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A pulpit of envy: Girardian elements in Emerson's Last "Supper"

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From: Renascence
Date: 19991001
Author:Kevorkian, Martin

RALPH Waldo Emerson, the founding figure of a "self-reliant" American Literature, is famous for having initiated his literary career by taking leave of his regular pulpit in 1832. The particular occasion of Emerson's departure from the ministry at Boston's Second Church, his refusal to administer the elements to his congregation in the celebration of communion, is often dismissed as an arcane or at least incidental matter. It has been suggested that Emerson somewhat arbitrarily selected this act of rebellion, the so-called "Lord's Supper Controversy," as an expedient way to terminate his ...

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