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pledged to uphold and promote—but one from which his divergent beliefs left him alienated, fearful of what might happen to him if he were to voice questions about its theology and how it functioned as an institution. This is why indifference are key concepts for understanding Weigel’s writings: Gelassenheit and apophasis are both forms of indifference and both constitute Weigel’s response to confessionalization. That Weigel signed the Formula Concordiae was part of a larger pattern of attempting to keep a low profile to avoid being censured by the Lutheran ecclesiastical authorities. He did not publish his works during his lifetime (with the exception of one sermon), which is sensible considering the disputatious culture of Streitschriften of his time. Also, in his works he gives positive examples of people not taking action, which he values as a way of fulfilling a truer form of Christianity than defend-to-the-death martyrs. Luther, on the other hand, felt the need to take action, and more importantly, to defend his beliefs no matter what the cost, famously remarking that he would rather see the world reduced to chaos and nothingness than go back on what he believed to be the truth. What sets Weigel apart from Luther is not his strength of character (or lack thereof), but rather that he has a different attitude altogether towards the value of the earthly church. For Luther, the church ought to exist in some form and so ought to be the best that it could be, whereas Weigel did not believe that the church ought to exist at all, and that therefore all churches, even a thoroughly reformed one, would be equally undesirable. He thought that churches were by definition un-Christian, and as such, saw no point in taking personal risk to defend this church—or indeed, even taking personal risk to attack the church and militate in favour of secularism and abolishment of the church. For Weigel, reforming the church would be like tying a ribbon over a gangrenous wound—it may 258
improve appearances but, because it fundamentally misdiagnoses the problem, it would do nothing to cure the patient. As it happens, the decision not to publish his writings was a good instinct for somebody trying to keep a low profile and avoid causing controversy. When his writings were published after his death, they caused a great uproar, a panic about Weigelianer plotting against the Church, and a raft of anti-Weigelian Streitschriften by more establishment-minded Lutheran theologians. What so exercised Weigel’s critics was the fact that Weigel did not believe in the very idea of ecclesiastical institutions, which goes beyond simple anticlericalism or a dissatisfaction with a particular institution. Those who attacked Weigel saw clearly that his writings deprived the church of all of its functions, such that it had nothing to offer the laypeople it claimed to serve. Sermons, sacraments, theology, doctrine, interpreting the Bible: all of these Weigel said laypeople could perform, write or interpret themselves because these things were simply the created correlates of the uncreated original, which every person possesses as God’s most precious legacy to humankind, the gift of God himself. Each person, regardless of which church she belongs to, or even if she belongs to no church at all, carries within her a priest to perform sacraments, as well as a heavenly Book that is the source of all wisdom and saving knowledge. Moreover, although this precious treasure might be buried under deep layers of ignorance after the Fall, people’s faculties have not been so corroded by sin that the relationship to God is functionally severed. The uproar about Weigelianism, to put the matter another way, stems from the fact that Weigel represents a peculiar limit-case of heresy. The idea he embraces— namely that no earthly Church can possibly be truly Christian—is not accidentally 259
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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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freedom, but rather obedience. 468
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The primary piece in the compilatio
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It is hardly surprising that Cochla
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it does during the Council of Trent
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for a hierarchical church, seizing
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the ancient teaching”) that “be
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Dionysiacum. For Lefèvre d’Étap
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Aristotle would have been glad to h
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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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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 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: all being. In relinquishing any cre
Page 265 and 266: than resolve it, because the proble
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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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