This work presents and philosophically analyzes the early modern and modern history of the theory concerning the soul of the world, anima mundi. The initial question of the investigation is why there was a revival of this theory in the time of the early German Romanticism, whereas the concept of theanima mundihad been rejected in the earlier, classical period of European philosophy (early and mature Enlightenment). The presentation and analysis starts from the Leibnizian-Wolffian school, generally hostile to the theory, and covers classical eighteenth-century physico-theology, also reluctant to accept ananima mundi. Next, it discusses early modern and modern Christian philosophical Cabbala (Böhme and Ötinger), an intellectual tradition which to some extent tolerated the idea of a soul of the world. The philosophical relationship between Spinoza and Spinozism on the one hand, and theanima munditheory on the other is also examined. An analysis of Giordano Bruno's utilization of the conceptanima del mondois the last step before we give an account of how and why German Romanticism, especially Baader and Schelling asserted and applied the theory of theWeltseele. The purpose of the work is to prove that the philosophical insufficiency of a concept of God as anens extramundanuminstigated the Romantics to think ananima mundithat can act as a divine and quasi-infinite intermediary between God and Nature, as a locum tenens of God in physical reality. | Anima Mundi by Mikl Vassányi, Paperback | Indigo Chapters