George Huntston Williams (April 7, 1914, in Huntsburg – October 6, 2000) was an American professor of Unitarian theology and historian of the

Socinian Socinianism () is a nontrinitarian belief system deemed heretical by the Catholic Church and other Christian traditions. Named after the Italian theologians Lelio Sozzini (Latin: Laelius Socinus) and Fausto Sozzini (Latin: Faustus Socinus), uncle ...

movement. Williams' father was a Unitarian minister in Ohio. Williams studied at St. Lawrence University (graduated 1936), and

Meadville Theological School The Meadville Lombard Theological School is a Unitarian Universalist seminary in Chicago, Illinois. History Meadville Lombard is a result of a merger in the 1930s between two institutions, a Unitarian seminary and a Universalist seminary. M ...

(graduated 1939). After studies in Paris and Strasbourg he became assistant minister of a Unitarian church in

Rockford, Illinois Rockford is a city in Winnebago County, Illinois, located in the far northern part of the state. Situated on the banks of the Rock River, Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County (a small portion of the city is located in Ogle County). ...

, where he married. From 1941 he taught church history at the Unitarian-affiliated

Starr King School for the Ministry Starr King School for the Ministry is a Unitarian Universalist seminary in Oakland, California. The seminary was formed in 1904 to educate leaders for the growing number of progressive religious communities in the western part of the US. The scho ...

in Berkeley, CA, and at the nearby

Pacific School of Religion The Pacific School of Religion (PSR) is a private Protestant seminary in Berkeley, California. It maintains covenantal relationships with the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, and the Disciples of Christ, ensuring the schoo ...

, while studying for his

Th.D. Doctor of Theology ( la, Doctor Theologiae, abbreviated DTh, ThD, DTheol, or Dr. theol.) is a terminal degree in the academic discipline of theology. The ThD, like the ecclesiastical Doctor of Sacred Theology, is an advanced research degree equiva ...

completed at

Union Theological Seminary, New York Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''U ...

(1946). From 1947 he taught at

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...

, being appointed

Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History The Winn Professorship of Ecclesiastical History is an endowed chair at Harvard Divinity School. It was established in 1877 by a bequest from Jonathan Bowers Winn (1811-1873), a public-minded and prosperous business man in Woburn, Massachusetts. ...

from 1956 to 1963. In 1981 he was appointed to the

Hollis Chair of Divinity The Hollis Chair of Divinity is an endowed chair at Harvard Divinity School. It was established in 1721 by Thomas Hollis, a wealthy English merchant and benefactor of the university, at a salary of £80 per year. It is the oldest endowed chair in t ...

. He was among the original Editorial Advisors of the scholarly journal ''

Dionysius The name Dionysius (; el, Διονύσιος ''Dionysios'', "of Dionysus"; la, Dionysius) was common in classical and post-classical times. Etymologically it is a nominalized adjective formed with a -ios suffix from the stem Dionys- of the name ...

''. As an

anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...

activist, he became the first chairman of the board of

Americans United for Life Americans United for Life (AUL) is an American anti-abortion law firm and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1971, the group opposes abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, embryonic stem cell research, and certain contraceptiv ...

.Carol Mason
''Killing for Life: The Apocalyptic Narrative of Pro-Life Politics''
Cornell University Press, Ithaca 2002, , page 140.

Works

* ''Spiritual and Anabaptist Writers: Documents Illustrative of the Radical Reformation,'' 1957 * ''The Polish Brethren : Documentation of the History and Thought of Unitarianism in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and in the Diaspora 1601-1685'', Scholars Press, 1980, . * ''The Radical Reformation'', 1962 . * ''Unterschiede zwischen dem polnischen und dem siebenbürgisch-ungarischen Unitarismus und ihre Ursachen,'' in: Wolfgang Deppert/Werner Erdt/Aart de Groot (Hrsg.): ''Der Einfluß der Unitarier auf die europäisch-amerikanische Geistesgeschichte'', Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main/Bern/New York/Paris 1990, ISSN 0930-4118, , S. 33-57. * Article ''The Attitude of Liberals in New England toward Non-Christian Religions, 1784–1885,'' Crane Review 9.

References

External links

A collection of papers
on anti-abortion organizations in the United States and abortion issues by George Huntston Williams is in the Harvard Divinity School Library at

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

. 1914 births 2000 deaths 20th-century American historians American anti-abortion activists American historians of religion American male non-fiction writers American religious writers American Unitarian Universalists Harvard Divinity School faculty Historians from New York (state) Presidents of the American Society of Church History Reformation historians St. Lawrence University alumni Union Theological Seminary (New York City) alumni Unitarian Universalist clergy United Church of Christ ministers 20th-century American male writers {{US-historian-stub