Channing was known for his articulate and impassioned sermons and public speeches, and as a prominent thinker in the liberal theology of the day.

He was a grandson of William Ellery (1727–1820), a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, Deputy Governor of Rhode Island, Chief Justice, and influential citizen.

[3]Graduating first in his class in 1798, he was elected commencement speaker though he was prohibited by the Harvard College faculty from mentioning the Revolution and other political subjects in his address.

We are told to love and imitate God, but also that God does things we would consider most cruel in any human parent, "were he to bring his children into life totally depraved and then to pursue them with endless punishment"Channing's inner struggle continued through two years during which he lived in Richmond, Virginia, working as a tutor for David Meade Randolph.

[7] Notwithstanding his moderate position, Channing later became the primary spokesman and interpreter of Unitarianism, after sixteen years at Boston's Federal Street Church.

(The anniversary of the address is celebrated and observed annually by the Maryland churches of the Unitarian Universalist Association and its Joseph Priestley District as "Union Sunday", with occasional ecumenical guests from other Christian bodies.)

The idea of the human potential to be like God, which Channing advocated as grounded firmly in scripture, was seen as heretical by the Calvinist religious establishment of his day.

American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia classes him as one of several figures who "took a more pantheist or pandeist approach by rejecting views of God as separate from the world.

This middle position characterized his attitude about most questions although his eloquence and strong influence on the religious world incurred the enmity of many extremists.

In 1837, Channing published a pamphlet, in the form of an open letter to Senator Henry Clay, opposing the annexation of Texas, arguing that the revolution there was "criminal.