[originaltext] The United States had won its independence from Britain just

The United States had won its independence from Britain just 22 years before Ralph Waldo Emerson was born. But it had yet to win its cultural independence. It still took its traditions from other countries, mostly from Western Europe. (30) What the American Revolution did for the nation’s politics, Emerson did for its culture. When he began writing and speaking in the 1830s, conservatives saw him as radical-wild and dangerous. (31)But to the young, he spoke words of self-dependence—a new language of freedom. He was the first to bring them a truly American spirit. Emerson travelled to Europe several times. And he made speeches at a number of places in the United States. But, except for those trips, he lived all his life in the small town of Concord, Massachusetts. He once said that the shortest books are those about the lives of people with great minds. Emerson was not speaking about himself. Yet his own life proves the thought. In 1831, Ralph Waldo Emerson resigned as the minister of his church because of a minor religious issue. What really troubled him was something else. It was his growing belief that a person could find God without the help of an organized church. (32)He believed that God is not found in systems and words, but in the minds of people. He said that God in us worships God. After he returned from Europe, he married and settled in Concord. Then he began his life as a writer and speaker.
30. What can we learn about Emerson’s contribution to the United States?
31. What did the young people think about Emerson in his time?
32. How did Emerson’s religious belief differ from traditional ones?