Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote it and Henry David Thoreau lived it. Transcendentalism was a religious and philosophical movement developed around the 1820s and 1830s. It began in the northeastern United States. According to Paul Reuben, the movement began as a protest against the spirituality and intellectualism brought to the United States from England (Reuben). The fundamental beliefs of the movement can be deduced from a single line, the infixed good found in nature and in people. They fought against the only two major institutions that influenced society at that time, government and religion; which are supposed to pervert individuals. As Reuben proposed, the roots of transcendentalism come from several past movements, two of which are of great importance. The first, utilitarianism, where the father of the movement comes from; whose influence separated the person from Divinity and depicted humans as a source of moral light. The second major influence came from Romanticism and gave Transcendentalism its concept of nature and the idea of ​​it being a living being, not something stable and eternal. Emerson and Thoreau are the father and student of transcendentalism. As mentioned previously, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote about the movement and was the most important scholar to discuss it. Hendy David Thoreau was Emerson's student and fell in love with the movement, he decided to leave everything and live the movement. Although Emerson and Thoreau agree in the belief that nature is the key to knowing all, they differ greatly in their methods of experimenting with movement and their transcendentalist practices. The founder of Transcendentalism was a distinct speaker and poet who advocated and invented... .. middle of paper ......beliefs about Transcendentalism.Works CitedBodily, Christopher L. "Henry David Thoreau: The Instrumental Transcendentalist?. " Journal of Economic Issues (Association For Evolutionary Economics) 21.1 (1987): 203. Business Source Elite. Internet. April 2, 2014. Heitman, Danny. "Ralph Waldo Emerson." Humanities 34.3 (2013): 32-36. Academic research completed. Internet. April 2, 2014. Ingman, Benjamin C. “Henry David Thoreau.” Dialogue on Curriculum and Teaching 13.1/2 (2011): 143-158. Academic research completed. Internet. April 1, 2014. Payne, Daniel G. "Emerson's Natural Theology: John Burroughs and the 'Church' of Latter-Day Transcendentalism." Atq 21.3 (2007): 191-205. Academic research completed. Internet. April 2, 2014. Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 4: American Transcendentalism: A Brief Introduction." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide. April 1, 2014.