Based on his recent book, The Fate of Transcendentalism. Secularity, Materiality, and Human Flourishing (2017), Ronda’s talk explores the work of three figures associated with the nineteenth-century American transcendentalist movement or inspired by it: reformer and essayist Elizabeth Peabody, novelist Truman Nelson, and writer Annie Dillard. Each of these reveals a distinctive side of transcendentalism, and all share a common commitment to what Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor calls “secularity.”