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has a special relationship with the human soul, since the soul is “göttlicher nature,” by its nature (“natürlich”) “nach Gott gebildet.” 206 Lauterwalt does not simply reproduce the language of Tauler’s medieval mysticism, but rather uses another set of terms that Weigel later makes central to his description of mystical cognition of the gelassene Seele— namely the terminology of activity and passivity (wirckend and leidlich). God substitutes for “d[ie] wirckende vernunfft” in the perfected soul once a person’s rational faculties become “leidlich.” In this state where our cognitive capacities are rendered passive, we are so absorbed in the divine that we gain no knowledge about God (“gantz und gar in die gottheit gesencket werden…so wissen wir auch nicht was Gott ist”), knowing only what God is not (“alleine das wissen wir, was Gott nicht ist”). 207 Our passivity is complete, and Lauterwalt adds that this also means that the human soul contributes nothing to this “blessed moment” (“selige stündlin”), but rather simply allows God to act (“sondern nur allein thuen lassen an uns”). 208 Fifth, attaining a state of blessedness means leaving all works behind and becoming completely passive: by ceasing to work but rather only being worked upon (“thuen lassen an uns”), the Christian sinks into the Godhead (“in die gottheit gesenckt”) and thus attains the highest perfection. 209 Sixth, the Father gives birth to the Son in the soul. Seventh, by turning to God, the soul is filled with light, and its blessedness is confirmed by the disgust the soul now feels towards whatever is not God (“mit der erleuchtung, das ist so zart und so lustig, das dich alles verdreust, das nicht göttlich ist”). 210 And finally, those who have been united with God in the grounds of their 206 Lauterwalt, 7. 207 Ibid, 8. For a discussion of wirckend and leidlich in Weigel, see Chapter 2. 208 Lauterwalt, 8. 209 Ibid. 210 Ibid, 9. 78
soul become convinced that nothing whatsoever can cause them to fall away from God, and that they are no longer capable of sinning. 211 Lauterwalt’s criticism of Tauler turns on their divergent views about how a person achieves salvation and, crucially, the role of the Church in administering it. Many of the criticisms that Lauterwalt offers of Tauler are levelled at Weigel a century later by Weigel’s own critics, and are worth attending to in detail here. First, for Lauterwalt, the state of Entzückung is not wrong in and of itself, so long as we remember that it is, above all, exceptional. There is a big difference between defining ecstatic moments as special dispensations of grace (“solche hohen sonderlichen gaben eines sonderlichen beruffs”) and defining them as a call to salvation extended to all sinners (“d[ie] lere, dadurch Gott alle arme sunder zur Busse ruffet”). 212 Exceptional cases cannot form the basis of a universally applicable or normative theory of grace and justification. The universal offer of salvation that God extends to all is via God’s word (contained in the Bible and in sermons), whereas the special dispensation of Entzückung does not lead to salvation but rather initiates a special calling. Lauterwalt takes the Apostle Paul as his example, who is said to have become a believer after Christ appeared to him in a vision. 213 However, Paul was not saved because he had a vision, but rather because he accepted the word of God; his special vision was given by God to mark him out as one of the Apostles (which, presumably, was necessary because he did not witness Christ in the flesh before the Ascension). 214 Lauterwalt concedes that it is understandable to desire a close and immediate relationship with God of the kind that John the Baptist enjoyed, where John 211 Lauterwalt, 10. 212 Ibid, 2. 213 Paul’s conversion is described, amongst others, in Acts 9: 3-9. 214 Ibid, 25. 79
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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
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 and 80: church that Luther, Melanchthon and
Page 81: kan”), and specifically the role
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
Page 131 and 132: 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
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Schindling, A., & Ziegler, W. (1990
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Verkamp, B. J. (1975). The Limits u
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