The image of the “Poet-Priest” lies at the center of Emerson’s transcendentalism. This image is developed through the combination of the European mythological “Orphic Poet” and Puritan ideology to stimulate a natural religion, in which literature and poetry is excelled to the position of Bible and revelation, or even to a higher position; and the poet is simultaneously promoted to a higher position than that of the priest. Therefore, with the image of the “Poet-Priest”, Emerson freed American literature in the 19 th c. from the influence of the harsh Puritanism, encouraged literary creation, and stimulated the development of the New England Renaissance.