Romanticism Redux
Copyrighted 2009
Another scholarly interpretation of the New Age sees it as another form of Romanticism. The German scholar Peter Kratz makes this claim in his book Die Gotter des New Age.(1) Romanticism was an American and European movement that flourished from approximately 1790 to 1850. Seeing the New Age as a return of Romanticism captures an important part of the movement – especially if one believes the media’s portrayal and defines the New Age as people only interested in crystals and channeling. Like the Romantics, many New Agers emphasize myths, feelings, dreams, supernatural beings, mystical experiences and the unconscious.
The New Age movement does have many connections to Romanticism. Nevertheless, many qualities emphasized by New Agers reveal that the movement is more than merely a rebirth or repetition of Romanticism. For example, the New Age movement is often characterized as Yuppie spirituality because many people in it are pre-occupied with self-improvement projects that will lead them to financial success. The Romantics, on the other hand, despised material success. They bequeathed to us the Romantic image of the artist starving in his garret; Romanticism also inspired Thoreau to leave civilization to live near Walden Pond. Starving in a garret or living near Walden Pond is considerably different from going to a New Age weekend workshop to learn how to become wealthy. On the other hand, Enlightenment figures such as Ben Franklin encouraged people to become rich, and they even gave people tips on how to do it, and this points out the similarity of the New Age and the Enlightenment.
Moreover, the many infomercials telling us that we can all be as successful as the psychologist Tony Robbins reveal another essential difference between the New Agers and the Romantics. Like many New Age teachers, Robbins claims to teach a method or technique that everyone can do, and thus be as successful as him. In this way, the New Age movement shares the Enlightenment belief in human equality and systematic techniques. On the other hand, the Romantics claimed there were only a few inspired geniuses who were inherently greater than the common people. In this way, the New Age movement shares the Enlightenment tendency to emphasize human equality and systematic techniques.
The respect for worldly success, equality and technique are only some of the values the New Age shares with the Enlightenment. One cannot understand the New Age movement merely in terms of Romanticism, one also has to understand the New Age’s relationship to the Enlightenment.
copyrighted 2009.
This essay was written by Joseph Waligore. He dedicated his life to following the will of the Universe when he was 20. Seven months later he received a message from his Higher Self or inner connection to the divine to quit Dartmouth College. Through following a deep intuition in a dream and after many synchronistic experiences, he met his soulmate and married her. He and his wife followed their spiritual intuitions in their daily lives, including receiving messages to have children. For twelve years he stayed at home and raised his three children while his wife worked. Then, his wife told him he needed to make some money, so he got a Ph. D. in philosophy from Syracuse University. He currently has a part-time job teaching philosophy and religious studies at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. More information about him can be found at his MySpace profile. He also has a website with information about his own spiritual journey and his spiritual philosophy.
FOOTNOTES
(1) Peter Kratz, Die Gotter des New Age (Berlin: Elefantin Press, 1994), pp. 1-39.
