An Essay on Romantism, Amazement, Imagination— A trias religiosa

To wonder is a gift of the romanticist in particular. Wonder seeks explanation. If reason doesn’t
provide that, imagination provides a way out. 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.