Lessing's beginnings in the philosophy of religion

As early as 1753, in the early phase of his work, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing described religion as a particularly fruitful subject for his writing. As he explained in his early edition of his works, it had been the preoccupation of his "serious muse for several years". The planned study is dedicated to this first phase of his literary engagement with religion. It examines texts written between 1749 and 1753, in which the young author reflects on the tense relationship between religion and philosophy, reason and revelation, and in doing so tries out ways of writing that take into account the special conditions of philosophical authorship.