In the mid-1830’s, a new word entered the American lexicon; Transcendentalism. It was a word that was vague and confusing, a word that seemed mystical, spiritual, and possibly even blasphemous. Even today, 170 years later, Transcendentalism is still misunderstood, and many people have a hard time explaining what it was and what it means.
Lexico.com defines Transcendentalism as “an idealistic philosophical and social movement which developed in New England around 1836 in reaction to rationalism. Influenced by romanticism, Platonism, and Kantian philosophy, it taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity, and its members held progressive views on feminism and communal living. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were central figures.” Simply put, it is the idea that God is present in all things, that we are surrounded by divinity. All of nature is divine, and therefore, since man is a part of nature, we have the capability to be divine as well.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
| ©Wikimedia CommonsThe Unitarian hierarchy was, as you can imagine, less than excited by these spiritual upstarts, whom they called blasphemous and insane. One Unitarian leader called Transcendentalism “the latest form of infidelity.” Some ministers, like Emerson, left the church. Others, like Theodore Parker and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, remained with the church and continued to preach their “abundant heresies” (as Parker proudly called them) of spiritual reform to a growing number of followers.
Transcendentalism was not really organized; the like-minded men and women didn’t decide to be rebellious and create a movement. It just happened as they discovered and met others who thought like them. Many of them didn’t even like the word “Transcendentalism”! But once it started, people began to look to Emerson and others for answers and direction. The Transcendentalists were young men and women in their 20s. Like many social and cultural movements, it was the younger generation who led the way in trying to create a better world and each one brought his or her own beliefs into the fold. For instance, Henry Thoreau was influenced by Hinduism and Native American spirituality, while Margaret Fuller’s interest in Göethe and other Romantic literature from Germany led her to Transcendentalism.
Bronson Alcott
| ©Wikimedia CommonsThis wasn’t a wide-spread movement. Rather, many of the Transcendentalists lived in Boston, Cambridge, or Concord, which became ground zero for the movement because of Emerson and Thoreau. The first important book of Transcendentalism, Emerson’s Nature, was written in Concord, at the Old Manse. And, of course, Thoreau lived at Walden Pond for two years and wrote his ode to Transcendental living, Walden, about it.
The Transcendentalists were reform-minded people. Their belief in the perfectibility of man led them to be involved in many of the era’s social and cultural reform movements. Bronson Alcott wanted to improve the American educational system and he was also a vegetarian. Margaret Fuller was an advocate for women’s rights; her Woman in the Nineteenth Century is considered the first American feminist book. And many of the Transcendentalists were also involved in the anti-slavery movement and wrote about, lectured on, and protested for the immediate abolition of slavery.
Meanwhile, in the hope of improving society, some Transcendentalists decided to find their own way apart from society and create heaven on earth. The 1840’s saw a rise in the creation of Utopian communities throughout the Northeast. Not all of these communities were Transcendental, but almost all, like the Shakers, were spiritual. The two best known Transcendental communities were Brook Farm in West Roxbury, Massachusetts and Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands in Harvard, Massachusetts. Both were doomed to failure, however. Brook Farm lasted several years, but Fruitlands fell apart after only six months.
Another word for Transcendentalism is Idealism. That’s what they were looking for, the ideal world. In a Transcendentalist’s eyes, all men are created equal and we should do unto others as we would have others do unto us. In the Transcendental world all creatures, great and small, would cohabitate and share the earth and her resources. There would be no need for government; we would all be self-governing, in touch with the Higher Laws of God and, as Thoreau called it, the universal constitution inside each and every one of us.
As a movement, Transcendentalism was short lived. It started in 1835 and by 1860 it had died out. Some of their ideas for reform, especially the abolition of slavery, education for all, and women’s rights became part of the American mainstream. Emerson became a celebrity, known far and wide as The Sage of Concord and essays like Self Reliance became American classics. What was strange or blasphemous in 1836 was now charming and quaint, especially when viewed through the bloodshed and horror of the Civil War.
As a spiritual movement it had limited appeal, but many of the Transcendentalists were brilliant writers, and as a literary movement it had a far reaching effect, with books like Emerson’s Essays, Thoreau’s Walden, and Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass becoming part of the American literary canon. Those books, and those writers, are the legacy of Transcendentalism. They remind us of what’s good and right about the human condition, how we can become better people, and how we can create a better world. Emerson wrote that Transcendentalism was merely “Idealism for the 19th century.” But really, aren’t the notions of equality for all and harmony with nature just as important now as in 1836? Maybe we still need Transcendentalism. Maybe we all need to be more idealistic.
