Frederick Henry Hedge
Encyclopedia
Frederick Henry Hedge was a New England Unitarian
minister and Transcendentalist
. He was a founder of the Transcendental Club
, originally called Hedge's Club, and active in the development of Transcendentalism
.
, Hedge was the son of Harvard University
professor Levi Hedge
. At the age of 12, he traveled to Germany and studied music for five years. He then entered Harvard as a junior and graduated in 1825. His knowledge of German was to serve him well both in hymnody — he translated Luther's Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
) into the most popular English version — and in philosophy, where it allowed him a greater familiarity with Kant
than most of the Americans of his day.
After graduating as valedictorian, he enrolled in Harvard Divinity School
, where he met his intimate friend Ralph Waldo Emerson
. After graduating from the Divinity School, Hedge was ordained as a Unitarian minister in 1829, and became minister at a Unitarian church in West Cambridge. In 1835 he took charge of a church in Bangor, Maine
; in 1850, after spending a year in Europe, he became pastor of the Westminster Church in Providence, Rhode Island
, and in 1856 of the church in Brookline, Massachusetts
.
He was central to the development of Transcendentalism in the 1830s. On September 8, 1836, Hedge met with Ralph Waldo Emerson
, George Putnam
, and George Ripley in Cambridge to discuss the formation of a new club. Eleven days later, Ripley hosted their first official meeting at his house on September 18, 1836; the group would eventually be known as the Transcendental Club
. Its first official meeting was attended by Bronson Alcott, Orestes Brownson
, James Freeman Clarke
, and Convers Francis
as well as Hedge, Emerson, and Ripley. Future members would include Henry David Thoreau
, William Henry Channing
, Christopher Pearse Cranch
, Sylvester Judd
, and Jones Very
. The group planned its meetings for times when Hedge was visiting from Bangor, Maine
, leading to the early nickname "Hedge's Club". Hedge wrote: "There was no club in the strict sense... only occasional meetings of like-minded men and women", earning the nickname "the brotherhood of the 'Like-Minded'". He became alienated from the group's more extreme positions in the 1840s and did not publish in the Transcendental journal The Dial
, despite his friendship with its editor Margaret Fuller
, saying he did not want to be associated with the movement in print.
He was noted as a public lecturer as well as a pulpit orator. In 1853-1854, he lectured on medieval history before the Lowell Institute
.
In 1858, Hedge returned to Harvard Divinity School as a professor of ecclesiastical history; that year, he also became editor of the Christian Examiner
, a role he held for three years. The next year, Hedge began a four-year term as president of the American Unitarian Association
. From 1872 until 1882 he taught German literature
at Harvard.
, Leibnitz, Schopenhauer
, and Coleridge
, and other contributions to periodicals in prose and poetry, he published:
He also wrote hymns for the Unitarian church, and assisted in the compilation of a hymn-book (1853), and published numerous translations from the German poets.
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
minister and Transcendentalist
Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the New England region of the United States as a protest against the general state of culture and society, and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian...
. He was a founder of the Transcendental Club
Transcendental Club
The Transcendental Club was a group of New England intellectuals of the early-to-mid-19th century which gave rise to Transcendentalism.-Overview:...
, originally called Hedge's Club, and active in the development of Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the New England region of the United States as a protest against the general state of culture and society, and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian...
.
Biography
Born in Cambridge, MassachusettsCambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, Hedge was the son of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
professor Levi Hedge
Levi Hedge
Levi Hedge was an educator. He graduated from Harvard University in 1792, was appointed a tutor in 1795, and in 1810 became professor of logic and metaphysics....
. At the age of 12, he traveled to Germany and studied music for five years. He then entered Harvard as a junior and graduated in 1825. His knowledge of German was to serve him well both in hymnody — he translated Luther's Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
A Mighty Fortress is Our God
"A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" is the best known of Martin Luther's hymns. Luther wrote the words and composed the melody sometime between 1527 and 1529. It has been translated into English at least seventy times and also into many other languages...
) into the most popular English version — and in philosophy, where it allowed him a greater familiarity with Kant
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
than most of the Americans of his day.
After graduating as valedictorian, he enrolled in Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...
, where he met his intimate friend Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
. After graduating from the Divinity School, Hedge was ordained as a Unitarian minister in 1829, and became minister at a Unitarian church in West Cambridge. In 1835 he took charge of a church in Bangor, Maine
Bangor, Maine
Bangor is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine...
; in 1850, after spending a year in Europe, he became pastor of the Westminster Church in Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
, and in 1856 of the church in Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston and Newton. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 58,732.-Etymology:...
.
He was central to the development of Transcendentalism in the 1830s. On September 8, 1836, Hedge met with Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
, George Putnam
George Putnam
George Putnam may refer to:*George Putnam , Los Angeles, California, television newsman*George D. Putnam , screenwriter*George F. Putnam, American historian...
, and George Ripley in Cambridge to discuss the formation of a new club. Eleven days later, Ripley hosted their first official meeting at his house on September 18, 1836; the group would eventually be known as the Transcendental Club
Transcendental Club
The Transcendental Club was a group of New England intellectuals of the early-to-mid-19th century which gave rise to Transcendentalism.-Overview:...
. Its first official meeting was attended by Bronson Alcott, Orestes Brownson
Orestes Brownson
Orestes Augustus Brownson was a New England intellectual and activist, preacher, labor organizer, and noted Catholic convert and writer...
, James Freeman Clarke
James Freeman Clarke
James Freeman Clarke , an American theologian and author.-Biography:Born in Hanover, New Hampshire, James Freeman Clarke attended the Boston Latin School, graduated from Harvard College in 1829, and Harvard Divinity School in 1833...
, and Convers Francis
Convers Francis
Convers Francis was a Unitarian minister from Watertown, Massachusetts.-Life and work:He was born the son of Susannah Rand Francis and Convers Francis, and named after his father. His sister, Lydia Maria, later became an important reformer.Francis studied to become a minister at Harvard Divinity...
as well as Hedge, Emerson, and Ripley. Future members would include Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
, William Henry Channing
William Henry Channing
William Henry Channing was an American Unitarian clergyman, writer and philosopher.-Biography:William Henry Channing was born in Boston, Massachusetts...
, Christopher Pearse Cranch
Christopher Pearse Cranch
Christopher Pearse Cranch was an American writer and artist.-Biography:Cranch was born in the District of Columbia. He attended Columbian College and Harvard Divinity School. He briefly held a position as a Unitarian minister...
, Sylvester Judd
Sylvester Judd
Sylvester Judd was an American novelist.-Biography:Sylvester Judd III was born on July 23, 1813, in Westhampton, Massachusetts to Sylvester Judd II and Apphia Hall. He studied at Hopkins Academy in Hadley, Massachusetts, graduated from Yale College in 1836, and from Harvard Divinity School in 1840...
, and Jones Very
Jones Very
Jones Very was an American essayist, poet, clergymen, and mystic associated with the American Transcendentalism movement. He was known as a scholar of William Shakespeare and many of his poems were Shakespearean sonnets...
. The group planned its meetings for times when Hedge was visiting from Bangor, Maine
Bangor, Maine
Bangor is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine...
, leading to the early nickname "Hedge's Club". Hedge wrote: "There was no club in the strict sense... only occasional meetings of like-minded men and women", earning the nickname "the brotherhood of the 'Like-Minded'". He became alienated from the group's more extreme positions in the 1840s and did not publish in the Transcendental journal The Dial
The Dial
The Dial was an American magazine published intermittently from 1840 to 1929. In its first form, from 1840 to 1844, it served as the chief publication of the Transcendentalists. In the 1880s it was revived as a political magazine...
, despite his friendship with its editor Margaret Fuller
Margaret Fuller
Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli, commonly known as Margaret Fuller, was an American journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement. She was the first full-time American female book reviewer in journalism...
, saying he did not want to be associated with the movement in print.
He was noted as a public lecturer as well as a pulpit orator. In 1853-1854, he lectured on medieval history before the Lowell Institute
Lowell Institute
The Lowell Institute is an educational foundation in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., providing for free public lectures, and endowed by the bequest of $250,000 left by John Lowell, Jr., who died in 1836. Under the terms of his will 10% of the net income was to be added to the principal, which in...
.
In 1858, Hedge returned to Harvard Divinity School as a professor of ecclesiastical history; that year, he also became editor of the Christian Examiner
Christian Examiner
The Christian Examiner is a Christian newspaper. The Christian Examiner is a monthly publication serving Southern California, Minnesota and Washington state. The newspapers report on regional, national and international news and events from a Christian perspective...
, a role he held for three years. The next year, Hedge began a four-year term as president of the American Unitarian Association
American Unitarian Association
The American Unitarian Association was a religious denomination in the United States and Canada, formed by associated Unitarian congregations in 1825. In 1961, it merged with the Universalist Church of America to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.According to Mortimer Rowe, the Secretary...
. From 1872 until 1882 he taught German literature
German literature
German literature comprises those literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German part of Switzerland, and to a lesser extent works of the German diaspora. German literature of the modern period is mostly in Standard German, but there...
at Harvard.
Works
Besides essays on the different schools of philosophy, notably magazine articles on St. AugustineSt. Augustine
-People:* Augustine of Hippo or Augustine of Hippo , father of the Latin church* Augustine of Canterbury , first Archbishop of Canterbury* Augustine Webster, an English Catholic martyr.-Places:*St. Augustine, Florida, United States...
, Leibnitz, Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher known for his pessimism and philosophical clarity. At age 25, he published his doctoral dissertation, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, which examined the four separate manifestations of reason in the phenomenal...
, and Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
, and other contributions to periodicals in prose and poetry, he published:
- The Prose Writers of Germany (containing extracts and biographical sketches; Philadelphia, 1848)
- A Christian Liturgy for the Use of the Church (Boston, 1856)
- Reason in Religion (Boston, 1865)
- The Primeval World of Hebrew Tradition (1870)
- Metrical Translations and Poems (with Annis Lee WisterAnnis Lee WisterAnnis Lee Furness Wister was a translator who resided in the United States. She specialized in translations from German to English.-Biography:...
; Boston, 1888)
He also wrote hymns for the Unitarian church, and assisted in the compilation of a hymn-book (1853), and published numerous translations from the German poets.
External links
- Hedge article from Dictionary of Unitarian Universalist Biography online
- Partial text of Hedge's book Reason in Religion from American Unitarian Conference