In January 1878, Solov"ëv began a series of 12 well-attended public lectures in St. Petersburg billed as dealing with the philosophy of religion. In this chapter, we examine the background for the lectures and their originally conceived content. Rather than presenting a direct proof of God's existence, Solov"ëv says God is given through faith, which yet does not prevent him from offering characterizations of God. Solov"ëv also presents in the lectures a vacillating attitude towards phenomenalism and with it how it can be said that we have knowledge of the external world. But is the external world itself to be taken merely on faith, or can it be philosophically proven? In addition to these and other "philosophical" issues, Solov"ëv also grappled in the lectures with whether we must ultimately trace the source of evil in all living things to God and with whether the West's self-absorption is a historically necessary stage along the road to humanity's complete union with God. But is such an account consistent and, above all, is it convincing? We will also look at a short incomplete essay which bears an unmistakable Kantian stamp and as such is unlike his other writings which display the influence of later German Idealism.