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y worldly events, then the sacraments are useless rather than harmful, meaning the Layman does not lose anything by receiving them. But if the inner man can be affected by what goes on outside it, then the sacraments are beneficial and even necessary, meaning that the Layman must receive them to secure his salvation. The odds here are 50/50, and the Layman has everything to lose, so Johannes’s point is not unreasonable: why would one not receive the sacrament? The Layman ultimately bets on his own convictions and dies unshriven, but his brother’s question is not so easy to shake off, since it could be regarded as a reformulation of Weigel’s reflections on Gelassenheit. If one might or might not face persecution for refusing what the church requires, and if furthermore what the church requires neither helps nor harms the gelassene soul, then martyrdom is no longer the necessary outcome of the Christian’s decision-making algorithm “testify or be damned.” And if an earthly institution is a matter of indifference, then the responsibility to reform the church can be refused with a clean conscience in favour of generating harmony amongst Christians. As Weigel writes, “es ist dir nicht bevholen, zu reformieren.” 385 In the following chapters, I continue to explore the role that Weigel envisions for the individual Christian in the context of the institution of the Christian church of his time. I focus in particular on how Weigel demonstrates that language can be used to generate true concord within the church through what I am calling “indifferent signification.” This way of using language serves to resolve the divisions amongst Christians that Weigel believes are created by the process of codifying doctrine undertaken by the Lutheran ecclesiastical body in the late 16 th . Moreover, I discuss how this indifferent signification is based on Weigel’s reading of the writings of Dionysius the Areopagite. In emphasizing 385 Weigel, Vergebung, 62. 144
the strength of the intellectual relationship between Weigel and Dionysius, I am arguing that there was not a radical break between medieval and modern theology as many historians argue. 145
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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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These role-reversal dialogues were
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As this chapter has shown, Eckhart
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philosophers from Hegel and Schopen
Page 97 and 98: CHAPTER 2 • GELASSENE GELASSENHEI
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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 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 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 all the more so since he saw li
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
Page 161 and 162: served as cornerstones in defences
Page 163 and 164: (Acts 17: 15-34), one of the skepti
Page 165 and 166: to make the interpretation of these
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
Page 183 and 184: it does during the Council of Trent
Page 185 and 186: for a hierarchical church, seizing
Page 187 and 188: the ancient teaching”) that “be
Page 189 and 190: Dionysiacum. For Lefèvre d’Étap
Page 191 and 192: Aristotle would have been glad to h
Page 193 and 194: enlightens all great thinkers in ev
Page 195 and 196: offered Dionysius to the Gelehrtenr
Page 197 and 198: 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
Page 277 and 278:
Israel, A. (1888). M. Valentin Weig
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MacCulloch, D. (2010). Christianity
Page 281 and 282:
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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