Religious Musings de S. T. Coleridge: a theological and political interpretation for the romantic literature.

Abstract

The poem Religious Musings, a Desultory Poem, Written on the Christmas Eve of 1794 (1794-96) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge describes the French Revolution as a divine event that opens up the first stage of the Millennium. The active relationship between schemes of interpretation and categories that proceeds from literature and theology during in the late eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century is markedly important in order to analyze whereby romanticisms are constituted in Europe. In England, this connection has a distinctive feature since from the seventeenth century, the wars of religion, through government institutions –that is Parliament and the Crown- play a crucial role in politics. Coleridge’s later rejection of the millennial tradition of 1790’s literature, that which regards Revolution as a sign of the biblical prophesy’s fulfillment, occurs in time with the conservative turn of many poets that adhere to the high romanticism canon. Acknowledging the intensity of the link between the French Revolution and the rise of new forms of literary meanings, this article aims to look into the ways in which Religious Musings applies and elaborates upon theological concepts and subjects as a way of giving history a new significance.

Keywords: literature – theology – revolution – history – romanticism.