#divinity school address

[theinwardlight]

Let me admonish you, first of all, to go alone; to refuse the good models, even those which are sacred in the imagination of men, and dare to love God without mediator or veil. Friends enough you shall find who will hold up to your emulation Wesleys and Oberlins, Saints and Prophets. Thank God for these good men, but say, 'I also am a man.' Imitation cannot go above its model. The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity. The inventor did it, because it was natural to him, and so in him it has a charm. In the imitator, something else is natural, and he bereaves himself of his own beauty, to come short of another man's.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Divinity School Address” (1838)

[oupacademic]

On 15 July 1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered his infamous Divinity School Address to six graduands of Harvard Divinity School, arguing that Jesus was not God, but rather the incarnation of God as man. Historical Christianity revered Jesus as a demigod, according to Emerson, and yet society was not the better for it. He proclaimed that the moral intuition of the individual rather than following religious doctrine led to a truly principled life. Outrage was caused among Protestant theologians as a result and Emerson was deemed a persona non grata at Harvard for the next thirty years.

This controversial address deepened the schism that emerged in Unitarian theology and further developed the first notable American intellectual movement, transcendentalism. Men could think for themselves and judge the morality of their actions as individuals. Emerson told this class of young theologians that goodness in man is achieved only when man is able to explore his own virtue.

Image credit: (1) Ralph Waldo Emerson c. 1857. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. (2) Andover Hall, Harvard Divinity School by Daderot. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

[sbreak]

Evil is merely privative, not absolute. It is like cold, which is the privation of heat. All evil is so much death or nonentity. Benevolence is absolute and real. So much benevolence as a man hath, so much life hath he. For all things proceed out of this same spirit, which is differently named love, justice, temperance, in its different applications, just as the ocean receives different names on the several shores which it washes. All things proceed out of the same spirit, and all things conspire with it. Whilst a man seeks good ends, he is strong by the whole strength of nature. In so far as he roves from these ends, he bereaves himself of power, of auxiliaries; his being shrinks out of all remote channels, he becomes less and less, a mote, a point, until absolute badness is absolute death.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Divinity School Address

[silentreverence]

The time is coming when all men will see, that the gift of God to the soul is not a vaunting, overpowering, excluding sanctity, but a sweet, natural goodness, a goodness like thine and mine, and that so invites thine and mine to be and to grow.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

[historysimplified]

Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Divinity School Address

Alright, so this is in a scotch glaze; however, take it no lighter than any other post. This one is inspired by a speech I'm writing, so this is very introductory to start.

        So, it's 1838, people are just as crazy as today (I know...shocking), and Ralph Waldo Emerson is invited to give the commencement speech at Harvard Divinity School for all the little boys, actually "all" meaning the six of them, six? Really, damn those tests must have been hard for only that many people to graduate... "all" of them looking to be ministers or priests or whatever they have there; oh, and there teachers are there too. I should say that Emerson is invited to give this speech because he gave a speech at Harvard a year earlier, that became "The American Scholar" to some frat bros and they were all "WOOOO RALPH!" So here we are in church school and Emerson begins talking about how great individuals are...not God...wait, "WHAT IN THE DAMNATION?!?!?!" Yes, you heard right, not God, the individual is divine in Nature. (You'll notice Nature is capitalized; because it is meant to mean the world is divine, not God.) And that this Nature thing is part of the God thatweare.

       Basically, this dick is coming to a bunch of clergymen and saying "Screw your god, mang, I AM GOD!!!!! AND YOU CAN BE TOO!" At this point the faculty is collectively cursing themselves for letting this asshole talk. Apparently when you say that people are God, not God, it really pisses off the people that disagree. Continuing his heretical speech Emerson basically spits on the Bible by saying people shouldn't be learning from "dusty old books," but from Nature and their own experience (Grammar Nazis must be rolling over when I capitalize Nature...sooo Nature Nature NATURE!). Then, after spitting on the Bible (metaphorically speaking...maybe... I mean, I wasn't really there sooo in my mind he did) he proceeds to say that Jesus wasn't really the son of God... Well shit man, this is gonna turn to torches and pitchforks soon. Seriously, he outlines Jesus as just being a really great guy that did some sweet stuff... water into wine? Probably not, but this is a college crowd so they probably ate that shit up. Emerson said that Jesus' acts shouldn't be taken literally, which was met by a disappointed sigh from the graduates (because of the wine thing...follow along now); but that Jesus is an example for human behavior and we can learn from his deeds, not his divinity, or lack there of. So, because Jesus is only a little better than us, these graduates now have a little bit higher self-esteem, then we have the power to be just as good as him or better! Better than Jesus? Damn, that would be a platform to run on... <Insert name here> "Better than Jesus...Seriously! 2012."

         Alright, now we're all divine and better than Jesus...now what? (Damn this got heretical...) Well, with our newfound divinity we should go about the world and admire because the entire world is also divine...so you may have beaten Jesus but that rock over there has got you beat by not tripping people... You got beaten by a rock, not so high and mighty, fire and brimstone now, are we? (Had to bring you down off that power trip) So the entire world is divine and so are we Emerson says, we can change the world and the world can change us...Well okay that's great Ghandi but some of us actually want to understand what the hell you want from us. (The internet says Ghandi said "Be the change you want to see in the world." But the internet is a dark place, seriously, have you heard of the Pain Olympics? DON'T DO IT!) Emerson believed we needed to live our lives howwewanted, not by some book or by what someone says...even though he said this sooooo this post may really be for nothing........shit.

        Anyway, so to rundown the list of heresies:

              1. God is not real

              2. You are God

              3. 1 & 2 may seem like a paradox but I just mean in the religious sense

              4. Jesus is not the son of God (because he/she/it doesn't exist)

              5. Learn from experience, not the Bible

              6. YOLO, it's a sin. Don't ever say it. Ever.

        So, Emerson really fucked some shit up at Harvard and wasn't invited back, and people were really pissed. This surprised Emerson, because he thought scholars would understand that they have to learn from others and Nature but then he remembered he was basically talking to a religious congregation that had their jaws on the floor after two minutes. So everyone went their own way, (But not like Fleetwood Mac, they're the worst.) Emerson wasn't smote by God, Sodom and Gomorrah were still gone, and YOLO is still used by idiots everywhere. This is all because of the personal freedom people enjoy being their own God, so says Emerson.

     #YOLO

[decaforhightest]

For all things proceed out of this same spirit, which is differently named love, justice, temperance, in its different applications, just as the ocean receives different names on the several shores which it washes. All things proceed out of the same spirit, and all things conspire with it. Whilst a man seeks good ends, he is strong by the whole strength of nature.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Divinity School Address

[decaforhightest]

"Once man was all; now he is an appendage, a nuisance. And because the indwelling Supreme Spirit cannot wholly be got rid of, the doctrine of it suffers this 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 doctrine of the majority of voices, usurps the place of the doctrine of the soul. Miracles, prophecy, poetry; the ideal life, the holy life, exist as ancient history merely; they are not in the belief, nor in the aspiration of society; but, when suggested, seem ridiculous. Life is comic or pitiful, as soon as the high ends of being fade out of sight, and man becomes near-sighted, and can only attend to what addresses the senses." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Divinity School Address

[ralphwaldoemerson]

Let me admonish you, first of all, to go alone; to refuse the good models, even those which are sacred in the imagination of men, and dare to love God without mediator or veil. Friends enough you shall find who will hold up to your emulation Wesleys and Oberlins, Saints and Prophets. Thank God for these good men, but say, 'I also am a man.' Imitation cannot go above its model. The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Divinity School Address