Vol. 8, No. 2, 1991

Unity School of Christianity (Unity)

Founders: Charles and Myrtle Fillmore

Organized: 1889 but became known by current name in 1895.

Current Membership: Official numbers are not released. According to a Unity spokesperson, the average monthly contact is approximately 6 million

Current Headquarters: Lee's Summit, Missouri

Doctrine Of God

The Trinity: "God is not a being or person having life, intelligence, love, power. God is that invisible intangible, but very real, something we call life. God is perfect love and infinite power," (Lessons In Truth, H.E. Cady, p. 5)

"The Father is Principle, the Son is that Principle revealed in creative plan, the Holy Spirit is the executive power of both Father and Son carrying out the creative plan," (Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, p. 629).

The Father: "It matters not what we call this power. A name cannot change it. Jesus called it God and `the Father,'" (The Prayer Way To Health, Wealth, and Happiness, L. Fillmore, p. 124).

"When Jesus went up into the mount to pray He was transfigured before His apostles Peter, James and John.... Jesus recognized Mind in everything and called it `Father.' ...It is not we alone; it is when we realize that we can connect ourselves with the Father-Mind...," (Atom-Smashing Power of Mind, C. Fillmore, pp. 40 & 71).

The Son: "In pure metaphysics there is but one word, the Word of God. This is the original creative Word, or thought, of Being.... It is referred to in the 1st chapter of John as the logo.... In Divine Mind the idea is referred to as the Word," (Christian Healing, C. Fillmore, p. 61).

"And yet the Nazarene was the fullest, most complete manifestation of the one Mind that ever lived; that is to say, more of the wisdom which is God came forth through Him into visibility than through any one else who has ever lived," (Lessons In Truth, H.E. Cady, p. 65).

The Holy Spirit: "The Holy Spirit is the activity of God-Mind in the consciousness of men," (Myrtle Fillmore: Mother of Unity, T.E. Witherspoon, p. 277).

"It must be a descent of the Holy (whole, entire, complete) Spirit at the center of your being into your conscious mind," (Lessons In Truth, H.E. Cady, p. 105).

"Those who look to the Holy Spirit for guidance find that its instruction is given to all who believe in Christ, and they are often drawn together by direction of the inner voice, or by dream, or by a vision," (The Twelve Powers of Man, C. Fillmore, p. 75, emphasis mine).

Doctrine Of Man

"The only begotten Son of God must come forth in you as it did in Jesus," (The Twelve Powers of Man, C. Fillmore, p. 119).

"Your Lord is not my Lord, nor is my Lord your Lord. Your Lord is the Christ within your own being. My Lord is the Christ within my soul," (Lessons In Truth, H.E. Cady, p. 117)

Doctrine Of Salvation

"What we need is to realize our oneness with the Father at all times." This is done by denying the following:

"First: There is no evil. ...Second: There is no absence of life.... Third: Pain, sickness, poverty, old age, death, cannot master me, for they are not real," (Lessons In Trutho, H.E. Cady, pp. 36-37).

"I believe that the... veriest heathen that ever lived, he who worships the golden calf as his highest conception of God, worships God," (Ibid, p. 136).

View Of The Bible

"It is not necessary that you despise the scriptures of the Jews, or the Hindus, or of any people, but you are to take them for what they are - the records of men as to what their experiences have been in communing with the omnipresent God.... From all sacred writings you can get many wonderfully helpful hints as to the work of God in the minds of men," (The Twelve Powers of Man, C. Fillmore, pp. 115-116).

Witnessing Tips

Similar to Christian Science in some aspects of their theology, people in Unity can be approached by demonstrating the reality of sickness and death.

Biblically speaking, Jesus believed and taught His disciples that His death was necessary. If death is "not real," then Jesus was either mistaken or a liar, and thus in either case His teachings should not be followed!