Recent changes in the historiography of American Transcendentalism
have inspired a reappraisal of the relationship between the Transcendentalist
movement in New England and the pietistic wing of the Unitarian church. This
thesis explores this reappraisal through a close reading of selected writings by
Henry Ware Jr. in juxtaposition to the more familiar strains of Ralph Waldo
Emerson's Divinity School Address and other Transcendentalist texts of the late
1830's and early 1840's. In opposition to the view that American
Transcendentalism is an imported form of German Romanticism, the thesis
argues that both Emerson and Ware represent a response on the part of rational
religious liberalism to the emotional enthusiasm of the Evangelical movement,
and that the primary inspiration for Emerson's philosophy came from his own
mentor in the Unitarian ministry.
Henry Ware Jr. was the senior minister of the Second Church in Boston
from 1817-1830. Emerson was called to that same congregation in 1829 to serve
as Ware's assistant and eventual successor. From 1830 to 1842 Ware was
"Professor of Pulpit Eloquence and the Pastoral Care" at the Harvard Divinity
School. His Hints on Extemporaneous Preaching was an influential handbook of
homiletics. His devotional manual On the Formation of the Christian Character
went through fifteen editions. His sermon "The Personality of the Deity" has
traditionally been perceived as a response to Emerson's controversial 1838
address, which Emerson delivered at the height of Ware's tenure at the Divinity
School, and which is often depicted as the opening salvo of the so-called
"Transcendentalist Controversy."
Chapter One of the thesis summarizes the changes in the historiography of
American Transcendentalism. Chapter Two relates Ware's "Formation of
Christian Character" to the broader Unitarian understanding of Self-Culture,
which the Transcendentalists also shared. Chapter Three compares Ware's
"Hints" to the Emersonian ideal of preaching as proclaimed in the Divinity
School Address. Chapter Four addresses the issue of the "Personality of the
Deity" in relation to Emerson's notion of an "Over-Soul." The final chapter
offers some personal observations about the nature of history and the reappraisal
of the relationship between Unitarianism and Transcendentalism. / Graduation date: 1996
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/34687 |
| Date | 14 November 1995 |
| Creators | Jensen, Timothy Ward |
| Contributors | Robinson, David M. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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