Ralph Waldo Emerson

In 1832, Ralph Waldo Emerson had a crisis of faith and resigned as a Unitarian minister at the Second Church of Boston. Having cast off doctrine, he developed a uniquely American school of philosophy known as transcendentalism. Sensing a divine presence in nature, Emerson asserted that individuals could experience God directly, without the mediation of priest or church, through solitary contemplation of the natural world. In keeping with the democratic ideals of his country, Emerson claimed that salvation was not limited to the select few, but available to all, gained through recognition of the divine power within each individual.