Born Again: Romanticism and Fundamentalism

Born Again examines the deep historical roots of fundamentalism in Protestantism and the imaginative traditions of Romantic literature. It explores how the resurgence of fundamentalist thought within ＂born again＂ Christianity seeks to repress the trauma of modernity through the belief that the world must be radically transformed to align with a divine standard.
By analysing the logic of this repression, the book reveals an alternative vision: a ＂revivalist rebirth＂ that offers a new ethical imperative to creatively shape the world in collaboration with others. Thinkers such as Immanuel Kant, Percy Shelley, and Friedrich Schlegel are central to the analysis, as are the literary works Faust and Frankenstein. Jeffrey Champlin illustrates how a revivalist imagination challenges blind faith, presenting figures of life reawakened to conscious moral and political engagement. Engaging with Arendt’s politics of natality and Derrida’s ethics of survival, Born Again offers pathways to reimagine a world that confronts the profound losses fueling fundamentalist ideologies, making it a timely and thought-provoking exploration for contemporary readers.

Jeffrey Champlin is the director of the Learning Commons and a lecturer in the humanities at Bard College Berlin.