Romanticism and the Re-Invention of Modern Religion : The Reconciliation of German Idealism and Platonic Realism

Early German Romanticism sought to respond to a comprehensive sense of spiritual crisis that characterised the late eighteenth century. The study demonstrates how the Romantics sought to bring together the new post-Kantian idealist philosophy with the inheritance of the realist Platonic-Christian tradition. With idealism they continued to champion the individual, while from Platonism they took the notion that all reality, including the self, participated in absolute being. This insight was expressed, not in the language of theology or philosophy, but through aesthetics, which recognised the potentiality of all creation, including artistic creation, to disclose the divine. In explicating the religious vision of Romanticism, this study offers a new historical appreciation of the movement, and furthermore demonstrates its importance for our understanding of religion today. The Fundamental Concern Of Romanticism, Which Brought About Its Inception, Determined Its Development, And Set Its End, Was The Need To Create A New Language For Religion-- Romantic Religion : Transcendence For An Age Of Immanence -- Give Me A Place To Stand : The Absolute At The Turn Of The Nineteenth Century -- Romantic Religion : The Transcendent Poet's Vocation -- Our Romantic Future. Alexander J. B. Hampton. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This book examines how early German Romanticism combined post-Kantian idealism and Platonic-Christian realism to develop a new aesthetics of religion. In explicating the religious vision of Romanticism, it offers a new historical appreciation of the movement, and furthermore demonstrates its importance for our understanding of religion today. "The fundamental concern of Romanticism, which brought about its inception, determined its development, and set its end, was the need to create a new language for religion"-- Provided by publisher