American
Transcendentalism
AN OVERVIEW
OF KEY TERMS AND FIGURES
Transcendentalism:
Some attempts at a Definition
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Walter Leighton – “The doctrine that man has a knowledge of philosophic principles
by an immediate beholding without the process of reason or aid of experience.” [similar
to Wordsworth’s ‘spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling’]
Kenneth Walter Cameron – “the American tributary of European Romanticism . . . a
new humanism based upon ancient classical or Neo-Platonic supernaturalism and
colored by Oriental mysticism.”
Merle Curti – “a revolt against the rationalism of the 18th century. It emphasized those
aspects of man’s nature that were said to transcend or be independent of experience.”
Odell Shepard – “Transcendentalism was in essence a philosophy and a religion of
reform.”
Charles Mayo Ellis - “This, then, is the doctrine of Transcendentalism, the
substantive, independent existence of the soul of man, the reality of conscience, the
religious sense, the inner light, of man’s religious affections, his knowledge of right and
truth, his sense of duty . . . His love for beauty and holiness, his religious aspirations—
with this is starts as something not dependent on education, custom, command, or
anything beyond man himself.”
James Murdock - “Spontaneous Reason acquaints us with the true and essential
nature of things.”
Key Theological Terms
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Congregationalism: a system of church organization maintaining ecclesiastical
sovereignty; that is, holding individual congregations as self supporting and independent
from any central doctrinal or organizational governance. Church of the Puritans.
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Trinitarianism: Theological belief that God is triumvirate, associated with Catholicism
and its following churches (Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, etc.), and recognizing the
traditional doctrine of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Christ is, therefore, preexistent and divine, of God.
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Unitarianism: Theological perspective that rejects the trinity, viewing God as a
singular entity; more progressive wing calls into question the divinity of Jesus Christ,
viewing Christ as a prophet, rather than an element or incarnation of God. Reason,
science, and philosophy co-exist with faith in God.
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Antinomianism: a Christian heresy maintaining that the dictates of the Holy Spirit
upon the individual soul must take precedence over the conventions of law and doctrine,
ie. faith trumps law.
Key Philosophical Terms
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Romanticism: European intellectual and artistic movement led by German
philosophers and embraced by British literary artists. Emphasized beauty of nature,
preeminence of individual over the collective, objected to social constraints, and valued
emotional and intuitive perception over reason.
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Materialism: Contends that the practical, physical needs of the material body dictate
its primary order and that reality is a value of matter and energy.
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Idealism: Contends that reality as we know it is primarily a mental construct and that
supernatural or ideational awareness can supersede material value or reality.
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Higher Criticism: Biblical scholars who sought to find the meaning of “the world
behind the text” by examining its originary contexts and meanings; as opposed to those
“lower critics” for whom the text itself was the focus of study and theological meaning. A
more historically and metaphorically informed reading of scriptural texts than the literal
text-based scholarship that had preceded it.
Key Creations
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Lyceum Movement: an early social experiment in adult education; community
organized presentations and entertainments that supported travelling lecturers and
performers while also serving social functions. (modeled after Aristotle’s Lykium in
Athens, Greece)
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Catalogue Rhetoric: the spontaneous listing of elements and aphorisms that is
characteristic of Transcendentalist writing. Perhaps reaches its apex in the poetry of
Whitman.
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The Dial: From its inception in 1840 to its closing in 1844, this was the primary journal
of Transcendentalist thought.
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Brook Farm: Early (failed) experiment in socialist living, led by George Ripley.
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Education Reform: Early experiments in education reform led to establishment of
Kindergarten and of other progressive models.
Key Figures of the
Transcendentalist
Movement
James Marsh
 (1794-1842): Congregationalist
minister, literary critic and
translator. Early proponent of
Coleridge and German thinkers, his
explanation of the separation of
implicit Reason from empirical
proof greatly influenced
Transcendentalism’s development.
Frederic Henry Hedge
 (1805-1890): Unitarian minister
and primary founder, with Emerson
and Ripley, of the Transcendentalist
Club (originally termed “Hedges’
Club”). Like Marsh, one of the
earliest, strongest proponents of the
new German philosophy and
theology.
George Ripley
 (1802-1880): Unitarian minister,
one of the founders of the
Transcendentalist Club (first meeting
held in his home). Left ministry to
become principle founder of Brook
Farm, experiment in communal living.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
 (1803-1882): Effectively the
leading spokesperson for the
Transcendentalist movement, he
became the most successful lecturer of
his age, a widely published essayist
and poet. His work emphasizes the
sanctity of the individual.
Bronson Alcott
 (1799-1888): Perhaps the most
passionate of the early
Transcendentalists, Alcott was a
writer, teacher, and education
reformer. Founder of both an
experimental school and the
Fruitlands utopian community, both
of which failed in practice but lent
lasting ideas for future reformers.
Father of Louisa May Alcott, whose
novels and stories borrow heavily
from her experiences growing up
among the Transcendentalists.
Orestes Brownson
 (1803-1876): Founder of the
influential Boston Quarterly Review,
Brownson was of modest means and
trained as a Universalist minister. He
converted to Unitarianism and became
a leading early proponent of
Transcendentalism. Earliest to embrace
social causes of poor; later became
critical of what he saw as elitism and
intellectualism without action within
movement. This led to his conversion to
Catholicism and embrace of that
religion’s doctrine of Charity. Later,
published Brownson’s Quarterly
Review.
Henry David Thoreau
 (1817-1862): Emerson’s most
famous follower and friend, Thoreau
ultimately broke beyond Emerson’s
implicit conservatism to forge a more
radical vision of individual rights and
the limitations of the state. Perhaps the
most influential Transcendentalist
thinker to today.
Margaret Fuller
 (1810-1850): Perhaps the first
American woman to make a living as a
full-time writer as a journalist and
book reviewer, certainly one of our
earliest feminist voices. Widely
recognized as the “best read person in
New England, man or woman,” she
was the first woman given access to the
Harvard Library and served as the first
editor of The Dial. Died in shipwreck;
Thoreau sent to recover her body.
Theodore Parker
 (1810-1860): Reformist Unitarian
minister, early member of the
Transcendentalist Club. Unlike most
in movement, of humble origins.
Controversial higher critical views
included denying Biblical miracles
and divinity of Jesus. Called for an
intuitive faith led by inner light, not
the textual strictures of dogma.
Staunch supporter the “Social Gospel”
of reformist causes, including
abolitionism, temperance, and
women’s rights.
Elizabeth Peabody
 (1804-1894): Businesswoman and
educator, her West Street Bookstore
stocked many influential and difficultto-procure German titles and also
provided space for Margaret Fuller’s
series of “Conversations” for women.
Served as Business Manager for The
Dial and, later, founded first
Kindergarten in U.S.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
 (1823-1911): Second generation
Transcendentalist, Unitarian minister
and staunch abolitionist during 1840s50s. Led the 1st South Carolina
Volunteers, the first regiment of freed
African-American slaves to serve in the
Civil War. Effectively “discovered” and
mentored Emily Dickinson and served
as her editor after her death.
Jones Very
 (1813-1880): Second
generation Transcendentalist. A
Shakespearean scholar, he was also
influenced by the British Romantics
to forge a neo-Classical poetry that
sought to spread the
Transcendentalist message. Saw
himself as a prophet and suffered
emotional collapse in later life.
Walt Whitman
 (1819-1892): Poet, essayist, and
journalist, deeply influenced by the
Transcendentalists in both their
humanism and in their invention of
catalog rhetoric, which he used to
become “the father of American blank
verse.” His frank treatment of sexuality
led to charges of obscenity for his work.
Devoted his life to writing and revising
his masterwork, Leaves of Grass.
Additional
Stuff
 A “brotherhood of the like-minded” (that included
sisters)
 Why should any religion institution have greater
claim to authority than the individual conscience or
inner light?
 The first group of American intelligentsia to advocate
that the great nonwestern religious traditions be
taken seriously as possible paths to religious
understanding.