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arrived at Wittenberg, indicating that Tauler’s writings circulated within the circle of Wittenberg theologians around the time that Weigel studied there, and that Tauler’s ideas enjoyed a level of notoriety sufficiently great to have prompted a fifty-page response. Given that this clear exposition of Tauler’s ideas was written so close to Weigel’s intellectual environment, it is entirely possible that Weigel himself read this text, or at least heard it discussed by fellow students or by professors when he was at Wittenberg, even though there is no direct internal proof in Weigel’s writings. Unusual for a written disputation is the sincere apology that prefaces Lauterwalt’s pamphlet: “man sol sich Christlicher leser, mit den todten, nicht hadern.” 200 Just as it is ignoble (“unadlich”) to kick a man when he is down, argues Lauterwalt, so too is it impolite to mock and abuse the dead. Nevertheless, Lauterwalt notes that although the man himself is dead, his writings circulate in print, and his ideas live on in his readers. Indeed, it is his job to give his opinion on Tauler so that pious Christians are not scandalized by Tauler’s ideas, as the “entzuckten Wesentichter” (the followers of the controversial Lutheran theologian Andreas Osiander, who emphasized the indwelling of God over imputed righteousness) seek to give them grave offence by their interpretation of these ideas. Lauterwalt proceeds cautiously in the short preface, and is careful to emphasize that he is only correcting a misinterpretation of Taulerian ideas, rather than reproaching the person himself. 201 Most of Lauterwalt’s argument against Tauler concerns the question of justification (“wie man in diesem leben Gerecht und selig auff das volkommest werden 200 Matthias Lauterwalt, Ein bedencken: Was zu halten sey, von des erleuchten Herren Doctor Johannis Taulers (seliger gedechtnis) Offenbarung, (Wittenberg: Veit Creutzer, 1553), 1. (There are no page numbers printed in this text, I have added them myself.) 201 Lauterwalt, 3. 76
kan”), and specifically the role of what he calls “Entzückung,” which is an ecstatic union with God. 202 Lauterwalt names eight contentious doctrines, and I will discuss them all here to give an idea of what counted as Taulerian in Wittenberg for the second generation of Reformers. The first is that God, like a fisher, throws the net of salvation towards the poor sinner, desiring nothing more than our salvation, but, because we are disobedient, we refuse to accept the proffered salvation. Second, just as the fish must swim into the net in order to be caught, so too must the sinner contribute to salvation by cultivating a state of detachment and Gelassenheit (“alle seine gedancken in sich abziehe von allen Creaturn, und derer gantz und gar vergesse”) in order to attain the promised salvation. 203 Third, the sinner must also forget himself, which is achieved via “gestrenge ubunge,” by which Lauterwalt means mortification, and self-deprivation through fasting or long vigils. 204 Fourth, when the sinner has become still (“stille ist worden”), gelassen (“abgesondert von allen Creaturn”) and emptied of all creatureliness, then God, being unable to abide a vacuum (“die nature aber und Gott können nichts lehres leiden”) must flow into the soul, resulting in an ecstatic revelation (“das selige stündlin der offenbarung und entzuckung”). 205 Lauterwalt even picks up on the characteristic language of Eckhart and Tauler, noting that this emptying and filling kenosis is described as God pouring himself into the ground of the naked/empty soul (“geusset sich…in den grund des Wesens der blossen Seel”) or giving birth to the Word (“gebiret Er sein Wort, nemlich seinen einigen Son”). That is, God is not present in the soul as God is present to all creatures, but rather 202 Lauterwalt, 5. 203 Ibid. 204 Ibid, 6. 205 Ibid, 7. 77
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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
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: church that Luther, Melanchthon and
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
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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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and so did not dwell on the fact th
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Names, as the title suggests, is ba
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animals, through plants and non-liv
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of being.” 580 As we will see lat
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(“God is a rock”) or even a neg
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This is admittedly a nonsensical as
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compositions, most likely dating to
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Dionysius to show that, just as God
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efer to Greek and Hebrew, the bibli
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argues that there cannot be more th
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dicitur una.” 616 The stress that
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Weigel suggests will allow the soul
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saving sacraments by means of which
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Melanchthon’s Defence of the Augs
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alternative—namely prayer. 643 We
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Dionysius writes that the summit of
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leibet er illimitatus.” 658 Weige
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work, Weigel had written explicitly
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Luther did not ever use the exact p
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as opposed to an office-holder, an
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writing. By calling his Layman der
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Others are loyal to mere men (the P
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zuerzeigen einen rechtschaffen vnd
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and ceremonial ones at that. 694 Th
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himself returning gloriously from H
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all being. In relinquishing any cre
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improve appearances but, because it
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than resolve it, because the proble
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parcels God, who by rights is supre
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Appendix • The Works of Valentin
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Abad, J. M. (1999). Th
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Chenu O.P., M.-D. (1968). In M.-D.
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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
Page 281 and 282:
Payne, R. J. (Ed.). (1981). Meister
Page 283 and 284:
Schindling, A., & Ziegler, W. (1990
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Verkamp, B. J. (1975). The Limits u
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