Romanticism And Religion

In Romantic poetry, the exposition of religious concepts has been a much debated issue with some critics arguing that the Romantic writers have secularized theological notions, while others argue that religion is reinterpreted to appeal to common people. Many critics including M.H. Abrams state that Christian modes of thinking are humanized and naturalized, and the dichotomy between nature and god is deleted by transforming the values associated with the creator to the created. Natural Supernaturalism means that the theistic ideas about God and religion are replaced with the pantheistic concept of the presence of God in nature. Therefore, Romanticism is not a secular sensibility because the poets are not engaged in the “deletion and replacement of religious ideas but rather [in] the assimilation and reinterpretation of religious ideas”. This essay, by incorporating few poems by Romantic writers seeks to understand the capacity in which deistic theology used in poetry, and the way in which sublimity and purity of nature come to epitomize the ideal prelapsarian Christian society. The major reason for calling Romantic writers as secular in their approach is the absence of scriptural religion in their poetry. Literary traditions preceding Romanticism viewed god …show more content…
In “Ode to West Wind” Shelley invokes the god of wind and attempts to gain his attention. In Christian mythology, the wind or breath symbolizes life and soul because God enlivened human beings and animals by “causing breath to enter [them] that [they] may come to life”. Wind also symbolizes the creative power of God, because it is God that causes and directs wind. The rapport between the poetic persona and the god of nature indicate the unity between man and nature, which is culminated in poet's imploration to the wind to be him: “Be thou me, impetuous