Transcendentalism1

             The writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson dealt with three aspects of transcendental thought, which consisted of spiritual, philosophical, and literary content. In his time, Emerson imparted an influence upon his contemporaries and American literature. He explicitly encouraged other writers by his appeal for new American literature and new voices because America had failed to denounce European literature and produce its own literary scholarship. Emerson believed that literature should have a spiritual influence because of personal religious convictions. Also, he thought philosophy could espouse essential forms through which the mind itself quantified. Finally, Emerson believed that literary authenticity played an integral part in the formation of American literature. Because Emerson realized America needed to develop its own literary works, he perpetuated the transcendentalist movement to sculpture American literature through spirituality, philosophy, and literary content.
             In religion, it was post-Unitarian and freethinking, and he articulated it in his "Divinity School Address". In the address, Emerson perceived religion as a tedious pursuit needed to obtain virtue in life. The controversy of Emerson's thinking directly addressed the Christian Church. Jesus Christ in Emerson's retrospection was a miraculous authority, but he asserted that the Christian Church erred by exaggerating the miracles of Jesus and the confinement of revelation. His resolution was audacious:
             Let me admonish you, first of all, to go alone;
             to refuse the good models, even those which are
             sacred in the imagination of men, and date to
             To Emerson, the religious aspect of transcendentalism was intended to deny past ways of significance and to discover new, perceptive approaches to God.
             Nature, Emerson's first book, reinforces the philosophical concepts of the movement. The book is an attempt to answer the pro
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