![Image of speakers discussing Thoreau's works in front of a screen with Thoreau's image](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/2026-04/260403ThoreauScreening7%20%281%29.jpg?h=92bbd615&itok=jprAtmMz) # Thoreau in Our Time: Film, Conversation, and a Living Legacy April 21, 2026 By Jeffrey Blackwell More than 170 years after the publication of his groundbreaking book *Walden* and his essay “Civil Disobedience,” the eclectic writer, naturalist, activist, and philosopher Henry David Thoreau continues to resonate with new generations seeking direction amid societal division, political unrest, and an increasingly complex world. Thoreau, widely regarded as the most recognizable face and voice of the nineteenth-century Transcendentalist movement, is the subject of a new three-part PBS documentary, *Henry David Thoreau,* executive produced by filmmaker Ken Burns and musician Don Henley. On April 3, the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) hosted a screening and panel discussion at Harvard’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, bringing together leading Thoreau scholars and members of the documentary’s production team. “The timing of this documentary’s release couldn’t be more fortuitous,” said Charles Stang, Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions and Professor of Early Christian Thought at Harvard Divinity School. “This year, the Center has launched a new Transcendentalism initiative, grounded in the conviction that Transcendentalism is a living tradition whose rich history, diverse representatives, and contemporary exemplars offer today’s world enormous resources for reimagining how we might relate differently to ourselves, to one another, to our work, labor, and play, and to our words.” The screening of the second episode of *Henry David Thoreau* follows a collaborative two-day October workshop in Concord, Massachusetts, on the legacy and future of Transcendentalism, which served as the nexus for a new CSWR initiative. Nearly 30 scholars, practitioners, artists, and others from across the United States—as well as from Sweden and Denmark—gathered at the Concord Museum for panels, small-group discussions, and experiential activities in and around the town that gave birth to the Transcendentalist movement. The CSWR plans to continue and expand these seed conversations from Concord at the Center this fall. More than 20 scholars, writers, artists, and practitioners will be in residence at the Center in 2026–2027 to explore the history and future of the Transcendentalist movement and its relevance today. “It is very much in the spirit of the transcendentalists, who would at times live together for weeks or months, talking, walking, writing, and sharing,” said CSWR Executive Director Gosia Sklodowska. “In this way, we are recreating that spirit and building on the conversations and community that first came together in October.” On April 3, more than 150 people attended the screening at the Carpenter Center, with over 400 more joining online. The event featured the documentary’s directors, Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers, and producer Susan Shumaker. It also included Thoreau scholars Rebecca Kneale Gould, a Religious Studies scholar and Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, and Jeffrey S. Cramer, editor of *Walden: A Fully Annotated Edition* (Yale University Press, 2004) and Curator Emeritus of the Walden Woods Project Library, John Kucich, Professor of English at Bridgewater State University, and co-President of the Thoreau Alliance, as well as Jenifer Ishee, Curator and Library Administrator of the Walden Woods Project. Thoreau lived only to the age of 44 and is best known for the two years he spent at Walden Pond. But there is extensive research on his life before Walden, when he was a struggling writer searching for a path and perhaps a way to grieve the death of his brother and best friend, John. There is also a compelling story to tell about Thoreau’s life after Walden, as an abolitionist, teacher, writer, poet, and philosopher, and about his fatal battle with tuberculosis. For brothers Erik and Christopher Ewers, telling Thoreau’s story became a profound opportunity to show a life far deeper than what is taught in a school classroom. The project evolved into an enriching exploration of both the historical figure and the legend surrounding him, culminating in three one-hour episodes that took five years to complete. In the editing room, however, the first assemblies were much longer: episode one ran for two and a half hours, episode two for four hours, and episode three for over five hours. Choosing which elements of Thoreau’s story to cut was a painstaking process. “It’s very humbling that we were able to honor this man, who we’re packing many very fertile years into three hours, so we lost a lot of things that we cared deeply about,” Erik said. But hopefully, if we’ve done our job well, it will be up to the viewers to discover these beautiful moments for themselves.” Creating the film also became a life-changing experience for the filmmakers, who recognized Thoreau’s prophetic insight, as described in *Walden* in the mid-1800s, about the nature of being swept up in status, surplus, and work—observations that still ring true in today’s culture nearly two centuries later. “There could not have been a better subject to shine a light on my own search for truth,” Erik said in his introduction at the screening. “Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson introduced my brother and me to Transcendentalism, not as a philosophy, but as a lived experience.” Rebecca Kneale Gould is one of the scholars featured in the documentary series and will serve as a scholar-in-residence at the CSWR this fall. Transcendentalism—and Thoreau’s work in particular—has been central to her search for spaciousness in both her life and American culture more broadly, and offers valuable lessons for living, even in contemporary society, she said. “Thoreau is scarcely, truly idle. He walks, he observes, he surveys, he records, he charts, he reads relentlessly and hungrily, and he writes and writes and writes. What he doesn't do, however, is rush or juggle or multitask,” Gould said. “Thoreau stays devoutly attentive to the present moment, attuned to the slow unfolding of the water lily in the sun, riveted to the raucous exhortations of the partying frogs come evening. Thoreau the scientist remains in constant conversation with Thoreau the poet and Thoreau the spiritual seeker. This legacy, too, has something to teach us.” Thoreau was part of the Transcendentalist movement, a circle of New England Unitarian ministers, writers, philosophers, and intellectuals—including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Amos Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, and others—who devoted considerable thought and eloquence to the social problems and challenges of their time. Although they often disagreed with one another, they shared a commitment to self-reliance, intuition, and the importance of human connection with nature and with one another. They were also active as social reformers and abolitionists. Jeffrey Cramer described the film as an important portal into the work of the Transcendentalists and Thoreau, as well as the enduring societal lessons they championed. He noted that the series effectively illustrates how humanity so often neglects the present moment, disregards nature, and overlooks what is truly important in life. “I’ve often been asked the question, ‘What would Thoreau say if he came back?’ And I really don’t like to answer that question because no one could ever predict what Thoreau would say. Thoreau himself couldn't predict what he would say,” Cramer said. “If Thoreau were to come back, he would likely say something to the effect of, ‘I told you 175 years ago how to conduct your lives, and you haven't made much progress. I crowed like a chanticleer, and you turned a deaf ear. Look at you.’” Over the next year, the CSWR will not only expand scholarship on Transcendentalism but also find ways to share it with the public in a tangible, meaningful way. Susan Shumaker, one of the artists working with the Center next fall, said the focus on Transcendentalism couldn't be happening at a more important moment in history. “Many of us are struggling to make sense of the ideals that guide us—justice for all human beings; the health of our planet and the species it sustains; the quest for a meaningful life; the importance of standing up for our beliefs in the public square—in a world where much of that seems to have taken a back seat to commercialism, instant entertainment, and the endlessly polarized news cycle,” she said. “I think the project will have been phenomenally successful if it moves beyond the academy, taking the combined brilliance of the CSWR fellows into the world in a way that energizes people in all walks of life, helping each of us find a deeper connection to each other, to the planet, and to ourselves.” See also:- [ Transcendentalism Initiative ](/programming-threads/transcendentalism-initiative) - [ Transcendence and Transformation ](/programming-threads/transcendence-and-transformation)