Charles Fillmore (Unity Church)

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Charles Fillmore (August 22, 1854 – July 5, 1948), born in St. Cloud, Minnesota, founded Unity with his wife, Myrtle Page Fillmore, in 1889. He became known as an American mystic for his contributions to metaphysical interpretations of Biblical scripture.

At the age of ten, an ice skating accident dislocated his hip and left him with a withered leg - this event had a profound effect on his later life. As a printer's apprentice, he studied Shakespeare, Tennyson, Emerson and Lowell. He later worked as a mule-team driver and assayer before going into real estate. After marrying his wife, Myrtle and the births of their first two sons, he moved to Kansas City, Missouri. In 1886, Charles and Myrtle attended New Thought classes held by Dr. E.B. Weeks. These classes were influential because they proved useful in helping Myrtle with healing her tuberculosis.

When Charles saw the effect that Myrtle's tuberculosis was healed -- which she attributed to her prayer -- he began to deal with God via her philosophy and his own terminology, and he began to heal from his childhood accident. Charles studied philosophy and religion and soon had a vision of his work in Kansas City.

In 1889, Charles left his business to focus entirely on a prayer group that would later be called 'Silent Unity'. It was named this because of a legal conflict with Mary Baker Eddy over the use of the title Christian Science. That same year he began publication of a new periodical, 'Modern Thought', notable among other things as the first house to accept for publication the writings of the then 27-year-old New Thought pioneer William Walker Atkinson.

In 1891, Fillmore's 'Unity' magazine was first published. Dr. H. Emilie Cady published 'Lessons in Truth' in the new magazine. This material later were compiled and published in a book by the same name, which is a seminal work of the Unity movement.

Although Charles had no intention of making Unity into a denomination, his students wanted a more organized group. He and his wife were among the first ordained Unity ministers in 1906. Charles and Myrtle Fillmore operated the Unity organization from a campus near downtown Kansas City. The Unity Inn (Opened in 1905) was a popular feature; it was a cafeteria that was open to the public. The Unity Inn was a vegetarian eatery in accordance with the dietary habits of the Fillmores themselves.

In addition to the Unity magazine, Unity also produced a weekly magazine (run by son Lowell Fillmore), a children's magazine ('Wee Wisdom' - discontinued in 1991), and a business magazine - and ran a radio station (WOQ). Unity's best-known publication made its debut in 1924 - 'Daily Word' -- which features daily devotionals.

In 1928, Charles Fillmore made plans for moving to a farm adjacent to nearby Lee's Summit. Unity Farm would be the name of the new center. He also made plans to build a new church at Country Club Plaza - the nation's first suburban shopping center. The iconic Silent Unity tower and complex were completed in 1929 but development slowed during the Great Depression.

Myrtle Fillmore died in 1931. Charles remarried in 1933 to Cora G. Dedrick; she was a collaborator on his writings in his later years. Fillmore trained many disciples, including the Unity teacher Rev. Dr. Alice Cronley.

Fillmore had one of the earliest radio shows in Kansas City.

Charles Fillmore died in 1948, but the Unity School and Association of Unity Churches (founded as the Unity Ministers Association in 1934) continued after his death and grew into a worldwide movement.

Contents

[edit] Tenets and philosophical excerpts

Fillmore saw a fundamental flaw in the singular worship of the man Jesus as God. He divided Jesus into four aspects:

  • "Jesus", the man who lived 2,000 years ago and was a great healer and teacher
  • "Christ", the divine idea of God manifested individually in all people
  • "Jesus the Christ" or "Jesus Christ", the fully-embraced oneness with God that Jesus demonstrated
  • "Christ Jesus", the current state of the physical man that was Jesus after the Ascension. Fillmore believed that the atoms of His body dispersed across the world and elevated the consciousness of all to another level.

Fillmore disagreed with the Christian orthodoxy that the multiple references to "I Am" in the Gospel of John referred to Jesus himself, but rather to "YHWH", which literally means "I Am" in all its conjugations, which most Bibles substitute with "LORD" after the first reference to "I Am" in Exodus 3:13. The term "Lord" has begun to fall out of favor in the Unity movement for this reason, given the word's connotations of oppression.

Jesus referred to himself as "Son of God," but in doing so, he invoked the 82nd Psalm, and never applied it exclusively to himself.

Fillmore's "Statement of Faith" pamphlet included beliefs in the equality of women, that the eating of meat was directly related to a mentality that allows for warfare, and belief in reincarnation. Although this is published by Unity, it is intended to represent Fillmore's personal beliefs, and not Unity's teachings, which do not address these beliefs and leave them up to an individual.

In his later years, Fillmore felt so young that he thought that he might be physically immortal, as well as believing that he might be the reincarnation of Paul of Tarsus.[1]

[edit] Books

Fillmore believed that his knowledge should be free to all, thus he never sought copyright on any of his books, and Unity House has been able to offer them in hardcover at trade paperback prices.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Charles S. Braden. Spirits in Rebellion: The Rise and Development of New Thought, p. 260.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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