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

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classical sources. 44 Julius Otto Opel mentions Dionysius once, and discusses Tauler’s influence on Weigel but does not mention Eckhart; 45 August Israel does not discuss Weigel’s sources at all. 46 An exception is Alexandre Koyré’s essay on Weigel, which acknowledges that mystical ideas are important for Weigel, but refers to mystical ideas in general and is limited to drawing comparisons, rather than tracing the source and method of influence (that is, he talks about the influence of ideas on Weigel, rather than the texts that transmit those ideas). 47 Influence, of course, is hard to detect and hard to quantify. Citations of names alone can only be the roughest of guides, and do not account for how newly received ideas circulate once they have been absorbed. True, in one sense, Eckhart-in-Weigel is no longer strictly Eckhart, but this is perhaps too narrow a view of authorship—one that, ultimately, worries about the purity and the faithful reception of a certain set of great or classic authors, in contrast to which other authors are merely derivative and therefore minor. 48 Looking beyond the first point of contact or where the source appears in its purest form allows the complex interaction between Weigel and his sources to emerge. From this big-picture point of view, the relationship between Eckhart and Weigel then continues beyond Weigel’s lifetime, as Weigel’s work is then included in compilations that reprint mystical texts, such as Eckhart legends, or is copied in manuscripts alongside 44 Opel and Israel are perhaps less interested in Weigel’s sources because they are more concerned about his influence, specifically his intellectual kinship with the Pietists and German Idealism. Julius Otto Opel, Valentin Weigel: Ein Beitrag zur Literatur- und Culturgeschichte Deutschlands im 17. Jahrhundert (Leipzig: T. O. Weigel, 1864), 52 and 273; Israel, Leben und Schriften, 3 and 32. 45 Opel, Valentin Weigel. The Dionysius reference is on page 263, the Tauler reference on page 264. 46 Israel, Leben und Schriften. 47 Alexandre Koyré, "Un mystique protestant: Valentin Weigel (1533-1588)," in Mystiques, Spirituels, Alchimistes: Schwenckfeld, Séb. Franck, Weigel, Paracelse (Paris: Librairie Armand Colin, 1955), 106. 48 I will discuss Eckhart’s status as a classic within the German canon, and what this means for a reader of Weigel, in the first chapter. 16
with fragments of Eckhart and Tauler sermons. (This last statement does not apply to the relationship between Dionysius and Weigel.) Sara Poor’s study of the complex reception of Mechthild of Magdeburg’s book Der fliessende Licht der Gottheit has served as an important methodological model for this dissertation, even though the body of texts addressed differs greatly. 49 Addressing the issue of the exclusion of women’s writing from the literary and theological canon, and moreover the double exclusion resulting from the marginalization of pre-modern works in the modern academy, Poor attends to the afterlife of Mechthild’s book in all its forms: from a complete text that names Mechthild as the author, to the inclusion of anonymous excerpts in compilations of devotional texts, to a few remaining traces of Mechthild’s name and work in printed sources from the early modern era, to Mechthild’s appearance and positioning in contemporary teaching anthologies and reference works. Taking a diachronic perspective allows Mechthild to resurface as an author worthy of study, rather than limiting that status to those who have become greats, if greatness is attributed solely to those whose name/fame lives on and whose texts survive intact. Moreover, Poor’s book allows the reader to observe influence across time, and suggests that an author’s afterlife is rarely simple; the reception of an author is not divided into a true reception and a false one, and a work may persist without the author’s name or in fragmentary form. 50 In my opinion, Poor’s approach steers a steady course between the New and Old Philologies by thematizing the way that Mechthild’s authorship is constructed (by 49 Sara S. Poor, Mechthild of Magdeburg and Her Book: Gender and the Making of Textual Authority (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004). 50 Admittedly from the perspective of the author, as Poor points out, this can be a bad thing as it leads to a weakening of authorship to the point of her disappearance. Poor, 13. 17
Page 1 and 2: MYSTICISM & CONFESSIONAL CONFLICT I
Page 3 and 4: ABSTRACT This dissertation investig
Page 5 and 6: INTRODUCTION • ES IST DIR NICHT B
Page 7 and 8: mostly undisturbed by his Lutheran
Page 9 and 10: yet have signalled his assent with
Page 11 and 12: in a context where action is expect
Page 13 and 14: Protestant Mysticism: Not a Contrad
Page 15 and 16: interest, 31 and praised the Theolo
Page 17 and 18: one can observe the texture of the
Page 19: discourse and reasoned debate, or t
Page 23 and 24: Dionysius and Eckhart (for differen
Page 25 and 26: movement, but also profound shifts
Page 27 and 28: schools, as well as universities wh
Page 29 and 30: allowed them to cooperate effective
Page 31 and 32: made clear, would result in dismiss
Page 33 and 34: and in these external dealings, the
Page 35 and 36: same laws of physics, but while the
Page 37 and 38: Tertullian’s De Fuga in Persecuti
Page 39 and 40: as a martyr. Moreover, Holy Scriptu
Page 41 and 42: Alternatively, the so-called four-f
Page 43 and 44: tzeyger und unterrichter ist ynn di
Page 45 and 46: fellow Lutherans in studying books
Page 47 and 48: provoked into action unnecessarily,
Page 49 and 50: masses for the dead (for instance)
Page 51 and 52: traditional proof texts about the o
Page 53 and 54: positive understandings of indiffer
Page 55 and 56: insofar as their imperfection is ra
Page 57 and 58: Of these forms of indifference, I f
Page 59 and 60: to Dionysius’ authority. Two grou
Page 61 and 62: PART I • VALENTIN WEIGEL AND MEIS
Page 63 and 64: investigating his early modern read
Page 65 and 66: was a devilish heretic to others (
Page 67 and 68: his neglect of Eckhart. 158 For ins
Page 69 and 70: “unheilvolle Kompliziertheit”).
Page 71 and 72:
and Jerome (wearing what looks like
Page 73 and 74:
title page, as mentioned above, des
Page 75 and 76:
of a respectable though not fanatic
Page 77 and 78:
himself, but rather cultivated part
Page 79 and 80:
church that Luther, Melanchthon and
Page 81 and 82:
kan”), and specifically the role
Page 83 and 84:
soul become convinced that nothing
Page 85 and 86:
that salvation can be attained thro
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
Page 95 and 96:
philosophers from Hegel and Schopen
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
Page 105 and 106:
one-of-a-kind thing, or the best ki
Page 107 and 108:
einvaltig stille), an uncreated lig
Page 109 and 110:
e as free of willing and desiring a
Page 111 and 112:
nestling inside the soul, but rathe
Page 113 and 114:
Gelassenheit, das ist, das er nicht
Page 115 and 116:
(necessarily inferior) knowledge pr
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
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,
Page 133 and 134:
gesagett das ist er selber und ist
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 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
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
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(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
Page 169 and 170:
defiled the “sacred things” by
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
Page 199 and 200:
editions of Greek and Latin classic
Page 201 and 202:
(Turin), and is a reprint of Lefèv
Page 203 and 204:
presses in Spain (his first publica
Page 205 and 206:
growing body of evidence suggesting
Page 207 and 208:
Weigel concludes that, precisely be
Page 209 and 210:
apart, he suggested that true Chris
Page 211 and 212:
and so did not dwell on the fact th
Page 213 and 214:
Names, as the title suggests, is ba
Page 215 and 216:
animals, through plants and non-liv
Page 217 and 218:
of being.” 580 As we will see lat
Page 219 and 220:
(“God is a rock”) or even a neg
Page 221 and 222:
This is admittedly a nonsensical as
Page 223 and 224:
compositions, most likely dating to
Page 225 and 226:
Dionysius to show that, just as God
Page 227 and 228:
efer to Greek and Hebrew, the bibli
Page 229 and 230:
argues that there cannot be more th
Page 231 and 232:
dicitur una.” 616 The stress that
Page 233 and 234:
Weigel suggests will allow the soul
Page 235 and 236:
saving sacraments by means of which
Page 237 and 238:
Melanchthon’s Defence of the Augs
Page 239 and 240:
alternative—namely prayer. 643 We
Page 241 and 242:
Dionysius writes that the summit of
Page 243 and 244:
leibet er illimitatus.” 658 Weige
Page 245 and 246:
work, Weigel had written explicitly
Page 247 and 248:
Luther did not ever use the exact p
Page 249 and 250:
as opposed to an office-holder, an
Page 251 and 252:
writing. By calling his Layman der
Page 253 and 254:
Others are loyal to mere men (the P
Page 255 and 256:
zuerzeigen einen rechtschaffen vnd
Page 257 and 258:
and ceremonial ones at that. 694 Th
Page 259 and 260:
himself returning gloriously from H
Page 261 and 262:
all being. In relinquishing any cre
Page 263 and 264:
improve appearances but, because it
Page 265 and 266:
than resolve it, because the proble
Page 267 and 268:
parcels God, who by rights is supre
Page 269 and 270:
Appendix • The Works of Valentin
Page 271 and 272:
BIBLIOGRAPHY Abad, J. M. (1999). Th
Page 273 and 274:
Chenu O.P., M.-D. (1968). In M.-D.
Page 275 and 276:
Eckhart, M. (1993). Werke I (Vol. 1
Page 277 and 278:
Israel, A. (1888). M. Valentin Weig
Page 279 and 280:
MacCulloch, D. (2010). Christianity
Page 281 and 282:
Payne, R. J. (Ed.). (1981). Meister
Page 283 and 284:
Schindling, A., & Ziegler, W. (1990
Page 285 and 286:
Verkamp, B. J. (1975). The Limits u
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