Editing Pantheism (section)

====Growing influence====
During the beginning of the 19th century, pantheism was the viewpoint of many leading writers and philosophers, attracting figures such as [[William Wordsworth]] and [[Samuel Coleridge]] in Britain; [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte]], Schelling and Hegel in Germany; [[Knut Hamsun]] in Norway; and [[Walt Whitman]], [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] and [[Henry David Thoreau]] in the United States. Seen as a growing threat by the Vatican, in 1864, it was formally condemned by [[Pope Pius IX]] in the ''[[Syllabus of Errors]]''.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Pope BI. Pius IX|title=Syllabus of Errors 1.1|url=http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius09/p9syll.htm|website=Papal Encyclicals Online|access-date=28 July 2017|date=9 June 1862}}</ref>

A letter written in 1886 by [[William Herndon (lawyer)|William Herndon]], [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s law partner, was sold at auction for US$30,000 in 2011.<ref name=Letter>{{cite web|title=Sold – Herndon's Revelations on Lincoln's Religion|url=http://www.raabcollection.com/abraham-lincoln-autograph/Abraham-Lincoln-Autograph-Religion/|publisher=Raab Collection|access-date=5 June 2012|first=William|last=Herndon|format=Excerpt and review|date=4 February 1866}}</ref> In it, Herndon writes of the U.S. President's [[Abraham Lincoln and religion|evolving religious views]], which included pantheism.
{{blockquote|"Mr. Lincoln's religion is too well known to me to allow of even a shadow of a doubt; he is or was a Theist and a Rationalist, denying all extraordinary – supernatural inspiration or revelation. At one time in his life, to say the least, he was an elevated Pantheist, doubting the immortality of the soul as the Christian world understands that term. He believed that the soul lost its identity and was immortal as a force. Subsequent to this he rose to the belief of a God, and this is all the change he ever underwent."<ref name=Letter /><ref name=Lincoln>{{cite news|last=Adams|first=Guy|title='Pantheist' Lincoln would be unelectable today|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/pantheist-lincoln-would-be-unelectable-today-2269024.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220524/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/pantheist-lincoln-would-be-unelectable-today-2269024.html |archive-date=24 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=5 June 2012|newspaper=The Independent|date=17 April 2011|location=Los Angeles}}</ref>}}

The subject is understandably controversial, but the letter's content is consistent with Lincoln's fairly lukewarm approach to organized religion.<ref name=Lincoln />