The developing image of the divine : a philosophical reflection on the relationship between 'will' and 'love' from the perspective of F.W.J. Schelling's later philosophy

Abstract

The most significant call of the human being is for ceaseless effort. Rilke’s1 poetry in the form of poetic language is quite appropriate to support the author’s vital aim in encouraging one’s own self and the fellow human beings for constant unceasing effort. Schelling’s Later Thoughts are influenced by mystics and theosophers such as Meister Eckhart, Jacob Boehme, Franz von Baader and Oetinger. The call of the human being is to make ceaseless effort in developing the image of the Divine in oneself by transcending ‘will’ to ‘love’. According to Schelling, this can only be accomplished in inwardness. Inwardness is the existential dialogue between ‘will’ and ‘reason’ in the atmosphere of love. The criterion of the inner sacred dialogue is love. It is the process of a harmonic integration, and balanceable transformation of the contradictory nature of the heart and the head, the feeling-self and the thinking-self.