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

discourse and reasoned debate, or the civic responsibilities of the individual. 40 Nor does
he express, with the humanists, a respect for learning, or place any hope in the educability
of man. Rather, he professes a deep pessimism about the moral and epistemological
capacities of the individual, and therefore seeks to minimize the role of the individual as
much as possible. 41 As I will show in this dissertation, Weigel argued that the ultimate
(and optimal) state for which the individual should strive is to relinquish her individuality
so completely that God takes over as the sole epistemological subject. Only in the
absence of the individual can harmony, concord and unity be achieved—a position that
can hardly be termed humanist.
Likewise, the most recent monograph on Weigel by Andrew Weeks only
mentions Eckhart and Dionysius briefly. He mentions Dionysius once, as part of a group
of patristic sources (Origen, Dionysius and Augustine), noting that Weigel’s sources also
include both the Theologia Germanica and the Basel edition of Tauler, and that Weigel
cites Eckhart by name. 42 Weeks groups Eckhart together with Tauler, the Theologia,
Nicholas Cusa and Hugh of St. Victor, lumping them together as “medieval mystical
literature” which served as a source for Weigel. 43 The nineteenth century scholarship on
Weigel is similarly vague on the question of what Weigel took from medieval and
40 Weigel even goes so far as to claim that Christ did not take on Adam’s flesh, and that Adam’s flesh will
not be redeemed; instead, Christ took on a “heavenly flesh” from the Holy Spirit, which then became
mortal but not corruptible (verweeslich). This is how the Resurrection was possible, because Adam’s flesh
will not be redeemed and resurrected (“daß bluet und fleisch von Adam ist gantz verwörfflich, kommet
Nimmer mehr Inn Himel”), and Adam, therefore, will be transposed or implanted (versetzen werden) into
Christ’s heavenly flesh. Valentin Weigel, Vom Leben Christi, in Sämtliche Schriften: Neue Edition, Vol. 7,
ed. Horst Pfefferl, (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 2002), 31.
41 Weigel’s conception of scholarly community is hardly complimentary; I will discuss this further in the
Chapter 2.
42 Andrew Weeks, German Religious Dissenter, 44.
43 Ibid, 51.
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