New England Renaissance

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New England Renaissance
1840-1855
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Nineteenth century American transcendentalism
is not a religion
It is a pragmatic philosophy,
A state of mind,
and a form of spirituality
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It is not a religion because
it does not adhere to the
three concepts common
to all religions
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1. A belief in God
2. A belief in an afterlife (dualism)
3. A belief that this life has consequences
in the next.
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Transcendentalism is monist
It does not reject an afterlife,
but its emphasis is on this life.
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To Puritanism
its pervasive morality
It owes
and the doctrine of divine light
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To Quakers
similar to inner light
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In Unitarianism
to a kind of immanent
Deity was reduced
principle in every person.
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To Romanticism
of nature as a living mystery
It owes the concept
and not a clockwork universe
which is fixed and permanent.
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Reasons for the Rise of
American Transcendentalism
1. The steady erosion of Calvinism
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2. The progressive secularization
of thought
impact
under the
of science and technology
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3. The emergence of a Unitarian intelligentsia
with the means, leisure, and training
to pursue literature and scholarship
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4. The increasing insipidity and irrelevance
of liberal religion to questioning young minds
Lack of
involvement
Womens rights
abolitionism
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5. The destruction of the old order
by
burgeoning industrialization
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6. The impact of European
ideas on Americans
traveling abroad
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7. The appearance of talented
young people like
Margaret Fuller
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
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Basic Premises
1. An individual is the center of the universe
2. The structure of the universe duplicates the
structure of the individual self
3. The acceptance of the neo-Platonic
conception of nature as a living mystery
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4. The belief that happiness and virtue depend
upon self-realization
A. expansive or self -transcending tendency
B. the contracting or self-asserting tendency
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Basic Tenets
1. Transcendentalism is a form of idealism
2. The transcendentalist transcends or rises
above the lower animalistic impulses of
life. He moves from the rational to a
spiritual realm.
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3. The human soul is part of the Oversoul
A. Every individual is to be respected
because everyone has a portion of the
Oversoul.
B. The Oversoul can be found everywhere
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C. God can be found in both nature and human
nature.
D. Death is never to be feared
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4. Evil is a negative
Merely an absence of good.
Light is more powerful than darkness
because one ray of light
penetrates the darkness
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5. Emphasis on human thinking
and self-reliance
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6. Examples of great leaders, writers,
philosophers, and others to show what an
individual can become.
Socrates
Lincoln
Einstein
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7. Have faith in intuition, for no church or
creed can communicate truth
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Transcendentalism at its core was a philosophy
of naked individualism, aimed at the creation of
the new American, the self reliant man, complete
and independent.