Transcendentalism In The Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening was a religious revival movement in the mid 1800 (19th century); the movement revealed romanticism which mainly included enthusiasm, appeal to the super-natural (extraterrestrial), and emotion; it rejected the skeptical of enlightenment. The theory of the movement began around the 1790s but it gained its popularity around the 1800s, by the 1850s the movement was at its peak (climax). The awakening arose mainly in the Baptist and Methodist congregations due to the preachers being the lead of the movement. The second great awakening gave rise to popular meetings where people gathered together to talk about logic. These gatherings lead up to what was known as Transcendentalism.
Transcendentalism was a literary and philosophical …show more content…
A person was considered a transcendentalist if he or she would not necessarily attend the meetings but contribute in both the discussions and believes. Transcendentalists were nonconformist -people who do not conform to a generally accepted pattern of thoughts or ideas particularly in organizing religion-. It was believed by the transcendentalist that for every person there exist a personal relationship between the individual and the universe, that every individual has a universal soul called the “Eternal One”. Ralph Waldo Emerson supports his theory of the “Eternal One” by his quote “Within a man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty; to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal one.” Another believe of the transcendentalist was that one should guide their life in what one believes to be true, which means that no one other than yourself should influence in your thoughts or believes. The transcendentalist valued simplicity and self-reliance. When it came to the composition of the transcendentalist, what mainly made them up was parts of puritanism (only what they liked from it), German Idealism, Eastern Religion, and many others. These people were forceful critics of slavery and gender in equality; it was believed that every individual had to be respected because every individual has a universal …show more content…
Three of the most influential figures of this movement were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. Ralph Waldo Emerson was at the heart of this American Literary Moment a graduate from Harvard College and Harvard Divinity School; he spent his early days as a minister but then resigned after his first wife’s death. Emerson’s first significant work (an essay) “Nature” was published in 1836, it explored his administration for the natural world, he encouraged people to study the nature of the world and of mankind. Emerson lived in Concur Massachusetts together with other transcendentalist; he started a magazine called “The Dial” which helped make the ideas of transcendentalism available to the public. Henry David Thoreau was a writer and a naturalist who was affected by Emerson’s writings and later made a personal relationship with him. Thoreau often published poems and essays in “The Dial”. In 1845 he built a tiny cabin in Emerson’s land an in 1854 the book “Walden” was published, the book shared Thoreau’s experience with nature. Walt Whitman was an American poet who was influenced by various transcendentalists especially by Ralph Waldo Emerson. He believed he was the type of poet Emerson was looking for. The styles of Whitman’s poems was bold and modern, he was the father of “Free Verse” (poetry that does not conform to regular