Chosen to give an address at the graduation of a Divinity School, Emerson gave a thought provoking speech. He spoke about what was wrong with religion and how the corruptness of the Church needed to be fixed, things I agree with. The problem with his speech was where and to whom he decided to present it.
A Divinity School is all about religion, students studying there only to learn about, and serve the church they love. They are spending money on something close to their hearts, and would do anything in the name of God. When Emerson states that “Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of profits,” he would give his audience something they could relate to and feel proud of, but within the next few paragraphs, I could see the mood in the room changing completely. With statements like “Historical Christianity has fallen into the error that corrupts and attempts to communicate religion,” Everyone in the room would obviously have a sour feeling to the speaker.
The dean banning Emerson from ever speaking at the school is justified in his eyes because of how hard Emerson was on the Church and Christianity. Emerson has an incredibly good speech, but aimed it at a very wrong audience.
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Nice post, Dana! you sum up the situation well, I think, there in your last line. And while I admire your 'empathy' for the Dean and his students (the ones who were forced to sit through what Emerson must have known would be viewed as an attack upon them and their religion, I wonder if there is every a better audience for this sort of 'corrective' than a hostile one (put another way, what good would it have done for Emerson to give this address to an audience that already agreed with him--wouldn't that be (literally) preaching to the choir?).
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