Essay on Transcendentalism Was A Religious And Philosophical Movement

Transcendentalism was a religious and philosophical movement that began around the mid 1800s. Transcendentalist believed in a simple free state of mind. A person accepted these ideas not as religious beliefs but as a way of understanding life relationships. They had faith and belief in that people are always at their best and are truly self reliant. All of their "self" knowledge came through imagination not their senses. Among all transcendental beliefs,their central belief was the presence of God in each individual and the potential perfectibility of the human. They considered man 's relationship to God a personal matter established directly by the individual himself. Another core belief was to aim to inherit the goodness of both people and nature. Transcendentalist tended to put much emphasis on nature. Transcendental writers expressed themselves seriously and intensely through their writing,which was usually written in essay form.The Transcendentalist centered on the divinity of each individual; this divinity could be self-discovered only if the person had the independence of mind to do so. Transcendentalist writers used essay form to express their ideas(Edline). Whitman lent himself to this concept of independence. Inspired by the Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson,many of Whitman 's poems are similar to his. While Walt Whitman participated in the shift from realism to transcendentalism and both views are present in his works,he creates emphasis of the goodness of…