Emerson and Antinomianism

EVER SINCE Andrews Norton characterized Transcendentalism as latest form of infidelity, Ralph Waldo Emerson's place in American thought has been a matter of dispute. The prevailing opinion, usually supported by selective reading of the bold, exuberant addresses and essays of the I830's and I840's, is that Emerson's intensely mystical piety and his antiauthoritarianism are rooted in a native Antinomian tradition.! But some scholars posit a very different Emerson-temperate, balanced, even conservative-an image that stands uneasily beside the portrait of the Transcendental rebel against religious formalism and social evils.2 Crucial for understanding the sources of these seemingly contradictory elements are Emerson's long-neglected sermons, which to a remarkable degree shaped his later thought. As a minister Emerson tried to evoke a total commitment.to Spirit and grace; at the same time, he cultivated a complex view of the spiritual life that implicitly confronted the dangers of Antinomianism. Finally, the habits of thought that led Emerson to resign his pulpit owe less to Antinomian antiformalism than to orthodox Puritan concepts of the Spirit. The sermons and their

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