Workshop 5: Margaret Fuller

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Part of What Moves Us: Unitarian Universalist Theology

In This Section

Introduction
From What Moves Us

What is done here at home in my heart is my religion. — Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) This workshop introduces Margaret Fuller’s Liberal Theology of the Human Heart. The workshop tests the relevance of her theological legacy for our religious lives as Unitarian Universalists today. Fuller, once…
Workshop-at-a-Glance
From What Moves Us

Activity Minutes Opening 5 Activity 1: Losing Heart and Finding It Again 10 Activity 2: Introducing Margaret Fuller 20 Activity 3: Small Group Reflection, Testing Fuller 40 Activity 4: Large Group Reflection 10 Closing 5…
Spiritual Preparation
From What Moves Us

Read Leader Resource 2, At Concord with the Emersons. Use these questions to help you find connections between your own theology and Fuller’s: Fuller says, “What is done here at home in my heart is my religion.” What does she mean? Where do you locate your religion?…
Opening
From What Moves Us

Activity time: 5 minutes Materials for Activity Small worship table and cloth Chalice, candle and lighter or LED battery-operated candle Newsprint, markers, and tape Optional: Microphone Preparation for Activity Set up the altar or centering table with the cloth, chalice, candle and matches or…
Activity 1: Losing Heart and Finding It Again
From What Moves Us

Activity time: 10 minutes Materials for Activity Participant journals Variety of writing and drawing implements Timepiece (minutes) Optional: Bell or chime Preparation for Activity If participants may need journals, obtain notebooks with unlined pages. Gather a variety of writing and drawing…
Activity 2: Introducing Margaret Fuller
From What Moves Us

Activity time: 20 minutes Materials for Activity Handout 1, Introducing Margaret Fuller Story, “Margaret Fuller’s Mystical Experience” Leader Resource 1, Margaret Fuller Portrait Participant journals Variety of writing and drawing implements Timepiece (minutes) Optional: Bell or chime Optional:…
Activity 3: Small Group Reflection, Testing Fuller
From What Moves Us

Activity time: 40 minutes Materials for Activity Newsprint, markers, and tape Participant journals Variety of writing and drawing implements Timepiece (minutes) Optional: Bell or chime Preparation for Activity If participants may need journals, obtain notebooks with unlined pages….
Activity 4: Large Group Reflection
From What Moves Us

Activity time: 10 minutes Materials for Activity Newsprint, markers, and tape Timepiece (minutes) Optional: Bell or chime Preparation for Activity Prepare and post newsprint with these questions: What have you learned or now want to think more deeply about from exploring your ability to take hear…
Closing
From What Moves Us

Activity time: 5 minutes Materials for Activity Small worship table and cloth Chalice, candle and lighter or LED battery-operated candle A copy of Singing the Living Tradition, the Unitarian Universalist hymnbook Taking It Home handouts for all participants Preparation for Activity Review the Tak…
Leader Reflection and Planning
From What Moves Us

After the workshop, co-leaders should make a time to get together to evaluate this workshop and plan future workshops. Use these questions to guide your shared reflection and planning: What have you learned about your own ability to explore personal experiences as part of your own strategy to…
Taking It Home: Margaret Fuller
From What Moves Us

What is done here at home in my heart is my religion. — Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) Focus your intention to try and notice yourself or someone else struggling to keep their personal integrity intact—that is, struggling to take heart. What can you do as a practice of your faith to help yourself…
Margaret Fuller's Mystical Experience
From What Moves Us

Based on multiple sources, particularly a letter from Margaret Fuller to Caroline Sturgis, October 22, 1840. The letter may be found at Houghton Library, Harvard University (call number MS Am 1221 (242))….
Handout 1: Introducing Margaret Fuller
From What Moves Us

Margaret Fuller was: A pre-eminent United States human rights advocate The first major U.S. foreign correspondent, spending four years in Europe reporting on and supporting, among other things, Italy’s failed socialist revolution The first literary editor of a major U.S….
Leader Resource 1: Margaret Fuller Portrait
From What Moves Us
Leader Resource 2: At Concord with the Emerson's
From What Moves Us

Excerpted and adapted from the article, “Margaret Fuller’s 1842 Journal: At Concord with the Emersons” edited with an Introduction by Joel Myerson, Harvard Library Bulletin 21 (October 1979)….
Leader Resource 3: Fuller's Theology in the Congregation
From What Moves Us

This is a 30-minute activity. Materials A copy of Leader Resource 2, At Concord with the Emersons Preparation Locate the journal entries from September 1 and September 17 in the leader resource and prepare to read them aloud. Description Participants reflect on Fuller’s lifelong struggle to…
Leader Resource 4: Engaging as Religious Professionals
From What Moves Us

This is a 30-minute activity. Participants discuss the roles of feelings and of intellect in the life of their congregation(s). Use these questions as a guide: How are feelings and intellect reflected in communal worship in the congregation your serve? Do you perceive worship as a “feeling”…
Find Out More
From What Moves Us

Charles Capper, Margaret Fuller An American Romantic Life: The Public Years (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007). Margaret Fuller, http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/fuller/woman1.html“… in the Nineteenth Century, tract originally published in The Dial, 1843 and 1844. Joan W.