A group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture, and philosophy support an ideal spiritual state that goes beyond the physical and empirical and can only be reached through a knowledgeable, intuitive awareness that depends on the person. In the early to mid-19th century, the idea came from New England. It is sometimes called “American Transcendentalism” to set it apart from other uses of the word “transcendental.”

It began as a protest against the general state of culture and society, particularly the state of intellectualism at Harvard and the doctrine of the Unitarian church taught at Harvard Divinity School. Transcendental idealism is sometimes shortened to “transcendental idealism,” and “transcendental idealism” is another way to say that God’s classical philosophy goes beyond the world we can see.

In 840 A.D., John Scotus Erigena told the Frankish king Charles the Bald, “We don’t know what God is. God doesn’t know what He is, either, because He isn’t anything. God isn’t anything because He is beyond being.”