Views of transcendentalism versus puritanism Essay Example for Free

Views of transcendentalism versus puritanism EssayThe Puritans see immortal as mysteriously involved in the acts of the universe, whereas the transcendentalists think divinity fudge is connected to homokind with nature and intuition. The anticipation on Puritan writing is that their style tends to be plain and introspective. Transcendentalist writing shows how nature and feelings argon imperious over logic and rationality. In contrast to the plain style of Puritan writing, Jonathan Edwards frequently strikes his audience with regnant words in his literature.He exemplifies this style in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God alone still shows the lowliness of human beings in relation to Gods power, another Puritan trait. In transcendentalist writing, the spiritual and ideal worlds are revealed through the natural incidents of the infixed world. A writer who intents transcendental techniques is Ralph Waldo Emerson. The work written by Emerson reflecting transcendentalis m is called Nature. The name itself portrays the trance as transcendental, merely Emerson uses the forest and its components as symbols of the spiritual world.In comparison, twain the Puritans and the Transcendentalists strain on their own perceptions of the world and human existence. Edwards sermon called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God reiterates the fact that God has more power than man. Wickedness and sin, as Edwards describes, leads man closer and closer into the depths of hell. Mankind is clean and helpless if God is provoked. There is no want of power in God to cast unholy men into hell at any moment. Mens hands cannot be strong when God rises up, (Jonathan Edwards).Edwards uses the phrase Mens hands cannot be strong when God rises up to evidently make his point. His intention is to say that God and his powers should not be taken lightly. No matter how strong the will of man, God has the final say in it all. There is, however, a twist to his intention. Edwards di rects the wrath of God mainly upon those who sin and that He God is not unless able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily do it, (Jonathan Edwards). By using the word wicked, Edwards hints at how man acts in order to provoke God.Sin leads towards mankinds wickedness, hence angering God. His wrath may come in different focal points. Instead of throwing the inhabitants of Earth directly into the fiery depths of hell, He will let mankind destroy itself and withhold His retribution. The wrath of God is like great wet that are dammed for the present they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher the floods of Gods vengeance have been withheld but your guilt in the meantime is constantly increasing, and you are everyday treasuring up more wrath, (Jonathan Edwards).Obviously, Edwards uses the wet held fanny a dam as a symbol. The dam represents Gods hand, and the water is His wrath. Comparing this, Edwards tries to explain that the long-term the water is held back, the more force it will have when the dam will no longer support it the longer God puts off judgment of mans sin, the more powerful His punishment. The sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is a great pillow slip of the Puritan belief of society.A man is ether part of the elect, essentially chosen to go to heaven, or of the damned that are sent to hell at Gods force. On the softer typeface of Gods presence, Transcendentalism takes place. Their view is that intuition and nature as a whole is more powerful than intellect. In Emersons Nature, there is a strong sense of God being present through the wilderness and the natural way of life. All the parts incessantly work into each others hands for the profit of man.The wind sows the cum the sun evaporates the sea the wind blows the vapor to the field the ice, on the other side of the planet, condenses rain on this the rain feeds the plant the plant feeds the animal and thus the endless circulations of the divine charity no urish man, (Ralph Waldo Emerson). What Emerson is onerous to get through to his audience is that God works in a process for the good of mankind. When he tells about how the wind, sun, rain, and plant, and how each work together in a cycle to support nature, he is analyse their jobs to God nourishing man.Emerson is also trying to say that without nature and its course, man would not survive. The Transcendentalists believe that the physical facts of the natural world are a doorway to the spiritual and ideal world an apparent example is that nature always wears the colors of the spirit, (Emerson, Chapter Nature). Emerson considers God to be present within physical properties of nature, in this case, color. The use of the word always suggests that God and the spiritual world are visible through nature to man no matter the condition. Conversely, do these relations of God and nature apply in any way to man?When a man is described as a particle of God, (Emerson, Ch Nature), he is a piece of God and the spiritual world. There is a connection between man and nature because of Gods visibility through the environment. Ideally, the Transcendentalists show that man is not only a part of God, but also in nature. mess living in the Puritan and Transcendental periods of time believed that God was connected to humanity and the life border it also, God had the power to reveal himself to mankind and even take control, making Puritanism and Transcendentalism equivalent.Texts like Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and Nature are good examples of Puritan and Transcendental writing because they comprise the characteristics and beliefs of each era. Elements in transcendentalism are knowledge and spiritual existence in nature, whereas Puritanism consists of discipline and God revealed through the inner self of man. Whether it be for God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment, (Edwards), or divine charity to nourish man, (Emerson), God was presented as a power both to repri mand and nurture civilization.