The Emergence of Philosophical Religion in Schelling’s Early Thought

This article focuses on Schelling’s essay Philosophy and Religion. Written in 1804 as a reaction to Eschenmayer’s Die Philosophie in ihrem Uebergang zur Nichtphilosophie and initially largely ignored, the here examined work reveals its full significance when compared to the subsequent developments of Schelling’s thought, which will lead to the development of a philosophical religion. The aim of the following article is to demonstrate precisely this centrality of Philosophy and Religion, and to highlight the anticipations of Schelling’s late philosophy present in it. The introduction of the concept of the falling-away, a profound exploration of evil, the recognition of a negative task of philosophy and an eschatologization of thought, the emphasis on freedom and its responsibility both for the emergence of evil and for redemption through a kenotic act, and finally the first approach to the fundamental question «Why is there something and not rather nothing?»; all these anticipations seem able to show the propaedeutic role of the examined work in the complex philosophical path of Schelling.