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Weigel’s work constitutes further evidence for my argument that Eckhart’s ideas were a key element in Weigel’s thought, as well as my argument that Eckhart was neither forgotten nor anathemized amongst learned Protestants. A work published in German fifty years after Beyerland’s Dutch edition suggests that not only were Eckhart and Weigel linked in the minds of seventeenth century readers, but that it was specifically the concept of Gelassenheit that connected the two theologians (the use that Weigel makes of Gelassenheit is the subject of Chapter 2). The publication that links Weigel with Gelassenheit is a 1523 treatise by the Protestant theologian Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt (1486-1541), republished in 1693 and misattributed to Weigel. 237 Karlstadt initially published his treatise with the title Was gesagt ist:Sich gelassen.Unnd was das wort gelassenhait bedeüt, und wa es in hayliger schriyfft begryffen, but the very same work was later published twice under a different title and with Weigel listed as the author. It is first printed as Principal und HauptTractat Von der Gelassenheit, was dieselbige sey, und worzu sie nutze, Auß wahren gerechten Apostolischen Grunde und den Cristallinen Brünlein Israelis geschöpffet in 1618 by Johann Knuber (actually a pseudonym for Joachim Krusicke, who was the first to print Weigel’s actual works between 1609 and 1618). 238 Nearly a century later (1693), the same work is reprinted as the Gründlicher Tractat Von der wahren Gelassenheit: Was dieselbe sey und worzu: Was dieselbe sey und worzu sie nütze, Allen Kindern Zu Stärckung und Wachsthum am Innern Menschen, this time in Frankfurt a.M. by Heinrich Wilhelmi. 237 Though Karlstadt had been one of Luther’s early companions-in-arms, Luther quickly dissociated himself from Karlstadt on account of his increasing radicalism. Ulrich Bubenheimer, “Karlstadt,” Vol. 17, in Theologische Realenzyklopädie (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1988), 651-653. 238 Deutsche Drucke des Barock 1600-1720, ed. Thomas Bürger, Vol. 3 (München: K.G. Saur, 1996), 75 and 330. 88
As this chapter has shown, Eckhart was not completely forgotten in the centuries after being proclaimed a heretic in the fourteenth century, nor did this heresy charge prevent early modern readers from approaching his work out of fear. However, it is true that this interest in Eckhart’s works in the sixteenth century does not match the degree of fame and respect currently accorded to Meister Eckhart, who is now considered a “classic” writer and thinker, one of the “greats” of the German canon. The story of Eckhart’s survival through the centuries remains part of the story that is told about him—included in prefaces, introductions and encyclopedia entries in a way that both affirms and relativizes his status as a classic. 239 This chapter concludes by looking briefly at how Eckhart’s canonicity and timelessness is constructed in modern scholarship, helping modern readers remain aware that their image of Eckhart differs greatly from the image of Eckhart in Weigel’s time. The Catholic philosopher, Franz von Baader, inaugurated the hyperbolically positive reception of Eckhart’s works, announcing that “Eckhart wird mit Recht der Meister genannt...Er übertrifft alle Mystiker.” 240 Baader claims to have introduced Eckhart to Hegel, in an anecdote that is repeated in numerous prefaces and introductions to Eckhart’s works: “Ich war mit Hegel in Berlin sehr häufig zusammen. Einstens las ich ihm nun auch aus Meister Eckhart vor, den er nur dem Namen nach kannte...Er war so begeistert, dass er am folgenden Tag eine ganze Vorlesung über Eckhart vor mir hielt und am Ende noch sagte: da haben wir es ja, was wir wollen.” 241 These Eckhart commentators, 239 Aside from numerous translations and a critical edition nearly a century in the works, Eckhart’s writings are included in the series of Bibliothek deutscher Klassiker, Classics of Western Spirituality and Penguin Classics. 240 Degenhardt, 112. 241 Franz von Baader, quoted in Degenhardt, 114. Raymond Bernard Blakney, one of the first English Eckhart translators, quotes the same anecdote in his translation. See Meister Eckhart, Meister Eckhart: A modern Translation, trans. Raymond Bernard Blakney, (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1941), xiii. 89
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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
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and in these external dealings, the
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same laws of physics, but while the
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Tertullian’s De Fuga in Persecuti
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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
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Page 79 and 80: church that Luther, Melanchthon and
Page 81 and 82: kan”), and specifically the role
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Page 87 and 88: more importantly, a theology that a
Page 89 and 90: Mit Recht der Meister genannt: Mode
Page 91: These role-reversal dialogues were
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
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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
Page 135 and 136: Gelassenheit for the Bible, which i
Page 137 and 138: that the kind of Gelassenheit Weige
Page 139 and 140: indifference that allows Weigel to
Page 141 and 142: 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
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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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