Schelling’s pantheism and the problem of evil

Any religious worldview, understood in the sense that ‘life has a purpose’, has to face the problem of evil. The problem of evil has been particularly intensively discussed in the Aristotelian-Scholastic-Christian tradition. The most popular solution has been to deny that anything truly evil actuall...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Pitkänen, Olli M. (Author)
Format: Electronic/Print Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor & Francis [2017]
In: International journal of philosophy and theology
Year: 2017, Volume: 78, Issue: 4/5, Pages: 361-372
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von 1775-1854 / Pantheism / God / Freedom / Evil
IxTheo Classification:KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history
NBC Doctrine of God
NCA Ethics
VA Philosophy
Further subjects:B Pantheism
B purpose of life
B problem of evil
B Teleology
B Schelling
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:Any religious worldview, understood in the sense that ‘life has a purpose’, has to face the problem of evil. The problem of evil has been particularly intensively discussed in the Aristotelian-Scholastic-Christian tradition. The most popular solution has been to deny that anything truly evil actually exists. It is hard to conceive why an omnipotent and perfectly good God would allow evil to appear. Yet, Western culture has been and still is full of imagery of absolute demonic evil. I suggest that this strained dialectic could be best approached by radically rethinking the nature of evil and the theological context in which it has traditionally been thought. In his middle period works, Friedrich Schelling offers a pantheistic framework which gives extensive resources for thinking about evil. Schelling’s account is well balanced and innovative at least in two respects. It does not explain away the inscrutable presence of evil, but it neither completely renounces theoretical speculation of the origin of evil. Second, Schelling’s metaphysics anticipate Nietzsche’s fundamental critique of the ‘life-denying’ character of Western metaphysics and ethics. However, while sharing much of the critical aspects of Nietzsche’s thought, unlike Nietzsche, Schelling does not end up in atheism and moral relativism.
ISSN:2169-2327
Contains:Enthalten in: International journal of philosophy and theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/21692327.2017.1364663