A Foretaste of Heaven : Friedrich Hoelderlin in the Context of Wurttemberg Pietism

Using the critical approach of the New Historicism and the sociological insights of Ernst Troeltsch, this study addresses the complicated issue of how the German Romantic poet, Friedrich Hoelderlin, shifts religious vocabulary to the aesthetic realm, by examining his relationship to pietist groups in his native Wurttemberg.

The study is divided into three sections: 1) a literature review and methodological statement; 2) overview of the spectrum of positions represented within Wurttemberg pietism, and a discussion of three pietists known to have had contact with Hoelderlin in his youth and as a student; 3) analysis of a representative selection of Hoelderlin's works - including his early poems, Hyperion, his theoretical writings on aesthetics, and a number of his late hymns - in light of their relation to Wurttemberg pietism.