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L- ,o C| L> t ty- NUI MAYNOOTH Ollacali •• atiraann Wt Huad BOHM E AND HEGEL: A STUDY OF THEIR INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT AND SHARED READINGS OF TWO CHRISTIAN THEOLOGOUMENA NEIL O’DONNELL SUBMITTED WITH A VIEW TO OBTAIN THE DEGREE OF M.LITT. NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, MAYNOOTH DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY, FACULTY OF ARTS, CELTIC STUDIES, AND PHILOSOPHY OCTOBER 2008 ACTING HEAD OF DEPARTMENT DR MICHAEL DUNNE SUPERVISED BY DR CYRIL MCDONNELL CONTENTS Preface IV Abstract v Abbreviations and Conventions vii INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I THE DEVELOPMENT OF BÖHME AND HEGEL’S PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION Section One Reaction Against Christian Orthodoxy 6 § 1. 1. The Development o f Böhme ’s Theological Vision in the Face o f Protestant Orthodoxy 7 § 1. 2. Hegel, Tübingen, and Protestant Orthodoxy 16 Section Two Heterodox Leanings 27 § 2. 1. Böhme ’s Period o f Silence and the Failure o f Hermeticism 28 § 2. 2. Hegel's Swabian Heritage 38 Section Three The Return to the Reformation 53 § 3. 1. Böhme ’s Return to the Reformation 54 § 3. 2. Hegel the Reformer? 68 § 3. 3. 1. Liberating Religion from Representation 76 CHAPTER II THE CONCEPT OF GOD 86 Section One The Father 91 § 1. 1. Böhme 's Conception o f the Deus Absconditus 96 § 1. 2. Hegel’s Treatment o f Böhme 's Trinitarian Dynamic 107 § 1. 3. H eg e l’s G od and its H istorical Traces 112 Section Two The Son 119 § 2. 1. The Personhood o f the Trinity 120 §2. 2. The Incarnation 130 Section Three The Holy Spirit 144 § 3. 1. The Question o f Quaternity 158 CHAPTER III CREATION AND THE FALL 172 Section One Creation 176 § 1. 1. Böhme: Anterior Apostasy, and Creation as Renovation 179 § 1. 2. Hegel on Creation as Differentiation 193 Section Two The Psychology of Adam 198 § 2. 1. Böhme ’s Reading: Man as a Mixture 203 § 2. 2. Hegel's Treatment: Internal Differentiation 213 Section Three Speculative Readings of the Fall of Man Account 216 § 3. 1. Böhme ’s Reading: The Implicit and Explicit Fall 22 2 § 3. 2. H e g e l’s Reading: The F all into F initude 233 CONCLUSION 246 BIBLIOGRAPHY 252 PREFACE I would like to thank the two supervisors involved in the development of this thesis: the late Professor Thomas Kelly, who was responsible for the initial period of germination of the seed of the idea, and to Dr Cyril McDonnell, who cultivated the growth to its maturity. I hereby declare that this project represents my own work and has not been submitted, in whole or in part, by me or by another person, for the purpose of obtaining any credit/grade. I agree that this project may be made available to future students of the College. Name: Date: A b s t r a c t This thesis, Böhme and Hegel: A Study of their Intellectual Development and Shared Readings of Two Christian Theologoumena, explores the connections which exist between both the intellectual development of Jakob Böhme and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and in their readings of two Christian theologoumena. As such, this thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter One consists of a comparative study between the intellectual development of Böhme and Hegel. The course of this development is divided into three phases, periods in which Böhme and Hegel will be shown to share. The examination begins with their reaction against Christian orthodoxy, their subsequent interest in the heterodox, and their eventual return to the Reformation. Through the course of this chapter it will be realised that the progression of Böhme and Hegel from one period to another constitutes development in language, but not in content. Both seek to find a mode of expression which adequately represents eternal truths which they consider to be perennial. Chapter Two analyses an occasion in which Böhme and Hegel attempt to render this perennial content. Through their examination of the Christian concept of God, both are endeavouring to represent a kernel of religious truth, beyond its representational trappings. As such, both Böhme and Hegel will examine, in detail, Christian notions such as the nature of the unrevealed God, the Trinity and its supposed personhood, and the doctrine of the Incarnation. Chapter Three continues Böhme and Hegel’s line of investigation, in attempting to unveil the speculative meaning between the Christian theologoumena of the creation of the world, the psychology of the first created being, and the fall from his original nature. Through the course of this chapter, Bohme and Hegel’s shared thoughts on notions of the conflicting accounts of creation, the primordial unity with the divine, and the necessity of the Fall of Man will be examined. Throughout the course of this comparative study, it is hoped that a clear and direct influence on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s philosophy of religion by Jakob Bohme will be shown. ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS Jakob Böhme I Apol. Tilke = The first apologie to Balthazar Tylcken: being an answer of the authour concerning his book the Aurora, opposed by an enemicitious pasquil or opprobrious libel, trans. by John Sparrow (London: Printed by M. S[immons] for Giles Calvert, 1661) II Apol. Tilke = The Second Apologie to Balthazar Tylcken: Treating o f the Eternal Predestination and Election of God, and of the Incarnation, or Becoming Man and Person, of Christ, and Concerning the Virgin Mary, trans. by John Sparrow (London: Printed by M.S. for Giles Calvert, 1661) Apol. Richt. = An Apology in Answer to Gregorius Richter, trans. by John Sparrow (London: Printed by M. Simmons, 1665) Aurora = The Aurora, trans. by John Sparrow (London: Printed by M. Simmons, 1656; John M. Watkins, 1960) Clavis = The Clavis, trans. by John Sparrow (London: Printed by M. Simmons, 1647) Contemplation = On Divine Contemplation, trans. by John Sparrow (London: Printed for M. Simmons, 1661) Epistles = ‘The Sixty-Two Theosophic Epistles’, in The Remainder of Books written by Jacob Behm e [s;'c], trans. by John Sparrow (London: Printed by M. S[immons] for Giles Calvert, 1662) Forty Questions = ‘Answers to Forty Questions Concerning the Soul’, in Forty Questions and the Supersensual Life, trans. John Sparrow (London: n. pub., 1647. Reprint, Kessinger Publishing, 2005) G race = ‘De Electione Gratiae’, in De Electione Gratiae and Questiones Theosophicae, trans. by John Rolleston Earle (London: Constable, 1930) Incarnation = O f the Incarnation o f the Christ, trans. by John Rolleston Earle (London: Constable, 1934) Letzte Zeit = O f the Last Times: Two Epistles to Paul Keym [herafter Letzte Zeit], trans. by John Sparrow (London: Printed for M. Simmons, 1649) Myst. Mag. = Mysterium Magnum, trans. by John Sparrow (London: 1654; John M. Watkins, 1924) Princ. = Concerning the Three Principles o f the Divine Essence, trans. by John Sparrow (London: Printed by M. Simmons, 1648; John M. Watkins, 1909) Schriften = Sämtliche Schriften, ed. by Will-Erich Peuckert and August Faust, 11 vols (Stuttgart: Fromann, 1955-1961) Seel. Frag. = ‘Vierzig Fragen von der Seelen [hereafter Seel. Frag]’, in Sämtliche Schriften, vol 3 Sig. Rer. = Signatura Rerum: The Signature o f All Things, in The Works o f Jacob Behmen, The Teutonic Philosopher, trans. by John Sparrow, vol. 4 (London: Printed for G. Robinson, 1810) Stiefel = ‘The Considerations upon Esaiah Stiefel’s Booke [sic] Concerning the Threefold State of Man and the N ew Birth’, in The Remainder o f Books written by Jacob Behme [sic], trans. by John Sparrow (London: Printed by M. S[immons] for Giles Calvert, 1662) Tab. Princ. = A Table o f the Three Principles, trans. by H. Blunden and John Sparrow (London: Printed by M. Simmons, 1654) Theos. Frag. = ‘Questiones Theosophicae’, in De Electione Gratiae and Questiones Theosophicae, trans. by John Rolleston Earle (London: Constable, 1930) Theos. Punkt. = Six Theosophic Points and Other Writings, trans. by John Rolleston Earle (University of Michigan Press, 1958) Threefold = The Threefold Life o f Man, trans. by John Sparrow (London: n. pub, 1650; reprinted by Watkins, 1909) Way = The Way to Christ, trans. and introduction by Peter Erb (New York: Paulist Press, 1978) Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Briefe = Briefe von und an Hegel, ed. by Johannes Hoffmeister and Rolf Flechsig, 4 vols (Hamburg: Meiner, 1952-1961) EL = Encyclopedia Logic, trans. by T. F. Geraets, W. A. Suchting, and H. S. Harris (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1991) ETW = Early Theological Writings, trans. by Thomas Malcolm Knox (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1979) Geraets = The Encyclopedia Logic, trans. by T. F. Geraets et al. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991) Glöckner = Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Werke, Jubiläumsausgabe, ed. by Herman Glöckner, 26 vols (Stuttgart: 1927-39), xv, 53. The first 20 vols, containing Hegel’s writings, are a reprint of the 1832-1887 edition (19 vols). Vols 21-22 contain Glockner’s Hegel and vols 23- 26 his Hegel-Lexikon Hoffmeister = Berliner Schriften, ed. by Johannes Hoffmeister (Hamburg: Published for Felix Meiner, 1956) Letters = Hegel: The Letters, trans. by Clark Butler and Christianne Seiler (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984) LHP = Lectures on the History of Philosophy, 3 vols., trans. by E. S. Haldane (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, 1892) LPH = The Philosophy o f History, trans. by John Sibree, with an introduction by C. J. Friedrich (Ontario: Batoche Books, 2001 ) LPR = Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, ed. by Peter C. Hodgson, trans. by R. F. Brown, P. C. Hodgson and others, 3 vols. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1984, 1985, 1987; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007). The reference LPR without accompanying volume numbers refers to Lectures on Philosophy of Religion: One-Volume Editions — The Lectures o f 1827, ed. Peter C. Hodgson (Berkeley: University of California Press; One-Volume edition, 1988) Nohl = Hegels Theologische Jugendschriften, ed.