Hello,
Long time no see! :)
Below is from the Writer's Almanac today...Quite relevant to how the Dialogue operates!
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It was on this day in 1838 that Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered 'The Divinity School Address' at Harvard. There were about 100 people in the audience, including six of the seven graduates of Harvard Divinity School, as well as faculty, ministers, and former graduates. Emerson had graduated from Harvard Divinity in 1826, and the graduating students had chosen him as the speaker for this event. The year before, he had given a lecture called 'The American Scholar' to the Harvard Phi Beta Kappa society. It was controversial but popular, and the students were eager to have him back.
Emerson had been a Unitarian minister, but he had resigned a few years earlier. He was skeptical of the Communion ritual, and of the whole concept of public prayer — he felt it should be a private, individual expression. Emerson was becoming more interested in Transcendentalism, and in 1836, two years before his Divinity School address, he had laid out his philosophy in his now-famous essay Nature. But Nature was not a big seller at the time — it took more than 12 years to sell out of its first edition of 500 copies.
This time his lecture was too controversial for the authorities at Harvard. Emerson denounced the current state of Christianity, saying that as it was practiced, 'Christianity destroys the power of preaching, by withdrawing it from the exploration of the moral nature of man, where the sublime is, where are the resources of astonishment and power. What a cruel injustice it is to that Law, the joy of the whole earth, which alone can make thought dear and rich; that Law whose fatal sureness the astronomical orbits poorly emulate, that it is travestied and depreciated, that it is behooted and behowled, and not a trait, nor a word of it articulated. The pulpit in losing sight of this Law, loses its reason, and gropes after it knows not what. And for want of this culture, the soul of the community is sick and faithless. [...] The true Christianity — a faith like Christ's in the infinitude of man — is lost.'
Many in the audience were incensed by Emerson's speech, particularly the older faculty and ministers. Andrew Norton, a powerful Harvard theologian, declared the lecture 'the latest form of infidelity.' It was 30 years before Emerson was invited back to speak at Harvard. But there were younger audience members who were inspired by the lecture, like the minister Theodore Parker, who went home and wrote in his journal: 'Proceeded to Cambridge, to hear the valedictory sermon by Mr. Emerson. In this he surpassed himself as much as he surpasses others in the general way. I shall give no abstract. So beautiful, so just, so true, and terribly sublime was his picture of the faults of the Church in its present position. My soul is roused, and this week I shall write the long-meditated sermons on the state of the Church and the duties of these times.'
Two weeks later, Emerson wrote a letter to a friend and mentor, an older minister named Henry Ware, who had been critical of Emerson's speech. Emerson wrote: 'What you say about the discourse at Divinity College, is just what I might expect from your truth and charity, combined with your known opinions. I am not a stock or stone, as one said in the old time; and could not but feel pain in saying some things in that place and presence, which I supposed might meet dissent, and the dissent, I might say, of dear friends and benefactors of mine. Yet, as my conviction is perfect in the substantial truth of the doctrine of this discourse, and is not very new, you will see, at once, that it must appear to me very important that it be spoken; and I thought I would not pay the nobleness of my friends so mean a compliment, as to suppress my opposition of their supposed views out of fear of offense. I would rather say to them, these things look thus to me; to you, otherwise. Let us say out our uttermost word, and be the all-pervading truth, as it surely will, judge between us. [...] I heartily thank you for this renewed expression of your tried toleration and love.'
Emerson had been a Unitarian minister, but he had resigned a few years earlier. He was skeptical of the Communion ritual, and of the whole concept of public prayer — he felt it should be a private, individual expression. Emerson was becoming more interested in Transcendentalism, and in 1836, two years before his Divinity School address, he had laid out his philosophy in his now-famous essay Nature. But Nature was not a big seller at the time — it took more than 12 years to sell out of its first edition of 500 copies.
This time his lecture was too controversial for the authorities at Harvard. Emerson denounced the current state of Christianity, saying that as it was practiced, 'Christianity destroys the power of preaching, by withdrawing it from the exploration of the moral nature of man, where the sublime is, where are the resources of astonishment and power. What a cruel injustice it is to that Law, the joy of the whole earth, which alone can make thought dear and rich; that Law whose fatal sureness the astronomical orbits poorly emulate, that it is travestied and depreciated, that it is behooted and behowled, and not a trait, nor a word of it articulated. The pulpit in losing sight of this Law, loses its reason, and gropes after it knows not what. And for want of this culture, the soul of the community is sick and faithless. [...] The true Christianity — a faith like Christ's in the infinitude of man — is lost.'
Many in the audience were incensed by Emerson's speech, particularly the older faculty and ministers. Andrew Norton, a powerful Harvard theologian, declared the lecture 'the latest form of infidelity.' It was 30 years before Emerson was invited back to speak at Harvard. But there were younger audience members who were inspired by the lecture, like the minister Theodore Parker, who went home and wrote in his journal: 'Proceeded to Cambridge, to hear the valedictory sermon by Mr. Emerson. In this he surpassed himself as much as he surpasses others in the general way. I shall give no abstract. So beautiful, so just, so true, and terribly sublime was his picture of the faults of the Church in its present position. My soul is roused, and this week I shall write the long-meditated sermons on the state of the Church and the duties of these times.'
Two weeks later, Emerson wrote a letter to a friend and mentor, an older minister named Henry Ware, who had been critical of Emerson's speech. Emerson wrote: 'What you say about the discourse at Divinity College, is just what I might expect from your truth and charity, combined with your known opinions. I am not a stock or stone, as one said in the old time; and could not but feel pain in saying some things in that place and presence, which I supposed might meet dissent, and the dissent, I might say, of dear friends and benefactors of mine. Yet, as my conviction is perfect in the substantial truth of the doctrine of this discourse, and is not very new, you will see, at once, that it must appear to me very important that it be spoken; and I thought I would not pay the nobleness of my friends so mean a compliment, as to suppress my opposition of their supposed views out of fear of offense. I would rather say to them, these things look thus to me; to you, otherwise. Let us say out our uttermost word, and be the all-pervading truth, as it surely will, judge between us. [...] I heartily thank you for this renewed expression of your tried toleration and love.'
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