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oa Onweer
Een ramp, een straf of een subliem schouwspel?
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: De Moderne Tijd, Volume 4, Issue 3-4, Jan 2020, p. 259 - 269
Abstract
Thunderstorms
A disaster, a divine punishment, or a sublime spectacle?
Thunderstorms often had disastrous consequences in former times, especially when gun powder magazines were struck. After the invention and implementation of Franklin’s lightning rod, the interpretation of these disasters as divine punishments seemed less obvious. Technology and science changed relations between the concepts of God, nature, and man. Very generally speaking, a religion of fear gave way to a religion of love. Nature was considered less a menace than a friend, a shift subtly foreshadowing the Romantic period. Put in more safe life conditions, man tended to hold more optimistic views of himself and dared to play artistically even with dangerous, sublime subjects such as thunderstorms.