Emerson's View on a Minister's Duty in The Divinity School Address

In The Divinity School Address, Emerson speaks one what he believes is the right way to serve God and the people of his church. He talks of how a Minister should speak of God's glory and help to expand the faith of the parishioners. He denounces those who use fear in instilling people with God's word and says that a Minister that opens his own life to his people will have great effect on them. &…

…them and allowing them to know his own life; "The true preacher can always be known be this, that he deals out to the people his life, - life passed through the fired of thought" (1155). Emerson believes that a good Minister should help his people through their doubts of faith by reassuring them that he too has doubted before; "let their doubts know that you have doubted, and their wonder feel that you have wondered" (1158).