[Tiago Alves]

Hello everyone, I would like to know what is the influence of Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and German Romanticism in the construction of Joseph Campbell’s theoretical thinking?
Does Campbell anywhere in his work comment on Schelling or the romantic perspective of 19th century mythology?

Best regards

[Stephen Gerringer]

Tiago,

I’m sorry to take so long to respond to this. Throughout Campbell’s work he does cite several authors linked to German Romanticism (Goethe, Novalis, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and others), but the only reference to I found to Schelling is Creative Mythology (Volume IV of The Masks of God), on p. 74 of the print edition – a passage quoted from composer Richard Wagner’s autobiography discussing the idea that “there is made manifest only one, single, truly existent Being, present and ever the same in all”:

The Christian mystics, no matter when or where they appear, can be seen caught in this realization — even against their will and in spite of every effort. Spinoza’s name is identified with it. And in our own day, at last — now that Kant has blown the old dogmatic theology to bits and the world stands appalled among the smoking ruins — the same perception is restated in the eclectic philosophy of Schelling [1775–1854], uniting deftly in a single system the doctrines of Plotinus, Spinoza, Kant, and Jacob Boehme, combined with the findings of modem science, Schelling, to meet the pressing need of his generation, developed his own variations on the common themes — so that this knowledge has now gained general credit among German scholars and is known even to the educated public.”

Though Campbell doesn’t appear to mention Schelling himself (not as far as I’ve seen), I would say he is definitely influenced to some extent by German romanticism, which to me seems most apparent in Creative Mythology.

I hope that helps.

[androoshka]

How did you find that reference, Stephen? Thanks.

[Stephen Gerringer]

Andy (androoshka) asks

How did you find that reference, Stephen?”

I have all Campbell’s volumes in both print and Ebook formats – so I entered Schelling’s name in the search field of each Ebook. Only found one hit, in Creative Mythology, and then I tracked that passage down in the physical text for the page number.

 

 

[Lynn]

Hi Everyone,

I noticed that Campbell also mentioned Schelling in Primitive Mythology (printed book/pgs. 111-112 and in the ebook).

Lynn

 

[Stephen Gerringer]

Tiago,

I don’t know if you noticed Lyn’s reply, but she found a reference I overlooked – and one in Campbell’s own voice, rather than quoting someone else):

Hi Everyone,

I noticed that Campbell also mentioned Schelling in Primitive Mythology (printed book/pgs. 111-112 and in the ebook).

Lynn

That’s p. 111-112 in the paperback 2nd edition (©1959, 1969), and p. 103-104 in the hardcover 3rd edition with revisions (©2018, 2021)

[Tiago Alves]

Thank you both for your comments and notes.
I lost track of this post and the comments!

Thank you so much for sharing your findings with me.

[Tiago Alves]

Thank you so much Linn, for your sharing!

[Lynn]

You are welcome Tiago!

[Lynn]

Stephen, thank you for the information about the 3rd edition.

[Author]

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