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

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hearts and not their actions, and that their faith has remained steadfast all along (“Es ging meinen Glauben nichts dran ab”). 369 The priest is only a priest with his physical body, just as the layman only goes to confession with his physical body—but in reality, with respect to their inner selves, they are followers of Christ. In their duplicity, they have not been shirking their duties before God, but have proven that they understand the New Testament way of behaving by exercising their freedom of spirit (“bestanden in der Freyheit des Geistes nach dem neuen Testament”). 370 It is enough to practice true religion in their gelassene hearts, secure in the knowledge that no exterior circumstance could diminish their faith, disrupt their intimate relation with God or compromise their salvation. Of course, duplicity and cowardice were both terms that Weigel would most strenuously have rejected: rather than cowardice, Weigel saw turning the other cheek, and rather than duplicity, Weigel saw a pious desire to keep sacred wisdom safe from a hostile world. Weigel links this private/duplicitous religion with Gelassenheit in a sermon from his Kirchen- oder Hauspostille, composed around the same time as the Güldener Griff, patterned on the story of the Holy Family’s flight from Egypt and Herod’s slaughter of the innocents (Matthew: 2). 371 In this early episode in Christ’s life, Joseph is informed by an angel that Herod has evil intentions towards the newborn Jesus, and secretly flees with his family from Bethlehem; Herod retaliates by having all the male infants in Bethlehem killed. 369 Weigel, Gespreche, 90. 370 Ibid. 371 Valentin Weigel, Kirchen- und Hauspostille, in Sämtliche Schriften, ed. Horst Pfefferl, vol. 12.1, (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann Holzboog, 2010), 71-77. 138
Weigel gives the passage an unexpected meaning by supplementing the set text with two scriptural snippets of his own, namely Christ’s words of self-defence to Pilate (“Mein Reich ist nicht von dieser Welt”), and Christ’s rebuke to his disciples for cutting off the ear of the soldier who tried to arrest him at Gethsemane (“Meynestu nicht, daß ich meinen himlischen Vater bitten köndte, daß er mir zuschicken köndte mehr dann 12 Legion Engel”). 372 These two passages are the key, writes Weigel, to understanding why Mary and Joseph avoided persecution by fleeing to Egypt, rather than remaining in Bethlehem and calling on God to defeat Herod’s soldiers. It was not cowardice to flee under cover of darkness: the flight to Egypt makes it clear for Weigel that Christ chooses not to intervene in worldly affairs—even if it is to protect the innocent from persecution, and even if Jesus, as the omnipotent God made flesh, is perfectly capable of doing so. Weigel is unusual in being preoccupied by the issue of whether Christ displayed cowardice in allowing the innocents to be slaughtered. 373 In a lengthy sermon on this same pericope, for instance, Luther never raises the possibility of Christ’s cowardice. At most, he dismisses the suggestion that the Magi ought to have reported back to Herod rather than going home by another way as tempting God (because God could, of course, have protected the baby Christ with a miracle if he willed it). People ought to exhaust natural means before demanding divine intervention. Moreover, in Luther’s sermon, Herod is not depicted as a secular ruler, but rather as a figure for the Pope—any potential collusion between priests and tyrant (Weigel’s focus) is thereby neutralized. Lastly, 372 Weigel misattributes the two passages. The first is actually from John: 18, the second from Matthew: 26, not the other way around as he writes. 373 “Das Euangelium am tage der heyligen drey künige,” WA10.I.1, 555-728. See also the entry for this chapter in the New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 8 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994-2002). 139
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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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was a devilish heretic to others (
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his neglect of Eckhart. 158 For ins
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“unheilvolle Kompliziertheit”).
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and Jerome (wearing what looks like
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title page, as mentioned above, des
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of a respectable though not fanatic
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himself, but rather cultivated part
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church that Luther, Melanchthon and
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kan”), and specifically the role
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soul become convinced that nothing
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that salvation can be attained thro
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more importantly, a theology that a
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Mit Recht der Meister genannt: Mode
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Page 93 and 94: As this chapter has shown, Eckhart
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Page 97 and 98: CHAPTER 2 • GELASSENE GELASSENHEI
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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
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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
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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
Page 139 and 140: indifference that allows Weigel to
Page 141: teacher. 366 However, the turning p
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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Page 167 and 168: Outside the universities, Dionysius
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Page 171 and 172: other leaders of the Protestant Ref
Page 173 and 174: valorization of hierarchy per se in
Page 175 and 176: as well as the with the arguments u
Page 177 and 178: freedom, but rather obedience. 468
Page 179 and 180: The primary piece in the compilatio
Page 181 and 182: It is hardly surprising that Cochla
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Page 187 and 188: the ancient teaching”) that “be
Page 189 and 190: Dionysiacum. For Lefèvre d’Étap
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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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