Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) is considered to be one of the greatest writers the United States has ever produced. Generations of schoolchildren have read his essays, and his opinions have been drilled into students as the epitome of American individualism and rectitude.
His influence, moreover, has been reinforced by his disciples, such as Henry David Thoreau. In a nutshell, these American Transcendentalists were the first and most eloquent proponents of what is today called being “spiritual, but not religious”. Pantheists and Deists by turns, their views have been a strong current in American intellectual and theological life since Emerson’s time – and greatly due to his pre-eminence.
