Condensed from August '05, published in Sun-Sentinel July 21, '06:
Unitarian Universalist scholar David Robinson wrote that although
American Unitarians lament their vague religious identity, they stand
upon the richest spiritual legacy of any American denomination.
The heritage he refers to here is Transcendentalism. Like most
Americans, we have a passing acquaintance with the names Ralph
Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau. But
like most Americans, we think of them as historical figures with
little relevance.
But those teachers have much to offer us. They knew they stood at
a crossroads in time. The rural life had begun to disappear and
industrialization had taken hold. Life was lived in cities, and it
was lived at a faster pace in crowds of strangers. In cities,
almost everything had to be bought. Consumerism had been born.
People's relationship to their work had changed, and already some
feared that the nation was on a treadmill, working to earn the
money to buy pleasures they did not have the time to enjoy.
New technologies were reshaping daily life and people felt
excitement and a deep anxiety over changes the future would bring.
The Trancendentalists stood at that threshold and found a way to
release a spirit of optimism and confidence that shaped America.
Emerson called for an American literature, an American culture, and
it arose. People began organizing, creating schools for girls, as
well as boys, blacks as well as whites - literacy for all.
They worked for universal suffrage and equal rights for women.
They set out to alleviate the poverty of the cities and bring
reason and gentle care to the treatment of the mentally ill. Much
was changed through their efforts.
We, too, stand at a crossroads. Globalization has taken hold. Our
world grows smaller, and we live in crowds of strangers we do not
yet understand. Our new technologies make theirs seem quaint. We
too, feel both hope and fear for our future.
Thoreau is probably the best known of the Transcendentalists. His
books Walden and Civil Disobedience are still in print. He is taken
as the root of both American environmentalism and our tradition of
peaceful political protest.
He grew up in the Unitarian Church. As a young man, he heard
William Ellery Channing preach. Channing's emphasis was on the
importance of cultivating the seed of divinity within each
individual. It demanded self-discipline.
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable
ability of human beings to elevate life by a conscious endeavor.
Let us learn what life has to teach, to find ways to live
deliberately, that our lives become the answers to our prayers.