American Transcendentalism (1830-1850). American Transcendentalism Idealistic philosophy, spiritual...
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Transcript of American Transcendentalism (1830-1850). American Transcendentalism Idealistic philosophy, spiritual...
American Transcendentalism
(1830-1850)
American Transcendentalism
Idealistic philosophy, spiritual position, and literary movement that advocates reliance on romantic intuition and moral human conscience
Belief that humans can intuitively transcend the limits of the senses and of logic to a plane of “higher truths”
Value spirituality (direct access to benevolent God, not organized religion or ritual), divinity of humanity, nature, intellectual pursuits, social justice
Spirit of Revivalism Transcendentalism
can be read as one of many spiritual revivals American culture fostered in antebellum years
Image: Religious Camp Meeting, J. Maze Burbank, c. 1839Burbank, c. 1839
Rises out of two key intellectual and spiritual traditions:
European Romanticism American Unitarianism
Image: Second Church of Boston, where Emerson held first ministerial position
Nature and Transcendentalism External world of nature
actually reflects invisible, spiritual reality
Self-reliance: seek the truth in immediate perceptions of the world
Then one can reconcile body and soul (which is part of “Universal Soul” or “Oversoul,” source of all life)
Image: Niagara Falls, Thomas Cole, 1829
The Sublime Heightened psychological state Overwhelming experience of
awe, reverence, comprehension Achieved when soul is
immersed in grandeur of nature Sense of transcendence from
everyday world
Image: Wanderer, Caspar David Friedrich
Concord, Massachusetts, 1850s
Rises out of two key intellectual and spiritual traditions:
European Romanticism American Unitarianism
Image: Second Church of Boston, where Emerson held first ministerial position
Roots in American Unitarianism
Emerson a Unitarian minister Unitarianism (Christian denomination) rises in late
1700s; formalized by William Ellery Channing, early 1800s
Liberal church—broken from strict New England Congregationalism
Reject total depravity of humanity Believe in perfectibility of humanity Reject idea of “angry God”—focus on benevolent God UNITY of God rather than TRINITY of Father, Son, Holy
Spirit
Emerson’s Break from Unitarianism
Too intellectualized, too removed from direct experience of God
Extend and radicalize Unitarian beliefs in benevolent God, closeness of God and humanity
Bring these spiritual ideas to life If Unitarians believe that truth comes only
through empirical study and rationality . . . Transcendentalists take that idea & add in
romanticized mysticism—humankind capable of direct experience of the holy (Laurence Buell)
Transcendentalism as Spiritual Revival Ironic refiguring of Puritanism,
without the theological dogma Transcendentalists lonely explorers
(pilgrims) outside society and convention
Trying to form new society based on metaphysical awareness
Trying to purify society by purifying hearts and minds
Nature a spiritual manifesto
Image: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Spiritual Revival Transcendentalism is “a
pilgrimage from the idolatrous world of creeds and rituals to the temple of the Living God in the soul. Is [is] a putting to silence of tradition and formulas, that the Sacred Oracle might be heard through intuitions of the singled-eyed and pure-hearted.”
(William Henry Channing)
Spiritual Revival
“ “That belief we term Transcendentalism . . . That belief we term Transcendentalism . . . maintains that man has ideas, that come not maintains that man has ideas, that come not through the five senses of the powers of through the five senses of the powers of reasoning, but are either the result of direct reasoning, but are either the result of direct revelations from God, his immediate inspiration, revelations from God, his immediate inspiration, or his immanent presence in the spiritual world.” or his immanent presence in the spiritual world.”
(Charles Mayo Ellis, “An Essay on Transcendentalism,” 1842)(Charles Mayo Ellis, “An Essay on Transcendentalism,” 1842)
Spiritual Revival
“Standing on the bare ground,—my head bathed in the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space,—all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.”
(Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, 1836)
The Transparent Eyeball
Image: Christopher Pearse Cranch, parody of lines from Nature, 1838
Reading Nature
Goal: Reclaim/redefine “culture”—bring it back to life
Prose poem—read both for what it says literally and what it suggests about what cannot be said clearly
Three underlying assumptions: Primacy of the soul Sufficiency of nature Immediacy of God
Write this downWrite this down
Core Tenets:Core Tenets: The individual is most importantThe individual is most important Nature is valued. Contact with nature is seen Nature is valued. Contact with nature is seen
as a way to get back to basics.as a way to get back to basics. Emphasis on self-perfectionEmphasis on self-perfection The human mind can figure out anythingThe human mind can figure out anything Each person is a part of God; God is in all Each person is a part of God; God is in all
thingsthings referred to the “Over-Soul” as the thing to referred to the “Over-Soul” as the thing to
which all human souls return after deathwhich all human souls return after death Emphasizes the “spiritual” over the rationalEmphasizes the “spiritual” over the rational