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andern”). Or rather, to use Weigel’s metaphor, a visible-physical tree (“der sichtbare leibliche baum”) remains “inside” the invisible-spiritual tree (“in den unsichtbaren geistlichen baume”). 295 This is the case for all created things, but Weigel is particularly interested in explaining the workings of the human creature, to whom Weigel refers throughout as Adam. Adam’s physical being is his outwardmost divine emanation, but carries within it all the other, higher emanations that stretch back to God himself, who is present in the soul from Adam’s creation. Weigel argues that every person is naturally in possession of the entirety of both earthly and divine wisdom, because God’s spirit was implanted in all people at creation. In the traditional Genesis narrative, God turns clay into living flesh by breathing a “living breath” into Adam, 296 but Weigel supposes that God has been more generous, implanting not only life but the divine spirit as well (“sampt dem gottlichen geiste”), thus bequeathing Adam God’s eternal, heavenly wisdom (“der halben liget auch die ewige himlische weisheitt in ihme”). 297 Weigel repeatedly affirms, throughout his work, the presence of God in man, referring to it, as Eckhart did, by many names: it is a seed, a treasure, a tree, an inner garden, a light, a book, a spiraculum, and an inner inheritance. 298 Most pertinent in this 295 Weigel, Griff, 11. This image is a reference to a passage in one of Weigel’s earliest works, a small tract that he wrote as an introduction to the Theologia Deutsch (1571). Rather than thinking of creation as a potter and a vase, or a sculptor and a statue, Weigel likens the relationship between creature and Creator to that between an acorn and a fully grown oak tree. Although the acorn does not visually resemble the oak tree it produces, nonetheless the oak tree is “in” the acorn as an idea because the acorn will one day produce the tree. And more importantly, though the oak tree no longer resembles the acorn, nevertheless the tree preserves the acorn “inside” it because the tree was produced by it. Valentin Weigel, Kurtzer Bericht und Anleitung zur Teutschen Theology, in Sämtliche Schriften, ed. Winfried Zeller, vol. 3, (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Friedrich Frommann Verlag-Günther Holzboog, 1966), 118. 296 Genesis 2:7. 297 Weigel, Griff, 11. 298 “Die ander geburt geschicht aus dem samen, nemlich aus dem Weib samen, Welchs ist das spiraculum, der geist gottes, das Wort gottes oder Christus in uns durch den glauben wonhafftig...[es] ligt der gantz 112
context is that he picks up on Eckhart’s characteristic language, calling it the “ground of the soul” or “inner ground.” 299 Moreover, Weigel makes it clear that Adam is not simply the first person to be created, but rather stands in for all people, and that God repeats the creation of Adam for each human being who is conceived. Each person has a double conception (“es hat ein Jeder Christe eine zwifache empfengnis oder geburt”), a visiblematerial creation of the mortal body, and a second spiritual-heavenly one. 300 Weigel uses Luther’s language when he says that Christ is in every person durch den glauben, but never adds the qualification that Christ is lost to man because of sin and must be reimplanted in man by faith. Quite the opposite: Weigel writes that Christ is not offenbar, but that does not mean Christ has been driven away by sin, but rather must be awakened, remembered or uncovered, which is an entirely different proposition. Weigel does not deny that humans are sinful, but reminds the reader they are only sinful accidentaliter and not substantialiter: as he writes, “die seele bleibet seele.” 301 Weigel’s idiosyncratic reading of Genesis leads to a rather counterintuitive account (at least to a modern reader) about how knowledge is acquired, concluding that true knowledge of all things (“all erkentnis aller dingen”) is to be found within each person already. 302 Mirroring the operation of the universe emanating from interior to exterior, the fundamental principle of Weigel’s epistemology is that knowledge comes from the knower and not the object known, and he repeats this formula often throughout Christus, mit allen Himlischen ewigen guttern, Do ist das reich gottes gantz und volkommen, aber nit offenbar.” Ibid, 61. 299 For example: “Aber die ubernaturliche erkentnis, die mag wol heissen die Innere gottliche erkentnis, dan sie kommet nicht von aussen hinein, sondern eben das obiectum ist schon darinne, im Inwendigen grunde der seelen, Nemlich gottes Wort, Wille, gesetz, geist etc.” Weigel, Griff, 53. 300 Ibid, 61. 301 “Es [das reich gottes] muß erwartet, erkennet, gefunden, gefület, geschmeckt werden im Innern grunde der seelen.” Weigel, Griff, 62 and 72. 302 Ibid, 12. 113
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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
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to Dionysius’ authority. Two grou
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PART I • VALENTIN WEIGEL AND MEIS
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investigating his early modern read
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Page 73 and 74: title page, as mentioned above, des
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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
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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
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Page 109 and 110: e as free of willing and desiring a
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Page 113 and 114: Gelassenheit, das ist, das er nicht
Page 115: (necessarily inferior) knowledge pr
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,
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Page 135 and 136: Gelassenheit for the Bible, which i
Page 137 and 138: that the kind of Gelassenheit Weige
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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
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Page 155 and 156: destroyer that Dionysius is most of
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Page 161 and 162: served as cornerstones in defences
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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
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Schindling, A., & Ziegler, W. (1990
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Verkamp, B. J. (1975). The Limits u
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