the mystical theology of valentin weigel - DataSpace at Princeton ...

ecause of his presence in the inner ground of the soul: 319 “eben das obiectum ist schon
darinne, im Inwendigen grunde der seelen, Nemlich gottes Wort, Wille, gesetz, geist
etc.” 320 When God causes man’s cognitive capacities to cease by an influx of grace and
pours his own eye into the void left behind by their cessation, eye and object become
identical. Man is no longer the eye that perceives, but rather God is himself the eye,
which perceives God’s self through God’s self: “Droben ist bewisen worden, daß in der
naturlichen erkentnis der mensche das auge selber sey, Aber allhier in der
ubernaturlichen erkentnis ist der mensche nicht selber die erkentnis noch das auge,
sondern gott ist selber das auge im menschen, unnd durch den menschen.” 321 Weigel
works dialectically, as Eckhart had done, in that he sets up distinctions only to later
overcome them. For instance, in this text, Weigel began by speaking of the divine spirit
being implanted in man at creation. However, although Weigel initially speaks of God
being “in” man—which would seem to locate the divine presence in a definite “place” in
the soul—Weigel later entirely collapses the distinction between subject and object, that
is to say, the distinction between God and self, or between Creator and creation. Weigel
has a name for this ecstatic state: Gelassenheit. 322 The faithful, when they are reborn and
319 Weigel, Griff, 53. Here Weigel quotes Luke 17:21, one of his favourite proof texts: “Das reich gottes ist
Inwendig in euch,” the Kingdom of God is within you, adding that it is Christ himself who testifies to this
inner presence of God (“wie Christus bezeuget Lucae 17”).
320 Ibid, 53. As this list suggests, Weigel is at pains to emphasize that God is fully present in the ground of
the soul, both as Law and Gospel, whereas orthodox Lutheran theology admitted that while God’s Law
might be written even on the hearts of unbelieves, these unbelievers certainly did not also possess God’s
Word or Spirit. For Weigel, separating off one part of God from another was impossible if God’s unity was
to be preserved—an argument that will be discussed further in the next chapter.
321 Moreover, because God is an infinite object, and the human mind is finite, it would be impossible for
any mind to comprehend God except for God’s own infinite mind. Ibid, 55.
322 Ibid, 87. Weigel identifies this ecstatic state in which God displaces the human eye to contemplate
God’s own self in man as being “gotte gelassen,” and calls it a faith that God produces “in dem gelassenen
Menschen.”
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