Transcendental Heresies: Harvard and the Modern American Practice of Unbelief

by David Faflik

At a moment when the requirements of belief and unbelief were being negotiated in unexpected ways, transcendentalism allowed for a more creative approach to spiritual questions. Interrogating the movement's alleged atheistic underpinnings, David Faflik contends that transcendentalism reconstituted the religious sensibilities of 1830s and 1840s New England, producing a dynamic and complex array of beliefs and behaviors that cannot be categorized as either religious or nonreligious. Rather than "the latest form of infidelity," as one contemporary described it, adherents viewed their unconventional and distinct spiritual practices as a modern religion.

Transcendental Heresies draws on an expansive antebellum archive of period commentary and writings by transcendentalism's practitioners, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Theodore Parker, Margaret Fuller, and the women of transcendentalism's second and third waves. From Boston to Concord to the heady environs of Harvard, the species of unbelief they practiced multiplied the religious possibilities of the era, expressing misgivings about traditional notions of divinity, flouting religion's customary forms, and ultimately encouraging spiritual questioning.

260 pages, Hardcover

Published May 29, 2020

Reviews

[Jeffrey Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Focuses upon Emerson, Thoreau and women and their contributions to this short lived, contribution to American culture. Emphasis on the role of religion and theology in Transcendentalism. Relates the movement to developments in Unitarian beliefs. Carries the movement until its close in the 1890's.

[Dan Gorman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting ideas, particularly Faflik's thesis that unconventional beliefs like Transcendentalism looked like atheism to more conservative Christians. But somewhat dry execution.