Transcendentalism Initiative

By Ryan Shea | Edited by Russell C. Powell An encompassing ecological vision may be one of our best hopes not only for a healthy and habitable future, but also for a wise and worthwhile present. Such an ecology cannot be less than a science, but it can...

By Russell C. Powell A mystery is announced—heralded, really—toward the end of the first episode of Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers’ new three-part documentary film Henry David Thoreau , produced by Ken Burns and Don Henley, which was released...

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...

In April 1843, the Transcendentalists’ periodical The Dial departed from its usual mix of essays, poems, and reviews to publish a rare catalogue of over two hundred titles, forming a “cabinet of mystic and theosophic lore.” The cabinet was a curated...

By Brigitte Bailey | Edited by Russell C. Powell In one of her first articles for the New-York Daily Tribune in 1844, Margaret Fuller reported on the founding meeting of the New York Prison Association, which organized reformers into what would become an...

By Nicholas Low | Edited by Russell C. Powell When people discover that you study religion, they often ask about your religious background or what tradition you belong to. For years now, my answer to this question has been that I was raised “accidentally...

By Noelle A. Baker, Guest Contributor | Edited by Russell C. Powell It was summer 2023, and I was shopping at the farmers market in Highlands Square in Denver with my husband, Will Hare. 32 nd Avenue is one of our favorite streets. Tucked into a...

By Richard Higgins | Edited by Russell C. Powell I like to keep a brisk pace when I walk, but recently I’ve found myself stopping to look at unusually perfect leaves. It is more like being arrested than choosing to stop. If I walk by one, something...

By Ulrike Wagner, Guest Contributor | Edited by Russell C. Powell Building on author Megan Marshall’s focus on the women of Transcendentalism in this series, I ask what use the movement had for them and what use it might still have for us. Marshall...