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It was said that George Ripley had the ideas of social reform from as early as 1832, with an emphasis in returning to the common sense and practicality of education. In 1836 George Ripley departed from the traditional Unitarian beliefs and held multiple intellectual meetings in his home where like-minded people (men and women) discussed the ideas of philosophy and religion. In this period of time Ripley formed many of his ideas about transcendentalism. His strong background as a minister led to many discussions about proving the existence of God, he challenged the ideas of empirical proof of God through miracles, but believed that the belief of God transcends reasons and the solid reason. Throughout his years as a minister he published many reviews of previous theological works. He believed that the people who thought miracles were proof of God were shallow and that the belief of God was a much more personal spiritual connection. This idea that religion did not need empirical proof was a very challenging idea that was people challenged as heresy. Ripley brought perspectives to the Unitarian idea of religion. Ripley took these new ideas and thought he could apply them to change the social structure of the United States and the whole world. He sought out to accomplish this through publishing projects from 1838-1845 in which he published multiple Unitarian and Transcendental texts. His major effort toward social reform was the utopian experiment **Brooks Farm.** Brooks farm had the goals of reuniting social classes and end the division between educated and laboring classes. **Transcendentalism** sought out the merging of values, ideals, and spiritual matters with physical events the union of mind and body, spirit and flesh. As stated Ripley sought to restore harmony within social classes as inward progress and thought it was, “ the key-tone of the system the important truth… that the amelioration of towards circumstances will be the effect, but can never the means of mental and moral improvement,” They followed a voluntary system of labor and chose agriculture as its principle industry. Its goal was to promote the free development of the individual and end wage slavery through economic self-sufficiency. The farm was set up as a joint stock company, so the citizens had to bye into the membership. Physical manual labor was completed by all and if not they were isolated and neglected. For six years the country lived the communal **Associatism** ideal vicariously through the published accounts of the Brooks Farm experience. In a magazine called “The Dial” a quote published in 1842 stated that the Brooks Farm was, “a utopian microcosm of society that would eventually grow to serve as a model for and inaugurate the social macrocosm,” (Elizabeth Parker Peabody). Followers believed that within 25 years the whole world would follow in their footsteps of their perfect society. The first articles of incorporation of the Brooks farm had a strong emphasis and on education, agriculture, and common business principles. Self-improvement and growth were the goals. In 1847 a fire destroyed the farm buildings, but even without this tragedy the commune was not successful as Ripley had dreamed. The farm that they had bought was not the best plot of land for agricultural purposes so the citizens had many economic hardships. As these hardships occurred they brought in specialized laborers including the shoemaker whose labor brought the commune a profit through commerce outside of the commune. The main reason why people believed the social experiment failed was the lack of family bonds; the maternal instinct to have a nuclear family did not exist well in the commune. The climax of all of these events for Ripley crashed down on him when his wife who was very involved within the community turned from Associatism to become a Catholic. Eventually the society failed due to the fire and mounting debt. Ripley left the failed society to become a journalist working with **Horace Greeley** in 1849. Within this job he struggled until 1863 he published a 16-volume reference work entitled, “The New American Cyclopedia”. This publish made him a multi millionaire and he was very influential about culture however he never went back to or wrote about his strong passions about philosophy and religion through Transcendentalism and Associatism. George Ripley would have attempted to gain federal support for the development of communes and farming. He would want legislation to be passed for access to cheap fertile land, in which his communities could thrive. He would also attempt for legislation to pass that would penalize competitive business and economic choices.
 * George Ripley** was dedicated to improving society, in his younger years he thought he could accomplish that through his role as a minister, but as time progressed he had a split with the Unitarian churches view of proving the existence of God and they attempted to censor him, by telling him to be non-controversial. He shifted his plan for bettering society to the ideas of Associatism and Fouriertism, which was essentially a philosophical idea that wanted to bring together the classes and stressed, “cooperation, non-competitive social arrangements, whose design and practice would bring about universal human harmony,”. His goal was a classless non-competitive society; he believed that social system of the times was harmful to the natural human existence. A culture based on competition was a selfish principle and was repressive, pitted men against one another, and ultimately detrimental to human happiness. Ripley’s main objective towards social reform was an attempt to annul the current social structure and replace it with a strong Christian foundation through ideals of brotherhood and love.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was another transcendentalist who wrote multiple challenging reviews of religious theory and philosophy. He was known as the first to challenge the Unitarian beliefs (Divinity School Address 1838). George Ripley quickly followed in Emerson’s footsteps and also began to publish the same sorts of challenging reviews and was then marked as a Transcendentalist. They had many of the same beliefs against the ideas of Unitarianism and challenged it as a, “Portal to infidelity and complete skepticism;” These challenging reviews led to a big change in Ripley’s life that led him to his reformer status, if Ralph Waldo had not sparked some of Ripley’s ideas challenging Unitarianism, he may have remained a minister and not attempted any of his idealism. Ripley worked with Greely post Brook Farm, even when his idealistic views of a utopian society failed, he did not just fall off the face of the planet never working again. Ripley was hired to do work through //the New York Tribune//, where he was proven yet again to be a strong critic. Horace Greely encouraged Ripley to continue his work as a critic, and even though Ripley left talking about his religious criticism he still led to writing his most famous criticisms and //cyclopedia.// Horace Greely was known to have a strong idea as well for social reform, although not solely religious he sought reforms regarding slavery. Greely had like ideas about reform, just not the same zeal Ripley had towards religion, and his fancy was politics.
 * References:**
 * Ralph Waldo Emerson**:
 * Horace Greely**:
 * Bibliography**

“George Ripley”. Unitarian Universalist Association. (5 Oct 2009) . Gordon, Jessica. “Transcendental Ideas: Social Reform; A History of Brook Farm.” American Transendentalism Web. (2 Oct 2009) . Lane, Charles. “Brook Farm.” The Dial. Jan 1844 quoting Elizabeth Palmer Peabody) (2 Oct 2009) . Robinson, David. “George Ripley”. (2 Oct 2009) . Shultz, Arthur. “George Ripley: Unitarian, Transcendentalist, of Infidel?” American Literature; 1942, Vol. 14 Issue 1, p1, 19p. <"[|__http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=10097979&site=ehost-live__]">.