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enjoyed before creation. 279 A person who is spiritually poor should be so bereft of all knowing that he does not even know that God is in him. Eckhart begins by explaining that God is neither a being, nor a supremely rational being that knows all things (“Gott ist weder Wesen nocht Vernunfft noch erkennet nichts, diß noch das”). 280 Rather, God is both free from all things but is also, by definition, all things (“Hierumb ist Gott ledig aller Ding und hierumb ist er alle Ding”). 281 But knowledge, as discussed above, deals in particulars and distinctions (diß and das). In order to know what a thing is, one must contrast it with other things that are not that thing (a candle is not a lamp, a square is not round and so on). But if there is no distinction in God, Eckhart concludes that the soul cannot know God and therefore, returning to the sermon under consideration, if the creature wishes to return to the way it knew before it was created, it must renounce all claim to know God or to know anything about God (“Hierumb so ist es nicht, das der Mensch begehrende sey, das er möge wissen noch erkennen den Weg Gottes”). 282 The soul could not take God as its object in order to know God, because God is not an “other” 279 Weigel, Zwene nützliche Tractat, 63; BT, CCCVIIrb. 280 Ibid, 64; BT, CCCVIIva. 281 Ibid; BT, CCCVIIva. 282 Ibid, 64-65. Unfortunately, this particular paragraph is full of small errors in the Basel Tauler edition that are then taken over in Weigel’s transcription. Largier’s text reads “sô ist ez nôt” and “diu werk gotes”, whereas the BT reads “so ist es nit” and “den Weg Gottes,” obviously either errors of a scribe in the manuscript lineage that the BT was based upon, or a typesetting error in preparing the printed text. Likewise, the BT has “der muß arm sein alles seines eigenen Wesens” where Quint has “der muoz arm sîn alles sînes eigenen wizzennes”—“wizzen” and “wesen,” differing only by a minim or two, are easily confused if the scribe’s hand were bad or the paper damaged. Valerie Pektas attributes this kind of error to Weigel, seeming not to have looked at the Basel edition that Weigel would have used. However, every one of these divergences from Quint’s text originates in the Basel edition, and most of them, so far as I can tell, are what one might call “innocent” errors—misreadings of two very similar-looking words with different meanings—rather than a deliberate attempt to either change or play down any heterodox element in Eckhart’s sermons, since the changes are not applied consistently throughout a sermon. The sentence that confuses “wizzen” and “wesen,” for instance, transcribes “wizzen” correctly in the second clause of the very same sentence. Virginie Pektas, Mystique et Philosophie: Grunt, abgrunt et Ungrund chez Maître Eckhart et Jacob Böhme (Amsterdam: B.R. Grüner, 2006). My opinion is that these errors make the Basel edition confusing in places, but that the repetitive form of the sermon allows most of what is omitted or distorted in one place to be clearly transmitted in another, such that not only Eckhart’s ideas but also his characteristic language are conveyed when the text is taken as a whole. 106
nestling inside the soul, but rather is the soul itself (“do der mensch stuond in der ewigen art gottes, do lebte in im nicht ein anders, was da lebte, daz was er selb”). 283 This ignorance of God is not a defect (a failure to be in possession of information about God, so to speak), but rather, possessing information about God is by definition an impossibility. In describing the third element of spiritual poverty—having nothing—Eckhart continues to develop this tension between distinction and unity. Although he had once taught that the soul should free itself from all things and all works so that it might hollow out an empty place (“also das er mag sein eine eigene Stadt Gottes”) in which God might work (“do Gott innen wircket”), 284 Eckhart proclaims that he has not taken spiritual poverty far enough: a person pursuing spiritual poverty must relinquish even a self in which God can work. Instead, the truly poor spirit allows God Himself to be the place in which God works (“wolle Gott wircken inn der Seele, das er selber je die Stadt sey, darinn er wircken will”). 285 God, concludes Eckhart, must be active in God’s own self rather than in a person’s individual self, “ein Wircker inn ihm selber,” because to preserve a separation between self and God is to hold on to distinctions (“da der Mensch Stadt behalttet, da beheldt er Unterscheidt”), which are entirely alien to God’s unity and perfection. 286 As I described above, Eckhart argues that the intellect is the anthropological basis for the possibility of such an intimate union with God, and here is simply called a “something in the soul” (“ein Ding ist inn der Seele, von welchen fleußet 283 BT, CCCVIIrb. Weigel does not copy this particular line. Bruce Milem, "Suffering God: Meister Eckhart's Sermon 52," Mystics Quarterly 22, no. 2 (June 1996): 76. 284 Weigel, Zwene nützliche Tractat, 65-66. 285 Ibid, 66; BT, CCCVIIvb. 286 Ibid; BT, CCCVIIvb. Denys Turner calls this Eckhart’s “apophatic anthropology”. Turner, Darkness, 168-185. 107
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MYSTICISM & CONFESSIONAL CONFLICT I
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ABSTRACT This dissertation investig
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INTRODUCTION • ES IST DIR NICHT B
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mostly undisturbed by his Lutheran
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yet have signalled his assent with
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in a context where action is expect
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Protestant Mysticism: Not a Contrad
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interest, 31 and praised the Theolo
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one can observe the texture of the
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discourse and reasoned debate, or t
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with fragments of Eckhart and Taule
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Dionysius and Eckhart (for differen
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movement, but also profound shifts
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schools, as well as universities wh
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allowed them to cooperate effective
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made clear, would result in dismiss
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and in these external dealings, the
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same laws of physics, but while the
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Tertullian’s De Fuga in Persecuti
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as a martyr. Moreover, Holy Scriptu
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Alternatively, the so-called four-f
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tzeyger und unterrichter ist ynn di
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fellow Lutherans in studying books
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provoked into action unnecessarily,
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masses for the dead (for instance)
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traditional proof texts about the o
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positive understandings of indiffer
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insofar as their imperfection is ra
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Of these forms of indifference, I f
Page 59 and 60: to Dionysius’ authority. Two grou
Page 61 and 62: PART I • VALENTIN WEIGEL AND MEIS
Page 63 and 64: investigating his early modern read
Page 65 and 66: was a devilish heretic to others (
Page 67 and 68: his neglect of Eckhart. 158 For ins
Page 69 and 70: “unheilvolle Kompliziertheit”).
Page 71 and 72: and Jerome (wearing what looks like
Page 73 and 74: title page, as mentioned above, des
Page 75 and 76: of a respectable though not fanatic
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Page 79 and 80: church that Luther, Melanchthon and
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Page 83 and 84: soul become convinced that nothing
Page 85 and 86: that salvation can be attained thro
Page 87 and 88: more importantly, a theology that a
Page 89 and 90: Mit Recht der Meister genannt: Mode
Page 91 and 92: These role-reversal dialogues were
Page 93 and 94: As this chapter has shown, Eckhart
Page 95 and 96: philosophers from Hegel and Schopen
Page 97 and 98: CHAPTER 2 • GELASSENE GELASSENHEI
Page 99 and 100: the relationship between Tauler and
Page 101 and 102: e “as it was when it was not.”
Page 103 and 104: Eckhart agree that spiritual povert
Page 105 and 106: one-of-a-kind thing, or the best ki
Page 107 and 108: einvaltig stille), an uncreated lig
Page 109: e as free of willing and desiring a
Page 113 and 114: Gelassenheit, das ist, das er nicht
Page 115 and 116: (necessarily inferior) knowledge pr
Page 117 and 118: context is that he picks up on Eckh
Page 119 and 120: he begins to steer the discussion a
Page 121 and 122: further proof for Weigel’s theory
Page 123 and 124: understood that the mind cannot pos
Page 125 and 126: wait in stiller Gelassenheit, recei
Page 127 and 128: truth as an educated theologian or
Page 129 and 130: ungewisser”) and finds that his f
Page 131 and 132: die Blinden an ein ander gehetzett,
Page 133 and 134: gesagett das ist er selber und ist
Page 135 and 136: Gelassenheit for the Bible, which i
Page 137 and 138: that the kind of Gelassenheit Weige
Page 139 and 140: indifference that allows Weigel to
Page 141 and 142: teacher. 366 However, the turning p
Page 143 and 144: Weigel gives the passage an unexpec
Page 145 and 146: Murren”)—and they do this “in
Page 147 and 148: and all the more so since he saw li
Page 149 and 150: the strength of the intellectual re
Page 151 and 152: CHAPTER 3 • DIONYSIUS, WHOEVER HE
Page 153 and 154: demonstrated for Eckhart, I will de
Page 155 and 156: destroyer that Dionysius is most of
Page 157 and 158: ears good news to the church.” 39
Page 159 and 160: points out, with a purification, a
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served as cornerstones in defences
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(Acts 17: 15-34), one of the skepti
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to make the interpretation of these
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Outside the universities, Dionysius
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defiled the “sacred things” by
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other leaders of the Protestant Ref
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valorization of hierarchy per se in
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as well as the with the arguments u
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freedom, but rather obedience. 468
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The primary piece in the compilatio
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It is hardly surprising that Cochla
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it does during the Council of Trent
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for a hierarchical church, seizing
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the ancient teaching”) that “be
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Dionysiacum. For Lefèvre d’Étap
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Aristotle would have been glad to h
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enlightens all great thinkers in ev
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offered Dionysius to the Gelehrtenr
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nine distinct editions of Dionysius
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editions of Greek and Latin classic
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(Turin), and is a reprint of Lefèv
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presses in Spain (his first publica
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growing body of evidence suggesting
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Weigel concludes that, precisely be
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apart, he suggested that true Chris
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and so did not dwell on the fact th
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Names, as the title suggests, is ba
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animals, through plants and non-liv
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of being.” 580 As we will see lat
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(“God is a rock”) or even a neg
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This is admittedly a nonsensical as
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compositions, most likely dating to
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Dionysius to show that, just as God
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efer to Greek and Hebrew, the bibli
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argues that there cannot be more th
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dicitur una.” 616 The stress that
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Weigel suggests will allow the soul
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saving sacraments by means of which
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Melanchthon’s Defence of the Augs
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alternative—namely prayer. 643 We
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Dionysius writes that the summit of
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leibet er illimitatus.” 658 Weige
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work, Weigel had written explicitly
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Luther did not ever use the exact p
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as opposed to an office-holder, an
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writing. By calling his Layman der
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Others are loyal to mere men (the P
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zuerzeigen einen rechtschaffen vnd
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and ceremonial ones at that. 694 Th
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himself returning gloriously from H
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all being. In relinquishing any cre
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improve appearances but, because it
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than resolve it, because the proble
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parcels God, who by rights is supre
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Appendix • The Works of Valentin
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Abad, J. M. (1999). Th
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Chenu O.P., M.-D. (1968). In M.-D.
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Eckhart, M. (1993). Werke I (Vol. 1
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Israel, A. (1888). M. Valentin Weig
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MacCulloch, D. (2010). Christianity
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Payne, R. J. (Ed.). (1981). Meister
Page 283 and 284:
Schindling, A., & Ziegler, W. (1990
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Verkamp, B. J. (1975). The Limits u
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