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{{Right section
|right=Freedom of Religion
|section=Philosophical Origins
|question=Tradition contributions
|questionHeading=What have religious and philosophical traditions contributed to our understanding of this right?
|breakout=Transcendentalism
|pageLevel=Breakout
|contents=A religious, philosophical, and literary movement; Transcendentalism emphasized true freedom
through individual discovery by “rejecting materialism and confining religious doctrines, and instead
embracing intuition, spirit, and self (Baratta, 2012).” The movement also introduces the idea that finding
truth through individual experience and self-revelation provides the sincerest form of religion and
liberates us from the worldly bounds of organized faiths. Freedom of religion can be found within the
core of the transcendentalist movement; being born of men who left their religion as they felt that the
principles and laws of their church did not fulfill what they knew to be more.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, resigning from his ministry in 1832, felt that people should have “a
religion through [personal] revelation, and not through history and tradition,” and “demand their own
works and laws and worship (Atkinson, 1940, 6).” Emerson began to share his thoughts and encourage
others to do the same, thus marking the birth of Transcendentalism. The ideas that Emerson expressed for
others to understand his logic of this individual journey, showed emphatic value on truth and ultimate
freedom. “Emerson always adhered to a basis for religious truth that answered to the reality of a spiritual
realm (Hurth, 2003, 484).” Hurth analyzes his sermon, The Last Supper, and concludes that Emerson’s
thoughts on “the reliance of religious self-consciousness liberated religion by appeal, not to worthless
‘forms’ in a historical embodiment from biblical revelation; but rather referring to a man’s sense of the
inwardness of faith (Hurth, 2003, 486).” In The Last Supper, Emerson tells us that “I am not engaged to
Christianity by decent forms, or saving ordinances…What I revere and obey in it is its reality… and the
persuasion and courage that come from it to lead me upward and onward [is that] freedom is the essence
of this faith. It has for its object simply to make men good and wise. Its institutions then should be as
flexible as the wants of men. (Atkinson, 1940, 117).” Emerson tells us here that the principles of freedom
found within this organized faith should allow men to be free to find their own religious beliefs, however,
the historical and traditional concepts within the faith take away the freedom as man must adhere to the
laws of the church that Emerson chose to move away from.
Also leaving behind his church membership, Emerson’s mentee, Henry David Thoreau, became
another contributing voice to the founding of transcendentalism. Both men, still being considered
religious and spiritual, viewed God in a non-traditional sense and each found a connection to religion
through freedom away from the church. To both men, divinity, and relation to a higher power can be
found by connecting with the natural world. However, where Emerson sought to look beyond nature,
Thoreau actively immersed himself in it and chose to look within. “To Thoreau ‘the realm of spirit is the
physical world, which has a sacred meaning that can be directly perceived. Accordingly, he seeks “to be
always on the alert to find God in nature’” (Furtak, 2023).” The differences between the two men’s ideas
support the individualistic emphasis within transcendentalism; finding one’s own religious beliefs.
However, similar to Emerson, Thoreau rejected the traditional doctrines of Christianity and found that the
purpose of organized religion and its teachings was to “foster allegiance and conformity (Hodder, 2003,
96).” Also like Emerson, Thoreau’s emphasis on facts and reality led him to look outside of the traditional
forms of worship. In his famous works of Walden, Thoreau states, “Let us settle ourselves, and work and
wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and
delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe… through church and state, through
poetry and philosophy and religion, till we come to a hard bottom and rocks in place, which we can call
reality, and say, ‘This is.’ If you stand right front and face to face to a fact, you will see the sun glimmer
on both its surfaces, as if it were a cimeter, and feel its sweet edge dividing you through the heart and
marrow, and so you will happily conclude your mortal career. Be it life or death, we crave only reality.
(Thoreau, 1971, 97)”
Therefore, the values of truth, goodness, reality, and self are the emphasized concepts behind
transcendentalist freedom, used to encourage the finding of one’s own divine connection. These concepts
feed into the overarching idea of ultimate religious freedom, instead of through the traditional binds of
organized religion. The lives and works of Emerson and Thoreau showcase how transcendentalism allows
anyone the autonomy to explore and construct their own relationship with God, thus making freedom of
religion a fundamental concept to the religious beliefs of transcendentalism.

Atkinson, Brooks. & Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “The Complete Essays and Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson.” Random House Inc. 1940. https://somacles.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/ralph-waldo-emerson-the-complete-essays-and-other-writings-of-ralph-waldo-emerson-the-modern-library-1950.pdf.

Baratta, Christopher. “Mountaintops and Riverbanks as Pulpits: A Transcendental Return to Nature” Transcendental Ideas: Religion. Binghamton University, NY. 2012. Vcu.edu. 2012. https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/ideas/baratta.html.

Hodder, Alan D. 2003. “Thoreau’s Religious Vision.” Ultimate Reality and Meaning 26, no. 2 (June): 88–108.
https://doi.org/10.3138/uram.26.2.88.

‌Furtak, Rick Anthony, "Henry David Thoreau", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2023 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2023/entries/thoreau/>.

Hurth, Elisabeth. “Between Faith and Unbelief: Ralph Waldo Emerson on Man and God.” Amerikastudien / American Studies, vol. 48, no. 4, 2003, pp. 483–495, http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/stable/41157889.

Thoreau, Henry. 1854. “Walden, Or, Life in the Woods. by Henry David Thoreau.” Gutenberg.org. 2018.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/205/205-h/205-h.htm.
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