Emerson's Divinity School Address: Conditions and Reactions Brad Hursh
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The Trinity for Unitarians 1
The Trinity for Unitarians - An Overview in 4 Parts by Rev. Tony Lorenzen pg. 1 The Trinity for Unitarians 1 – Overview and Method Method “You might say that Unitarianism has become dogmatic for us — the Trinity being something that a "good" UU simply cannot believe in because we are, by default, anti-Trinitarians. I'd suggest instead that UUs celebrate theological liberalism as a method rather than as a set of theological conclusions.” – Chris Walton, Editor UU World (in his blog “Philocrities”). “Christian Faith is the response to Jesus” not “getting back to the religion of Jesus.” The Trinity is part of that response as Jesus communities answer the question “How is God with us?” “When God is too close or too removed, humans take his place." Biblical Studies – historical critical method and the use of reason become the hallmark of anti-trinitarian theological method, yet many if not most of the Unitarian, Universalist and other “heretics” we encounter will use an “uncritical” approach to scripture in their justification for theological positions, even using “proof-texting” or citing scripture texts th uncritically to support their views, well into the 19 century. “Some of us UUs these days are just finding the Trinity a helpful metaphor and a window to God, however smudged.” – Rev. Tony Lorenzen Heresy/Hertics Heresy comes from a greek work meaning “to choose.” A heretic is someone who has not given up the right to choose what to think or what to believe. Heresy is measured in juxtaposition to orthodoxy or “right” thinking. Arianism - from Arius (256-336) north African priest (leader). -
Bible Matters: the Scriptural Origins of American Unitarianism
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Vanderbilt Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive BIBLE MATTERS: THE SCRIPTURAL ORIGINS OF AMERICAN UNITARIANISM By LYDIA WILLSKY Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In Religion May, 2013 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Professor James P. Byrd Professor James Hudnut-Beumler Professor Kathleen Flake Professor Paul Lim Professor Paul Conkin TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………3 CHAPTER 1: WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING AND THE PASTORAL ROOTS OF UNITARIAN BIBLICISM………………………………………………………………………………..29 CHAPTER 2: WHAT’S “GOSPEL” IN THE BIBLE? ANDREWS NORTON AND THE LANGUAGE OF BIBLICAL TRUTH………………………………………...................................................77 CHAPTER 3: A PRACTICAL SPIRIT: FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE, THE BIBLE AND THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH…………………………………………………………………...124 CHAPTER 4: THE OPENING OF THE CANON: THEODORE PARKER AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF BIBLICAL AUTHORITY…………………………………………..168 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………...........................205 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………213 INTRODUCTION The New England Unitarians were a biblical people. They were not biblical in the way of their Puritan ancestors, who emulated the early apostolic Church and treated the Bible as a model for right living. They were a biblical people in the way almost every Protestant denomination of the nineteenth century -
A Higher Sphere of Thought”
“A HIGHER SPHERE OF THOUGHT”: EMERSON’S USE OF THE EXEMPLUM AND EXEMPLUM FIDEI By CHARLA DAWN MAJOR Master of Arts Oklahoma State University Stillwater, Oklahoma 1995 Bachelor of Arts The University of Texas at Dallas Richardson, Texas 1990 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December, 2005 “A HIGHER SPHERE OF THOUGHT”: EMERSON’S USE OF THE EXEMPLUM AND EXEMPLUM FIDEI Dissertation Approved: _______________Jeffrey Walker________________ Dissertation Adviser _____________William M. Decker_______________ _______________Edward Jones________________ ________________L. G. Moses_________________ ______________A. Gordon Emslie_______________ Dean of the Graduate College ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my sincere appreciation to my advisor, Dr. Jeffrey Walker, for his guidance, support, and friendship, not only during the considerable duration of this work but throughout the entire course of my graduate studies here at Oklahoma State University. No one could ask for a better teacher, advisor, mentor, and friend, and I have gained immeasurably from this long association. I consider myself extremely fortunate and blessed. My gratitude extends to my committee members. Dr. William Decker has been a continual source of guidance and resources and has consistently perpetuated my interest in both this subject and literary period. Dr. Edward Jones, who has been there from the very beginning, has been a great source of guidance, assistance, encouragement, and friendship and has demonstrated a welcome propensity for being available to me at critical points in my education. And Dr. L. G. Moses, my most recent acquaintance, has offered a unique intelligence and wit that made this dissertation a truly enjoyable learning experience. -
Emerson's Hidden Influence: What Can Spinoza Tell the Boy?
Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Philosophy Honors Theses Department of Philosophy 6-15-2007 Emerson's Hidden Influence: What Can Spinoza Tell the Boy? Adam Adler Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/philosophy_hontheses Recommended Citation Adler, Adam, "Emerson's Hidden Influence: What Can Spinoza Tell the Boy?." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2007. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/philosophy_hontheses/2 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Philosophy at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EMERSON’S HIDDEN INFLUENCE: WHAT CAN SPINOZA TELL THE BOY? by ADAM ADLER Under the Direction of Reiner Smolinski and Melissa Merritt ABSTRACT Scholarship on Emerson to date has not considered Spinoza’s influence upon his thought. Indeed, from his lifetime until the twentieth century, Emerson’s friends and disciples engaged in a concerted cover-up because of Spinoza’s hated name. However, Emerson mentioned his respect and admiration of Spinoza in his journals, letters, lectures, and essays, and Emerson’s thought clearly shows an importation of ideas central to Spinoza’s system of metaphysics, ethics, and biblical hermeneutics. In this essay, I undertake a biographical and philosophical study in order to show the extent of Spinoza’s influence on Emerson and -
Reconciling Christian and Transcendentalist Philosophies in the Poetry of Jones Very Kirsten Ridlen Bridgewater State University
Undergraduate Review Volume 11 Article 19 2015 Divining Very: Reconciling Christian and Transcendentalist Philosophies in the Poetry of Jones Very Kirsten Ridlen Bridgewater State University Follow this and additional works at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/undergrad_rev Part of the Literature in English, North America Commons Recommended Citation Ridlen, Kirsten (2015). Divining Very: Reconciling Christian and Transcendentalist Philosophies in the Poetry of Jones Very. Undergraduate Review, 11, 108-113. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/undergrad_rev/vol11/iss1/19 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Copyright © 2015 Kirsten Ridlen "Christianity," as Emerson writes, "became a Mythos as [did] Divining Very: the poetic teaching of Greece and of Egypt, before" (Emerson 235). Of this subjugation of the individual to a singular deity, Reconciling Christian Emerson says, and Transcendentalist Once man was all; now he is an appendage, a nuisance. Philosophies in the Poetry And because the indwelling Supreme Spirit cannot wholly be got rid of, the doctrine of it suffers this of Jones Very perversion, that the divine nature is attributed to one or two persons, and denied to all the rest, and denied with fury. The doctrine of inspiration is lost; the base KIRSTEN RIDLEN doctrine of the majority of voices usurps the place of the doctrine of the soul. Miracles, prophecy, poetry, n July 15, 1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson gave his the ideal of life, the holy life, exist as ancient history address to the graduating class of Harvard's Divinity merely; they are not in the belief, nor in the aspiration School. -
Emerson's Passion for Indian Thought
International Journal of Literature and Arts 2013; 1(1): 1-6 Published online June 10, 2013 (http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ijla) doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20130101.11 Emerson’s passion for Indian thought Sardar M. Anwaruddin Department of English, North South University, Bangladesh Email address: [email protected] To cite this article: Sardar M. Anwaruddin. Emerson’s Passion for Indian Thought. International Journal of Literature and Arts. Vol. 1, No. 1, 2013, pp. 1-6. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20130101.11 Abstract: The first group of American thinkers who seriously examined non-Western spiritual traditions such as Hinduism and Buddhism was the Transcendentalists. The prominent members of this group included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Bronson Alcott, and Elizabeth Peabody. In general, the Transcendentalists argued for a non-dogmatic and more universalistic perspective of life and the world. As the intellectual guru of this group, Emerson “represent[ed] the best in the spiritual explorer” (Moore 74). Unlike most of his predecessors and contemporaries, he was sensitive to and passionate about non-Western spiritual traditions and philosophies. Today, the sources of Emerson’s knowledge and inspiration are of particular interest to the critics and researchers of comparative literature. In this article, I explore Emerson’s passion for Indian thought with specific reference to Brahma, the Bhagavad Gita , and the laws of karma . Keywords: Emerson, Indian thought, Brahma, Gita , Karma a period between 1830 and 1860. One of the beginning 1. Introduction marks of this movement was the Transcendental Club meeting held at George Ripley’s home in Boston in the fall Ralph Waldo Emerson was America’s poet-prophet. -
The American Transcendentalists
THE AMERICAN TRANSCENDENTALISTS ESSENTIAL WRITINGS Edited and with an Introduction by Lawrence Buell THE MODERN LIBRARY NEW YORK CONTENTS INTRODUCTION xi A NOTE ON THE TEXTS xxix I. ANTICIPATIONS 1.. MARY MOODY EMERSON, Letters to a Future Transcendentalist (1817-51) 3 2. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, Reason Versus Understanding (1825,1829) 9 3. WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING, Humanity's Likeness to God (1828) 11 4. THOMAS CARLYLE, The Age of Machinery (1829) 16 5. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, A Young Minister Refuses to Perform a Crucial Duty (1832) 20 6. FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE, The Significance of Kantian Philosophy (1834) 23 7. GEORGE RIPLEY, Victor Cousin and the Future of American Philosophy (1838) 25 II. MANIFESTOS AND DEFINITIONS 1. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Nature(\836) 31 vi • Contents Contents • vii 2. AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT, from The Doctrine and Discipline of Human 2. Ralph Waldo Emerson Declines George Ripley's Invitation to Join Culture(1836) 68 Brook Farm (1840) 201 3. ORESTES BROWNSON, The Reconciliation of God, Humanity, State, 3. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, "Self-Reliance" (1841) 208 and Church (1836) 76 4. ELIZABETH PALMER PEABODY, from "Plan of the West Roxbury 4. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, "The American Scholar" (1837) 82 Community" (1842) 232 5. CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH, from "Transcendentalism" (1839) 100 5. GEORGE RIPLEY et al, Brook Farm's (First Published) Constitution (1844) 235 6. GEORGE RIPLEY, Letter of Intent to Resign (1840) 103 6. THEODORE PARKER, from "A Sermon of Merchants" (1846) 244 7. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, "The Transcendentalist" (1841) 107 7. MARGARET FULLER, On the Italian Revolution (1847-50) 251 8. CHARLES DICKENS, On Boston Transcendentalism (1842) 123 8. -
Community College Humanities Association, Transcendentalism
Narrative Section of a Successful Application The attached document contains the grant narrative and selected portions of a previously funded grant application. It is not intended to serve as a model, but to give you a sense of how a successful application may be crafted. Every successful application is different, and each applicant is urged to prepare a proposal that reflects its unique project and aspirations. Prospective applicants should consult the Summer Seminars and Institutes application guidelines at http://www.neh.gov/grants/education/summer-seminars-and-institutes for instructions. Applicants are also strongly encouraged to consult with the NEH Division of Education Programs staff well before a grant deadline. Note: The attachment only contains the grant narrative and selected portions, not the entire funded application. In addition, certain portions may have been redacted to protect the privacy interests of an individual and/or to protect confidential commercial and financial information and/or to protect copyrighted materials. The page limit for the narrative description is now fifteen double-spaced pages. Project Title: Transcendentalism and Reform in the Age of Emerson, Thoreau, and Fuller Institution: Community College Humanities Association Project Director: Sandra Petrulionis Grant Program: Summer Seminars and Institutes 400 7th Street, SW, Washington, D.C. 20024 P 202.606.8500 F 202.606.8394 E [email protected] www.neh.gov NEH SUMMER INSTITUTE FOR COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY TEACHERS “Transcendentalism and Reform in the -
By Ralph Waldo Emerson
Divinity School Address by Ralph Waldo Emerson Mark Hicks/H603 Modern Church History/Spring 2021 Source: https://www.truthunity.net/people/ralph-waldo-emerson/divinity-school-address 1 American Revolution: throwing off of aristocratic authority. Unitarianism: throwing off of ecclesiastical authority Romanticism: throwing off the domination of rationalism 2 Transcendentalism: 1. Rooted in New England Unitarianism 2. Grounded in American belief in progress 3. Imported German Transcendentalism 4. Drew from English Romantic Poets 5. Combined Rationalism and Romanticism 6. Completed American Intellectual Independence 3 Transcendentalism: a philosophy based on the idea that 1. divinity pervades all nature and humanity, 2. asserting the existence of an ideal spiritual reality 3. that transcends the empirical and scientific, and 4. is knowable through intuition. Source: Beer mug purchased at Walden Pond Gift Shop 4 Sources of Authority: Tradition (catholicism) Scripture (reformation) Reason (enlightenment) Experience 5 Ralph Waldo Emerson 1. Poor, but son and grandson of Unitarian elite 2. Left ministry, traveled Europe, settled in Concord 3. Published Nature 1836 4. Phi Beta Kappa address 1837 5. Divinity School Address 1838 6. Leader of Transcendentalism Club 7. Benefactor/Mentor to Fuller/Thoreau 8. Inspiration for later metaphysical movements 6 Divinity School Address 1. Cosmology 2. Ethics/Compensation 3. Authority 4. Jesus 5. The Soul 6. Self Reliance 7 1. Cosmology In this refulgent summer, it has been a luxury to draw the breath of life. The grass grows, the buds burst, the meadow is spotted with fire and gold in the tint of flowers. The air is full of birds, and sweet with the breath of the pine, the balm- of-Gilead, and the new hay. -
AUGUST, 2014 MESSAGE by Patricia Adams
AUGUST, 2014 MESSAGE by Patricia Adams I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO ONE OF THE GREAT TEACHER’S/ AUDIO TAPES YOU CAN BUY NOW, ON TRANCENDENTALISM AND THOUGHT I WOULD TALK A BIT ABOUT THOREAU, EMERSON AND THEIR THEOLOGICAL VIEWS. AS I THOUGHT ABOUT THIS, I REALIZED THESE THOUGHTS OF MINE SEEMED VERY FAMILIAR – AND WHEN I LOOKED BACK AT MY TALK LAST SUMMER, ‘‘THE DIVINE IN NATURE’, I SAW IT WAS A TALK ON NATURE AND TRANSCENDENTALIST PHILOSOPHY. THEN I LOOKED AT MY OTHER TALKS – AND IT OCCURRED TO ME THAT I TEND TO TALK ABOUT THE SAME THING. IT MADE ME THINK OF THE MINISTERS –WHO TRY TO COME UP WITH SOME NEW THOUGHTS EVERY SINGLE WEEK. IT ALSO MAKES ME APPRECIATE MARY EVEN MORE -= AND WE ALL DO APPRECIATE HER – AS SHE MUST GIVE AROUND 8 MESSAGES EVERY SUMMER. WHILE ALL THIS WAS CIRCLING AROUND IN MY HEAD, I DECIDED TO READ THE OTHER MESSAGES FROM THIS SUMMER, WHICH AS I ASSUME YOU ALL KNOW, ARE POSTED ON THE FOBC WEBSITE. MANY THANKS TO GINNY LAWRENCE FOR DOING SUCH A GREAT JOB WITH THE WEBSITE. WE ACTUALLY TALK ABOUT MANY OF THE SAME THINGS – GRACE, FAITH, INTERPRETATIONS OF GOD AND THE DIVINE, HOW ONE CAN EXPLAIN MIRACLES. OUR CHURCH COMMUNITY IS AN ON-GOING ‘DISCUSSION GROUP’ OR PHILOSOPHICAL SALON, IF YOU WILL. ALTHOUGH OUR SPEAKERS TALKED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS, I JUST WANTED TO HIGHLIGHT SOME OF THE TOPICS. BOB TALKED ABOUT ‘SEEING GOD IN THE WORLD’ AND NOTED THAT PEOPLE OF FAITH IN GOD SEE THE WORLD AS ONE IN WHICH GOD ACTS. -
Doing Theology at a New Divinity School
"Not Instruction, but Provocation": Doing Theology at a New Divinity School Bill J. Leonard, Dean Wake Forest University Divinity School Inaugural Convocation Address Wait Chapel Oct. 12, 1999 It began in controversy. Andover Theological Seminary, the first official theological school in the United States, was founded in 1808 primarily because, as they said, "Harvard went Unitarian." Theological studies began much earlier with undergraduates at Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Brown who, once graduated, then "read theology" with a pastor /mentor in a specific congregation. But Andover was the first of its kind, "the West Point of Orthodoxy," historian Sydney Ahlstrom called it, boasting an "aggressive" faculty, an "enthusiastic" student body and an evangelical influence that spread like wildfire. If the Unitarians had believed in hell, Andover would have scared it out of them. Anyway, orthodox Andover gained so much ecclesiastical clout that the more liberal folk at Harvard responded by founding a Divinity School in 1811. Yale followed in 1822 and the rest is history.- From the first, theological seminaries and divinity schools in this country were born of controversy and debate, mirroring the needs and the turmoil of the churches. Harvard Divinity School was itself a seedbed of debate. In 1838 Ralph Waldo Emerson, part Plato, part Icabod Crane, attacked the "corpse cold rationalism" of conservative and liberal alike in his infamous Divinity School address, declaring, as any good Transcendentalist would, that, and I quote: "Truly speaking, it is not instruction, but provocation, that I can receive from another soul. What he announces, I must find true in me, or reject; and on his word, or as his second, be he who he may, I can accept nothing." For Emerson, truth was not true until perceived from deep within. -
Emersonian Perfectionism: a Man Is a God in Ruins
Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 5-2007 Emersonian Perfectionism: A Man is a God in Ruins Brad James Rowe Utah State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons, Religion Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Rowe, Brad James, "Emersonian Perfectionism: A Man is a God in Ruins" (2007). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 109. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/109 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EMERSONIAN PERFECTIONISM: A MAN IS A GOD IN RUINS by Brad James Rowe A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in English Approved: _____________________________ ________________________ Paul Crumbley Evelyn Funda Major Professor Committee Member _____________________________ ________________________ Michael Sowder Byron R. Burnham Committee Member Dean of Graduate Studies UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Logan, Utah 2007 ii Copyright Brad James Rowe 2007 All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Emersonian Perfectionism: A Man Is a God in Ruins by Brad James Rowe, Master of Science Utah State University, 2007 Major Professor: Dr. Paul Crumbley Department: English Ralph Waldo Emerson is a great American literary figure that began his career as a minister at Boston’s Second Church. He discontinued his ministry to become an essayist and lecturer and continued as such for the remainder of his life.