The Philosophical Foundations of the Late Schelling: The Turn to the Positive, by Sean J. McGrath, Edinburgh University Press, 2021

Abstract

Appearing in New Perspectives in Ontology McGrath´s thoughtful and insightful study not only offers a consistent reading of the late Schelling but also demonstrates the relevance of Schelling´s later works to contemporary post-secular philosophy of religion, especially concerning its potential political-theological impact. As the first of two books, of which the second is still to appear, this study is so far the only example that offers an interpretation which brings together the late Schelling and (post-)secularism. Being a sequel to The Dark Ground of Spirit: Schelling and the Unconscious the present book continues as well as advances the original point of McGrath’s earlier project, to demonstrate how “secular, philosophical psychology, political theory, even economic theory, unconsciously depend upon forgotten theological controversies.” McGrath thus inquires into the late Schelling’s “speculative repetition of Christian theology.” He identifies “three pillars of the philosophy of the late Schelling”: the theorem of absolute transcendence; (2) non-dialectical personalism; and (3)Trinitarian eschatology.