American transcendentalism and Asian religions

Author(s)

• Versluis, Arthur

Bibliographic Information

American transcendentalism and Asian religions

Arthur Versluis

（Religion in America series）

Oxford University Press, 1993

Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

The first major study since the 1930s of the relationship between American Transcendentalism and Asian religions, and the first comprehensive work to include post-Civil War Transcendentalists like Samuel Johnson, this book is encyclopedic in scope. Beginning with the inception of Transcendentalist Orientalism in Europe, Versluis covers the entire history of American Transcendentalism into the twentieth century, and the profound influence of Orientalism on the movement-including its analogues and influences in world religious dialogue. He examines what he calls "positive Orientalism," which recognizes the value and perennial truths in Asian religions and cultures, not only in the writings of major figures like Thoreau and Emerson, but also in contemporary popular magazines. Versluis's exploration of the impact of Transcendentalism on the twentieth-century study of comparative religions has ramifications for the study of religious history, comparative religion, literature, politics, history, and art history.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Transcendentalism and the Orient 2. Predecessors: The First Meetings of East and West The German Tradition and the East The English Romantics and the Orient Fair Joseph Priestley: Moses and the Hindoos 3. Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, and the Orient Emerson's "Asia Mine" Thoreau Sauntering Eastward Alcott's Universal Bible 4. The Dissenters: Melville and Brownson Melville as Gnostic Orestes Brownson and Tradition 5. The Ambience: Orientalism in General-Interest American Magazines The Popular Climate West and East Concluding Remarks 6. Ambience and Embodiment of Transcendental Dreams Converting the World Images of America's Golden Age Transcendental Dreams and Earthly Fiction 7. Transcendentalist Periodicals and the Orient Literary Religion and Social Reform: The Western Messenger, The Dial, The Present, The Harbinger, and The Spirit of the Age The Universal and the Particular: The Cincinnati Dial, The Radical, The Index, and the Journal of Speculative Philosophy 8. Patterns in Literary Religion: The Orient and the Second Cycle of Transcendentalism Beginnings: Lydia Maria Child and The Progress of Religious Ideas Unitarian Transcendentalism: James Freeman Clarke and Elizabeth Peabody Universal Religion: John Weiss and Samuel Johnson The Sympathetic Universalism of William Rounseville Alger Octavius Brooks Frothingham's Religion of Humanity and Moncure Conway's Anthropocentrism 9. Conclusion Drawing Conclusions in the Drawing Room Artists and Asia Popular Ramifications The Twentieth Century Bibliography Index

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

• NCID: BA2073221X
• ISBN:
  • 0195076583
• LCCN: 92024770
• Country Code: us
• Title Language Code: eng
• Text Language Code: eng
• Place of Publication: New York
• Pages/Volumes: viii, 355 p.
• Size: 24 cm
• Classification:
  • LCC : B905
  • DC20 : 303.48/27305
• Subject Headings:
  • LCSH : Transcendentalism (New England)
  • LCSH : Asia -- Religion -- Influence
• Parent Bibliography ID:
  • BA1156263X