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the Baptist exemplifies the specially chosen and graced layman (“Wer ist auch der nicht begerte in der heiligkeit zu scheinen, darinne Johannes der Teuffer scheinet?”). Alas, Lauterwalt reminds his readers that not everybody can be so lucky or so special as Paul and John the Baptist, and those to whom this special honour is not accorded must content themselves with the measure of grace that God does give them. 215 Although God desires that every soul be saved and blessed, God does not want all people to be Prophets and Apostles. 216 Lauterwalt’s second critique of Tauler’s view of justification (or rather, of those who misinterpret Tauler in order to claim a special illumination from God) centers on the role of God’s “outer word.” 217 Lauterwalt is suspicious of those who use Tauler’s talk of interiority to denigrate the potency of the outer word. Lacking faith that God’s word could cause salvation in the soul, they make the scandalous assumption that God must enter into us (“er müste denn (ach der lesterung) also in uns faren”). 218 He mocks this idea, asking whether they imagine salvation is like pouring wine into a cup. God is not our righteousness because God is a being in us, but rather because God causes righteousness to be in us (“Gott [heisse] unser Gerechtigkeit nicht darumb, das er ein wesen in uns ist, sondern darumb, das er in uns wircket Gerechtigkeit, das er nicht wircket in den ungleubigen”). Otherwise, Lauterwalt worries that even the unfaithful would be justified. In short, Lauterwalt worries that Tauler could be misinterpreted to say 215 “Also können wir nicht alle die hohen gaben haben, sondern wir sollen uns an denen genügen lassen, die uns Gott aus gnaden gibet.” Lauterwalt, 2. 216 Ibid, 3. 217 Though the exact meaning of the outer word was contested, the term generally refers to the message of the Gospels as found in the written words of Scripture or preached in Scripture-based sermons. 218 Ibid, 10. 80
that salvation can be attained through the union of Entzückung, rather than through the normal channels supervised by clerics. Whereas Lauterwalt grappled with Tauler’s ideas and explicitly set out the boundaries between an orthodox and heterodox reading of Tauler, the reading strategy of the second Wittenberg Tauler reader, the theologian Michael Neander (1525-1595), was to select the teachings from Tauler that conformed to orthodox Lutheran theology and simply ignored what did not fit, using the sermons as a spur to devotional meditation. This response to Tauler is documented in his Theologia Bernhardi ac Tauleri in illis Tenebris Pontificiijs singulari ac magno spiritu Monachorum (1581). 219 I discuss Neander’s work in this chapter because it was composed during Weigel’s lifetime (1581), only shortly after the period when Weigel himself was reading Eckhart and writing about Eckhart’s sermons—but written, however, by a theologian much more comfortable with orthodox Wittenberg theology, if his assistance in composing the Formula Concordiae is any indication of his inclinations. Although Weigel and Neander read the very same edition of Tauler and Eckhart sermons, their readings of these preachers were very different. That is, Neander’s work, by very selective quotation and some ingenious glossing, attempts to reduce as much as possible the theological distance between Luther and Tauler/Eckhart. Weigel, as we will see in Chapter 2, uses Eckhart’s ideas to achieve the opposite goal, to criticize Luther and the Lutheran church. That Neander was involved in writing the Konkordienbuch (a document that Weigel greatly disliked, as we saw in the introduction) suggests that reading mystical 219 Michael Neander, Theologia Bernhardi ac Tauleri in illis Tenebris Pontificiijs singulari ac magno spiritu Monachorum (Eisleben: Urbanus Gusius, 1581). There are no page numbers in this volume. 81
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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
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 and 82: kan”), and specifically the role
Page 83: soul become convinced that nothing
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,
Page 133 and 134: 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
Page 273 and 274:
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
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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