Jakob Böhme
Jakob Böhme | |
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Boehmian theosophy The mystical being of the deity as the Ungrund ("unground", the ground without a ground)[1] |
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Hermeticism |
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Jakob Böhme (
Böhme had a profound influence on later philosophical movements such as
Biography
Böhme was born on 24 April 1575[4][5] at Alt Seidenberg (now Stary Zawidów, Poland), a village near Görlitz in Upper Lusatia, a territory of the Kingdom of Bohemia. His father, George Wissen, was Lutheran, reasonably wealthy, but a peasant nonetheless. Böhme was the fourth of five children. Böhme's first job was that of a herd boy. He was deemed to be not strong enough for husbandry. When he was 14 years old, he was sent to Seidenberg, as an apprentice to become a shoemaker.[6] His apprenticeship for shoemaking was hard; he lived with a family who were not Christians, which exposed him to the controversies of the time. He regularly prayed and read the Bible as well as works by visionaries such as Paracelsus, Weigel and Schwenckfeld, although he received no formal education.[7] After three years as an apprentice, Böhme left to travel. Although it is unknown just how far he went, he went at least as far as Görlitz.[6] In 1592 Böhme returned from his journeyman years. By 1599, Böhme was master of his craft with his own premises in Görlitz. That same year he married Katharina, daughter of Hans Kuntzschmann, a butcher in Görlitz, and together he and Katharina had four sons and two daughters.[7][8]
Böhme's mentor was Abraham Behem who corresponded with
In 1610 Böhme experienced another inner vision in which he further understood the unity of the cosmos and that he had received a special vocation from God.[citation needed]
The shop in Görlitz, which was sold in 1613, had allowed Böhme to buy a house in 1610 and to finish paying for it in 1618. Having given up shoemaking in 1613, Böhme sold woollen gloves for a while, which caused him to regularly visit Prague to sell his wares.[6]
Aurora and writings
There are as many blasphemies in this shoemaker's book as there are lines; it smells of shoemaker's pitch and filthy blacking. May this insufferable stench be far from us. The Arian poison was not so deadly as this shoemaker's poison. |
— Gregorius Richter following the publication of Aurora.[9] |
Twelve years after the vision in 1600, Böhme began to write his first book, Morgenröte im Aufgang ("Dawn of the Day in the East"). The book was given the name Aurora (sometimes translated into English as "The Day-spring") by a friend. Böhme originally wrote the book for himself and it was never completed.[10] A manuscript copy of the unfinished work was lent to Karl von Ender, a nobleman, who had copies made and began to circulate them. A copy fell into the hands of Gregorius Richter , the chief pastor of Görlitz, who attacked it as being heretical,[why?] speaking against it from the pulpit, and threatened Böhme with exile if he continued working on it. Richter also wrote a pamphlet denouncing Böhme and his work.[11]
As a result, Böhme did not write anything for several years; however, at the insistence of friends who had read Aurora, he started writing again in 1618. In 1619 Böhme wrote De Tribus Principiis or The Three Principles of the Divine Essence. It took him two years to finish his second book, which was followed by many other treatises, all of which were copied by hand and circulated only among friends.[12]} In 1620 Böhme wrote The Threefold Life of Man, Answers to Forty Questions on the Soul, The Incarnation of Jesus Christ, The Six Theosophical Points, The Six Mystical Points, the Mysterium Pansophicum and Informatorium novissimorum (Of the Last Times). In 1621 Böhme wrote De Signatura Rerum (relying in part on the doctrine of signatures). In 1623 Böhme wrote On Election to Grace, On Christ's Testaments, Mysterium Magnum, Clavis ("Key"). The year 1622 saw Böhme write some short works all of which were subsequently included in his first published book on New Year's Day 1624, under the title Weg zu Christo (The Way to Christ).[8]
The publication caused another scandal and following complaints by the clergy, Böhme was summoned to the Town Council on 26 March 1624. The report of the meeting was that:
Jacob Boehme, the shoemaker and rabid enthusiast, declares that he has written his book To Eternal Life, but did not cause the same to be printed. A nobleman, Sigismund von Schweinitz, did that. The Council gave him warning to leave the town; otherwise the Prince Elector would be apprised of the facts. He thereupon promised that he would shortly take himself off.[13]
I must tell you, sir, that yesterday the pharisaical devil was let loose, cursed me and my little book, and condemned the book to the fire. He charged me with shocking vices; with being a scorner of both Church and Sacraments, and with getting drunk daily on brandy, wine, and beer; all of which is untrue; while he himself is a drunken man." |
— Jacob Böhme writing about Gregorius Richter on 2 April 1624.[14] |
Böhme left for Dresden on 8 or 9 May 1624, where he stayed with the court physician for two months. In Dresden he was accepted by the nobility and high clergy. His intellect was also recognized by the professors of Dresden, who in a hearing in May 1624, encouraged Böhme to go home to his family in Görlitz.[7] During Böhme's absence his family had suffered due to the Thirty Years' War.[7]
Once home, Böhme accepted an invitation to stay with Herr von Schweinitz, who had a country-seat. While there Böhme began to write his last book, the 177 Theosophic Questions. Böhme fell terminally ill with a bowel complaint forcing him to travel home on 7 November. Gregorius Richter, Böhme's adversary from Görlitz, had died in August 1624, while Böhme was away. The new clergy, still wary of Böhme, forced him to answer a long list of questions when he wanted to receive the sacrament. He died on 17 November 1624.[15]
In this short period, Böhme produced an enormous amount of writing, including his major works De Signatura Rerum (The Signature of All Things) and Mysterium Magnum. He also developed a following throughout Europe, where his followers were known as
The son of Böhme's chief antagonist, the pastor primarius of Görlitz Gregorius Richter, edited a collection of extracts from his writings, which were afterwards published complete at Amsterdam with the help of Coenraad van Beuningen in the year 1682. Böhme's full works were first printed in 1730.
Theology
The chief concern of Böhme's writing was the nature of
There are some serious departures from accepted Lutheran theology, such as his rejection of justification by faith alone, as in this passage from The Way to Christ:
For he that will say, I have a Will, and would willingly do Good, but the earthly Flesh which I carry about me, keepeth me back, so that I cannot; yet I shall be saved by Grace, for the Merits of Christ. I comfort myself with his Merit and Sufferings; who will receive me of mere Grace, without any Merits of my own, and forgive me my Sins. Such a one, I say, is like a Man that knoweth what Food is good for his Health, yet will not eat of it, but eateth Poison instead thereof, from whence Sickness and Death, will certainly follow.[16]
Another place where Böhme may depart from accepted
It is clear that Böhme never claimed that God sees evil as desirable, necessary or as part of divine will to bring forth good. In his Threefold Life, Böhme states: "[I]n the order of nature, an evil thing cannot produce a good thing out of itself, but one evil thing generates another." Böhme did not believe that there is any "divine mandate or metaphysically inherent necessity for evil and its effects in the scheme of things."[19] Dr. John Pordage, a commentator on Böhme, wrote that Böhme "whensoever he attributes evil to eternal nature considers it in its fallen state, as it became infected by the fall of Lucifer... ."[19] Evil is seen as "the disorder, rebellion, perversion of making spirit nature's servant",[20] which is to say a perversion of initial Divine order.
Böhme's correspondences in Aurora of the seven qualities, planets and humoral-elemental associations:
- Dry - Saturn - melancholy, power of death;
- Sweet - Jupiter - sanguine, gentle source of life;
- Bitter - Mars - choleric, destructive source of life;
- Fire - Sun/Moon - night/day; evil/good; sin/virtue; Moon, later = phlegmatic, watery;
- Love - Venus - love of life, spiritual rebirth;
- Sound - Mercury - keen spirit, illumination, expression;
- Corpus - Earth - totality of forces awaiting rebirth.
In "De Tribus Principiis" or "On the Three Principles of Divine Being" Böhme subsumed the seven principles into the Trinity:
- The "dark world" of the Father (Qualities 1-2-3);
- The "light world" of the Holy Spirit (Qualities 5-6-7);
- "This world" of Satan and Christ (Quality 4).
Cosmology
In one interpretation of Böhme's cosmology, it was necessary for humanity to return to God, and for all original unities to undergo differentiation, desire and conflict—as in the rebellion of Satan, the separation of Eve from Adam and their acquisition of the knowledge of good and evil—in order for creation to evolve to a new state of redeemed harmony that would be more perfect than the original state of innocence, allowing God to achieve a new self-awareness by interacting with a creation that was both part of, and distinct from, Himself. Free will becomes the most important gift God gives to humanity, allowing us to seek divine grace as a deliberate choice while still allowing us to remain individuals.[citation needed]
Marian views
Böhme believed that the
Böhme, unlike Luther, did not believe that Mary was the Ever Virgin. Her virginity after the birth of Jesus is unrealistic to Böhme. The true salvation is Christ, not Mary. The importance of Mary, a human like every one of us, is that she gave birth to Jesus Christ as a human being. If Mary had not been human, according to Böhme, Christ would be a stranger and not our brother. Christ must grow in us as he did in Mary. She became blessed by accepting Christ. In a reborn Christian, as in Mary, all that is temporal disappears and only the heavenly part remains for all eternity. Böhme's peculiar theological language, involving fire, light and spirit, which permeates his theology and Marian views, does not distract much from the fact that his basic positions are Lutheran.[21]
Influences
Böhme's writing shows the influence of
Behmenism
I do not write in the pagan manner, but in the theosophical.
— Jacob Boehme[34]
Behmenism, also Behemenism or Boehmenism, is the English-language designation for a 17th-century
Behmenism does not describe the beliefs of any single formal religious sect, but instead designates a more general description of Böhme's interpretation of Christianity, when used as a source of devotional inspiration by a variety of groups. Böhme's views greatly influenced many
Despite being based on a corrupted form of Böhme's surname, the term Behmenism has retained a certain utility in modern English-language historiography, where it is still occasionally employed, although often to designate specifically English followers of Böhme's
Reaction
In addition to the scientific revolution, the 17th century was a time of mystical revolution in
While Böhme was famous in Holland, England, France, Denmark and America during the 17th century, he became less influential during the 18th century. A revival occurred late in that century with interest from German Romantics, who considered Böhme a forerunner to the movement. Poets such as John Milton, Ludwig Tieck, Novalis, William Blake[41] and W. B. Yeats[42] found inspiration in Böhme's writings. Coleridge, in his Biographia Literaria, speaks of Böhme with admiration. Böhme was highly thought of by the German philosophers Baader, Schelling and Schopenhauer. Hegel went as far as to say that Böhme was "the first German philosopher".[43] Danish Bishop Hans Lassen Martensen published a book about Böhme.[44]
Several authors have found Boehme's description of the three original Principles and the seven Spirits to be similar to the
Works
- Aurora: Die Morgenröte im Aufgang (unfinished) (1612)
- De Tribus Principiis (The Three Principles of the Divine Essence, 1618–1619)
- The Threefold Life of Man (1620)
- Answers to Forty Questions Concerning the Soul (1620)
- The Treatise of the Incarnations: (1620)
- I. Of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ
- II. Of the Suffering, Dying, Death and Resurrection of Christ
- III. Of the Tree of Faith
- The Great Six Points (1620)
- Of the Earthly and of the Heavenly Mystery (1620)
- Of the Last Times (1620)
- De Signatura Rerum (The Signature of All Things, 1621)
- The Four Complexions (1621)
- Of True Repentance (1622)
- Of True Resignation (1622)
- Of Regeneration (1622)
- Of Predestination (1623)
- A Short Compendium of Repentance (1623)
- The Mysterium Magnum (1623)
- A Table of the Divine Manifestation, or an Exposition of the Threefold World (1623)
- The Supersensual Life (1624)
- Of Divine Contemplation or Vision (unfinished) (1624)
- Of Christ's Testaments (1624)
- I. Baptism
- II. The Supper
- Of Illumination (1624)
- 177 Theosophic Questions, with Answers to Thirteen of Them (unfinished) (1624)
- An Epitome of the Mysterium Magnum (1624)
- The Holy Week or a Prayer Book (unfinished) (1624)
- A Table of the Three Principles (1624)
- Of the Last Judgement (lost) (1624)
- The Clavis (1624)
- Sixty-two Theosophic Epistles (1618–1624)
Books in print
- The Way to Christ (inc. True Repentance, True Resignation, Regeneration or the New Birth, The Supersensual Life, Of Heaven & Hell, The Way from Darkness to True Illumination) edited by ISBN 978-1-84685-791-1
- Of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, translated from the German by John Rolleston Earle, London, Constable and Company LTD, 1934.
Veneration
In 2022, Jacob Boehme was officially added to the
In popular culture
Literature
Cormac McCarthy's 1985 novel Blood Meridian includes three epigraphs, the second of which comes from Jacob Boehme: "It is not to be thought that the life of darkness is sunk in misery and lost as if in sorrowing. There is no sorrowing. For sorrow is a thing that is swallowed up in death, and death and dying are the very life of the darkness."[48]
Film
The Life and Legacy of Jacob Boehme. A documentary directed by Łukasz Chwałko. Premiered: June 2016, Zgorzelec (Poland).[49]
See also
- Augoeides – Hermetic starfire body
- Christian mysticism – Christian mystical practices
- Friends of God – Medieval mystical group
- Jane Lead – English dissenter (1624–1704)
- Sophia – Personification of wisdom in philosophy and religion
References
Notes
- ^ Calian 2010, p. 184: "In several works he used alchemical principles and symbols without hesitation to demonstrate theological realities. Borrowing alchemical terminology in order to explain religious and mystical frameworks, Böhme assumed that alchemical language is not only a metaphor for laboratory research. Alchemy is a metaphysical science because he understood that matter is contaminated with spirit."
- ^ An early English language example is provided in Anderdon, John.[full citation needed] "One blow at Babel, in those of the People called Behmenites, Whose foundation is...upon their own cardinal conception, begotten in their imaginations upon Jacob Behmen's writings." London: 1662.
- ^ See for example Gibbons 1996.
- ^ All of Böhme’s treatises and most of his letters were translated into English (as well as two pamphlets that were translated into Welsh by the Parliamentarian evangelist Morgan Llwyd) between 1645 and 1662.[39]
Citations
- ^ Mills 2002, p. 16.
- ^ "Böhme". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
- ^ Stoudt 2022.
- ^ Jaqua 1984.
- ^ Edwards 2004.
- ^ a b c Deussen 1910, p. xxxviii.
- ^ a b c d Debelius 1908
- ^ a b Chisholm 1911
- ^ Martensen 1885, p. 13.
- ^ Deussen 1910, pp. xli–xlii.
- ^ Magill 2013, p. 155.
- ^ Weeks 1991, p. 2.
- ^ Deussen 1910, p. xlviii.
- ^ Deussen 1910, pp. xlviii–xlix.
- ^ Deussen 1910, pp. xlix–l.
- ^ "The Way to Christ". Pass the Word Services.
- ^ a b von Ingen 1988, p. 517.
- ^ a b c von Ingen 1988, p. 518.
- ^ a b Musès 1951, p. [page needed].
- ^ Stoudt 1968, p. [page needed].
- ^ a b von Ingen 1988, p. 519.
- ^ Brown 1996.
- ^ Durnbaugh 2001.
- ^ Ensign 1955.
- ^ Hirsch 1951.
- ^ Stoeffler 1965.
- ^ Stoeffler 1973.
- ^ Brumbaugh 1899, p. 443.
- ^ Penman 2008.
- ^ a b Schopenhauer 1903, Ch II, 8
- ^ Faivre 2000, p. 28.
- ^ Judge 1985.
- ^ Versluis 2007, p. [page needed].
- ^ Faivre 2000, p. 13.
- ^ Hutin 1953.
- ^ Joling-van der Sar 2003, p. 140.
- ^ Thune 1948, p. [page needed].
- ^ Popkin 1998, pp. 401–402.
- ^ Hessayon 2013.
- ^ Popkin 1998, p. 402.
- ^ Aubrey 1981.
- ^ Kneavel 1978.
- ^ Weeks 1991, pp. 2–3.
- ^ Martensen 1885.
- ^ Nicolescu 1998, p. 47.
- ^ Bourgeault 2013.
- ^ Episcopal Church 2022.
- ^ Mundik 2016, p. 32.
- ^ Martin 2020.
Works cited
- Aubrey, Bryan (1981). The influence of Jacob Boehme on the work of William Blake. Durham theses (Thesis). Durham University. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
- Bourgeault, Cynthia (2013). The Holy Trinity and the Law of Three: Discovering the Radical Truth at the Heart of Christianity. Shambhala. ISBN 978-0-8348-2894-0.
- Brown, Dale W. (1996). Understanding Pietism. Evangel Publishing House. ISBN 978-0916035648.
- ISBN 9780404084257.
- Calian, George-Florin (2010). Alkimia Operativa and Alkimia Speculativa: Some Modern Controversies on the Historiography of Alchemy. Annual of Medieval Studies at CEU.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 114.
- Debelius, F. W. (1908). "Boehme, Jakob". In Jackson, Samuel Macauley (ed.). New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. Vol. 2 (third ed.). London and New York: Funk and Wagnalls. pp. 209–211.
- Deussen, Paul (1910). "Introduction". In Boehme, Jacob (ed.). Concerning the three principles of the divine essence. London: John M. Watkins.
- Durnbaugh, Donald F. (2001). "Pennsylvania's Crazy Quilt of German Religious Groups". Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies. 68 (1): 8–30.
- Edwards, Timothy (5 April 2004). Jacob Böhme: The Teutonic Philosopher. 24th Convocation of Ontario College.
- Ensign, Chauncey David (1955). Radical German Pietism (c. 1675-c. 1760) (Thesis). Boston University. hdl:2144/8771.
- Episcopal Church (2022). "General Convention Virtual Binder: Resolution A007: Authorize Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2022". www.vbinder.net. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
- Faivre, Antoine (2000). Theosophy, Imagination, Tradition: Studies in Western Esotericism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. OCLC 41944660.
- Gibbons, B. J. (1996). Gender in Mystical and Occult Thought: Behmenism and its Development in England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Hessayon, Ariel (2013). "Jacob Boehme's writings during the English Revolution and afterwards: their publication, dissemination and influence". In Hessayon, Ariel; Apetrei, Sarah (eds.). An Introduction to Jacob Boehme: Four Centuries of Thought and Reception. Routledge. pp. 77–97.
- Hirsch, Emanuel (1951). Geschichte der Neueren Evangelischen Theologie in Zusammenhang mit den allgemeinen Bewegungen des europaischen Denkens (in German). Vol. II. Gutersloh: c. Bertelsmann Verlag. pp. 209, 255, 256.
- Hutin, Serge (Autumn 1953). "The Behmenists and the Philadelphian Society". The Jacob Boehme Society Quarterly. 1 (5): 5–11.
- Jaqua, Mark (1984). "The Illumination of Jacob Boehme" (PDF). TAT Journal. 13. TAT Foundation. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
- Joling-van der Sar, Gerda J. (2003). The Spiritual Side of Samuel Richardson: Mysticism, Behmenism and Millenarianism in an Eighteenth-Century English Novelist – via home.hccnet.nl.
- Judge, William Q. (1985). "Jacob Boehme and the Secret Doctrine". Theosophical Articles and Notes. Vol. 1. Los Angeles: Theosophy Company. p. 271ff. ISBN 978-0938998297.
- Kneavel, Ann Callanan (1978). Affinities between William Butler Yeats and Jacob Boehme (PDF) (PhD dissertation). Ottawa, Canada: University of Ottawa. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
- Magill, Frank N., ed. (2013). The 17th and 18th Centuries: Dictionary of World Biography. Vol. 4. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1135924140.
- Mills, Jon (2002). The Unconscious Abyss: Hegel's Anticipation of Psychoanalysis. Albany: State University of New York Press.
- Martensen, Hans Lassen (1885). Jacob Boehme: His Life and Teaching, or Studies in Theosophy. Translated by T. Rhys Evans. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
- Martin, Michael (24 June 2020). "The Life and Legacy of Jacob Boehme: Review". The Center for Sophiological Studies. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
- Mundik, Petra (2016). A Bloody and Barbarous God: The Metaphysics of Cormac McCarthy. University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0826356710.
- Musès, Charles A. (1951). Illumination on Jakob Böhme. New York: King's Crown Press.
- Nicolescu, Basarab (1998). "Gurdjieff's philosophy of nature". In Needleman, J.; Baker, G. (eds.). Gurdjieff: Essays and Reflections on the Man and His Teachings. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 37–69. ISBN 978-1-4411-1084-8. A revised version is available: "Gurdjieff's philosophy of nature"(PDF). 2003. p. 12. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
- Penman, Leigh T. I. (2008). "A Second Christian Rosenkreuz? Jakob Boehme's Disciple Balthasar Walther (1558–c.1630) and the Kabbalah: With a Bibliography of Walther's Printed Works". In Ahlbäck, T. (ed.). Scripta institute donneriani Aboensis. Vol. XX. Åbo, Finland: Donner Institute. pp. 154–172.
- ISBN 978-0-521-53720-9.
- Schopenhauer, Arthur (1903). On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason. Translated by Mme. Karl Hillebrand. London: George Bell and Sons.
- Stoeffler, F. Ernest (1965). The Rise of Evangelical Pietism. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
- Stoeffler, F. Ernest (1973). German Pietism During the Eighteenth Century. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
- Stoudt, John Joseph (1968). Jakob Böhme: His Life and Thought. New York: The Seabury Press.
- Stoudt, John J. (17 November 2022). "Jakob Böhme: German mystic". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
- Thune, Nils (1948). The Behemenists and the Philadelphians: A contribution to the study of English mysticism in the 17th and 18th centuries. Uppsala: Almquist and Wiksells.
- Versluis, Arthur (2007). Magic and Mysticism: An Introduction to Western Esotericism. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-0742558366.
- von Ingen, F. (1988). Jacob Böhme in Marienlexikon. Eos: St. Ottilien.
- Weeks, Andrew (1991). Boehme: An Intellectual Biography of the Seventeenth-Century Philosopher and Mystic. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-0596-3.
Further reading
- Bailey, Margaret Lewis (1914). Milton and Jakob Boehme; a study of German mysticism in seventeenth-century England. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Berdyaev, Nikolai (February 1930). "Studies Concerning Jacob Boehme: Etude I. The Teaching about the Ungrund and Freedom". Journal Put' (20): 47–79.
- Berdyaev, Nikolai (April 1930). "Studies Concerning Jacob Boehme: Etude II. The Teaching about Sophia and the Androgyne. J. Boehme and the Russian Sophiological Current". Journal Put' (21): 34–62.
- Carus, Paul (1900). "A Modern Gnostic". History of the Devil. pp. 151ff.
- Hartmann, Franz (1891). The Life and the Doctrines of Jacob Boehme, the God-Taught Philosopher: An Introduction to the Study of His Works – via UniversalTheosophy.com.
- Swainson, William Perkes (1921). Jacob Boehme; the Teutonic philosopher. London: William Rider & Son, Ltd.
External links
- Works by Jakob Böhme at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Jakob Böhme at Internet Archive
- Works by Jakob Böhme at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Jacob Boehme Online
- The Correspondence of Jakob Böhme in EMLO
- Jacob Boehme Resources
- Large electronic text archive of Jacob Boehme in English