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The Reception of German Mysticism in Early Modern England
Series: - Studies in the History of Christian Traditions, Volume: 203
The volume aims to establish the influence of German or Rhenish mysticism on English religious thought, chiefly in the 17th-century. The English reception of such German mystical authors as Meister Eckhart, the anonymous author of Theologia Germanica, Johannes Tauler, Nicholas of Cusa, Sebastian Franck, Hans Denck, Valentin Weigel, and Jakob Böhme has been hitherto little studied. Such English readers as Henry More, Anne Conway, John Sparrow, John Everard, Giles Randall, and several Cambridge Platonists established a lineage that connected these mystics, and created a philosophical bridge between England and Germany. The volume highlights the international legacy of these mystical writers by adopting the perspective of historico-philosophical engagement with sources, placing them within the theological milieu of their time.
Torrance Kirby, DPhil (1988), Oxford University, is Professor of Ecclesiastical History at McGill University. He has published monographs and edited volumes of essays, including Paul’s Cross and Culture of Persuasion in England, 1520-1640 (Brill, 2014).
Douglas Hedley, PhD (1992), Munich, is Professor of the Philosophy of Religion and Director of the Centre for the Study of Platonism, Cambridge University. He is author of numerous monographs, and co-edited Platonism at the Origins of Modernity (Springer, 2008).
Daniel J. Tolan, PhD (2021), Cambridge University, is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow funded in part by the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism and by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He is the author of ‘The Flight of the All-One to the All-One: The φυγὴ μόνου πρὸς μόνον as the Basis of Plotinian Altruism’ (Harvard Theological Review 114.4 (2021): 469–490).
Douglas Hedley, PhD (1992), Munich, is Professor of the Philosophy of Religion and Director of the Centre for the Study of Platonism, Cambridge University. He is author of numerous monographs, and co-edited Platonism at the Origins of Modernity (Springer, 2008).
Daniel J. Tolan, PhD (2021), Cambridge University, is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow funded in part by the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism and by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He is the author of ‘The Flight of the All-One to the All-One: The φυγὴ μόνου πρὸς μόνον as the Basis of Plotinian Altruism’ (Harvard Theological Review 114.4 (2021): 469–490).
Contents
Acknowledgements
Figures
Contributors
Abbreviations
Divine Illumination: The Reception of German Mysticism in Early Modern England
Torrance Kirby, Douglas Hedley and Daniel J. Tolan
Part 1
Pre-modern Antecedents
1 Cusanus’ Apologia: Its Systematic Structure and Historiographical Significance
Garth W. Green
2 Got gebirt mich sich: Eriugena’s and Eckhart’s Teachings on the Birth of God in Creation
Adrian Mihai
Part 2
Reception in Early Modern England
3 The Single Eye: On Giles Randall’s Translation of Nicholas of Cusa’s De Visione Dei
Matthew Nini
4 Cusan Astronomical Mysticism in the Hartlib Circle and Its Periphery
Simon Burton
5 “Full of life and marrow” or “dangerous Book”? The Theologia Germanica in Seventeenth-Century England
Benjamin Crosby
6 John Everard: Medieval German Mysticism in Early Modern London
Torrance Kirby
7 John Everard and Hermeticism
Daniel J. Tolan
8 The Uses of German Mystical Texts in Elias Ashmole’s Collections and Milieu: The Languages of Enthusiasm in Interregnum England
Vittoria Feola
9 Christian Cabbalistic Platonism in Paradise Lost
James Bryson
Part 3
Jacob Boehme, Cambridge Platonists, and Spinoza
10 John Pordage’s Concept of God as Spirit in His Metaphysica
Jan Rohls
11 “High Flown” Mystics: Peter Sterry and Jacob Boehme
Eric Parker
12 Questions Concerning Enthusiasm: Henry Maurice’s Reception of Henry More’s Censura of Böhme
Marilyn A. Lewis
13 A Collection of First Editions of Jacob Böhme’s Works: A Visual Essay
Scott Brown
14 Athwart both Spinoza and Pascal! Faith, Reason, and the Cambridge Platonists
Douglas Hedley
15 Anne Conway, Herrera, and Spinoza: On God and God’s Relation to Individual Beings
Marie-Élise Zovko
Part 4
Nachleben
16 Jacob Boehme’s Theosophy and Romanticism in Germany and England
Jan Rohls
17 Fides Quaerens Argumentum Newton’s Fruitful Dialogue between Faith and Science
Jure Zovko
18 Recovering German Mysticism via Early Modern England: Shakespeare and Franz von Baader on Diabolical Evil
James Bryson
Select Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
Figures
Contributors
Abbreviations
Divine Illumination: The Reception of German Mysticism in Early Modern England
Torrance Kirby, Douglas Hedley and Daniel J. Tolan
Part 1
Pre-modern Antecedents
1 Cusanus’ Apologia: Its Systematic Structure and Historiographical Significance
Garth W. Green
2 Got gebirt mich sich: Eriugena’s and Eckhart’s Teachings on the Birth of God in Creation
Adrian Mihai
Part 2
Reception in Early Modern England
3 The Single Eye: On Giles Randall’s Translation of Nicholas of Cusa’s De Visione Dei
Matthew Nini
4 Cusan Astronomical Mysticism in the Hartlib Circle and Its Periphery
Simon Burton
5 “Full of life and marrow” or “dangerous Book”? The Theologia Germanica in Seventeenth-Century England
Benjamin Crosby
6 John Everard: Medieval German Mysticism in Early Modern London
Torrance Kirby
7 John Everard and Hermeticism
Daniel J. Tolan
8 The Uses of German Mystical Texts in Elias Ashmole’s Collections and Milieu: The Languages of Enthusiasm in Interregnum England
Vittoria Feola
9 Christian Cabbalistic Platonism in Paradise Lost
James Bryson
Part 3
Jacob Boehme, Cambridge Platonists, and Spinoza
10 John Pordage’s Concept of God as Spirit in His Metaphysica
Jan Rohls
11 “High Flown” Mystics: Peter Sterry and Jacob Boehme
Eric Parker
12 Questions Concerning Enthusiasm: Henry Maurice’s Reception of Henry More’s Censura of Böhme
Marilyn A. Lewis
13 A Collection of First Editions of Jacob Böhme’s Works: A Visual Essay
Scott Brown
14 Athwart both Spinoza and Pascal! Faith, Reason, and the Cambridge Platonists
Douglas Hedley
15 Anne Conway, Herrera, and Spinoza: On God and God’s Relation to Individual Beings
Marie-Élise Zovko
Part 4
Nachleben
16 Jacob Boehme’s Theosophy and Romanticism in Germany and England
Jan Rohls
17 Fides Quaerens Argumentum Newton’s Fruitful Dialogue between Faith and Science
Jure Zovko
18 Recovering German Mysticism via Early Modern England: Shakespeare and Franz von Baader on Diabolical Evil
James Bryson
Select Bibliography
Index
Historians of philosophy and theology, Early-Modern historians, students and scholars of early-modern religious thought.