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erum”), but rather brings the particular goods together in a higher kind of unity because they are actually identical (“unum simplicitate substantiae”). 606 That is, if the summum bonum is perfectly powerful, then it needs no other thing to assist it, and if it is thus perfectly sufficient then it is lacking nothing and so needs no money or possessions to satisfy those needs; if it is therefore perfectly sufficient and powerful, then it is necessarily perfectly dignified and noble and therefore most worthy of respect and so on. Boethius links all of the particular goods in this way, and, as Weigel notes, the difference between them is a trick of language: “sunt unum simplicitate substantiae, licet nomina sint inter se diversa, ut sufficientiae et potentiae una eademque natura est.” 607 However imperfect the happiness the particular goods can bring is, Lady Philosophy assures Boethius that the very existence of imperfect happiness implies the existence of perfect happiness: “in quocunque enim genere est reperire imperfectum, in eodem etiam est reperire perfectum.” 608 Imperfect happiness implies perfect happiness, and anything perfect must be identical with God himself, since there can be no perfection that is not God, who would then be incomplete and thus imperfect: therefore all of the imperfect goods must be identical with God’s very substance. 609 While Boethius is keen to demonstrate that all good things participate in God’s substance (and that God, because he is perfectly self-sufficient therefore must rule the entire universe sovereignly and providentially), he is not particularly focused on demonstrating that all things participate in God’s substance. That is, while Boethius 606 Weigel, De vita beata, 45. 607 Ibid, 45-46. 608 Ibid, 51. 609 The universe, of course, could not have an imperfect source, because something can be judged imperfect only with respect to perfection (“imperfectum non est principium rerum, quia perfectum est prius ipso imperfecto”), and so perfection must come prior to anything imperfect. Ibid, 51. 224
argues that there cannot be more than one highest good in which the other goods participate, he does not say anything about how creation as a whole participates in God. This is the point at which Boethius’ ideas intersect with Dionysius’ in Weigel’s paraphrase, where the unity of the summum bonum in Boethius leads Weigel to investigate God’s unity in Dionysius. Whereas for Boethius, God was happiness itself, power itself and beauty itself and so on, for Dionysius, God is not lacking anything: “nec beatitudo, nec bonitas, nec pulchritudo, nec lux, nec vita, nec perfectio, nec justitia est distincta a DEO etc.” 610 This first list of names for God is followed by several sets of even longer lists that are nowhere to be found in Weigel’s source: “DEUS est sufficientia, potentia, dignitas, gloria, laetiti, bonitas, beatitudo, lux, intellectus, voluntas, amor, mens, verbum, Spiritus omnis veritatis, fons, essentia, Unum etc. et hae omnia sunt unum in DEO, unitate simplicissima, sine omnia mutua penetration.” 611 These flourishes of cataphasic excess, which would have been at home in Dionysius’ Divine Names, give God scores of names from every register of language, from the more humble names taken from the material world (fons and lux) to the lofty and immaterial names (essentia and Unum). Having made all these assertions about God, Weigel demonstrates that he has learned from Dionysius the via negativa, pairing assertions with negations and negating the negations: “DEUS est omnia ablata omni imperfectione, nec tamen est hoc aut illud, non enim sic esset omnia, et super omnia, nec est hic et ibi, non enim esset ubique, nec est hodie aut cras, non enim esset aeternus.” 612 As Dionysius himself might have written, 610 Weigel, De vita beata, 52-53. This list is not in the Boethius passage, where Boethius is only discussing whether happiness is identical with God. 611 Ibid, 55-56. 612 Ibid, 56. 225
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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
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CHAPTER 2 • GELASSENE GELASSENHEI
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the relationship between Tauler and
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e “as it was when it was not.”
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Eckhart agree that spiritual povert
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one-of-a-kind thing, or the best ki
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einvaltig stille), an uncreated lig
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e as free of willing and desiring a
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nestling inside the soul, but rathe
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Gelassenheit, das ist, das er nicht
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(necessarily inferior) knowledge pr
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context is that he picks up on Eckh
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he begins to steer the discussion a
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further proof for Weigel’s theory
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understood that the mind cannot pos
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wait in stiller Gelassenheit, recei
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truth as an educated theologian or
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ungewisser”) and finds that his f
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die Blinden an ein ander gehetzett,
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gesagett das ist er selber und ist
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Gelassenheit for the Bible, which i
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that the kind of Gelassenheit Weige
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indifference that allows Weigel to
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teacher. 366 However, the turning p
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Weigel gives the passage an unexpec
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Murren”)—and they do this “in
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and all the more so since he saw li
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the strength of the intellectual re
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CHAPTER 3 • DIONYSIUS, WHOEVER HE
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demonstrated for Eckhart, I will de
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destroyer that Dionysius is most of
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ears good news to the church.” 39
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points out, with a purification, a
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served as cornerstones in defences
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(Acts 17: 15-34), one of the skepti
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to make the interpretation of these
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Outside the universities, Dionysius
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defiled the “sacred things” by
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other leaders of the Protestant Ref
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valorization of hierarchy per se in
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as well as the with the arguments u
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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 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
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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
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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
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Page 225 and 226: Dionysius to show that, just as God
Page 227: efer to Greek and Hebrew, the bibli
Page 231 and 232: dicitur una.” 616 The stress that
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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
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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
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MacCulloch, D. (2010). Christianity
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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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