Divinity College Speech quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which intellectual movement does the Divinity College Speech most clearly represent?

   • Romanticism
   • Empiricism
   • Correct answer: Transcendentalism
   • Puritanism
   • Deism

   Transcendentalism holds that divinity resides within each person and that moral intuition — not doctrine or scripture — is the surest path to spiritual truth. The address is a founding statement of this movement.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Emerson names two defects of historical Christianity. How does he say the second defect relates to the first?

   • Correct answer: It follows from the first: honoring one man of the past leads people to think revelation is over
   • It has nothing to do with the first: one concerns church wealth, the other its neglect of the poor
   • It cancels out the first: once miracles are doubted, worship of Jesus loses all of its old force
   • It is the cause of the first: because sermons grew dull, people began worshipping a person instead

   Emerson says the second defect "is a consequence of the first." The church has dwelt with "noxious exaggeration" on the person of Jesus, fixing divinity in one figure from long ago. From there it is a short step to speaking of revelation as "somewhat long ago given and done, as if God were dead," instead of something every soul can receive now.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What does Emerson call the most reliable guide to spiritual truth?

   • Historical evidence of miracles performed by Jesus
   • The authority of scripture and the Bible
   • The consensus of established church leaders
   • Correct answer: Moral intuition within the individual soul

   Emerson argues that moral intuition — the direct, inner sense of divine law — is the only trustworthy guide to spiritual truth. He explicitly rejects scripture, clergy, and miracle-testimony as secondary sources that come “at second hand.”

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4. 4

   Question 4. To whom did Emerson deliver the Divinity College Speech?

   • Harvard’s faculty of theology and senior professors
   • Correct answer: The graduating senior class of Harvard Divinity School
   • A public audience at Boston’s Old South Meeting House
   • The Board of Overseers of Harvard University

   Emerson addressed the seven graduating students of the Harvard Divinity School on July 15, 1838 — a remarkably small audience for a speech that would ignite a national controversy.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What does "Cultus" mean in this story?

   • Correct answer: An established system of religious worship and ritual
   • A small, secretive group devoted to a single strong leader
   • A written statement of the beliefs a church requires
   • A formal oath taken by ordained ministers

   Emerson uses “cultus” to mean the organized, institutional worship of the church. He notes it has “great historical interest” while arguing it has lost its living spiritual power.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What is the first defect of historical Christianity that Emerson identifies?

   • It has failed to engage with the political and social problems of modern American society
   • It has ignored the moral teachings of the Hebrew prophets in favor of later church writers
   • Correct answer: It has turned Jesus into a distant demigod rather than a model of universal human divinity
   • It has placed too much emphasis on personal prayer and private devotion instead of public worship

   Emerson argues that the church “has dwelt with noxious exaggeration about the person of Jesus,” painting him as a demigod and cutting off ordinary believers from the divinity that Jesus himself said lives in every human soul.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What is the second defect of historical Christianity that Emerson identifies?

   • It has persecuted scientific thinkers like Galileo and Copernicus
   • Correct answer: It treats revelation as something that ended in the past, as if “God were dead”
   • It has spent too much money on grand buildings instead of charitable works
   • It has relied on emotional revivals rather than reasoned moral teaching

   The second defect is that the church teaches religion as a historical artifact rather than a living experience. Emerson writes that “men have come to speak of the revelation as somewhat long ago given and done, as if God were dead.”

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8. 8

   Question 8. How did Harvard respond to the Divinity College Speech?

   • Correct answer: Harvard banned Emerson from speaking there for nearly thirty years
   • Harvard required all divinity students to write rebuttals of the speech
   • Harvard published the speech in its official theological journal
   • Harvard invited Emerson to join its faculty the following year

   The address so outraged Harvard’s Unitarian faculty that Emerson was not invited back to speak at the university for nearly thirty years. He was publicly denounced as an atheist and an infidel.

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9. 9

   Question 9. How does Emerson describe a preacher who speaks only from memory and doctrine rather than personal experience?

   • A sincere but misguided man who means well despite his limited understanding of scripture
   • A learned scholar who knows scripture but lacks the gift of public speaking
   • A hypocrite who secretly doubts the faith he publicly proclaims from the pulpit
   • Correct answer: A ghostly, “spectral” figure who has lived in vain, sharing nothing of his real life

   Emerson describes listening to such a preacher during a snowstorm: the snow outside was “real” while “the preacher merely spectral.” He concludes, “He had lived in vain,” because the man never converted his own life into truth.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does "Refulgent" mean in this story?

    • Quietly fading, as at the end of a long season
    • Cool and refreshing, restoring strength after the heat
    • Correct answer: Radiant and shining, pouring forth brilliant light
    • Oppressively hot and humid, threatening storms

    Emerson opens, “In this refulgent summer it has been a luxury to draw the breath of life.” Refulgent means radiant or resplendent — shining with great brightness. The word sets a tone of natural abundance before Emerson turns to spiritual argument.

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11. 11

    Question 11. According to Emerson, what was Jesus’ greatest insight?

    • That miracles prove divine authority and are the basis of true faith
    • That salvation is available only to those who believe in his resurrection
    • That God will judge all people on their obedience to the Ten Commandments
    • Correct answer: That God incarnates himself in every person, and divinity lives in all humanity

    Emerson writes that Jesus “saw that God incarnates himself in man, and evermore goes forth anew to take possession of his world.” He celebrates Jesus not as a unique deity but as the one person who fully grasped the divine potential within all human beings.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does Emerson say happens to Jesus’ teachings when the church takes them over?

    • Correct answer: The literal “Understanding” hijacks the poetic truth and turns it into rigid dogma
    • They are quickly forgotten by a society far more interested in commerce and politics
    • They are improved upon by later theologians who add moral nuance to them
    • They are preserved faithfully and spread to every corner of the earth

    Emerson writes that “the understanding caught this high chant from the poet’s lips” and in the next age declared, “This was Jehovah come down out of heaven.” The living, poetic truth of Jesus’ message was fossilized into official doctrine.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What central advice does Emerson give the graduating divinity students?

    • Focus on pastoral care and visiting every family in your parish above all else
    • Correct answer: Go alone, trust your own soul, and speak truth first-hand from your own life
    • Study the great saints and prophets, like Wesley and Oberlin, and follow their example
    • Choose one denomination and defend its traditions with scholarly rigor

    Emerson’s climactic advice is: “Go alone; to refuse the good models, even those most sacred in the imagination of men, and dare to love God without mediator or veil.” The true preacher deals out his own life “passed through the fire of thought.”

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14. 14

    Question 14. How does Emerson open the address, before turning to religion?

    • With a list of the moral failures of the contemporary American church
    • With a direct statement of the Transcendentalist philosophy
    • Correct answer: With a lyrical description of the natural beauty of summer
    • With a history of the Harvard Divinity School and its founding principles

    Emerson opens with a rhapsodic description of summer: the grass, buds, meadow flowers, birds, stars, and the night sky. This establishes that nature itself is a manifestation of the divine moral law he will go on to discuss.

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15. 15

    Question 15. What word does Emerson use to describe what the word “miracle” — as used by the Christian church — has become?

    • A myth
    • A falsehood
    • A fable
    • Correct answer: A monster

    Emerson writes that the word “Miracle, as pronounced by Christian churches, gives a false impression; it is Monster.” He argues that Jesus himself meant something far more personal and universal by the word — that all of human life is miraculous.

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16. 16

    Question 16. What does the snowstorm anecdote illustrate about the state of preaching?

    • Correct answer: That the living reality of nature is more spiritually vital than empty, doctrinaire sermons
    • That preachers should use dramatic weather events as metaphors in their sermons
    • That natural disasters distract congregations and make good preaching impossible
    • That bad weather keeps people home, so ministers should hold shorter and simpler services in winter

    The snowstorm was “real” while the preacher was “merely spectral.” The contrast shows that the natural world overflows with the divine presence that the preacher—speaking only from memory and formula—has failed to capture or convey.

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17. 17

    Question 17. What does Emerson mean by saying moral truth “cannot be received at second hand”?

    • That moral truth changes over time, so what was true for ancient teachers like Moses is no longer relevant today
    • Correct answer: That each person must directly experience divine law through their own intuition — it cannot be transmitted from one person to another
    • That books and scriptures are unreliable sources because they have been copied and mistranslated by many different hands over the centuries
    • That moral truth can only be understood by those with a formal theological education

    Emerson writes: “Truly speaking, it is not instruction, but provocation, that I can receive from another soul. What he announces, I must find true in me, or wholly reject.” The divine must be discovered within oneself — no teacher can give it to you.

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18. 18

    Question 18. What does Emerson identify as the central theme and solution for the “decaying church”?

    • Correct answer: Soul — first soul, second soul, and evermore soul
    • A return to the Puritan covenant tradition and stricter doctrinal standards
    • New rites, new rituals, and a reformed institutional church structure
    • Political engagement and the fight for civil and religious liberty

    Emerson declares: “The remedy to their deformity is, first, soul, and second, soul, and evermore, soul.” He dismisses all attempts to build new religious systems as “cold,” arguing that only living spiritual experience can revive the church.

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19. 19

    Question 19. Which of these events actually happened in the story?

    • Emerson opens the address with a lyrical description of summer in nature.

      Happened

      The very first paragraph celebrates the natural beauty of summer: the grass, buds, meadow, stars, and night sky.

    • Emerson argues that Jesus was uniquely divine and should be worshipped above all other human beings.

      Didn't happen

      Emerson praises Jesus as a great moral teacher who understood universal human divinity, but explicitly rejects the claim that Jesus was uniquely divine or that his miracles prove divine authority.

    • Emerson identifies two defects in the way historical Christianity is administered.

      Happened

      He numbers them explicitly: the first is the “noxious exaggeration” of the person of Jesus; the second is treating revelation as a past event rather than a living presence.

    • Emerson recounts listening to a powerful sermon that moved him deeply.

      Didn't happen

      He describes the opposite: a preacher so lifeless that the snowstorm outside was more real and spiritually alive than anything the man said.

    • Emerson urges the graduates to stay loyal to the theological traditions of the Unitarian church.

      Didn't happen

      Emerson urges them to “go alone,” trust their own souls, and refuse all secondary models — including the traditions of established denominations.

    • Emerson calls moral intuition an “insight of the perfection of the laws of the soul.”

      Happened

      He writes: “The intuition of the moral sentiment is an insight of the perfection of the laws of the soul.” These laws are self-executing, timeless, and not subject to circumstance.

    • Emerson says that churches are built on Christ’s principles.

      Didn't happen

      He says the opposite: “churches are not built on his principles, but on his tropes.” The church took Jesus’ poetic language literally and built doctrine from his metaphors.

    • Emerson closes by looking forward to a new Teacher who will reveal the divine laws in full.

      Happened

      The address ends with Emerson’s vision of a “new Teacher” who will see the shining laws “come full circle” and show that Duty, Science, Beauty, and Joy are one.

    • Emerson argues that the Sabbath and the institution of preaching are two genuine gifts of Christianity.

      Happened

      Despite his critique, Emerson acknowledges “two inestimable advantages Christianity has given us: first, the Sabbath… and secondly, the institution of preaching.”

    • Emerson recommends that the graduating students found a new church with new rites and forms.

      Didn't happen

      He explicitly rejects this: “all attempts to project and establish a Cultus with new rites and forms seem to me vain.” He urges them instead to breathe new life into existing forms through personal spiritual vitality.

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20. 20

    Question 20. What does Emerson say about the relationship between the moral law within the soul and the laws of nature?

    • Natural law is superior to moral law because it is visible and can be scientifically measured
    • Correct answer: They are ultimately one and the same — the law of gravity and the purity of heart are identical
    • Moral law belongs to human society while natural law belongs to the animal kingdom
    • They are fundamentally separate: one governs the inner life, the other the physical world

    Emerson closes by envisioning the new Teacher “shall see the identity of the law of gravitation with purity of heart.” For Emerson, the universe is governed by a single moral law expressed both in the motion of planets and in the conscience of a just person.

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