Frederic Henry Hedge
From Philosopedia
Frederic Henry Hedge (1805 - 1890)
The editor of Christian Examiner (1857—1861) and a Harvard professor of ecclesiastical history and German literature, Hedge was one of the principal supporters of the “new views” that came to be known in the 1830s as Transcendentalism.
The Transcendental Club which met in the middle 1830s in the Boston area, in fact, was referred to as “Hedge’s Club.” He differed with Emerson and others, however, on the issue of the importance of the church in religious life. Emerson thought most institutions, including the church, were at best a necessary evil. Hedge argued that such institutions provide a necessary historical continuity that does not supersede religious intuition but supplements it in importance.
With Henry W. Bellows, James Freeman Clarke, and the “Broad Church” group, he opposed the radicals of the Free Religious Association.
