The Unlikely Brotherhood of the Reformation and Romanticism

"War to the chateaux, peace to the cottages."

This French Revolutionary slogan encapsulates much of the political atmosphere of the Romantic period. The Romantic period was one that glorified and romanticized the extreme, and even the unknown. People began to take great interest in emotional expression and placed high value on the individual. In many ways, this eruption of emotion and revolution was unprecedented in history, but perhaps history is less of a linear procession of events, and more of a tessellation, where everything repeats itself, but sometimes at greater degrees and at different points. Perhaps the revolution and raw desire that filled the Romantic period has its roots in the somewhat milder Reformation movement against the Catholic church.

In both historical periods, there was a distinct sense of finding voice. Protestant reformers like Martin Luther found their voice through the written word. Martin could find no other outlet to express himself fully, something that he felt obligated to do. Luther declared in response to pressures by church and political leaders to recant his words, "I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen." Romanticists also found their voice through the written word although some writings resulted in a much less direct approach. Upon careful consideration, one can see the beautiful lines of the anonymous poem, The Cyclops, are not simply a narrative about craftsmanship, but a calculated jab at the sins of industrialism and factory work.

A nod to Romantic-era stained glass, Bill Jackman, 2014

The Protestant era was in many ways a precursor to the ideals of the Romantic period. The renewed and more intense spirituality of the Protestant era made people more attuned to all of the ways God is manifest in our lives. Martin Luther wrote, "God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on the trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars." He emphasized that God was in everything--the gospel could be found in any aspect, in all of God's creations. Acknowledging nature during the Protestant Reformation spurred the focus of nature in the Romantic era. Taking a deeper, more dramatic, more intricate look at the aesthetic and meaning of nature was a motif in this unique era. Artists and writers of the time took Martin Luther's attention to nature functioning as a means to access God and the gospel, and magnified it. They emphasized it and put even more passion and emotion to that belief.

Another way in which the Romantic era is reflective of Protestant values is the consistent theme of resistance to authority. The great superpower of the Reformation was (emphasis on was) the Catholic church. The degree of its power and reach is perhaps difficult for us to understand in our modernized world. To those in the Reformation period the Catholic church was THE religion and was incredibly integrated across society and nearly the entire Old World. Challenging such authority was unprecedented, at least not without dire consequences. The raw emotion of Martin Luther and his supporters is what made reform possible. In similar fashion, the Romantic period features revolutions which challenged the biggest political superpowers of the time, England and France, all in the name of liberty, freedom, and equality.

The protestant reformation themes carry on throughout history, surfacing in many different ways during the Romantic period. The way romanticists expressed themselves through writing, the love that they had for nature and the political courage they had, can all be traced back to Protestant themes. In a way, the Reformation can be seen as the bubbling of magma to the top of a volcano. Romanticism was the explosion.

William Turner, 1812

Fay Walker, Jacob Lang, Maddie Smith

Tennyson to Twitter: Finding Yourself in Art

During the 18th century, the leaders and thinkers of the day tended to focus their research and ideologies on what was best for society. During the turn of the century, the Romantics swung the opposite direction. After all the talk of utility and the community, these radicals and revolutionaries lifted the individual. They used art in the forms of novels, poems, and paintings as the vehicle to glorify uniqueness and empower the one. In a similar way, the digital age has centered itself on the individual by affording new ways for people to discover and express themselves. Social media, blogs, and constant connectivity are all modern tools used towards this end. “You do you” was the call of the Romantics, and its echo is heard once again today.

editing by Cassidy Crosby, girl's photo by Sharbat Gula, background by Thomas Cole

Art was and is the perfect medium for celebrating the self. Oscar Wilde said, “Art is the most intense form of individualism that the world has known.” This intense individualism can be seen in William Wordsworth’s poem “Tintern Abbey.” The poem is written in first person perspective about the narrator’s thoughts. “To me was all in all,” Wordsworth writes. “I cannot paint what then I was.” Instead of telling a story of a group of people, Wordsworth attempts to discover and describe himself. The romantic vision of the beauty of the world in the self was indeed shared by Wordsworth. Although he declares himself unable to “paint what then [he] was”, he exemplifies the romantic tendency to use art to showcase that beauty to the viewer. 

Chiaroscuro: Contrast Between the Gothic and the Fantastic

Chiaroscuro is a technique in art that uses strong contrasts between light and dark to bring more interest to a composition. This balance of light and dark has been a common theme throughout history, but one of the periods that demonstrates this well is the Romantic. During this period there was a sudden blossoming of publishing, and the rise of the novel gave way to two distinct styles: the Gothic and the Fantastical.

These two genres both stem from an abundance of imagination: one exploring our highest hopes, and the other unearthing our darkest fears. Together they clearly show the notions and ideals of the period. The American and French Revolutions were characterized by a spirit of Rebellion and Freedom, and this led to the rhetorical criticism of society and the imagination of new ideas. Many Romantic heroes and horrors came from this new originality; simultaneously producing fantastical stories of Arthurian legend while introducing the world to horrors such as Frankenstein’s monster.

Nature: From Science to Spirit

The instrument depicted is a microscope from the Enlightenment era which symbolizes the science and reason of nature in that time period. The overgrowth and butterfly represent the inspiring and untamed side of nature from the Romantic period.

In his Essay on Man, Alexander Pope wrote about the hierarchical assemblage of the universe and proposed that everything has a purpose for its existence. He pitied the people who thought they found something of the divine in nature, saying, “Lo! The poor indian! Whose untutor’d mind sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; His soul, proud Science never taught to stray Far as the solar walk, or milky way;” Nature was a source of understanding and rational inspiration during the Enlightenment. Far from looking for God in clouds, scientists, philosophers, and artists turned to nature to explain the order of things in the world. John Locke contended that all understanding came from the five senses or from rational thought. Jean-Jacques Rousseau held up man’s primitive natural state as the ideal. Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei and Francis Bacon turned to deep study of nature as the source of answers about the world. They sought to understand nature so they could predict it and control it. From the social contract to calculus, countless world-changing theories and discoveries based on the careful observation of nature emerged during this time.

Look—There's a Colorful Rock Behind You!

The Industrial Revolution was truly a great period of societal advancement. There were new jobs, new wonders of technologies, and new ways to gain fortune that opened doors to many groups, and in turn, the individuals. Although the response to new machines, techniques, and iron making were praised by many, others disapproved of the advancements from industrial life.

In protest to these hazardous machines, toxic pollution, and meaningless deaths, Romanticism arose.

Newton, William Blake, 1795-c.1805

In the picture above, William Blake, a prestigious romantic artist, portrays Isaac Newton as young and muscular, rather than the older figure of popular imagination. Here, he is crouching naked on a rock, covered with algae, at the bottom of the sea and his attention is focused on his diagram which he draws with his compass. Blake, critical of Newton’s scientific approach, shows that Newton merely follows the rules of his compass and is completely blind to the colorful rocks behind him.

Romanticism was in essence a protest of the Enlightenment period. The fact that scientific discoveries were being made about nature, many disapproved and wanted nature to stay as a pure, as a work of God, not scientific discovery. Public protest was developed into an art form during the 20th century, known as the Modernist era; thus, playing into the romantic theme of Individualism and Romanticism as Reaction. Main points of protest and popular discontent include:

1. The Civil Rights Movement
2. The Women's Rights movement
3. The protest against prohibition

Up or Down: Change Isn't Easy

How does change happen?

Maybe this sounds like a question you would find on a self-help blog, or perhaps in a scientific journal talking about some shift in nature. But on a societal level if we look at change there seems to be two different methods that change sweeps nations. There is a level of change that takes place from the top and trickles down, new laws, new ways to learn and accumulate new ideas, often these top-down movements are marked by the fact that the people who come up with this type of change are those with money. The renaissance couldn’t happen all at once but the chance for people to start exploring more began with those who had the money to do so.

Another method of change is from the bottom and works it's way up until it becomes a part of the general culture. While Martain Luther was wealthy enough to have gone to college the reformation spread like a wildfire primarily due to the everyday people.

This might be a bit of a simplification but overall the reformation took on a life of its own. One that could be influenced by those in power but moved to swiftly and too spread out to completely be reigned in.

Even Luther himself with the words: “I, Martin Luther, have during the rebellion slain all the peasants, for it was I who ordered them to be struck dead.” disavowed many who were moving outside of his influence.

But as stated there were more people that wanted change. And rapid change affected all of Europe to the point where within a handful of decades there were hundreds of churches that had been born in this time period

This is not to say that the reformation was more impactful than the renisance for it wouldn’t have happened at all if the renaissance hadn’t started first. But if comparing how the two movements changed life then it can be said that one was swift and decisive while the other was slower but built a stage for the world to continue to move forward with.

To see the differences in the types of people that two movements affected during their peaks and then comparing how both changes took place we can potentially point out that the faster change was the one that the more common people took a hold of.

So how does society change? Top-down or bottom-up the movements have pros and cons but the renaissance and reformation suggest that the faster change comes from bottom-up rather than top-down. 

Psychology of Humanism

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of “nature versus nurture,” and how we are shaped by and shape our culture. Examining movements such as the Renaissance through the lens of psychology yields some interesting ideas about how exactly changes in prevailing ideologies shape the future. 

photo by "Pere" on flickr (text added) 

According to Freud’s model of the mind, our consciousness is divided into 2 parts: the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. The conscious mind takes up only 10 percent; and our much larger subconscious is a blank slate when we are born. Throughout our lifetime, that slate is filled with patterns derived from our conscious thought and knowledge absorbed from others and the environment. Since the subconscious mind is 90% of our overall mind, whatever is in our subconscious forms our character, which then determines what we will accomplish in life.


The strong influence of external stimuli on the development of the subconscious means that changes in general attitudes, ideals, or prevailing wisdom (the “environment”) have significant impacts on the character, and therefore the actions and achievements, of individuals living in those times. The Renaissance and Reformation were absolutely crammed with such changes to the intellectual environment, and the rise of Humanism specifically may have altered attitudes about human nature and influenced the general psyche in a way that was key to later development and progress.

One of the fundamental tenets of Renaissance Humanism, as expressed by Petrarch, is that God gave humans intellectual and creative potential that was meant to be used. Humanism in that era also emphasized the responsibility of humans in developing themselves and promoting the race as a whole. Finally, as part of the “ad fontes” movement, the ancient Greek concept of Eudaimonia was probably becoming prominent, convincing people that the search for and creation of happiness and well-being was an important purpose of life. The spread of these ideologies would have significantly impacted the minds and characters of those who learned them, especially younger people whose subconscious minds were still being filled and developed.

Consider the impact this type of teaching would have on a person, in contrast with the previously dominant church doctrines. Rather than being told their individual life didn’t matter and salvation in the next life is the only thing for which they had to hope and work, someone growing up in the high Renaissance would start to internalize feelings of self-worth and agency. During the Reformation, things got even better: rather than the dogma that having wealth is a sin, Calvinists taught that material prosperity is evidence of God’s favor, motivating people to work hard and advance themselves financially.

In a discussion during the salon activity about how Renaissance and Reformation ideologies laid the foundation for the spectacular economic growth of later centuries, Joe pointed out how, in many cases, it’s not circumstances that change our mindset but rather our mindset that allows us to change our circumstances. I think the rise of Humanism during the Renaissance is a history-altering example of this. Humanism changed people, and people changed the world.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrarch

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism#Humanistic_psychology

Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pere/523019984