral Argument Against Calvinism (1820)
  • Self-Culture
  • Unitarian Christianity (1819)
    This was Channing's manifesto by which the "liberal" Congregationalists (the Unitarians) established themselves apart from their "orthodox" kin.

    Links to Other Channing Sermons

  • Sermon at the Ordination of John Codman (1808)
  • Preface to the 1830 Discourses
  • Slavery (1835)

    William Henry Channing's My Symphony ("To live content . . . .") is included for the convenience of our readers.

    Links to Channing Resources

    Sermons and essays about Channing, or citing his work

  • Christian Connexion and Unitarian Relations 1800-1844, by Thomas H. Olbricht, Restoration Quarterly
    Some Miscellaneous Offsite Channingana
  • The Channing Family Geneology
    The Heirs to William Ellery Channing: the Unitarians
  • Unitarian Universalist Association
  • Unitarian Universalist Historical Society
  • Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship
    Channing's Contemporaries
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Henry David Thoreau
  • Notable Women A Project in Reclaiming Our Heritage: Unitarian and Universalist Women in history
    Selected Printed Resources
  • Robinson, David, editor. William Ellery Channing: Selected Writings. Sources of American Spirituality series. New York: Paulist Press, 1985.
  • Mendelsohn, Jack. Channing: the Reluctant Radical Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1980.
    This page was revised on March 3, 2001.
    If you have corrections to mention or questions to ask, please email to Scott Wells