Within the general perspective of this encyclopedia, Romanticism has to be examined to see how it contributes to the relationship between Christian faith and modern civilization, and hence may be more than a historical phenomenon limited to a certain period.

1. Definition. Though the term can be used very vaguely, “Romanticism” may denote fairly precisely a group of German intellectuals born in the 1770’s (F. Schlegel, 1772; Novalis, 1772; Wackenroder, 1773; L. Tieck, 1773; J. Görres, 1776; Clemens Brentano, 1778; Adam Müller, 1779; A.…