originally published 5/1/1996

This Archive Feature presents two interviews about Ralph Waldo Emerson from Volume 20 of the Journal. The figure of the sage-poet Emerson is a commanding presence in American culture. The answers he sketched out to questions of meaning, society, and individual identity continue to inform the American way of life. Those who worry that the nineteenth century figure inaugurated an unprecedented spirit of relativism and self-centeredness remember that it was Emerson who first uttered the maxim, “Do your own thing.” Robert Richardson (1934–2020) published a masterful study of Emerson’s life, Emerson: The Mind on Fire (Univ. of California Press, 1995). It is an intellectual biography which examines the way Emerson’s ideas germinated, took root, and manifested themselves in his life. He discusses why Emerson’s work continues to attract certain religious seekers.

Roger Lundin (1949–2015) was a professor of English at Wheaton College, a cultural historian, and the author of The Culture of Interpretation: Christian Faith and the Postmodern World (W. B. Eerdmans, 1993). One of the chapters in his book looks at the influence of Emerson’s ideas on contemporary literary theory and on society at large. Lundin presents an audio essay, a musing on why Emerson’s influence lingers in American culture. Specifically, he examines Emerson’s assertion of alternatives to Christianity and how they have been adopted by the American people.

18 minutes

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