What is Unity?

In the words of Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity: "Unity is a link in the great educational movement inaugurated by Jesus Christ; our objective is to discern the truth in Christianity and prove it. The truth that we teach is not new,neither do we claim special revelations or discovery of new religious principles. Our purpose is to help and teach mankind to use and prove the eternal Truth taught by the Master."

At the turn of the 20th century, Charles Fillmore had three intentions for the Unity movement. First, he wanted to make clear that Unity is a movement based on the universal Truths as they were revealed by Jesus Christ. Second, he did not want to teach that the Unity way, or the Christian way, is the only pathway to God, for he found that the universal thread of Truth could be found in all religions. Third, he wanted to ensure that Unity teachings were congruent with newly emerging scientific knowledge which was revealing not only greater understanding of the nature of the material universe but also the vast creative powers of the human mind.

Unity has always taught that there is a spiritual science, a science of mind, with its own metaphysical laws, as limiting and as liberating as the law of the physical sciences. Unity teaches that our minds are intrinsically connected to the infinitely creative Mind and power of God, and thus we have the power to create our life experiences – for ill or for good - through the activity of our thoughts. Unity’s purpose is to teach what the metaphysical laws of thought are and how to consciously and positively apply them, in our thinking and in our prayers, in order to cast off the bonds that false habits of thinking have imposed—bonds of sickness, poverty, frustration, loneliness, and pain.