Introduction -- "The spirit of infidelity" : Ralph Waldo Emerson and Harvard's early Göttingen students -- The "credentials" of faith : the miracles controversy in New England -- The arch-fiend of Christian faith : David Friedrich Strauss and New England divinity -- The claims of history : Strauss's "mytho-mania" and after -- Man as god-maker : Feuerbachian atheism in New England -- From idealism to atheism : Theodore Parker and the projection theory of religion -- The "cures for atheism" : Emerson and Jakob Böhme -- "A world without God" : Emerson and Arthur Schopenhauer -- Conclusion
Summary
This book sets out to shed light on what ios specific to American Transcendentalism by comparing it with the atheistic vision of German philosophers and theologians like Ludwig Feuerbach and Arthur Schopenhauer
