Potencies of God(s)

Edward Allen Beach is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Evansville, Indiana.

"This is an interdisciplinary study, connecting philosophy and religion. Beach is at home in both domains of analysis and argument. He situates Schelling's endeavor in a clearly articulated matrix of systematic positions. Though he is rightly critical of Schelling's accomplishments,, both in terms of religion and philosophy, he manifests a good deal of sympathy for that thinker's project." — Michael G. Vater, Marquette University"This book makes a significant contribution to the literature on Schelling. The insights into this period of his thought are fascinating. The emphasis on mythology is especially timely, in light of the re-awakened interest in mythology as appropriate subject matter for philosophical research. The author himself is quite clearly knowledgeable, learned, authoritative, and appropriately critical regarding the excesses and inadequacies of Schelling's thought, while remaining appreciative of the philosopher's independence and creative originality. The book will appeal to a wide audience of philosophers and historians of religion; it is clearly and competently written." — George R. Lucas, Jr., Clemson University

• Preface Introduction: Schelling's Religious Problematic A Fresh Search for Hermeneutical PrinciplesEstablishing the Integrity of Religious PhenomenaSearching for an Adequate Definition of MythPart I. Historical Background, Issues And Contexts 1. The Origins of Pagan Religions 2. Allegory, Symbol, or Reality? Naturalistic and Euhemeristic Theories of Religious AllegorySchelling's Earlier Treatments of MythologyA Final Assault on Allegorical Interpretations3. The Unconscious and the Irrational Early Speculations about the UnconsciousFrom the Unconscious to the Irrational4. Toward a New Ontology of Eternity, Temporality, and Freedom Dialectic: A Stable Law of ChangeA "Groundless Activity" in EternitySome Preliminary Questions and Criticisms5. Three Formative Influences on Schelling: Böhme, Baader, and Hegel Böme: The Influx of MysticismBaader: Through Dialectic and Mysticism Back to Christian OrthodoxyHegel: A Conceptual Mediation of Time and EternityPart II. The Theory Of Potencies 6. Schelling's New Philosophical Point of Departure A Philosophical DilemmaThe Search for a Nonrationalistic Alternative to RelativismThe Search for a Nonrationalist Alternative to FideismInitial Moves toward Resolving the DilemmaThe Distinction between the Was and the Daß7. The Ontology The Pure Potencies Prior to their ActualizationThe Inverted Potencies in their State of TensionThe Relation of the Potencies to the Functions of the DaßSome Comments and Criticisms concerning the Potenzenlehre8. Positive Philosophy and the Experiential Proof of God Empirical Confirmation versus ExemplificationA Logical Fallacy?The Significance of Existential Instantiation9. Representative Issues and Controversies in Current Schelling Scholarship: Habermas and Schulz Habermas: A Historicist InterpretationSchulz: A Quasi-Rationalistic InterpretationConcluding CommentsPart III. Exemplification, Primarily In Terms Of Greek Mythology 10. From Uranus to Cronus Preliminary Considerations Regarding Language, Mythological Consciousness, and the Names of Ancient DeitiesThe Religion of "Relative Monotheism"Zabism: The Worship of "Uranus"The Rise of Cronus11. From Dionysus to Iakchos The Significance of Goddesses in MythologyThe Coming of DionysusDivine Madness and the Strange Paradox of the "Dionysian" MotifIakchos: The Archetype of Spiritual BalanceSome Empirical Evidence, Ancient and ModernSecrets of the "Uncanny" Lurking beneath the Surfaces of Mythology12. The Self-Overcoming of Mythology The Origins of Ontological Ambivalence in a Displacement of the PotenciesThe Progressive Discharging of Religious ProjectionsThe Eleusinian MysteriesToward a "Sublimated Projection Theory" of ReligionsNotes Bibliography Index