Aries – Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism 18 (2018) 75–95 ARIES brill.com/arie Compatibility of the “Inner Light” of Mystics and Reason Leibniz’s Engagement with Jacob Böhme Susanne Edel Independent Researcher, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
[email protected] Abstract Following his conviction that the truth, in principle, could only be one truth, Leib- niz wanted to prove that the “inner Light” of “true mysticism” was compatible with philosophers’ insights into reason. He placed his own doctrine of the individual sub- stances (“Monadology”) in the tradition of philosophia perennis, and in his opinion “true” mysticism belonged to this same tradition. Through representatives of the so- called Christian Kabbala, which made Jewish and Christian mysticism part of the same lineage, Leibniz became aware of the controversial writings of Böhme. He discussed the theosopher’s thought with his correspondence partner, the Böhme adherent André Morell, and after a critical investigation, Leibniz placed Böhme in a tradition of “true mysticism” which could be measured against reason. The author posits that the result of this engagement was Leibniz’s treatise “True Mystical Theology”, a translation of his doctrine of monads in mystical terminology. Keywords Jacob Böhme – Leibniz – Cambridge Platonists – Philosophia perennis – theosophy – Christian Kabbala An Ambivalent Reception History In the 1690s Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) composed a short text that historians of philosophy have cited up to the present day to argue that the great rationalist was attracted to mysticism, or even that he may have © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi: 10.1163/15700593-01801003Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 05:32:26AM via free access 76 edel been, deep within his heart, an unrecognized mystic.