Elizabeth Gaskell
During Elizabeth's lifetime British Unitarianism developed and changed considerably.
The law declaring denial of the trinity illegal was repealed in 1813, and by 1850 many of the old Presbyterian,
General Baptist and other rational dissenting congregations declared themselves to be Unitarian.
The Dissenters’ Chapels Act of 1844 ensured that congregations which had been Unitarian for over 25 years could keep their
buildings and trust funds. Some Unitarians followed James Martineau and others to develop a faith where authority is based on internal
conscience rather than scripture, and with two colleges, at least two publications, and various national bodies,
the movement was in danger of splitting. Elizabeth had been brought up in an undogmatic Presbyterian style,
tutored by William Turner of Newcastle, and much influenced by the theology of Joseph Priestley.
John Gooch Robberds, the senior minister at Cross Street Chapel, considered that too much emphasis on doctrine tended to divide
congregations, and he had an irenic style of ministry.
Elizabeth declared that she had little interest in theology, though clearly she was more knowledgeable than she admitted. Her works of fiction do not include any mention of Unitarianism by name, though its values permeate both her life and her writing. She kept out of denominational controversies, but her letters indicate that she favoured the more traditional Unitarianism of Priestley rather than the 'anti- supernaturalism' of Martineau; she did not enjoy the company of the Martineau family, finding their conversation too solemn and full of 'sense by the yard'. Elizabeth much preferred the company of the 'old school' Unitarians.
She declared herself to be an Arian with regard to the person of Jesus. (Her remark that she was not a humanitarian meant that she did not regard Jesus as only human, and should not be taken out of context to refer to her attitude to the whole human race.) In common with many other Unitarian women of her day, she preferred sermons to be spiritually uplifting rather than about doctrine, and wrote to a friend 'oh, for some really spiritual devotional preaching instead of controversy about doctrines, - about which I am more and more certain we can never be certain in this world.'
When away from home she, with her daughters, often attended the local Anglican church (as she had done at boarding school). On these occasions she wrestled with the competing demands of spiritual satisfaction and reverence for truth, and advised her daughters not to go to the Anglican service too often. It would be wrong, she told them, to deaden one’s 'sense of its serous error by hearing it too often'; they should go preferably to the evening service, when only the Doxology could offend against 'one’s sense of truth'. This stress on the importance of truth in the everyday events of daily life as well as in theological questions is an important element of Elizabeth’s Unitarianism. Her refusal to oversimplify matters sometimes made her appear inconsistent or indecisive, but this would be to do her an injustice. She considered that she had to study and seek to understand before she could reach an opinion. This went with a typically Unitarian valuing of education and intellectual growth. Her trust in a benevolent God showed itself in many ways; she wrote in a letter of her sense of God 'being above all in His great sense of peace and wisdom, yet loving me with an individual love tenderer than any mother’s.' She took care to introduce this loving image of God to her children at an early age, and not, as did many Victorian parents, talk of a God who punishes sins. Elizabeth did indeed think that evil deeds brought about consequences, and in this she followed the associationist teaching of Joseph Priestley; but she had a very strong sense of the importance of conscience and duty.
