Channing, the Reluctant Radical

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Mendelsohn, whose other books include God, Allah and JuJu and Why I Am A Unitarian Universalist, has written a spirited but deficient account of the life of the great Unitarian. William Ellery Channing was a man of many virtues but his life is not terribly absorbing apart from concern with theological issues, social and intellectual developments in antebellum New England, or the abolition movement. With the first Mendelsohn deals only superficially, Channing's Unitarianism emerging as a vague humanism, on the second some background is provided but with no Parringtonian sweep or incision, as for abolition, Channing's initial reluctance to enter the fight is recorded, along with his touching "new ardor and youthfulness" once he had pitched in. The book's style is sometimes embarrassing (e.g., "Far-out freethinkers. . . he had going for him a perception most of them lacked") and Mendelsohn occasionally sprains an analogy trying to make Channing "relevant" - opposition to the 1812 War in Boston is simply not comparable to taking an early stand against the Vietnam War. (Kirkus Reviews)