S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 6 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 2 0 2 5 Janneke van der Leest returning home as it were. Nevertheless, the Romantics fuse the old circular form with a notion of progress: the romantic vitae formnot a two-dimensional circle, but a spiral. Enlightenment’s linear vitae confirms Schleiermacher’s ob - servation that modern humans are focused on aims only, just looking straight ahead without attention for developing a feeling for the universe. The discussed poets illustrate how exactly this feeling affects the peregrinatio vitae and turns it into the romantic spiral variant; not an enlightened travel from A to B, but a romantic journey, searching and developing without a set point. Philosophy in the Romantic era also uses this construction. Schelling in his System of Transcendental Idealism (1800) explains that the original and natural view for art is the view on nature: “ nature is a poem lying pent in a mysterious and wonderful script. Yet the riddle could reveal itself, were we to recognize in it the odyssey of the spirit. ” (Schelling 2001, 232). This odyssey stands for a special kind of the romanticperegrinatio vitae . For what happens, according to Schelling, with this “ odyssey of the spirit ”? It “ seeks itself, and in seeking flies from itself; for through the world of sense there glimmers … the land of fantasy, of which we are in search. ” (Schelling 2001, 232). After seeking and fleeing it “ will reach its goal only when it ‘returns completely to itself,’ as a subject that finally recognizes it is itself the object it seeks, ” as M. H. Abrams remarks (2012, 206). 5 Conclusion Although it is not the explicit intention of his essay, Abrams points exactly to the core of the religious crisis by referring to this passage of Schelling. The spiritual odyssey is a journey to and in our inner Selves. No divinity guides us or is the goal of that journey. We have to give ourselves guidelines; we ourselves have to give our lives meaning. The goal is the journey itself, ending on a higher level as where we started. Whether there is or there is not a place for God in these vitae , depends on the imagination of each individual. As Schleiermacher states: “ for me divinity can be nothing other than a particular type of religious intuition ”; and carefully safeguarding himself: “ You will not consider it blasphemy, I hope, that belief in God depends on the direction of the imagination. ” (2015, 51, 53). Both roads, with or without God – depending on our own imagination –“ to transform the common life into something higher ” (Schleiermacher 2015, 7) lead to our inner Self. We can conclude therefore that Romanticism makes us realize that it is not religion as such which is in a crisis, but that we have to speak of the crisis of the ones who ask for the meaning of religion. The crisis lies in the fact that man can and must make choices concerning this matter, with the help of his imagination, the interpretations of his experiences and his own struggle with different world views. This choice making-process forms the journey to man’s inner Self – a Self, which will be on a lifelong journey, because he deals with existential questions throughout his life, in an ongoing (upward) spiral. Since Romanticism the pre-modern world view, guided by a divine reference point, as well as that of the Enlighten - ment, where the human subject is regarded as central and leading, prove to be not satisfactory anymore. However, the lack of a clear central reference point courses a crisis of the modern subject. In taking part of that crisis, instead of escaping it, Schleiermacher manages to create space between those two earlier views (pre-modern and Enlightenment) by emphasizing the openness to the universe: the relatedness of the human being to the universe by intuiting and feeling it. In that space one can develop a romanticperegrinatio vitae . In that space the crisis of the meaning of religion flows as well. But notice that this crisis is important in order to form a free identity, free from any constraining pre-given identity. That counts for the identity of the emancipated religion itself, as in the space created by Schleiermacher religion is free from other powers and old definitions, so that it can freely develop. It counts as well for the identity of the free modern subject. One can give shape to the crisis of the meaning of religion, and to the meaning of existential questions in an individual way. We would better accept and appreciate this crisis, in order to recognize the freedom of the modern subject. The positive conclusion of this ongoing crisis is that we can grow in freedom into fuller, more complete personalities. The three poets discussed, all express personal struggles and explorations, while experiencing something in their openness to the universe. In that way they give insight into their inner being that gets elevated respectively to the highest imagination, to universal nature and to a love for humankind. Eventually, their peregrinatio vitae leads to another, higher point within their selves. By writing, they explore and mirror their deepest selves that reveal works of art, which can bring about interesting insights to our modern crisis. We are not alone in that crisis, but together with our romantic ancestors.
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