Christian mystic Jakob Bohme and his cosmological insights

[Guest guest]

Jakob Bohme (1575-1624) was a Christian mystic born in central Germany, near

Gorlitz. He grew up as a Lutheran, and worked as a shoemaker in Gorlitz.

 

Bohme had mystical experiences throughout his youth, culminating in a vision in

1600 that he believed revealed to him the spiritual structure of the world, as

well as the relationship between good and evil. He did not speak of this

experience at the time, but continued to work and raise a family. Then after

another vision in 1610, he began writing his first treatise, Aurora, or Die

Morgenroete im Aufgang. Aurora was circulated in manuscript form until a copy

fell into the hands of Gregorious Richter, the chief pastor of Gorlitz, who

considered it heretical and threatened Bohme with exile if he did not stop

writing. After years of silence, Bohme's friends and patrons persuaded him to

start again, and circulated his writings in handwritten copies. His first

printed book, Weg zu Christo (Way to Christ, 1623), caused another scandal; he

spent the last year of his life in exile in Dresden, returning to Gorlitz only

to die. In this short period, Bohme produced an enormous amount of writing,

including his major works De Signatura Rerum and Misterium Magnum. He also

developed a following throughout Europe, where his followers were known as

Behmenists.

 

The son of Bohme's chief antagonist, the pastor primarius of Gorlitz Gregorius

Richter, edited a collection of extracts from his writings, which were

afterwards published complete at Amsterdam in the year 1682. Bohme's full works

were first printed in 1730.

 

The chief concern of Bohme's writing was the nature of sin, evil, and

redemption. Consistent with Lutheran theology, Bohme preached that humanity had

fallen from a state of divine grace to a state of sin and suffering, that the

forces of evil included fallen angels who had rebelled against God, and that

God's goal was to restore the world to a state of grace. Where Bohme appeared to

depart from accepted theology (though this was open to question due to his

somewhat obscure, oracular style) was in his description of the Fall as a

necessary stage in the evolution of the universe.

 

In Bohme's cosmology, it was necessary for humanity to depart from God, and for

all original unities to undergo differentiation, desire, and conflict -- as in

the rebellion of Satan, the separation of Eve from Adam, and their acquisition

of the knowledge of good and evil -- in order for creation to evolve to a new

state of redeemed harmony that would be more perfect than the original state of

innocence, allowing God to achieve a new self-awareness by interacting with a

creation that was both part of, and distinct from, Himself. Thus, free will was

the most important gift God gave humanity, allowing us to seek divine grace as a

deliberate choice while still allowing us to remain individuals. Bohme saw the

incarnation of Christ not as a sacrificial offering to cancel out human sins,

but as an offering of love for humanity, showing God's willingness to bear the

suffering that had been a necessary aspect of creation. He also believed the

incarnation of Christ conveyed the message that a new state of harmony is

possible. This was somewhat at odds with Lutheran dogma, and his suggestion that

God would have been somehow incomplete without the Creation was even more

controversial, as was his emphasis on faith and self-awareness rather than

strict adherence to dogma or scripture.

 

Bohme's writing shows the influence of Neoplatonist and alchemical writers such

as Paracelsus, while remaining firmly within a Christian tradition. He has in

turn greatly influenced many anti-authoritarian and mystical movements, such as

the Religious Society of Friends, the Philadelphians, Martinism and Theosophy.

Bohme was also an important source of German Romantic philosophy, and of Hegel

in particular.

 

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Jakob-B%C3%B6hme