Transcendetalism: The New Religion Essay, Research Paper

Transcendentalism: The New Religion

A. K. Rodriguez

Transcendentalism: The New Religion

Harmonizing to The American Heritage Dictionary, the definition of faith is? a belief in and fear for a supernatural power or powers regarded as Creator or governor of the existence ; a individualized system grounded in such belief ; or a cause or activity pursued with ardor or painstaking devotedness? ( TAHD, 696 ) . The American Heritage Dictionary provides a lexicon description of the word faith ; nevertheless, the universe provides a matter-of-fact description of faith. Religion has been the foundation of adult male? s hunt for religious individuality, for specifying good and evil, and for establishing cosmopolitan harmoniousness and balance. Since the beginning of clip, the universe? s societal province, cultural surroundings, and political ambiance has been the drift for the constitution of new spiritual establishments and new spiritual philosophy. As civilization, society and political relations contributed more and more to the tenseness and orgy of the universe and adult male, adult male sought urgently for an option. Higher jurisprudence and faith became the redress to adult male? s battle. So, the dream of doing the universe a better topographic point has been embraced by every spiritual motion in history, and it has served as the primary civilizing influence on the planet. From Taoism to Buddhism, from Judaism to Christianity and from the Magna Carta to the Declaration of Independence, spiritual doctrine has institutionalized cardinal Torahs of life, and wisdom and religious values with the aim of spoting the true kernel of adult male and discern adult male? s relationship to the existence.

By the vocabulary and empirical definition of faith, it can be ascertained that Transcendentalism was more than a doctrine, more than a literary motion, and more than an rational enquiry. Transcendentalism was a faith? a extremist faith that utilised nature as its consecrated house of worship, glorified God as its divinity, had adherents and Prophetss known as Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, Alcott and Whitman, and claimed its personal? Bible? or documented wisdom known as the secondary school, ? The Dial? and other published essays. Most significantly ; nevertheless, Transcendentalism was a new faith with its ain moral commandments of higher jurisprudence, its ain construct of the Godhead.

Like Buddhists, Catholics, and Hindus, Transcendentalists were a spiritual cabal exerting a religious persuasion. Transcendentalists were a religious order that believed in a extremist signifier of Christianity. Harmonizing to A Religious History of the American People, Transcendentalism was born from the captivation of the Unitarian Church:

The Unitarians believed in God? s goodness and loving kindness in adult male? s similitude to and ability to grok God, and in the human capacity for religious, moral and rational betterment

( Alhstrom, 401 ) .

Dr. William Ellery Channing, laminitis of the American Unitarianism believed that homo? s religious nature is God? s religious nature amplified and untainted to clip without terminal. He said, ? In ourselves are the elements of the Divine? ( Alhstrom, 401 ) . Because of this, Channing and the dogmas of his? new? tenet in the Unitarian persuasion perpetuated throughout New England as settlers were get awaying the wrath of Calvinism? a faith where predestination breathed, built-in corruption of adult male was supposed, and discerning invocation to an angry God was changeless. As Unitarianism gained more popularity in America, so did an consciousness for societal reform and self-cultivation.

As the philosophy of societal reform and self-cultivation supposedly brought adult male closer to God? s flawlessness, and a doctrine of humanitarianism began to emerge, an impact was produced. An rational sentiment began to inculcate, and the Transcendental motion commenced. Although, the transcendentalists did non capitulate perfectly to the dogmas of Unitarian philosophy, and would boldly rebut that Transcendentalism had developed into a smothering spiritual order of ritualized traditions, Transcendentalism, by intending had so become a spiritual persuasion? a extremist spiritual gathering of adherents who were interested in conveying a moral message and transforming the universe and human lives.

This extremist divinity would link human existences to a doctrine that would spiritually authorise human existences by doing them the instruments and leaders of the church. They would be governed by the hierarchy of God, and their spiritualty would be defined my intuition and molded by the beauty of nature. Their church would be the wilderness ; God would be their sermonizer ; their tenet would be truth and righteousness ; their followings would be the spirit and scruples of every virtuous adult male, and their end would be conformance to moral jurisprudence, neglect for philistinism and deceiving advancement, antipathy for power and expedience, to seek individuality and freedom from conventionality, and fuse with nature and God.

The first compelling contention that promotes Transcendentalism as a faith is the Transcendental? belief in and fear for a supernatural power or powers regarded as Godhead or governor of the existence? ( TAHD, 696 ) . In every essay or composing by Emerson or Thoreau, there is an recognition of a Supreme Being, a Creator or godly authorization. However, the Godhead authorization that Transcendentalists refer to is non separate from adult male. The godly presence manifests itself in nature, in the psyche of adult male, in the outlook of adult male, and accordingly in the actions of adult male. Harmonizing to Transcendental belief, every homo being has the capacity to possess the celestial manifestation of God, hence all of God? s goodness, wisdom, truth and power. In? The Divinity School Address? , Emerson acknowledges a Supreme Being, God, and efforts to carry future curates of Christianity that adult male is non inherently disengaged from God? adult male is God. Emerson writes:

One adult male was true to what is in you and me. He saw that God incarnates himself in adult male, and evermore goes forth afresh to take ownership of his universe. He said in this jubilee of empyreal emotion? I am godly. Through me, God acts ; through me, speaks. Would you see God, see me ; or, see thee, when 1000 besides thinkest as I now think? ( ? The Divinity School Address, 1117 ) .

Emerson besides acknowledges a Supreme Being that unites with adult male in? Nature? . He discusses the impact of the God? s integrity with adult male. He says, once more, that the integrity produces goodness, truth, and most significantly a direct relationship with the Creator, God.

As a works upon the Earth, so a adult male rests upon the bosom of God ; he is nourished by unfailing fountains, and draws as his demand, unlimited power. Who can put bounds to the possibilities of adult male? Once inspire the space, by being admitted to lay eyes on the absolute natures of justness and truth, and we learn that adult male has entree to the full head of the Creator in the finite. This position, which admonishes me where the beginnings of wisdom and power prevarication, and points to virtue as to? The Golden Key, When opes the castle of infinity, ? carries upon its face the highest certification of truth, because it animates me to make my ain universe through the purification of the psyche ( ? Nature? , 1096 )

Emerson distinguishes his direct brotherhood with the Creator, and professes to hold His powers, His wisdom, and the? key to infinity? . This may sound profane and absurd to many established and traditional faiths ; nevertheless, the faith of Transcendentalism establishes a extremist precedency by admiting a God that is internal and non external. Transcendentalists believed that adult male did non necessitate to go enlightened and empowered by the truths of God by an external influence? a sermonizer, a dais or a topographic point with a spiritual denomination. Transcendentalists believed that adult male could seek within his ain head, his ain bosom, and his ain psyche to detect the powers of the Creator. This was the strength and the dirt of the Transcendental faith. Emerson writes:

Therefore ; in the psyche of adult male there is a justness whose requitals are instant and full. He who does a good title, is immediately ennobled himself. He who does a average title, is by the action itself contracted. He who puts off dross, thereby puts on dross. If a adult male is at bosom merely, so in so far, is he God ; the safety of God, the immortality of God, the stateliness of God, do enter into the adult male with justness. ( ? The Divinity School Address? , 1115 )

In 1838, James Freeman Clark wrote an essay in the Western Messenger oppugning the new faith? s extremist beliefs as they were presented by Emerson in the anterior statement to the Cambridge Theological School sing God and adult male. Clark wrote:

Matters stood therefore, when he was invited to do an reference to the separating category of the Cambridge Theological School. He readily accepted this offer, and the consequence was that they heard an address rather different, we judge, from whatever fell into the ears of a theological category before? Alternatively of instilling the importance of church-going, and proving how they ought to carry everybody to travel to church, he seemed to believe it better to remain at place than to listen to a formal lifeless sermonizer ( NCLC, Vol. 1, 275-276 ) .

Although Clark and the other critics were swept off by the? beauty, earnestness and munificence of the general current of the Address? , it was doubtless parlous, controversial and surrounding on cheek. However, Emerson? s dissident address was raising philosophical issue with reverends and established faith. He was besides disputing its present methods of ministering truth, and perchance enrolling new followings of the Transcendental doctrine. Were curates turn toing the complexnesss of the human status and replying the profound inquiries about being? Was current spiritual philosophy spiritually carry throughing and educating adult male on how to hold a true and direct relationship with God? Could Transcendentalism go the Panacea for the bing failings of spiritualty?

The 2nd hint that Transcendentalism was a new faith was that it possessed? a individualized system grounded in a belief in God, and had a cause that was pursued with ardor and a painstaking devotedness? . Not universally accepted like the Psalms, the blessednesss, or Moses? Ten Commandments, the nonnatural directives were going popular and being internalized and moralized by rational Prophetss like Fuller, and Emerson, and practiced by Thoreau and Alcott. Similar to Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism, the tenet of Transcendentalism was documented by partisans in diaries, poesy, essays and books, intellectualized in academic circles like the Lyceum, and subsequently published and relived in? The Dial? , the Transcendental magazine. Consequently, the rapid airing of Transcendental doctrine and the spiritual instruction of Transcendentalism ignited a motion of followings of the? radical faith? and created an organisation of Nonnatural disciples with Nonnatural causes that were pursued with devotedness. Although Transcendentalism was an unfettered organisation of cohorts and believers, its disciples were committed to the values of freedom and individuality, truth, asceticism, rational enquiry into the ego, moral jurisprudence, and the Communion of adult male, nature and God, and the new faith began to boom. Even as Transcendentalists condemned institutionalised faith, believing it was an unequal substructure for learning morality and educating about the human psyche, Transcendentalists were industriously constructing the doctrine up to possess all the religious features, and animating elements of a true faith. Whether a loose and unceremonial organisation, or an effectual and important organisation, Transcendentalism became the new manner of life for many followings, present and past, and by default, Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, and Alcott had become new curates of new idea.

One of the characteristics of a true faith is a system of values and beliefs, and Transcendentalism had a distinguishable set of rules. Similar to the changeless commendation of a Supreme Being in every Transcendental history, there was a set of moral codifications that were besides proposed in every Transcendental history. One of the predominating subjects in Transcendentalism? s moral codification was individuality. In the Transcendental faith, individuality was good and should be paramount ; Bolshevism was evil, and should be avoided, particularly if it championed for corruptness and conformance. Other spiritual establishments frequently articulate a similar lesson about good and evil ; nevertheless, their lessons are that truth and humbleness are good and should be embraced, and that slaying and prevarication is evil and should be rebuffed. Emerson dominantly writes about the Transcendental value of individuality and freedom in? Self Reliance? :

To believe your ain idea, to believe that is true for you in your private bosom, is true for all work forces, & # 8211 ; that is genius. Talk your latent strong belief and it shall be the cosmopolitan senses? Nothing is at last sacred but the unity of your ain head. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall hold the right to vote of the universe ( Self Reliance, 1128 )

Emerson and other Transcendentalists insisted upon the self-respect, worth, authorization and duty of the individual, separate individual to a grade

that would hold been impossible to their Puritan ascendants. Transcendentalism prescribed to the deity of adult male. The Transcendental faith exhibited an staying religion in adult male? s mastermind and goodness, and accordingly, this led to a platform that supported vigorous demostration of individuality? the new moral rights and moral privileges of each moral individual even if it subverted the will of the bulk or sabotaged the will of the constitution. In? Civil Disobedience? , Thoreau preaches this value with collaring ardour to animate individuality. Thoreau writes:

There will ne’er be a truly free and enlightened State until the State comes to acknowledge the person as a higher and independent power, from which all its ain power and authorization are derived, and treats him consequently. I please myself with conceive ofing a State at last which can afford to be merely to all work forces, and to handle the person with regard as a neighbour ; which even would non believe it inconsistent with its ain rest ( Resistance to Civil Government, 1767 ) .

As Transcendentalists like Thoreau perceived a demand for a new doctrine to be cultivated to turn to religious issues in society, he besides conferred his enthusiastic construct of individuality to the nonnatural persuasion. This facet of the Transcendental faith would protect the powerless in political relations merely as the faith of today protects the emotionally, and mentally fatigued. Thoreau became a Transcendental disparager of immorality and unfair authorities machines that supported slave Torahs, unfair wars, and expediency, and a Transcendental sermonizer who promoted the rights of the person. Because of Thoreau? s passion for moral jurisprudence and his fastidiousness to put to death moral jurisprudence, he became the most outstanding title-holder for the rights of the person. As a author, a talker, an insurgent, and an emigre, Thoreau became the principal prophesier for the rise and celebrity of the Transcendentalism faith. In 1955, critic, Francis B. Dedmond examined Thoreau? s religious mission:

Thoreau was non of course political-minded, and he would hold concerned himself really small with political relations, politicians, and all the accessories of authorities, so with authorities itself, if authorities had non threatened to tread underfoot the person and if his scruples had non been an grim taskmaster driving him to the defence of the person. Thoreau agreed with Coleridge that life itself is? the rule of Individuation. ? Thus, even the states of the Earth are inconsequential in comparing with persons ; the parts are boundlessly more valuable than the whole. ? Nations! What are states? ? The historian strives in vain to do them memorable? It is persons who populate the world. ? Being convinced of this, Thoreau argued in his Journal and in? Civil Disobedience? that the rights of the person were the primary concern of the province? ( NCLC, Vol. 21, 337 )

As Transcendentalism was turning infamously or famously, ideas and actions of nonnatural spiritual philosophy continued to be verified. In? Walden? and? Nature? , Thoreau and Emerson devotedly pursue a cause as they assert their freedom from philistinism and stress their Communion with God. As Emerson mentally retreats to nature, and Thoreau physically retreats to nature, they are in kernel withdrawing to their sanctuary of worship. Withdrawing from degeneracy and pandemonium, they are typifying Transcendental spiritual worship in the purest signifier. Like Buddhists retreat to their temples, Catholics to their cathedrals, and Taoists to themselves, Transcendentalists are withdrawing to nature or the Transcendental? house of worship? to chew over, to be spiritually cleansed and to be joined with the Creator to obtain wisdom and lucidity. In Walden, Thoreau writes:

Our life is frittered off by item. An honest adult male has barely need to number more that his 10 fingers, or in utmost instances, he may add his 10 toes, and lump the remainder. Simplicity, simpleness, simpleness! I say, allow your personal businesss be as two or three, and non a hundred or a thousand ; alternatively of a million count half a twelve, and maintain your histories on your thumbnail? The state itself, with all its alleged internal betterments, which by the manner, are all external and superficial, is merely such an unmanageable and overgrown constitution, cluttered with furniture and tripped up by its ain traps, ruined by luxury and heedless disbursal? and the lone remedy for it as for them is in a stiff economic system, a austere and more than Spartan simpleness of life and lift of intent ( Walden, 1816 )

Religious words and actions are apparent as it is clear that Thoreau? s spiritual aim was to accomplish an lift of intent through his pilgrim’s journey. Like a curate, with the desire to uncover more to his fold, Thoreau was seeking for the truth and the higher Torahs of life that was lost when the anxiousness of industrial advancement, technological promotion, societal unfairness and political dictatorship obscured his vision for interior peace. From his expatriate, Thoreau was pull outing from his confidant submergence with nature, repose, lucidity, self-culture and moral replies for the multitudes. In a 1952 commentary by critic, Charles H. Nichols, Jr. , he discusses Thoreau? s nonnatural strong beliefs, his open uping ardor, and how he was able to change and startle that strong belief and radical spirit into ground-breaking actions that would transform the manner faiths and other establishments would exert their beliefs:

Thoreau proposed to cut down populating to its simplest footings. Not merely was his experiment on Walden Pond portion of this procedure, but his full life was devoted to the find of a more moral footing for human dealingss that exploitation in economic sciences and expedience in political relations. Therefore, Thoreau faced the most cardinal job of his clip. He pioneered on a religious frontier of all time seeking to convey the society into conformance with the cardinal moral jurisprudence ( NCLC, Vol. 21, 323 ) .

A 1960 essay by Don W. Kleine, he elaborates on this permeant subject in Thoreau? s essays:

Walden Pond was non an experiment at all, but? like the dark in the Concord Jail? protest magnified into gesture. Traveling to the forests, traveling to prison each brand formal a backdown from the community which has been effected long earlier. The mark of both gestures is the same: bondage of adult male to the instruments of civilisation, whether machines or establishments. Walden arraigned the assortments of such bondage? to houses, vesture, fire engines, railwaies, faiths, combat zone steaks, overseas telegrams and authoritiess ( NCLC, Vol. 21, 350 )

Religious beliefs and action are present once more. In? Nature? , spiritual overtones are present as Emerson explicates the religious commissariats of nature merely as curates explicate the holy commissariats of church. Emerson implores all disciples of the Transcendental faith to quarry from nature? s ( the Transcendental house of worship ) premium its mystical healing and renewing powers. He asks that while esteeming the olympian beauty of nature, that one ought go incorporate with the wisdom and lauding powers of God.

First, the simple perceptual experience of natural signifiers is a delectation. To the organic structure and head which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is medicative and restores their tone. In their ageless composure, he finds himself. But in other hours, Nature satisfies the psyche strictly by its comeliness, and without any mixture of material benefit ( Nature, 1077 ) .

In 1837, Samuel Osgood confirms the foolishness of advancement, and affirms the effectivity of Emerson? s newfound Transcendental faith. He writes:

In our ain bustling state, where Bankss, steam boats and railwaies seem to steep the state? s attending, we are happy to happen some liquors, who keep aloof from the vulgar scrimmage, and in composure of psyche, live for Nature and for God ( NCLC, Vol. 1, 275 ) .

The concluding indicant that Transcendentalism had become a faith is found within its digesting qualities. The powerful elements of this spiritual persuasion have persisted and have influenced many modern civilisations. Thoreau? s values, ? It is non desirable to cultivate a regard for the jurisprudence, so much as for the right? ( Resistance to Civil Government, 1762 ) , have stirred states into motions recommending for moral causes. Merely as Christianity has propelled persons to oppose homosexualism, Catholicism has propelled persons to oppose abortion, and Church of jesus christ of latter-day saintss to suggest bigamy, Transcendentalism has propelled persons to oppose imperialism and subjugation in India, racial favoritism in the Civil Rights Movement, mass race murder in the Vietnam War, bondage in the Pre-Civil War epoch, anti-immigration sentiments in Texas, anti-affirmative action referendums in California, and propose insurgences when needed. In 1969, John Aldrich Christie discusses a specific illustration of Transcendental entreaty and influence. He writes:

India has taken Thoreau with lifelessly earnestness as a societal philosopher of all time since Mahatma Gandhi foremost commenced offering infusions from? Civil Disobedience? in his radical diary Indian Opinion on September 7, 1907. Thoreau? s absence until late from course of study of American literature classs at the station alumnus degree in Indian universities stemmed non from his exclusion from the literary pantheon but from his solid inclusion in India? s more reputable one of philosophers. Not merely has Indian thought taken his positions on civil opposition to bosom ; it had no trouble in suiting the whole adult male, accepting his positions on simplification and the values of life and nature as built-in parts of the challenge proposed in his most celebrated essay. Gandhi? s Satygraha, which preceded both Gandhi? s and India? s exposure to Thoreau? s positions, furnished congenial dirt for the nutriment of those characteristics of Thoreau? s message most frequently resisted by Americans: his agrarianism, his emphasis upon stuff simplification, his fear for life, his Ideal reading of nature, his accent upon absolute moral truths, and the pre-eminence of religious world, even his dispositions toward vegetarianism ( NCLC, Vol. 21, 353 ) .

Nonnatural religionism has shaped other establishments as good. Some of the most profound doctrines like Marxism and Scientology have been shaped by Transcendentalism. Political parties like the Natural Law Party and the Liberatarian Party have been governed by the Transcendental faith. Environmental cabals have preached the significance of earthly stewardship as a consequence of Transcendentalism. Tax-evaders, naturalists, and reverends have been influenced by Transcendentalism, and most significantly, Transcendentalism has developed its ain research establishments.

In decision, although Transcendentalists were repulsed by traditional spiritual constitutions, and other glosss of institutionalization, Transcendentalism fulfills the conditions and satisfies the definition of a faith. From its fear to a Supreme Being, its construction, its moral codification, its causes and activities, and its permanent elements, it can be classified as a faith. By informing its disciples that conformity to moral jurisprudence, simpleness, non-conformity, and a Communion with nature is the procedure to obtain transcendency, Transcendentalism provides a functional method of accomplishing a religious and heightened province of being, and it, hence becomes one of the most effectual faiths that exist.

Bibliography

Plants Consulted

Ahlstrom, Sydney E. A Religious History of the American People. New Haven: Yale

University Press, 1972. 400-401.

Baker, Carlos. Emerson Among The Eccentrics: A Group Portrait. New York: The

Penguin Group, 1996.

Bloom, Harold. Modern Critical Positions: Henry David Thoreau. New York and

Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. ? Nature. ? The Norton Anthology: American Literature. Ed.

Baym, Nina. New York and London: W.W. Norton & A ; Company Inc. and Ltd. , 1998.

1073-1101.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. ? Self Reliance. ? The Norton Anthology: American Literature.

Ed. Baym, Nina. New York and London: W.W. Norton & A ; Company Inc. and Ltd. ,

1998. 1127-1143.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. ? The Divinity School Address. ? The Norton Anthology:

American Literature. Ed. Baym, Nina. New York and London: W.W. Norton & A ;

Company Inc. and Ltd. , 1998. 1114-1126.

Harris, Lanzen Harris. , and Sheila Fitzgerald, erectile dysfunction. Nineteenth Century Literature

Criticism. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1983. 275-304

Harris, Lanzen Harris. , and Emily B. Tennyson, erectile dysfunction. Nineteenth Century Literature

Criticism. Vol. 21. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1983. 332-357

Thoreau, Henry David. ? Resistance to Civil Government. ? The Norton Anthology:

American Literature. Ed. Baym, Nina. New York and London: W.W. Norton & A ;

Company Inc. and Ltd. , 1998. 1752-1767.

Thoreau, Henry David. ? Walden. ? The Norton Anthology: American Literature. Ed.

Baym, Nina. New York and London: W.W. Norton & A ; Company Inc. and Ltd. , 1998.

1768-1943.

Yanella, Donald. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982.