Romanticism

Romanticism was characterized by a new emphasis on feeling, faith, individualism, and communion with nature divine and untamed. There was a new emphasis on feeling in all areas of life—music, poetry, drama, and certainly religion. Faith—not necessarily orthodox faith—was considered to be good. Individualism manifested itself in a new impatience with society’s laws and rules of conduct and sought expression in personal religion and individualized education. This is a guiding principle in todays society and has been perpetuated in American literature since this period. Moreover, there was a new emphasis on the organic view of history and society. That is, it was felt that the present must be understood in connection with the past and the future; and that there is slow, not radical, development of the social organism. This intellectual context is important for the appearance and impact of Darwinian thought. But it was important, too, for the development of Hegelianism, Marxism, and nationalism. Georg Hegel (1770–1831), a professor of philosophy at several German universities, finished his career at the University of Berlin. He taught many things, but his very influential Philosophy of History, published after his death in 1837, saw a spiritual or non-material force moving through history and evolving by means of a dialectical process (clash of opposites) to establish freedom in a utopia on earth. This is another concept that is with us today as we look at our society. The idea that as we examine all sides of an issue that we can always produce a middle view and that truth consists in that view is sort of a "democratic" principle. However, losing sight of absolute truth and trying to develope it by the multitude of opinions leads to relativism and moral chaos. Karl Marx (1818–1883) borrowed from Hegel and others to teach a materialistic philosophy; that is, he saw a materialistic force moving through history by means of the dialectic of the clash of classes to establish the utopia of a classless society. Marx, commonly regarded as the founder of modern scientific socialism, did much of his writing in England, where he attacked the evils of capitalism. His great works were the Communist Manifesto (1847) and, in collaboration with Friedrich Engels, Das Kapital (3 vols., 1867, 1885, 1893). Marx’s views were not destined to catch fire in the nineteenth century. One facet of the Romantic reaction was the revival of religion of all types. Some took the aesthetic approach and found a delight in vesture and symbol and stained glass and stately organ music. Others turned from rationalistic apologies for Christianity to emotional experience of a more or less orthodox faith. Napoleon made a concordat with the papacy (1801) and restored the Roman Catholic church in France. Schleiermacher, in Germany, redefined religion as feeling—man’s feeling of dependence on God as he comes to realize how finite, limited, and temporary he is in comparison with the eternal principle indwelling the world. Schleiermacher’s rationalized Christianity has influenced such more recent movements as neo-orthodoxy and existentialism. An evangelical revival moved through the Church of England during the first third of the century under the leadership of such well-known saints as John Newton and William Wilberforce. Meanwhile Methodist, Baptist, and other dissenter groups grew rapidly in number. The Sunday school movement spread across England like a prairie fire, and several Bible societies were founded in Europe and America, including the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Berlin Bible Society, and the American Bible Society. At the same time, the foreign missions movement continued to expand. In fact the nineteenth century has been called the “Great Century of Protestant Missions.”