How can you not admire a person who writes something like this:
I dip my pen in the blackest ink, because I am not afraid of falling into my inkpot.
In Emerson’s essay, Worship, he answers the complaints of “friends” for whom all of his preceding essays were low and everyday and who think that if Emerson isn’t careful, he will find that he has argued so well for atheism that he won’t be able to counter it. Which elicits Emerson’s delightful inkpot statement.
Emerson is a radical when it comes to questions of religion. He believes the very atoms of the universe are infused with Divinity. As we are made up of those atoms, so too are we infused with the Divine. He also believes that religion is man-made. The purpose of religion is to help people realize their divinity. Religion is not God-given. Religion is a means. And when a religion does not work anymore, it is time to throw it out and make a new one that does:
God builds his temple in the heart on the ruins of churches and religions.
Emerson saw his time as one of transition in which none of the current religions were “creditable.” The thing he saw as fatal to religion is a “divorce between religion and morality.”
Emerson’s philosophy is at base a moral one:
There is a principle which is the basis of things, which all speech aims to say, and all action to evolve, a simple, quiet, undescribed, undescribable presence, dwelling very peacefully in us, our rightful lord: we are not to do, but to let do; not to work, but to be worked upon; and to this homage there is consent of all thoughtful and just men in all ages and condition. To this sentiment belong vast and sudden enlargements of power.
This principle is the Over-Soul, the Universal Mind, a principle which is found is several ancient Asian religions and one that is best expressed in Christianity as “In Him we live and move and have our being.” Any religion that does not have this foundation is sick. A religion that says slavery or murder or oppression is what God wants is sick. So Emerson encourages us to “forget your books and traditions, and obey your moral perceptions.”
Because all the atoms of the universe are divine, everything in the universe is connected to everything else. Religion, faith, worship are not doctrines or customs or rituals nor do they just happen on Sundays. For Emerson religion and worship become an attitude:
Religion or worship is the attitude of those who see this unity, intimacy and sincerity; who see that against all appearances the nature of things works for truth and right forever.
Our behavior now becomes extremely important. We are as we do, and what is done to us is as we do to others. No one can hide the true person that they are, “people seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.”
Emerson calls for a new church “founded on moral science” with “heaven and earth for its beams and rafters.” The church will operate under “the algebra and mathematics of ethical law” and will be “without shawms, or psaltery, or sackbut.” And, as Emerson says, “if we meet no gods, it is because we harbor none.”
I don’t think I have done this essay justice. It is very beautiful and inspirational and full of thought-provoking ideas. It is terrifying in the responsibility it places on us for our own salvation. Emerson scoffs at an anthropomorphic view of God. God is not a gray-bearded man looking down on us from heaven. Nor are we “saved” just by being baptized and believing in Jesus. Emerson believes it is up to us to deserve immortality and that it comes from what we do now. He is an activist through and through”
The way to mend the bad world is to create the right world
I think I would very much like to live in the kind of world Emerson envisions.
Next week’s Emerson: Considerations By the Way
Well I agree with you Stefanie – I’d like to live there too. I also think the moral guidelines of religion, or rather the ethical ones, I should say, are the most valuable thing about it. Of course I recognise that’s my own eccentric opinion, but a gentle and respectful world would be a very lovely place.
This is the aspect of Emerson I like best I think, the religious radical. I love the idea that “the very atoms of the universe are infused with Divinity.” Having come from a religiously conservative background myself, I feel like Emerson’s ideas are very, very contemporary — not written a century and a half ago.
I agree with you Litlove, it is the ethical ideas that are most valuable. And I appreciate how Emerson doesn’t need to have the threat of hell or dangle the carrot of heaven. I like how it is what we do now that matters. I think that way it doesn’t let anyone off the hook.
I like the idea that atoms are divine too Dorothy. It breaks down us against them and the barrier between inner and outer and it matches experience–haven’t most people at one time or other felt an expansive sense of connectedness? Of being larger than the boundaries of the body? Emerson does feel very contemporary, I agree. I wonder if that indicates how forward thinking he was, or how deep his influence goes that it continues to reverberate over a century later?
You quote Emerson as saying: “The way to mend the bad world is to create the right world,” and then note that you’d like to live in the kind of world he envisions. Me too! And I’m very empowered by the idea that I don’t have to wait for it, but can try to create it every day, incorporating that belief in the natural divinity of every atom into my life simply by REALIZING it, and therefore informing my actions by it. It’s a constant struggle.
I’ve also been inspired by the writings of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, the founders of the rather radical Catholic Worker movement. There thinking are along the lines of Emerson’s, and they were interested in its translation into everyday spaces: homes, neighborhoods, farms, and the like. If you check it out, let me know what you think!
http://www.catholicworker.org
Anna, you are right, it isn’t something we have to wait for, we can follow Emerson’s advice and work to create the right world right now. Very empowering, but as you also say, a constant struggle. Thanks for the tip on Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. I will check them out and the link too!
A VERY interesting essay Stefanie. You make me want to read Emerson now.
When it comes to spiritual things there is probably no more important word than “salvation”, as in…. what does one think of when one thinks of what “salvation” means. So often salvation can be projected into the future to the neglect of the here and now. Emerson’s emphasis on moral responsibility and not relying [so heavily] on books and tradition, reminds me of the writings of Joseph Campbell. I am sure you are familiar with Campbell, he is so well-known.
His book entitled Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor is FANTASTIC.
I highly recommend Campbell’s book to everyone out there interested in non-nutty non-exclusivistic spirituality!
Says Campbell [p.110]: “When you can let the literal meaning of a religious tradition die, then it comes alive again. And this also frees you to respect other religious traditions more. You don’t have to be afraid of losing something when you let go of your tradition.”
Thanks Cip! I’m collecting Campbell’s books on myth before I embark on reading them all. I read Hero With a Thousand Faces long ago and loved it. Must read it again sometime. I’ve heard of Thou Art That and would like to read it, and it’s nice to know it is as good as it sounds. I keep my eye out for it at the bookstore but have not seen it there. I’ll have to get more proactive about it one of these days!