Academic literature on the topic 'Jacob Boehme'

Jacob Boehme, the seventeenth-century mystical philosopher, had a significant influence upon Paul Tillich. In this article I offer a reassessment of the relationship between these two thinkers by arguing for an orthodox interpretation of Boehme's doctrine of God that links him more closely with Tillich than recent commentators have suggested. Specifically, I show how Boehme and Tillich stand united against the heterodox Hegel in their presentation of a dynamic process of divinity's self-differentiation and reconciliation that completes itself apart from history rather than within history. This move, I conclude, keeps Boehme and Tillich squarely within the realm of Christian orthodoxy.

Paul Tillich borrows central motifs in his trinitarian theology from Jacob Boehme, the seventeenth-century German mystic. Tillich draws a picture of divine life as embroiled in a conflict of opposites between the abyss and the light of the Logos. Boehme also depicted divine life as engaged in inner turmoil. But, unlike Tillich, Boehme's experience and imagery suggest that the eternal divine self-contradiction could only be solved in human consciousness and history. The paper suggests that trinitarian thinkers such as Tillich cannot give to creation and its processes the same seriousness as does Boehme who implicates humanity in the redemption of divinity through the task imposed on it as the sole locus in which the divine opposites can be differentiated and consciously integrated.

The aim of the research is to elucidate the key notions of the German mystic thinker Jacob Boehme’s linguistic-philosophical theory: language of Nature (Natursprache), Adamic language and sensual language in regard to each other and to post-Babel historical languages of humankind. This theory is considered in a dual context of the Late Renaissance “Adamicist” studies and of Boehme’s theosophical project as a whole. Since a considerable part of his work had a form of an extensive commentary on Genesis, Boehme’s interpretations of the biblical stories are devoted to linguistic topics. Explaining the stories concerning Babel (Gen. 11), the theosophist gives some considerations to the essence of historic transformation and loss of the primordial language. Based on the story of Adam’s naming of the animals (Gen. 2:19–20), Boehme formulates his views on the substance of Natural and Adamic languages. It is argued that, according to the theosophist, the rise of polyglottism, caused by Babel catastrophe, was a culmination of spiritual disorientation of humankind. Having started from the Fall, that process led to a fundamental distortion of ideas about being and the Deity. Due to this, people decided to look for Him in a reified form by technical means. A cognitive and linguistic aspect of that disorientation consisted in alienating of still single primordial language from Natursprache as its ontological foundation. Boehme thought that this alienation mainly caused rapid development of linguistic pluralism. Meanwhile, the language of Nature was a unique “guide,” which made possible for Adam to create his epistemically perfect language, and his descendants could keep its understanding for some time.

The Thirty Years' War, which lasted from 1618 to 1648, was occasioned, if not caused, by complex disputes over religion. Fought mainly in Germany, it was a European war, involving powers from Spain to Poland. The three decades of merciless warfare in the heart of Europe undermined the old awareness of a universal Christendom, shattered the authority of the Holy Roman Empire, and contributed to the consolidation of the territorial entity or nation state. The war ended with Germany weakened and divided, and with the once proud Kingdom of Bohemia bereft of its former national and confessionla identity.

<p class="Texto">O presente estudo aborda os conceitos de interioridade e exterioridade ou homem interior e exterior em Mestre Eckhart e Jacob Boehme na intenção de explicitá-los como chaves de compreensão do pensamento de ambos os autores e de aproximação dos mesmos, bem como apontar os dois autores como precursores da tradição filosófica alemã moderna, sobretudo do idealismo alemão. Nota-se que dentro do cristianismo os dois conceitos já aparecem desde a Bíblia, e também no neoplatonismo: tradição recebida por Mestre Eckhart, que influenciou o pensamento de Jacob Boehme. Tais conceitos são paradigmas para a antropologia, ontologia e ética dos dois autores. Interioridade e exterioridade são conceitos que dão abertura filosófica a noções como transcendentalismo e imanentismo, o que justificaria a importância de se entender o pensamento desses dois autores como fundamental para o advento da modernidade.</p>

As is commonly known, Jacob Boehme (1575–1624) is, and has been ever since his emergence, difficult to place in the history of thought. He has, for instance, been characterized as ‘the most religious of philosophers’. As such Boehme could be seen to be on a borderline somewhere between philosophy and theology. From a reverse point of view, however, he could also be termed the most speculative of the religiously minded, as a deeply religious thinker or mystic. His influence is also shown in both fields; not only was he to play an important role within German philosophy during the Romantic era, but also, within the Pietist movement, or the movement for re­vival of piety within the Lutheran church. Focusing on the Pietist movement, initiated by Philipp Jakob Spener (1635–1705) in the late seventeenth century and its spread on Finnish ground, the author of this article shows that where Boehmian influence is traceable, it reached quite different environments depending on the movement’s leaders or followers. Also some light is shed on the controversy between Lutheran orthodoxy and Pietism in early eighteenth century Finland.

This study suggests that Blake’s works can be understood as ‘conversion works,’ which seek to facilitate a broadly defined perceptual, spiritual, and intellectual conversion in the reader/viewer. This conversion is manifested in various ways in the texts, images, narrative structures, and style of Blake’s works. Part I discusses the genesis of the narrative of Blake’s own conversion and introduces critical discussions of the conversion narrative as a genre, showing how the predominant interpretative paradigm of the conversion narrative (as an autobiographical reportage describing a one-off experience) is challenged by the shapes that conversion narratives have taken throughout history, suggesting a broader definition of conversion literature. In Part II, I analyze Blake’s depictions of Christ in his illustrations to Night Thoughts in relation to eighteenth-century Moravian art, and the way in which they are later used in The Four Zoas. I discuss how Milton can be understood as a multilayered conversion narrative, how the manifestation of conversion in Jakob Boehme’s works might have influenced it, and how a related conversion is manifested in Jerusalem (1804-20). Finally, I show how Blake represents conversion in his illustrations to Pilgrim’s Progress and the Book of Job, emphasizing the importance of vision and the inclusion of protagonist and viewer in the divine body. Together, these analyses show conversion as a gradually developing presence in Blake’s works, exploring the conversion moment as a way into the shared salvific space of the body of Christ for fictive characters, author, and reader or viewer together.

La presenza di tematiche di matrice ermetica costituisce la cornice storiografica e trascendentale dalla quale l’intera opera speculativa di Jakob Böhme prende le mosse. La nostra indagine prende avvio dall’analisi dell’ampio e multiforme fenomeno di diffusione, durante il XVI e XVII secolo, in Germania, dei testi classificati come ermetici. Siffatti testi avrebbero influenzato la nascita di un particolare approccio germanico nei confronti della nascente scienza moderna e lo sviluppo di tematiche speculative che, in seguito, contribuirono a delineare concetti e categorie proprie della speculazione tedesca. L'approfondimento di questo fenomeno potrebbe fornire sia una possibile chiave interpretativa di movimenti culturali, quale il movimento dei Rosacroce, sia un modello flessibile di riferimento nel complesso sviluppo della speculazione böhmiana e di quella che potremmo indicare come Storia degli effetti, legata, in senso stretto, alla diffusione rinascimentale dell’ermetismo. Il nostro interesse è rivolto, a livello storico, alla ricostruzione dei vari legami speculativi che Jakob Böhme è riuscito a tessere nella particolare area geografica della Slesia, durante il periodo degli stravolgimenti politici dovuti alla diffusione della Riforma luterana e dei movimenti ad essa connessi, legati alla figura di Federico V, nonché alla speranza di ricostruire una nuova cristianità. Da ciò è seguita anche la necessità di mettere in rapporto l’ermetismo böhmiano con il pensiero teologico della Riforma e la possibilità di rintracciare quelle tematiche teologiche, cosmologiche e psicologiche, che, in seguito, si tradussero in alcuni fattori dell’idealismo trascendentale. La proposta di questo studio è stata quella di dimostrare come nell'opera di Jakob Böhme molte immagini e concetti dipendono non solo dalla tradizione cabalistica ma anche dal Corpus Hermeticum. L'ambiente culturale in cui si sviluppa il pensiero di Böhme è legato alla corte ermetica di Rodolfo II; la ricerca storiografica, infatti, ha già sottolineato come il milieu intellettuale formatosi attorno alla figura del calzolaio di Görlitz abbia avuto una forte affinità con la filosofia ermetica (in particolare con Abraham von Franckenberg e il suo interesse nei confronti della Tabula Smaragdina e per Giordano Bruno). Si è anche dimostrato come la traduzione del Corpus Hermeticum in lingua olandese (Beyerland) e in lingua tedesca (Aletophilus) fu influenzata dalla terminologia teosofica böhmiana. Da ciò si originò un circolo ermeneutico tra teosofia böhmiana e Corpus Hermeticum. Tenendo presente la differenza tra Hermetism ed Hermeticism l'obiettivo è stato quello di indagare la teosofia böhmiana sulla base di una possibile relazione ermeneutica tra i Trattati alessandrini ed alcuni punti della speculazione böhmiana. Al di là di una influenza diretta del Corpus Hermeticum, si è ritenuto che la teosofia böhmiana faccia parte della tradizione ermetica e contenga alcuni aspetti riconducibili all'esoterismo rinascimentale di matrice cristiana. Dal punto di vista più strettamente filosofico e in riferimento al modello della philosophia perennis, l'attenzione è stata rivolta alla teoria böhmiana della contractio dell'Ungrund e della sua successiva rivelazione nel molteplice mostrando le affinità con la cosmogonia del Poimandres. Si è cercato di tenere distinti due livelli: quello dell'ineffabilità dell'Ungrund e quello riguardante il suo momento espressivo secondo il modulo ermetico del solve et coagula,riconducibile al concetto di Urkund. Per Böhme, è importante sottolineare come la manifestazione dell'Ungrund. considerata come una Volontà eterna, si rivela in base a un modulo teleologico volto a mostrare l'intera configurazione eidetica della Natura e dell'essere umano e le potenzialità della Natursprache. Il ritmo della vita dell'Ungrund si rispecchia nel microcosmo umano. Ciò significa che ogni livello della finitezza ha una sua signatura connessa alla posizione infinita dell'Uno. Dal concetto di signatura si può rintracciare l'attività simbolica delle facoltà intellettive dell'essere umano che attraverso la pratica dell'epoché, della Weltvernictung, della Gelassenheit e della Wiedergeburt può risalire i gradi dell'essere divino come nella prospettiva dell'ermetismo rinascimentale.
The Hermetic background provides the historiographical and transcendental framework for the speculative work of Jacob Boehme. The aim of this investigation is to explore the wide and many-sided phenomenon of the circulation of works that can be classified as Hermetic in Germany in the 16th and 17th centuries. The dissemination of these texts influenced, on the hand, the birth of a particular German approach as part of the nascent modern science and, on the other hand, it influenced the development of speculative themes which later on made a strong contribution to the description of the outlines of concepts and categories so typical of German philosophical speculation. The development of such a phenomenon could provide both an interpretative key to the contemporary geographical circulation of cultural movements, such as the Rosicrucian movement, and a flexible model of reference in the complex development of Behmenist speculation and of the so-called “History of effect”, which is linked, in the strict sense of the word, to the Renaissance circulation of Hermetism. Historically speaking, this research is interested in the reconstruction of several speculative links which Jacob Boehme succeeded to introduce in his works in the region of Silesia. He wrote them at a time of political upheaval, caused by the spread of the Lutheran Reformation and the closely-related movements connected with Frederick V, Elector Palatine. But there was also the hope of bringing about of a new Christianity. The purpose of this study is furthermore to try and demonstrate how in Jacob Boehme’s work many images and concepts depend not only on the kabbalistic tradition but also on doctrines derived from the Corpus Hermeticum. The cultural environment in which Boehme’s thought developed is geographically and historically related to “Hermetic court” of Rudolf II. Historiographic research has already highlighted how the intellectual circle which gathered around the shoemaker from Goerlitz had a close affinity with the main topics of Hermetic philosophy (as, for instance, Abraham von Franckenberg and his interest in the Tabula Smaragdina and in Giordano Bruno). On the other hand, it has also been demonstrated how the translations of the Corpus Hermeticum in Dutch (Beyerland) and German (Aletophilus) were influenced in terms of terminology by Behmenist theosophy. The result is a real hermeneutic circle inspired by both Behmenist theosophy and the Corpus Hermeticum. Bearing in mind the differences between Hermetism and Hermeticism, the objective is to study Behmenist theosophy on the basis of a possible hermeneutic relationship between the Alexandrine treatises and some points of Boehme’s speculation; on the other hand this research focuses on how Boehme, beyond the possible direct influences of the Corpus Hermeticum (the philosophical mode) is part of the Hermetic tradition, in particular that of the history of early modern Christian and esoteric Hermeticism. Strictly speaking, from a more philosophical point of view, that of a philosophia perennis, the attention is focused on the Behmenist theory of the contractio of the Ungrund in the revealing of the self into the many (e.g. the cosmogony of Poimandres). In this context we need to pay attention to the double level which characterizes Behmenist thought. On the one hand, there is the level that leans towards safeguarding the absolute ineffability and at the same time the utterability of the Ungrund. On the other hand, we also need to take into account the second level, which is the expression of the Ungrund and which refers to the Hermetic module of ‘solve et coagula’. Actually, when Boehme refers to the manifesting dialectics, he doesn’t speak about Ungrund anymore, but about Urkund. Ungrund is an eternal-nothing which explains the divine essentiality, beyond any opposition and difference. On the Urkund horizon, it is important to underline how the manifestation of Ungrund, seen as the Will to abolish the self, reveals itself as the expression of a teleological modulation which shows the whole eidetic configuration of Nature and the human being, as well as the so-called Natursprache. The rhythm of life of Ungrund is like the rhythm of life of the human microcosm. This means that every level of finiteness has its own signature which recalls a different position from the infinite One. Starting from the concept of signature, we arrive at the same symbolic activity of the self which through an activity of epoché, of Weltvernichtung and Gelassenheit and Wiedergeburt, can trace the manifest grades of the divine beings, in the perspective of the same message sent out by Renaissance Hermeticism.

This chapter introduces two early readers of pseudo-Weigelian texts on the alchemical rebirth as representative of two different avenues by which this conception could have reached Jacob Boehme. Johann Siebmacher, a chymist in Nuremberg, penned a treatise that discussed the subject in 1607. It was printed a decade later under the title Wasserstein der Weysen (Water-stone of the wise). Boehme praised this work in a letter mistakenly dated 1622. Once the date is corrected to 1624, it becomes clear that Boehme only read the Wasserstein shortly before his death. This renders Paul Nagel, a millenarian and astrologer who corresponded with Boehme, the more likely source for Boehme’s spiritual alchemy of rebirth. Nagel not only copied relevant pseudo-Weigelian texts but also integrated their ideas on alchemical rebirth into his own manuscript treatises.

This chapter presents the first fully developed spiritual alchemy as encountered in the later works of Jacob Boehme, including his Signatura rerum of 1622. In his earliest work of 1612, Aurora, alchemy did not yet play a role, and rebirth had not yet acquired its distinct shape. That changed as Boehme gained access to networks of correspondents and supporters who introduced him to alchemical terminology and the notion of rebirth as developed by Valentin Weigel and others. In works composed between 1619 and 1622, Boehme frequently used alchemical language to describe rebirth, thus formulating the spiritual alchemy of rebirth. For him the ubiquitous body of Christ was the philosophers’ stone and the subtle body of the new birth at once.