At the wish of his father, a devout Lutheran clergyman, the young Lessing matriculated at Leipzig University in 1746 as a student of theology. But with that independent-mindedness – not to say rebelliousness – which would characterise his behaviour throughout his life, he soon abandoned theology for secular subjects and the writing of comedies. This does not mean that he had no interest in religion. He in fact returned to it again and again, with the same mixture of respect and criticism which defined his relationship with his father; and when he eventually completed his studies a few years later at Wittenberg – nominally in the medical faculty – he spent much of his time writing ‘vindications’ or defences of Catholic and Protestant heretics of the Reformation period.

Even in his early years, Lessing identified himself with progressive Enlightenment thought, in particular with the rationalism of Leibniz and Wolff. He shared their view of the universe as the harmonious creation of a wise and beneficent designer, in which the tendency of all things is to strive towards ever higher levels of consciousness and perfection, while such evils as do exist are ultimately conducive to the good of the whole. In Lessing's case, this rationalism was soon modified and supplemented by the scepticism of Pierre Bayle, author of the massive Historical and Critical Dictionary, whose biographical articles included numerous philosophers and religious thinkers of the past.