Movement during the late 19th and early 20th
centuries designed to further the moral or
ethical factor as the real substance and
fundamental part of religion. In the USA
Felix Adler founded an Ethical Society in New
York in 1876, while in 1888 the first English
Ethical Society was founded by Dr Stanton
Coit. It originated in the New York Society
for Ethical Culture founded by Felix Adler in
1876. Mainly Jewish at first, it soon
attracted adherents of Christian and
skeptical backgrounds. It spread to England,
Germany, and other countries by the turn of
the century. In 1952 the International
Humanist and Ethical Union was formed, with
headquarters in Utrecht, Netherlands.