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Transcendentalism: Thomas Paine in 1794 wrote a book titled The Age of Reason; this book dicussed his views on religion and brought a new religious subject in to the eyes of the Ameerican Public. This idea was to become known as Deism. The current Religion that was widely practiced was Calvinism. Calvinism had beliefs that only certain people could go to heaven, and no matter what everyone else would be damned to Hell. They even believed Infants were Evil. Thomas Paine claimed this religion was “set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.” Many Americans were outraged and shocked by these ideas, because they had grown up with deep religious roots. Many intellectuals of the time period started to accept Unitarism as their religion, because it's doctrine was Deism. The Transcendentalists also came up with concepts like: there was more to experiencing the world than could be inferred by logic and more to living than could be satisfied by the acquisition of material things. The Transcendentalists also believed in direct communion with God through self-exploration, and isolation. The Romantics, who were also still a part of the Transcendentalism movement revered nature and felt that contemplation of natural scenes would lead to realization of fundamental truths. Some well known Authors in this period are Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau was more of an extremist, and his journeys and experiences later in 1993 fueled Christopher McCandless' (Alexander Supertramp) Journey across America via Hitchhiking, and his adventure into the Alaskan wilderness. Thoreau was more of an extremist. He spent his time alone in the wilderness, not living, but survivng. He built his cabin with his own hands, and barely had enough to eat. Emerson was just as great of a writer, and essayist, but he lived in his own luxuries. Basically to sum up Transcendientalism, it is defined as any system of philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual above the empirical and material, but to one who actually believes in it, or lives their life by it, it is an adventure in which one tries "to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage."
