We started discussing Trascendentalism today. During this period the press was dominated by Protestant critics. Transcendentalists would comment frequently on the Protestants because they believed they lacked a sense of joy and relationship with spiritual beings. Transcendentalism is a philosophy that is a revolution against Christian beliefs. It views God as a bully. God symbolizes that there is only one mode of religion and the people rebeled against that, thus Transcendentalism.
The Transcendentalist looks for an oversoul. He or she believes that all things have God in them and that somewhere there is an oversoul that unites all of us. Transcendentalists show no outward signs of religion. They don't go to ceremonies or say prayers. There is no need to go to a church or place of worship as a Transcendentalists because people are always in the presence of God. Each day is an endless sabath and church is everywhere. People made fun of the Transcendentalists and the movement lacked immediate effect. It was seen as a joke by the mainstream.
-Melissa
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One of the main reasons why transcendentalists revolted against the idea of Gd being the only one was because that was the view accepted by most, and those who did not believe that were looked down upon. The transcendentalists argued that this view was as tyrannical as the monarchy that they just broke away from. The majority of people refused to see the similarity, thus labeling the transcendentalists as crazy people with ridiculous ideas.
-Jen
I think it's also important to mention that transcendentalist philosophy did not entirely conflict with Christianity - although many transcendentalists shifted away from Christianity, many continued to practice their faith while incorporating transcendentalist ideas into their lives. I found an article online explaining this, here's a quote:
"The heresy of the Transcendentalists (for which the early Puritans had hanged people) was to countenance mysticism and pantheism, or the beliefs in the potential of the human mind to commune with God and in a God who is present in all of nature, rather than unequivocally distinct from it. Nevertheless, the Transcendentalists continued to think of themselves as Christians and to articulate their philosophy within a Christian theological framework, although some eventually moved past Christianity (as Emerson did in evolving his idea of an "oversoul") or abandoned organized religion altogether." (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma95/finseth/trans.html)
I think many transcendentalists saw the spiritual aspect of the ideology as an enhancer to their faith, as a way to come closer to God who resided in nature. The christian God for these people may have been synonymous with the oversoul, or the oversoul was God's manifestation in nature. It would be interesting to see if any transcendentalists who still identified with the Christian faith wrote about this topic.
I find Colin's topic of mixing distinct ideologies and religions to be very interesting. The combination of Transcendentalism and Christianity could be considered as similar to that of Deism and Christianity. Though this second combination would probably much more popular. It is important to note that some of the core principles of these ideologies are very different, but there must be something that holds them together if people are to allow both into their lives.
Between all three of these areas, there remains one distinct similarity: the belief in a higher authority. Using this belief as a base, people may draw from any of these what they believe to be "Truth," or at least something close to it.
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