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

equired to sign in the first place. As I have discussed above, Weigel found the ideas of
Eckhart and Dionysius particularly meaningful in formulating a response to
confessionalization, a response that I analyze in detail in the following chapters.
Chapter 1 of this dissertation questions the notion that Eckhart was no longer read
either or by Protestants by exploring more specifically how Eckhart’s texts were read in
the centuries after he was condemned for disseminating dangerously heretical ideas in the
fourteenth century. I show that, by the sixteenth century, many readers acknowledged the
papal condemnation but continued to read and appreciate Eckhart’s writings. I then show
that Eckhart was read and appreciated by early modern Protestants, particularly by those
close to Weigel. I examine closely how Eckhart’s works were transmitted in the early
modern era, and analyze the printed edition of Eckhart’s works that Weigel used.
Chapter 2 turns to the relationship between Eckhart and Weigel, arguing that
Eckhart’s notion of Gelassenheit is key for Weigel. In this chapter, I show how Weigel’s
reading of Eckhart occurs in three stages: the initial stage in which Weigel copies
Eckhart’s writings on Gelassenheit, the second stage in which Weigel shows how
Gelassenheit can bring about true confessional concord by silencing the individual’s own
thoughts in union with God’s mind, and the final stage in which Weigel advises
Christians to disengage from confessional conflict altogether by cultivating an attitude of
indifference.
Chapter 3 looks at how the writings of Dionysius were read in the sixteenth
century, after scholars began arguing that Dionysius was not a first century writer, but
rather the pseudonym of a later author. I demonstrate that this new scholarship did not put
an end to Dionysius’ readership entirely, though for some it may have been a fatal blow
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