Religious Revivals: The Great Awakenings

Religion suffered some major setbacks in the 18th and 19th centuries as Enlightenment thinkers challenged religious dogma by introducing the world to a new scientific method as a means to understand the workings of the universe. Religious "mysteries" were explained and dogma was questioned by scientists and intellectuals who introduced to the world the Enlightenment concepts of Rationalism, Relativism, and Individualism. The power and influence of the church was under siege by the rise of secularism, which is the belief that religion should hold no place in public life. In response to this, the church mounted a few religious revivals in the last two centuries to try to reclaim its position as the moral and spiritual leader of the world. The first of these revivals is known as the Great Awakening, which occurred between the years 1730 and 1760. This movement was lead by the Puritan minister Jonathan Edwards, whom we have studied in the previous marking period. His passionate and intense sermons attracted a tremendous following; his sermons were often terrifying pictures of hell and damnation, a hell that can only be avoided by the saving grace of accepting Jesus as the Christ, or Messiah, the Savior of Mankind. His most famous sermon was entitled "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"; the title itself suggests the terrifying repercussions of living a life without redemption. This revival settled down after 1760, only to be revived again between the years 1800 and 1830. This period is known as the Second Great Awakening. Once again, religious leaders achieved a large following by emphasizing a return to the roots of Christianity, focusing on the belief of Original Sin and seeking forgiveness from Jesus. It is the belief of Original Sin and this return to fundamental Christian beliefs that are the core of a new movement that began after 1840 known as Anti-Transcendentalism.

Emerson's Man-Thinker, from The American Scholar

In Ralph Waldo Emerson's speech, The American Scholar, he uses the term "man-thinking" to denote an independent thinker, or one who is free of constraining fetters of conformity and dogmatic beliefs. The mind of the independent thinker is engaged by the spectacles of nature and ponders his connection to "the inexplicable continuity of this web of God." The scholar sees his connection to nature and his soul's reflection therein; thus, to study and contemplate nature is to study and contemplate one's soul. The scholar also finds inspiration in books and knowledge; however, the true man-thinker uses this rich source of information to create ideas relevant and reflective of his day. He does not deify past thinkers nor apotheosize their works. Great minds think against themselves and accepted ideas in an attempt to arrive at their own personal truth; they are not afraid of contradiction and change. One of interesting comments Emerson makes about the universe is it is "without center, without circumference." (If you saw the movie "I (heart) Huckabees" this should sound familiar.) The size and scope of the universe is beyond our imagination and understanding. What thoughts do you have about the universe? What thoughts does the universe inspire you to think? Think for yourself and be a non-conformist.

Transcendentalism

We can think of the literary and social movement called Transcendentalism as the American child of Romanticism because the former stems from and was engendered by the latter. They both have many ideas and perspectives in common, but Transcendentalism takes these ideas a bit further. The basic precept, or rule, of Trans'ism is : The basic truths of the Universe lie beyond the knowledge we obtain through our senses. Through senses, we learn the facts and laws of the physical world, and we can create science and technology, but there is another realm of knowledge that exists beyond what we can hear, see, or learn from books. We must use the sense of Intuition to transcend the physical world if we want to know the existence of our souls and our realation to the meta-reality beyond the physical world. Because we cannot use our senses to understand this spiritual reality, we can only understand it through direct experience. What the Trans'ists were seeking is direct communion with the Over-Soul, which is an idea very similiar to Brahman, which is a shared universal soul that connects and includes all forms of Being- God, humanity, nature. Therefore, a Trans'ist feels ALL living beings are significant, from the smallest flea to the most important human. Everything is a significant part of this Universal Spirit the Over-Soul.