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Emerson and Religion

Emerson and Religion

Introduction

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on 25th may 1803. He was an American essayist, poet and lecturer. He was also known for the Transcendentalist movement which took place in the mid of 19th century. He was also considered as champion of individualism. He was used to disperse his thoughts with the help of writing. He was used to write many essays and lectures in United States. During his lifetime Emerson started to move from away from religious and social beliefs of his companions, formulated and expressed the philosophy of transcendentalism in his essay of 1836 on nature (Wilson, 1999). Emerson wrote most of the essays first time and then revised them for print.

Most of his essays are on self-reliance, over soul, poet and experience. Almost every topic written by Emerson had relationship with soul and surrounding world. The work of Emerson on nature was very philosophical and according to him nature is composed of nature and soul. Emerson was used to belief that all things of the universe are connected to God and because of this connection everything is divine (Wilson, 1999). In this paper the focus is on the work done by Emerson and his thinking. The perception of Emerson is very unique and most of the scholars and poets even followed him and his work. This paper is specially focused on the perception of Emerson on religion and his essays on Nature, self-reliance, Brahma and divinity school address. Some of the main points which will be discussed in this paper would be based on the work of Emerson on Religion (Wilson, 1999).

Emerson and his beliefs

Ralph Waldo Emerson's basic belief is in the power and presence of the soul and it is the vital principle of his entire intellectual achievement. The doctrine soul of Emerson was developed in 1820s and 1830s when he merged the theology of sub culture with spiritual and idealistic doctrines. Emerson's' doctrine on soul was seen as passionate and visionary in 1830s and 1840s. Emerson started to modify his work on religion in 1850s to accommodate his experience and vision. He also showed his reflection on his growing sense on the significance of moral actions as the basic end of religious experience. Then he developed theory which was based on more practical and ethical of religious life. In this theory work, moral, worship, vision all were becoming the identical concepts (Weart 2006).

Emerson's work on Nature

Emerson did work on Nature in 1836 and in this work he has put the foundation of Transcendentalism, s belief system and non-traditional appreciation of nature. According to Transcendentalism, all the nature is refused by the divinity and gives an idea that humans can understand the reality by studying the nature. Many scholars consider Emerson as the first writer who developed the vision and literary style and it is exclusively American. People preferred following Emerson instead of following the footsteps of other British philosophers and their culture (Richardson ...