Citation

Van Praag HM. Religions (Basel) 2018; 9(1).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publications Institute)

DOI

10.3390/rel9010018

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

To wonder is a gift of the romanticist in particular. Wonder seeks explanation. If reason doesn't provide that, imagination provides a way out. One imagines a transcendental world of which the God-idea may become the central point and the explanatory model of that that invoked wonder. The God-idea implies wonder, wonder that live exists, that things exist at all. Wonder promotes religiosity--i.c., the need to provide life with a vertical dimension--and religiosity facilitates, in its turn, wonder. Thus the circle is closed: romanticism, wonder, imagination, religiosity, wonder. A circle providing life with an important bonus, i.e., sense, meaning with a supernatural signature. This augments the chance that hope will be preserved, even as dark clouds begin to hover above one's life. © 2018 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Language: en

Keywords

Suicide; Religiosity; Imagination; Romanticism; God-idea; Wonder