Kunstreligion [art religion] has been an established term since Schleiermacher's Speeches on Religion (1799). However, the origin of the concept is not to be found in the theology of Schleiermacher but rather in its cultural-philosophical sources, i.e. in the derationalization of "Kunst" [art] in the context of autonomy-aesthetics, which likens aesthetic beauty to the numinous. This first of three volumes, in which scholars of literary studies from Germany, Italy, and France have collaborated, focuses on the origin of the concept of Kunstreligion in German literature and philosophy around 1800 and investigates its transformation into works of poetry.