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Unity's Five Basic Principles 

 

1.    God is absolute good, everywhere present.

2.    As human beings, we have a spark of divinity within us, the Christ spirit within. Our very essence is of God, and therefore we are also inherently good.

3.    Thought has formative power. We can create our own experiences because everything in the manifest realm has its beginning in thought.

4.    Prayer is creative thinking that changes us - our consciousness - so that we can recall the truth of God's presence and power in all situations.

5.    Knowing and understanding the laws of life, also called Truth, is not enough. We must also live the truth that we know.

"Unity is a link in the great educational movement inaugurated by Jesus Christ; our objective is to discern the truth in Christianity and prove it. The truth that we teach is not new, neither do we claim special revelations or discovery of new religious principles. Our purpose is to help and teach (hu)mankind to use and prove the eternal Truth taught by the Master."

                                                —Charles Fillmore, Co-founder of Unity

Unity was founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore toward the end of the nineteenth century in Kansas City, Missouri, as an expression of a larger spiritual movement called "New Thought." The New Thought movement also gave rise to such enduring institutions as Religious Science, Divine Science, and Science of Mind (none of which is historically or organizationally connected to Scientology), and with these sister organizations Unity continues to have great affinities. All of these groups were heavily influenced early on by American Transcendentalism, European Romanticism and Idealism, and Eastern religions and philosophies.

Unity, along with all of the other New Thought groups, chose to focus upon the life, teachings, and example of Jesus as a great spiritual Master rather than upon his atoning death, as more traditional Christian bodies had done. In those teachings, the New Thought movement found profound expressions of what has since been termed "The Perennial Philosophy" or "The Perennial Religion." Those two phrases refer to that basic and eternal spiritual Truth that lies at the heart of all of the great world's religions, namely, that - in the words of Jesus - "The Kingdom/Realm of God is within you." Unity developed its basic teachings around that fundamental Truth, and sought to draw practical implications - about health, peace of mind, love, and prosperity - for everyday life.

Originally not a separate Christian denomination but rather a "School of Practical Christianity" taught in study groups, Unity now has churches and centers across the United States and throughout the world.  It still claims to be "non-denominational," however, in the sense that it does not insist on exclusive allegiance or membership from its followers, but allows them to maintain other religious affiliations, as long as those remain meaningful and beneficial to them. Unity's largest branch, established and maintained by the Fillmores and their followers and descendants, has its headquarters at Unity Village, Missouri (in the metropolitan Kansas City area). Its three main foci are the Silent Unity prayer ministry, its publishing house (which produces, among other things, the Daily Word and Unity Magazine), and the Unity School of Religious Studies, which trains Unity ministers and licensed teachers. There is a second, newer institutional expression of Unity: the Unity-Progressive Council and its Emma Curtis Hopkins College and Theological Seminary, both of which are based in Clearwater, Florida.


(Copyright 1997 by Paul A. Laughlin, all rights reserved)

(This article [Unity in a Nutshell] may be used without further permission by any non-profit organization for informational or educational purposes, providing that [1] no charges are exacted and [2] full credit for authorship is given to the copyright holder.)