Transcendental religion

“Transcendentalism, with its roots in progressive Unitarianism, brought an infusion of fresh blood to the waters of religion. Unitarian preacher William Ellery Channing, who strongly influenced the movement, focused in his essay “Humanity's Likeness to God” instead of the eternal punishment for the primal sin on the divine human nature and on the relation of human to God which is the relation of a child to its father. Human is what is most godlike on the Earth, not Church or any other secular authority. Ralph Waldo Emerson as a preacher refused Eucharist and wanted individuals to find their own rituals and ways how to celebrate their relationship with God. Transcendentalism was influenced by the wisdom of the East, so its vision of Christianity is universal and liberal and harmonizes with “the perennial wisdom,” the pattern I believe is pictured by every religion. Emerson's concept of divine Self in every human, beautifully versified by Walt Whitman in his poem “To You,” is an equivalent of Hindu Atman, true Self within us and the individual side of the ultimate reality Brahman. English Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge distinguished Reason, “inward beholding” which appeals only to itself and its knowledge is spiritual, from Understanding, the instrument of external knowledge, which appeals to senses and its knowledge is phenomenal. This difference had become a typical Transcendental conception and is parallel with Hindu distinction between universal Consciousness and symbolical Mind. In the matter of time I can write a few more analogues. The absolute Christian perception from Genesis to the Apocalypse can be perceived as the part of the Hindu cycle and Shiva's Dance, when he destroys and reveals the universe, can be the equivalence of Last Judgment. Hinduism and Christianity then more clearly seem to be “two paths on the same mountain.” As Henry David Thoreau observed in his essay “Christianity and Hinduism Compared,” the latter is more intellectual and the former more moral. Though extremely simplified, Hinduism is then “the path of wisdom” and Christianity “the path of love,” but all in all it is just the matter of an angle. “ (the fragment from my essay "Improvised meditation on American Transcendentalism," that I used as an introduction)
One of the most important and significant religious “works” was the oration by Ralph Waldo Emerson known as “Divinity School Address.” Emerson's vision and ideas are really impressive and even today very fresh and liberal. He sees the very essence of the religion in a virtue and moral sentiment, “the embalmer of the world” and emphasizes the path of an individual. Everyone has to seek his own divine illumination; “the spirit only can teach,” scriptures can serve just as a guide, the true religious experience cannot be gained second-hand. The key part (and probably the most radical opinion in his time) is his focus on Divinity “here and now,” i.e. on the divine nature of the reality. He points out that God, in his vision more Supreme Wisdom than in Christianity typical personified Creator of the universe, exists as much in the presence as in the past. Divinity of Jesus Christ, “the true prophet” who “saw with open eye the mystery of soul,” is just the instance of divinity of every man; his miracles are just a metaphor for everyday miracles like rain or sunrise.
He makes a distinction between the true religion and the historical Christianity (the religion of scriptures, dogmas, Church, clergy...), which he finds as based on words more than on ideas (“tradition characterizes the preaching of this country; that it comes out of the memory, and not out of the soul.”) His reproach, that the historical Christianity has a tendency to adore the past and overlook the presence, is a very usual failure (not only) of religions. Time flows away what is unimportant, so we can see of the ancient times their substance, whereas the current age is usually obscured by the daily stereotype. Therefore it is not a surprise that we often can see “miracles, prophecy, poetry, the ideal life, the holy life, exists as an ancient history merely.”
Emerson has a great respect for the ancient wisdom (“the sentences of the oldest time, which ejaculate this piety [the expression of moral sentiment] are still fresh and fragrant.”) and finds it as the very source of religious sentiment, but on the other hand he finds the same wisdom in his presence and expects the new prophet who “shall see them [ancient texts] come full circle.” As I understand it, who shall develop the universal language for mythologies and religions.
Such a radical speech obviously arose a lot of responses. Andrews Norton, one of the most important Unitarian preachers in his age, strongly disagreed with Transcendentalist views in general and with Emerson in particular. However, the fragment from “The New School in Literature and Religion” is a very rash response with practically no reasoning at all. The fragment from “A Discourse on the Latest Form of Infidelity” is better, but Norton's opinions are still very conservative and “ossified.” He defends understanding and theological knowledge as the real source of religion, and he claims that if Christ's miracles are denied, then “nothing is left that can be called Christianity.” I think that it would have to be a really poor religion, if its truth could not stand without its supernatural nature. George Ripley in “The Latest Form of Infidelity Examined” briefly refutes Norton's “theological elitism” when he writes that “Christ established no college of Apostles“ and emphasizes, that the equal access to God of all persons is the fundamental principle of Jesus, as well as of the early Unitarianism.
Much more pleasant and reasonable response to “Divinity School Address” is “God's Personhood Vindicated” by Henry Ware Jr. In his eyes, Emerson “took away the Father of the Universe” and left just “a company of children in an orphan asylum.” I can understand this point, but it works only with assumption that a human was born as a mere servant, though loved, who needs perpetual guidance and his highest mission is just to obey God. Emerson's view is much more progressive, because although it takes this loving and carefully watching parent, it embraces a free will and a responsibility for it and it assumes that every human can be his own God and therefore lead his own life.
Another important and impressive work that defines “Transcendental Christianity” is “A Discourse of the Transient and Permanent in Christianity” by Theodore Parker, and it has many ideas in common with “Divinity School Address.” As Emerson distinguished “historical Christianity” from the true religion, so Parker makes a distinction between permanent Christianity, the substance and ideas, which are “the eternal truth of God,” and transient Christianity, the doctrines, rituals and forms, which are “the thought, the folly, the uncertain wisdom, the theological notions, the impiety of man.” The former is in the service of Spirit itself and is absolute; the latter one is just a “robe” of it, and it is in the service of life and age. Parker compares religion to Nature. As there is only one true system of Nature, but scientific theories and philosophical doctrines differ, so there is just one true Christianity, different are only theological views. Therefore, we should not take scriptures as the infallible truth. In particular, he describes Bible (as the most sacred of texts) as the oriental poetic work, imbued by the wisdom of God, which is by mistake taken as the literal and absolute word of God (besides, Bible itself does not claim that it is infallible). I can confirm it with my own experience (I have read five books of Moses.) If it is taken as a figurative and metaphorical art, it is very deep and imaginative work, but if it should be taken literally, it is a nonsense full of contradictions and it immediately fails in comparison with modern scientific knowledge.
He points out as the example of transitoriness the different views of the nature of Jesus (whether he was God, God and man at once, or just a man), but it does not affect the core of Christianity, because the truth of Jesus's words stands by itself. However, if he was a man, he was the example of the ideal character, of a beautiful and divine person, whereas if he was God, all his life was just a charade and has no relevance for humans. I think, that as the beauty of tree, plant or animal is most purely seen only in its natural habitat, so the ideas of Jesus (or Mohamed or Zarathustra) can be fully understood only in the context of all philosophy and the wisdom of all sages and saints, so when just one of them is glorified and placed over others, his ideas therefore suffer.
Parker concludes that the permanent Christianity is simple in nature; it is a pure love and, as Emerson in “Divinity School Address,” he emphasizes the diversity of individuals and own access to God of every person through its Reason, Conscience and Faith.
“The Sympathy of Religions” by Thomas Wentworth Higginson is direct example of the effort to find “the common pattern of religions.” It is a thoughtful work of comparative religions, and I especially respect Higginson's sensitive and warm attitude. Every religion has the same “mycelium,” only with its own unique mythology, imagination and symbolism, but often with common ideas and stories (he mentions the Egyptian symbolism in early Christianity, I would mention for instance the myth of deluge in Hinduism, Christianity and/or Greek mythology).
Because of my love to European culture, which is deeply related to and entwined with Christianity, I have also felt affinity with Christian mythology and symbolism. However, the vision of Christianity portrayed by Transcendentalists is the most beautiful I have ever seen, and it is the one I could most purely identify myself in both belief and philosophy.

Work in progress

Books
The Heretic's Feast: A History of Vegetarianism by Colin Spencer
Antichrist by Friedrich Nietzsche
The Crown of Life by Kirpal Singh

Projects
Influence of Divine Comedy on the European culture (waiting for time)

Essays
On Understanding Islam