America. He received his phd in american studies in 1983 from the university of kansas and is on the faculty of Catholic University for the past 35 years. His research and teaching interests include a variety of religion and cultural topics. Religious movements, religion and social change, fundamentalism, religion in American Culture, religion and globalization and religion and ecology. Please without further ado, join me in welcoming building us. Thank you. So, good evening everyone. I am delighted to be here and i am delighted that you are here on this rather hot, muggy, welcome to washington dc in august evening. I am going to start this with this image. Actually i had originally conjured up an image of Ralph Waldo Emerson and then i doctored it with long hair and beads and a headband and i looked at it a while and came to the conclusion that this would probably verged on sacrilege so instead, i am starting with this particular image and the title from walden pond to woodstock, the transcendentalist roots of the 1960s counterculture. I am going to share with you some thoughts this evening and some ideas about a mid 19th century american religious, philosophical and Literary Movement known as transcendentalism. And its connections with the counterculture of that socially, culturally, politically tumultuous generation gap age of aquarius , make love, not war, times are changing. Summer of love, turn on, tune in, drop out. Sex, drugs, and rock n roll, flower power era known as the 60s. So, my strategy this evening will be relatively straightforward. What i would like to do is to first give you a working definition if you will of what i mean by transcendentalism. And then a definition of sorts of what i mean by the counterculture and then i want to talk briefly about some of the general affinities and differences between these two movements. And then specifically i want to highlight at greater length for particular issues that i believe most directly link transcendentalism with the 1960s counterculture. And these issues are matters having to do with individualism , the interest in eastern religions, new forms of communitarianism and various views and attitudes toward nature. So, these are the main points that i want to stress in terms of how these two eras in time linkup so to speak. The topic from walden ponds to woodstock, the transcendentalist roots of the 60s counterculture is a rather large one of course for an evening lecture. So, i just want you to know that im probably a little bit hyper conscious of the hazards of caricature and oversimplification here and will try to avoid or at least temper these dangers. Also, i cant see you distinctly because of the lights, but i suspect there is enough of a like me demographic here that you are going to know whether i am lying or not about the 60s. So, i also want to note by way of an introduction that i am not arguing or not asserting this evening that there is any kind of a direct causal relationship between walden pond and woodstock. Henry David Thoreau or Ralph Waldo Emerson, they were not immediate progenitors of jerry rubin or jimi hendrix. After all, there is nearly a 100 year gap between the heyday of transcendentalism and the rise of the 1960s counterculture. Obviously a lot happens in between. It is also important i think that we see each of these phenomenon in the context of their own historical uniqueness. However they may be connected to one another or to ideas and events. What i would like to do instead is 2. 2, and this basically re phrases the title of this talk. What i want to do is to point to certain ideas, certain cultural enforces and orientations that were part of 19th century transcendentalism and suggest how these dynamics showed up again and shared a certain affinities with the counterculture of the 60s. So perhaps a slightly different way to frame the talk and i will come back to this later, is to ask not so much where the root of the counterculture lay in relationship to transcendentalism, but rather why similar ideas or cultural impulses or social trends, why did they assert themselves in these two very different historical moments . What circumstances of the tumultuous 60s facilitated the rise of interest that can also be found in the mid1900s. We could say that the transcendentalist showed an obvious interest in eastern religion as elements of the counterculture also showed 100 years later an obvious interest in eastern religion. What produced those affinities . Why was it in those two very different Historical Context that that particular interest arose . By way of introduction i would also note that both the Transcendentalist Movement in the 1960s and is counterculture , these are well cloud academic terrains. Both of these phenomenon are part of the lexicon of American Culture narrative and both have been the focus of mountains of scholarly commentary analysis and so forth along with numerous biographies of leading movers and shakers from each of these eras. Were you given a one page handout . That is obviously a starter bibliography if you want to read more or no more theres lots to read and lots to know. And on the backside of that is just kind of an outline of how i am going to proceed. So, let me begin then, wait a minute. Pardon me. I am using a new clicker for the first time here. I think it is probably worth noting at the beginning that will some of the ideas and aspects of transcendentalism, transcendentalist thought remain subject to critical commentary today, for example you can still find arguments that emerson or transcendentalist thought is a bit fuzzy, not particularly coherent. Emerson has also been charged so to speak with not doing well in terms of thinking about evil and suffering in the world in terms of how he processed that with those kinds of things with his thoughts. There were a considerable number of people in his own day who needed a lot more than his somewhat ethereal sense of wonder. They needed help, concrete help and concrete relief. Sometimes emerson has taken a little flak over those kinds of issues. However, it strikes me that there is far more negative commentary if you will associated with the meaning and significant of the 1960s in general and the counterculture in particular. That rowdy decade still operates as something of a cultural punchingbag that evokes disdain and occasionally outright hostility. Particularly from individuals who are convinced, or have convinced themselves that virtually every form of contemporary american social, cultural, economic, political or spiritual pathology today somehow or the other has its roots somewhere in the turmoil and disruptions of the 60s which is to say they are echoing one of William Faulkners bestknown lines, the past is never dead, it is not even past. The 60s are still very much with us today in the context of our ongoing culture war contentiousness. You may or may not agree with that. But it strikes me that you say transcendentalism and people may look at you glassy eyed. But if you say the 60s, that will often times evoke a response. A common anti60s trope is the idea that the counterculture was nothing but a bunch of potheads and hypocrites who eventually sold out to the establishment of this particular cartoon that summarizes that negativity. Okay, so let me start then with a definition of sort of what i mean by transcendentalism. The scholarly literature on the topic of transcendentalism is a little fuzzy with regards to the definition. The movement as noted was a rather small one of new england intellectual leads in the mid 19th century. Transcendentalism is generally understood to have begun with a selfconscious movement if you will. With the publication of Ralph Waldo Emersons nature and the founding of the Transcendentalist Club in the boston area in 1836. In its day, transcendentalism was referred to in different ways, the hedge club, the new views, the new school, the influential philosophy or simply as the movement. It was primarily religious, philosophical and literary in nature and consisted of significant numbers of individuals with ministerial backgrounds, especially ones associated with unitarianism. These in many cases, unitarian ministers continued their reaction against calvinist orthodoxy. But they also abandoned the unitarian tradition largely because they believed it had lost its overly intellectual or theological and emotional appeal and credibility. Speaking at harvard, the Divinity School in 1838 which at the time was a stronghold of unitarianism Ralph Waldo Emerson pronounced unitarianism a decaying church. So, in the sense to me it is very much a religious movement, a religious Reform Movement whatever case we want to make that it was also a philosophical movement, a Literary Movement and what have you. Most of the transcendentalist were relatively young, educated middleclass white and male. Aside from their meetings, their public lectures, their debates and discussions, essays and poetry they also launched various publishing initiatives most notably the dial. Notable transcendentalist riders and poet and thinkers included henry David Thoreau, george riley, margaret fuller, Elizabeth Peabody palmer and perhaps most famously of all Ralph Waldo Emerson. Transcendentalist for the most part were not political revolutionaries. We are not talking about the sts or the weathermen. Or really what i would call radical social reformers. For that matter, although most of them by the standards of our day and in the context of their own time most of them took rather progressive positions on social issues and a number of them like parker for example embraced the abolitionist cause with fervor. Nor is it the case as with most social and intellectual movements all of the transcendentalist were not necessarily all in agreement with all of the assumption and ideas that are generally considered corp to the movement. In one sense part of the impetus behind there initially informally coming together was precisely to argue with one another. To discuss the talk, the debate and so forth. The intellectual genealogies of transcendentalist thought includes various threads of platonic and german idealism, german and english mysticism and romanticism and for some, especially emerson and thoreau, various philosophical and religious ideas associated with eastern religious traditions. Most notably with hinduism. I will have more to say about this in a bit. So, if one were to do a little chart summarizing what other ideas are central or that were basic to transcendentalism, it would include in these, first of all and this is not necessarily in order of priority, the desire to conceive of new ways of thinking about the human condition and along with that a new sense of wonder, of excitement and challenge about knowing the universe and everything in it. This is something i think that in many ways this is stated explicitly in the writings but particularly someone like emerson, this is something that comes fairly clear to me. There is a sense of wonder at things. It was really quite exciting. It also entailed a quest for new and more authentic types of spiritual experience and spiritual growth. Again the argument being that at that point unitarianism so to speak was running out of spiritual energy. Along with the desire to expand your full knowledge and this also included assumptions about the fundamental unity of mind and of the world. Again this is something the idea that is very basic to emerson spot. There was a strong emphasis on intuition as the highest source of knowledge on these kind of unconscious or non rational, not irrational, but nonrational sources of insight and creativity. This is something that interests me in looking at some of the lives of people that have been immensely creative and have come up with new things. How often times that process involves a deep intuitive insight. I am thinking of a letter that einstein did to a physicist friend about getting to the mc squared and how does that happen . In which he describes this kind of intuitive insight and then this second order struggle to find a mathematical language to express at this deep intuitive level that he knew if you will. Conversely among transcendentalist, at least among some of them there was a sense of the limitations of purely rational thinking. They very much try to avoid secondary or mediated knowledge if you will. There was also a rejection of conventional theism. This gets into a religious piece of transcendentalist thought. God for someone like emerson was not a person, some kind of a cosmic commanderinchief up there somewhere. But more of a kind of eminent reality and the depth of the human person and in nature and importantly accessible to all. This also involved transcendentalist thought that involved a critique of historical christianity and especially one that included the rejection of miracles. Jesus in this sense may have been a great moral teacher and a great man, but not beyond that in relationship to suture natural supernatural miracles and things of the sort. There was also a rejection basically of conventional religious creed, doctrines, dogma, rituals in general. Or we could just say any type of religious formalism. At least in the sense of trying to argue that those things are the primary datum of religion. They are not. They are secondary to again this deep experiential intuitive kind of insight, the Divine Energy that is again emerson saw as eminent in nature and in every human person that was available to all and that gave life meaning and purpose and direction. Also, this is my language, this theological anthropology was one that rejected a negative view of human nature. Calvins institute innately corrupt from the womb. You would probably not have heard that coming from emersons lips, the kind of a phrase. Humans are inherently good, they have great potential. And as i noted also the transcendentalist generally took progressive positions with regard to what today we call gender issues, the emancipation of women and also the abolition of slavery. All right, so what about the counterculture of the 1960s . What is a working definition here . Generally speaking the counterculture was a far more amorphous and chaotic phenomenon than transcendentalism. And a different type of social movement in multiple ways although i will come back to this again later. They were the same kind of movement in one particular way. The rise of the counterculture and this too raises the question of if i say the 60s to you, or you hear that phrase 1960s, what does that mean in terms of a specified period of time . Does that mean to you 1960 to 1970 . It doesnt to me. The 1960s started about 1963. And they ended about 1973 in terms of on the one end the murder of john kennedy and on the other end the u. S. Getting out of vietnam. The 60s in terms of what years you are referencing, different people play with that different ways if you will. So anyway, this period of time is associated with a very anti establishment mood to put it mildly. A spirit of primarily but not exclusively useful rebellion and unrest. Opposition to the numbing conformity of the 1950s to the social, racial, and gender injustices in american society. To the stifling nature of bureaucratic structures and consumer culture and if they got it right in his making of the counterculture, the counterculture represented a collective rejection of purely instrumental rationality, regime, corporate and technological expertise. And other forms of industrial dehumanization. It would be interesting, what in it to think through the counterculture and all of that with the Space Program in the 1960s. In terms of the difference and that was a big part of the 60s, the man on the moon and what have you. Think about the difference in terms of the cultural dynamics in this regard. And he lost his place. Okay. Alternative ways of living, drugs, exotic religions that were associated with the counterculture were for at least some alienated American Youth alternative ways of finding and i suppose one could say parenthetically in a lot of cases only temporarily finding comfort in meaning. So of course the rise of the 1960s the counterculture of the 1960s cannot be understood outside the atrocities of what happened in vietnam and the resistance that arose to that national trauma. Nor can it be understood outside the social conflict surrounding the Civil Rights Movement. And in my mind the Civil Rights Movement in particular was one of the primary Maine Springs, the primarily driving Maine Springs for social activism throughout much of the 1960s, the Student Movement and the Antiwar Movement and what have you. The Civil Rights Movement was in many ways the primary maine spring here. It should also be noted in regard to the above of what i just said that the counterculture of the 60s have two streams if you will or i tend to think of them in these two kinds of models or types. One, part of the counterculture was that envisioned a future american utopia if you will of freedom and free and then you fill in the blank, free love, what have you. But it was a future that would be achieved by primarily dropping out, or at least dropping out of middle Class Society if you will. So, i called this the option of social change in relationship to the 1960s. The other counterculture stream envisioned an attempt and eventual utopian future, not so much by way of dropping out but by way of confrontations, political activism, protesting , street demonstrations and so forth. This is the countercultural dynamic associated more directly with the rise of the socalled new roof and Community Building and so forth. I call this the tom hayden counterculture option of social change. And obviously this was something that was more directly associated with the Student Movement, Antiwar Movement and the Civil Rights Movement. As i noted earlier the 1960s in general and the rise of the counterculture in particular are often associated with this negative criticism. It produced a great rush of events. Im sure we can all spend hours sharing with one another. But, these events have often been attributed as ones that ripped apart the nation. As such the decade has been described as a time of national psychosis. Or as Sidney Ahlstrom more politely put it, a time of national karma. I really liked this, it is which a well behaved america has passed away. It is kind of a poetic ring. I like the phrase. Recently scholars like putnam and campbell in their book american grace which by the way is a really excellent study of the challenges of religious culture. In the book and these are not people hostile to the 1960s they nevertheless refer to it as the long 1960s. Again implying a decade of national travail. In terms of these more negative contours, the 1960s has also been associated with the sexual revolution. Something that has some serious ramifications on much of conventional or traditional family life. It has been associated with it. Of unfettered selfindulgence on the part of privileged children of the american middle class and it has been associated with the tidal wave of in moderation, mindlessness, and hedonism. This is also a period of time in which the political energies of at least some naove youth generated into revolutionary fantasies and anti intellectualism and a kind of grotesque pseudomarxist cultism. Again thank weathermen, black panthers, so forth. In a more positive vein the counterculture of the 60s is linked innocently with hippie were gallia, it is the stuff i dressed emerson up in the picture and not going to show you. Beads, bellbottoms, tiedye shirts, long shaggy hair, you know all of this. More seriously it is associated with the rejection of the conformism and it is associated with releasing the human spirit from stifling institutional restrictions, the rejection of competition, status seeking a heightening moral sensibility, particularly regarding the contradiction surrounding american race relations. We hold these truths to be selfevident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable right and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of liberty. Watch these dogs trying to hit people up as they try to vote. The war on imperialism, sex and sexism, environmental expectation and the misuse of government power. That brought attention to these kinds of problems. This was a time when a significant number of individuals think norman mailers armies of the night. Significant numbers of individuals, put not only their conscience but their lives on the line to witness the freedom, the racially quality, peace, justice and simply a better vision of america and its possibilities. The 1960s also produced a fresh surge of this new left clinical activism. And in its earliest years there was really a tight, you may not share this, in its earliest years there was a tide of passionate shoot for the moon idealism which also i think is something that made John Kennedys murder particularly traumatic in relationship to that kind of idealism. Like all great eras, the 60s and the counterculture thereof had its own unique slogan and sounds. I was going to start this with jimi hendrix and the doors and janis joplin and i chickened out. I couldnt do it. So, what can i say. I could do a rendition of me and bobby mcgee for you. Wouldnt it be fun if we have the time. I would be curious to do a little Free Association so i say the 60s or the counterculture and who are the first five people whose images come to your mind . The times are changing. Yet, annie hoffman, tom hayden, richard nixon, walter cronkite, william westmoreland, peter, paul, mary. , doctor king, bobby kennedy, marcia, and so on