Background
Böhme was born on 8 March 1575 at Alt Seidenberg (now Stary Zawidów, Poland). Böhme was the fourth of five children. His parents were peasants who apprenticed him to a shoemaker in Seidenberg.
(Signatura Rerum (The doctrine of signatures), written by ...)
Signatura Rerum (The doctrine of signatures), written by the German mystic, Jacob Boehme. It has been reprinted and re-titled as The Signature of All Things. The author was considered an original thinker within the Lutheran tradition, and his first book, commonly known as Aurora, caused a great scandal and threatened him with excommunication.
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(Here, for the spiritual adventurers of our own age, is an...)
Here, for the spiritual adventurers of our own age, is an accessible introduction to one of the most important of the Christian mystical writers. Jakob Boehme (15751624) was a humble shoemaker of Görlitz in eastern Germany who, in response to the visionary experiences that began for him as a teenager, wrote a series of theosophical treatises that explore the nature of God and humanity. His ability to give words to the ineffable has never been surpassed, and his influence can be felt in the generations of mystics who followed him, as well as in Pietists, German Romantics, Quakers, and American utopianists, among many others. Five of Boehme's most essential works are presented here in fresh translations that demonstrate why Underhill called him "one of the most astonishing cases in history of a natural genius for the transcendent."
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Böhme was born on 8 March 1575 at Alt Seidenberg (now Stary Zawidów, Poland). Böhme was the fourth of five children. His parents were peasants who apprenticed him to a shoemaker in Seidenberg.
His parents were peasants who apprenticed him to a shoemaker in Seidenberg.
In 1599 he moved to Görlitz, where he prospered as a master cobbler. As a result of his mystical visions he decided to write the account Aurora (1612). This work soon came to the attention of the Lutheran pastor in Görlitz, who tried to have Boehme expelled from the town as a "villain full of piety. " The town authorities, however, allowed Boehme to remain on the condition that he write no more books. Boehme wrote nothing for 5 years, but then, encouraged by a vision, he again felt compelled to compose works that would set forth his ideas. The result was an astonishing number of writings, principally philosophical, theological, and devotional in nature.
His most important works include Von der Gnadenwahl (Predestination), Mysterium magnum (Great Mystery), and Der Weg zu Christo (The Way of Christ; all 1623). The last is a collection of four of his devotional works dealing with true repentance, true resignation, regeneration, and the supersensual life. While some of Boehme's thought remained within a traditional Lutheran framework, he also developed unorthodox ideas.
Because of the Lutheran pastor's opposition, Boehme was finally obliged to leave Görlitz. He went to Dresden, where he was warmly received by the intellectual community. But he soon returned to Görlitz and, shortly after his arrival, died there on Nov. 17, 1624.
He drew unique philosophical and religious ideas from his own spiritual experiences. His thought had a profound effect on German religious life and philosophy and influenced Quakerism in England. Böhme's writing shows the influence of Neoplatonist and alchemical[, while remaining firmly within a Christian tradition.
(JACOB BOEHME 1575 1624 was the son of peasant farmers a s...)
(Here, for the spiritual adventurers of our own age, is an...)
(Signatura Rerum (The doctrine of signatures), written by ...)
(. large format facsimilie rep clean bright copy)
His father, George Wissen, was Lutheran. Böhme follows Luther in that he views Mary within the context of Christ. Unlike Luther, he does not address himself to dogmatic issues very much, but to the human side of Mary. Like all other women, she was human and therefore subject to sin.
He believed that man was saved by his own effort as well as grace, and he criticized institutional religion, referring to established churches as "churches of stone. " But it was his metaphysical speculations that were most novel and that brought him many followers. He believed that all creation proceeded from God "by His self-differentiation into a negation of Himself. " Thus, God manifests Himself in contraries. All things consist in yes and no, good and evil, dark and light, and the conflict between these opposites is the fundamental law of being. Boehme's primary religious concern was to demonstrate how the duality of life could be overcome through the reconciliation of opposites in spiritual unity.
While still a young man, Boehme experienced mystical visions. These recurred as he grew older, and he became convinced that the inner mysteries of the universe had been opened to him. He had become, as he said, "enwrapped in the Divine Light, "
In 1599 he married Katharina, daughter of Hans Kuntzschmann, a butcher in Görlitz, and together he and Katharina had four sons and two daughters.
