I'll try to be succinct, as there is plenty of information elsewhere that compares these two approaches. Here are some ways they are the similar:
- Both accept all religions as valid paths to the truth
- Both believe in the quest for individual spiritual truth
- Both support free thought
- Both are tolerant of all races and sexual orientations
- Both are metaphysically robust
- Both share some overlap of thinkers in the 19th century (e.g. Emerson)
Here are some ways they are different:
- Unitarians encourage no particular form of theistic belief - New Thought has a somewhat specific theistic concept
- Unitarians draw from all theological, philosophical and other sources equally - New Thought emphasizes Christianity and the New Thought tradition while accepting and drawing from other sources as well
- In particular, Religious Science draws from the Gospels, Eastern Religion, Ernest Holmes and Emerson somewhat equally while Unity tends to give a metaphysical interpretation of Christianity more emphasis
- Unitarians have a more traditional form of worship service, drawing from many traditional hymns and using lots of classical music during worship services - New Thought is more contemporary with music
- New Thought emphasizes meditation and affirmative prayer more than Unitarians
- Unitarians are more intellectual, where Unity is more emotional
- Unitarians appear to be somewhat equally represented by both genders - Unity/Religious Science appears to skew toward females
- Unitarians are more intellectually broad in their sources - New Thought writing seems to have a more specific conceptual mentality
That's just a few. I wanted to get these down while I was thinking about them. My experiences recently in some of the discussion groups at the First Unitarian Church of Dallas have been extremely intellectually stimulating and thought-provoking.
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