In Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay, "Self-Reliance," I am
uncertain if you are referring to organized religion or a belief in
God.
Emerson mentions God in this outstanding essay.
Emerson's mantra in this piece is "Trust thyself." He stresses the importance of moving
forward with a genuine belief in what one is able to accomplish in this world. Emerson
presents the belief that we are individually and distinctively made by the hand of God,
with God's purpose inherent in our beings. Emerson believes that when we honor our
purpose, we honor God.
Emerson advises the reader that in
being different, the world will punish you; conformity makes other
people comfortable.
He insists that we do not remain
consistent because the world expects it. If one changes his mind, he should not worry
what others will say. Speak this new truth without
apology.
Speak what you think now in hard words, and
to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every
thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad,
then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and
Luther...To be great is to be
misunderstood.
Emerson speaks
directly of God, and the soul and spirit of man. He states that there is no one needed
between God and his connection with men because the "relations of the soul to the divine
spirit are so pure..."
Nothing and no one else is necessary
with God; he seems to defy organized religion to pursue a pure and natural connection
between man and God, without religious "labels" or
doctrines.
....no intermediaries—priest, doctrine, church,
scripture, etc.—are needed or
helpful.
Emerson contends
that the connection between God and man is not based on things of the past. "Old things
pass away," he states, as well as those who educate us, religious buildings, and even
miracles of the past.
...teachers, texts, temples fall; it lives now,
and absorbs past and future into the present hour....All things are dissolved to their
centre by their cause, and, in the universal miracle, petty and particular miracles
disappear...
Emerson purports
that those who have a true and pure connection with God will see this. Beware of those
who might mislead. Emerson declares that the small beginnings of the past are
unimportant when compared to the achievements by forward movement
over time.
If, therefore, a man claims to know and speak of
God, and carries you backward to...some old mouldered nation in another country, in
another world, believe him not. Is the acorn better than the oak which is its
fulness and
completion?
Emerson's
perception of God and the soul are based on the here and now, and what is to come.
Believers must move with one's eye on the final prize, not looking backward. His closing
statement to this section of the essay is that the soul must look to God today, avoiding
elements of what is in the past.
...the soul is light; where it
is, is day; where it was, is
night
(Emerson began his
career with organized religion; tragedy made him doubt his faith. American
transcendentalism, which he "helped fashion," stood against, among other things,
materialism and institutionalized religion, but
not loss of faith in God.)
[He believed in] the idea that truth resides
throughout creation and is grasped
intuitively...
It would
appear that though he did not support organized religion, he did believe man
was tied to God through the elements of creation.
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