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.”
Emerson reminds his listeners to look for the
divine in nature, for example in “the light of rising
and of setting suns, with the flying cloud, the sing-
ing bird, and the breath of flowers,” and also in other
people. He explains that virtue manifests in a person
who, when hearing bad preaching, still “draws sup-
plies to virtue out of very indifferent nutriment,”
and that although there are good preachers, it is
even more important to realize that all people have
at least a spark of goodness in them. As he says in
paragraph 26, “the exceptions are not so much to
be found in a few eminent preachers, as in the bet-
ter hours, the truer inspirations of all,—nay, in the
sincere moments of every man.”
The divine, because of its ubiquity, is accessible
to anyone. Emerson argues that people learn about
the spiritual laws at the same time that they learn
about the natural laws, as they experience these
laws’ effects in their lives. At the same time, they are
not able to perceive spiritual laws as easily as they
do natural laws, because people perceive the divine
through intuition, not through the senses.
The all-encompassing nature of spirituality,
combined with its elusiveness, produces a paradox
within “The Divinity School Address.” On the one
hand, Emerson says that because spiritual laws can
only be known through experience and intuition,
they cannot be understood and articulated as eas-
ily as natural laws. On the other hand, he argues
that communicating about spirituality is immensely
important because true preaching can help point
its listeners toward the divine. Words point toward
a truth, but can only point; the truth “cannot be
received at second hand.” In other words, the way to
inspire others to be in touch with spiritual law is by
being in touch with it oneself and speaking and act-
ing from that connection. Emerson urges the Divin-
ity School graduates to make this connection and
to bring the church back to life, not through new
rituals but through making their own connections
to the divine and letting that inspire their preaching.
Sarah Perrault
traditiOn in “The Divinity School
Address.”
At first read, “The Divinity School Address” seems
to be wholeheartedly antitradition, at least with
regard to religion. Ralph Waldo Emerson claims
“that tradition characterizes the preaching of this
country; that it comes out of the memory, and not
out of the soul” and that, therefore, “historical Chris-
tianity destroys the power of preaching, by with-
drawing it from the exploration of the moral nature
of man, where the sublime is, where are the resources
of astonishment and power.” Regarding people who
preach in this tradition, he says, “Whenever the pul-
pit is usurped by a formalist, then is the worshipper
defrauded and disconsolate.”
Emerson’s rejection of empty forms in religious
practice parallels his rejection in another famous
speech, “The American Scholar,” of too close an
adherence to the European scholarly tradition. In
“The Divinity School Address,” he specifically looks
at how excessive emphasis on religious tradition
impedes spiritual development. This is evident in his
second critique of Christianity, which begins with
an allusion to “the traditionary and limited way of
using the mind of Christ” in which preachers repeat
Christ’s words instead of following his example of
allowing “greatness—yea, God himself, into the
open soul” and letting what is learned through that
spiritual openness be “the fountain of the established
teaching in society.”
Emerson goes so far as to characterize the church
of his day as an “eastern monarchy of a Christianity,
which indolence and fear have built” and in which
descriptions of Christ are no longer “sallies of admi-
ration and love” but instead have been “petrified into
official titles.” The result of this ossification was that
the church’s practice, instead of fostering spiritual
growth, “kills all generous sympathy and liking.”
The problem goes beyond a rigid adherence to the
words of Christianity, and into a general tendency
to seek spirituality by copying others. Emerson
describes this tendency as “the capital mistake of the
infant man, who seeks to be great by following the
great, and hopes to derive advantages from another”
(original emphasis). In Emerson’s view, to imitate
others is more than a mistake; it is a violence toward
oneself, given that each person is equal to all others“The Divinity School Address” 399