Transcendentalism & Christianity.

The consequences of humanist ideas.

Transcendentalism was a artistic and religious movement in the 19th century that focused on the spiritual over the material. It influenced many American writers including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, and Lousia May Alcott.

While the movement has many spiritual undertones and uses very religious language, one should examine: Does it align with Biblical teachings? I would argue that, when measured against what the Bible teaches, Transcendental thought has a few valid ideas and myriad harmful erroneous ones.

Transcendentalism’s place in the family tree of philosophy.

No school of thought exists in a vacuum. Transcendentalism was influenced by

• Neo-Platonism (contributed the ideas of panenthism, the modern concept of a soul, and monism.)

• Romanticism (celebrates nature, emotions, & holds that people are basically good.)

• Empiricism (we can only know for sure what we experience with our senses.)

• David Hume and Skepticism (what cannot be proved by reason should not be believed.)

• Immanuel Kant and Rationalism (we can only know for sure that which we deduce from reason alone.)

• Hinduism.

It’s important to realize that each these beliefs hold contradicting elements to each other, but these were the philosophical questions of the day (the day being the Enlightenment period.)

The Material and The Spiritual

You’ve heard the phrase “mind over matter?” Well it’s a quintessentially transcendental phase. Transcendentalists hoped to transcend the base material things of life to achieve a higher spiritual plane. (Ironically they were also fascinated with nature—which is very material. Thoreau had a particular obsession with beans.) Through the spiritual and emotional they hoped to rise above the rational and the material.

This can appear to be very good to Christians, especially when we look at verses like Colossians 3:2, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” However depending on emotion and man-made concepts of spirituality are dangerous and open the door to false teaching, such as Gnosticism. Because of the pervading influences of neo-Platonism, Gnosticism, and transcendentalism, in modern Christianity we are inclined to interpret Scripture through the bias that flesh=bad and spirit=good.¹

This limits our view of what Scripture says. For example, John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” If Christ became flesh, we cannot so easily say that flesh=bad. Conversely, 1 John 4:1 says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” Not everything that is spirit is good either.²

Nature

To say that the transcendentalists had an appreciation for nature is an understatement. In 1836, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a very long essay in which he outlines the tenets of transcendentalism. The name of this essay? Nature. This love for nature is also seen in Thoreau’s Walden and in the work of Emily Dickinson, who was known for her love of botany, collecting over 400 specimens of the local flora.

The Human Soul, Death and the Afterlife

Transcendentalists were influenced by Neo-Platonic ideas about the soul. They believed people were part of a universal spirit, or “Oversoul,” which they considered to be God. The Oversoul was everywhere, in all things, especially humans and nature. Human value in transcendentalism comes from possessing a piece of the Oversoul. Transcendentalists held that death was not scary, it was just a person’s piece of soul transcending to the Oversoul.

This can sound very spiritual and it can even masquerade convincingly using Christian terms, but it is not sound doctrine in any shape or form. Human value comes from being made in the image of God, not being a part of God. Any belief that says we are part of God brings an incomprehensible God down to a human level, and is erroneous and dangerous. Christians don’t need to fear death, but it is because we have a relationship with God, not because we are part of God.

The nature of God and of Christ.

“God as Oversoul” describes a belief known as panentheism, which says that God encompasses and makes up the universe via His Being. I don’t believe panentheism is incompatible with orthodox Christian doctrine. But the Transcendental view is very human centered.

Transcendentalism has a serious flaw when it comes to the person of Christ. It commits the heresy of Arianism, by denying the 100% godhood of Christ. They claim that Jesus was just a slightly more enlightened or transcended human with more of the Oversoul within him. (Another example how believing we have a part of God in us significantly diminishes our view of God.)

Self-Reliance and the Dangers of Humanism.

Self reliance was both an explicit and implicit theme of transcendentalism. Emerson wrote about self reliance in a essay of the same name and Thoreau pursued it in his foray at Walden Pond (inspired by Emerson’s essay.) Implicitly, we see it in how transcendentalism minimizes our view of God and elevates humanity to an higher position than deserved. This line of thinking, known more broadly as humanism, is a common, grievous error especially in the modern and postmodern western world.

In this treatment of transcendentalism, it is easy to see where the worldview goes wrong. But in everyday life, the errors are not so blatant. Any version of Christianity that revolves around “I feel like,” individual preferences, emotions, “to me this means,” “this can’t be true because I don’t like it” and/or bringing God down to our level is suspect, dangerous, and needs to be addressed and corrected immediately.

I’ll wrap up with one of the most “transcendental” experiences of the Bible and how even in the light of spiritual experiences, weakness, humility and truth are still more important.

I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows.

And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—

and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses—

though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.

2 Corinthians 12:1-6

“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.”

Colossians 2:8-10.

1. The material vs. spiritual question is echoed as monism vs. dualism in philosophy, behavioral determinism in psychology, chaos theory in mathematics, and God’s providence vs. free will in theology.

2. Now this is a very complex issue, both in philosophy and systemic theology. Please note that the verses I presented here are intended to cause you to think further on the topic through study and the proper use of hermeneutics.