Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Materials / E. Hurth -- Introduction / E. Hurth -- Chapter One. \'The Spirit Of Infidelity\': Ralph Waldo Emerson And Harvard’s Early Göttingen Students / E. Hurth -- Chapter Two. The \'Credentials\' Of Faith: The Miracles Controversy In New England / E. Hurth -- Chapter Three. The Arch-Fiend Of Christian Faith: David Friedrich Strauss And New England Divinity / E. Hurth -- Chapter Four. The Claims Of History: Strauss’s \'Mytho-Mania\' And After / E. Hurth -- Chapter Five. Man As God-Maker: Feuerbachian Atheism In New England / E. Hurth -- Chapter Six. From Idealism To Atheism: Theodore Parker And The Projection Theory Of Religion / E. Hurth -- Chapter Seven. The \'Cures For Atheism\': Emerson And Jakob Böhme / E. Hurth -- Chapter Eight. \'A World Without God\': Emerson And Arthur Schopenhauer / E. Hurth -- Conclusion / E. Hurth -- Selected Bibliography / E. Hurth -- Index / E. Hurth.

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This book sets out to shed light on what is specific to American Transcendentalism by comparing it with the atheistic vision of German philosophers and theologians like Ludwig Feuerbach and Arthur Schopenhauer. The study argues that atheism was part of the discursive and religious context from which Transcendentalism emerged. Tendencies toward atheism were already inherent in Transcendentalist thought. The atheist scenario came to the surface in the controversy about Emerson’s “new views.” Contemporary critics charged that the deity Emerson worshipped was himself. Emersonian Transcendentalism thus anticipated some of the central concerns in the works of German atheists like Feuerbach. From idealism to atheism seemed but a short step.