The Core Logic of Mystical Atheism As Exemplified by Spinoza, Schelling, and Laozi

Given that Mystical Atheism appears at first glance as a contradiction in terms, this paper will address the question as to how to explain this paradoxical juxtaposition. I argue that this juxtaposition of mysticism and atheism involves a deeper logic, which we find in three key philosophers in Mystical Atheism: Spinoza, Schelling, and Laozi. I choose these three also because they are entangled in a significant event in the history of philosophy which echoes this paradox, namely the pantheism dispute in Germany, where any association with Spinoza meant tarnishing one’s name with the suspicion of atheism. But how might pantheism, where everything is meant to be about God or the divine, be seen as atheism in which nothing is? This paper will explore this logic of all and nothing with each of these three philosophers, as they also relate together in this history, to better understand the meaning of Mystical Atheism.