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The Unity School of Practical Christianity

     The Unity School of Practical Christianity emerged in the nineteenth century United States as part of the larger New Thought movement.  A diffuse tradition, New Thought took many forms and expressed a variety of metaphysical concerns.  All in this group, however, saw human beings as spiritual in nature and thought of the soul as in direct relationship with the divine mind.  Warren Felt Evans (1814-1889) most systematically integrated Christianity into this vantage by situating the "Christ Principle" as emanating from a godly "One" that was present within every person.  For proponents of New Thought, harmony with this divine power was the key to health and happiness.  The Unity School was founded at Kansas City, Missouri, by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore.  After attending a variety of New Thought lectures, they discovered the ability to foster a "healing consciousness" by drawing upon the "Jesus-power"-a force released through divine affirmations that had the ability to become physically embodied.  Calling for unity of the soul with God, unity of all life, unity of all religions, and unity of the spirit, soul, and body, the Fillmores developed a complex system that merged Christian precepts with ideas of reincarnation and spirit-communication.  Today, the movement prospers by means of established churches and a vast publishing enterprise.