FROM THE ENLIGHTENMENT TO ROMANTICISM

Religious Revival and Philosophy of the late 18th and early 19th Centuries

John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism, preaching at an outdoor revival.

François-René de Chateaubriand: founder of French Romanticism and Catholic revival

EDUCATION: CHANGE OVER TIME

England – grammar & public schools

Germany – Gymnasium; Realschule (1747, Berlin) = practical business oriented education for young men of middle class

France & Spain – collège Napoleon introduces

lycee: secondary school for students between elementary school and college, supported by the French government, for preparing students for the university

Elitist institutions that helped maintain the social barriers between the upper and lower classes. Education not yet regarded as universal right everywhere BUT…

Classical Universities = Old-fashioned

ModernUniversities

include Physics,

Astronomy,Mathematics, Modern Lang.

Education of the Masses:Chapbooks (literary pamphlet: a small booklet of poems,

ballads, or stories, originally sold by traveling peddlers)Sunday School

Austrian Empire = VolkschulenSwiss cantons, Scotland, Saxony, & Prussia =

universal primary education

ROUSSEAU AND EDUCATION Emile – education of boys

Recognizes distinct stages of childhood Greatest teachers = exploration and

experience Reason AS WELL AS passion should be

cultivated Heloise – education of girls = adheres

to traditional forms in place since Reformation

INSTITUTIONALIZED RELIGION

Toleration: Louis XIV, NO; Joseph II & Friedrich the Great, YES

French Revolution = de-christianization

JEWS: Assimilation, restrictions, pogroms

Nationalization of Catholic Churches

Napoleon = Concordat of 1801

Fall of Jesuits, 1773

Ashkenazic JewsSephardic Jews

POPULAR RELIGION Catholic Piety – pilgrimages, prayers to saints, devotion of relics

Chateaubriand’s “The Genius of Christianity” = religion must be infused with passion

Pietism – Protestant mysticism (Germany – Graf von Zinzendorf & the Moravian Brethren) – personal devotion to and experience of God, “He who wishes to comprehend God with his mind becomes an atheist.”

Methodism (starts as branch of Anglicanism in 1740s) – John and Charles Wesley: “Open doors, open hearts, open minds”, charismatic preaching outdoors, exciting conversions, movement away from rationalization of Christianity

German Schleiermacher “Speeches on Religion to Its Cultural Despisers” = respect of all world religions, religious diversity BUT Christianity was still the “religion of religions”

ISLAM – TWO PRESPECTIVES Anti-Islamic Perspective Christian revival = revival in tension

btw. Christianity and Islam Fueled also by

romantic view of medieval crusades Nationalism and Greek Revolution (1821) vs.

OE: OE = despotic backward empire in a state of decay/decline

ISLAM – TWO PRESPECTIVES “Pro”-Islamic Perspective Arab peoples and history are a vital component

of historical, political, social, and intellectual development of the West (think Hegel & Herder) ME folk tales become popular Muhammad viewed as prime example of hero as

prophet (Thomas Carlyle) Napoleonic Expedition to Egypt = increased interest

Rise in European visitors to ME Egyptian architecture en vogue Rosetta Stone discovered and much European scholarly

writing done on ME

ROMANTIC PHILOSOPHY? Kant – rationalism + personal freedom + God

Mind actively engages the world around it Mind learns to categorize information based on the

experiences one has had = strong relationship between the mind and the body (contrast with Cartesian Dualism)

Categorical Imperative Kant believes that there is an innate sense of right and

wrong / awareness universal to all human beings Human freedom lies in the act of choosing one over the

other Universal moral code = existence of God

ROMANTIC PHILOSOPHY? Fichte

World is actually a human creation as strong –willed individuals mold the course of history and the construction of society

Herder Respect for foreign cultures Culture and society are organic and change over

time to reflect changes in human behavior/beliefs Strong proponent of German cultural identity

Brothers Grimm and the preservation of oral traditions via codification of fairy tales

ROMANTIC PHILOSOPHY? Hegel

Organic evolution of history through conflicting “moments”

Dominate individuals or ways of thinking = catalyst/engine for change

all periods of history / all cultures are important b/c each was a necessary contributor to the process known as the Hegelian Dialectic