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

to Dionysius’ authority. Two groups in particular read Dionysius with interest, motivated
in particular by his writings on the concept of ecclesiastical hierarchy: anti-Lutheran
polemicists who rejected claims about his pseudonymity to preserve his identity as an
authority from the early church, and alchemists and Hermeticists fascinated by ancient
wisdom outside the bounds of the Roman Church. Like the latter group, Weigel was also
interested in exploring theories about the church that proposed limiting the power of
ecclesiastical authorities.
Finally, Chapter 4 explores how Weigel’s reading of Dionysius led him to
discover a second form of indifference after Gelassenheit, namely the indifferent
signification of Dionysian apophasis. For Weigel, the practice of apophasis becomes a
substitute for more standard forms of religious practice performed within the Lutheran
Church, which allows the laity to gain independence from the ordained clergy in spiritual
matters. Moreover, apophasis for Weigel serves as an irenic—a way of using language to
create peace, much like its antonym, a polemic, is a way of using language to create
conflict—because it helps overcome the divisions that doctrine creates within the
Christian community.
The analysis of Weigel’s fascinating and intricate re-working of Eckhartian
Gelassenheit and Dionysius apophasis in the context of Weigel’s turbulent time unearths
a story about a Protestant reformer’s response to the problems that the reform movement
had generated. Though Weigel’s denomination was one born of a schismatic—and at
times violent—reform movement, Weigel argued that he would not achieve meaningful
institutional reform by a call to action (by defending his beliefs to the death as a martyr)
but instead advocated a profound and radical inaction. In arguing that inaction was in fact
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