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Durham E-Theses Durham E-Theses Gender in British Behmenist thought Gibbons, Brian John How to cite: Gibbons, Brian John (1993) Gender in British Behmenist thought, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5730/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk Brian John Gibbons "Gender in British Behmenist Thought" Ph. D. Thesis University of Durham 1993 In the early modern period, women were commonly regarded as unruly and morally suspect beings. During the period, however, there was a revision in the moral status of women. Behmenism is representative of the process whereby women were raised to the status of morally elevating beings. In Jacob Boehme's theosophy, both the godhead and prelapsarian man have a feminine element, the Virgin Sophia; women are a sort of fallen counterpart to Sophia. The emphasis of early Behmenists, such as John Pordage, was on Sophia's passivity and chastity. Some Behmenists, notably Richard Roach, advanced the notion of women's special eschatological role, based on their relationship to Sophia. Others, such as William Law, were more conservative in their attitude to women. By the mid- eighteenth century, Behmenism as a movement disappears, but traces of Boehme's thought can still be found in several writers of the period. By this time, there is less emphasis on both chastity and the other-worldly feminine principle. Relationships between the sexes tend to be regarded as sacramental, and women are seen as performing a morally elevating role in life. »!5R 1M BRITISH BIHBSIMIST THOOaiT The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Ph.D. Thesis University of Durham History Department 1993 Brian John Gibbons Acknowledgements 4 1. Introduction 5 2. Gender, Sexuality and Power in Early Modern England 18 3. Gender in Mystical and Occult Thought 101 i. Mariology 106 ii. The Mystical Tradition 110 iii. The Cabala 120 iv. Alchemy 133 4. Gender in the Works of Jacob Boehme 162 5. The Reception of Behmenism in England 196 i. Boehme's Early Popularisers 198 ii. John Pordage 205 iii. Pordage's Disciples 223 iv. Conclusion 234 6. Behmenism and the Interregnum Spiritualists 237 i. Gender in Interregnum Spiritualist Theology 238 ii. Sexual Politics and Sexuality 252 iii. Conclusion 265 7. The Female Embassy: Jane Lead. Richard Roach and the Shakers 2 66 i. Jane Lead 2 66 ii. Richard Roach 285 iii. The French Prophets and the Shakers 295 iv. Conclusion 306 3 8. Conservative Behmenism: Edward Taylor, Francis Lee and William Law 308 i. Edward Taylor 308 ii. Francis Lee 312 iii. William Law 330 9. Wider Behmenist Influences in the Eighteenth Century 345 i. The Scottish Mystical Movement 34 6 ii. Henry Brooke 360 iii. William Blake 367 iv. The Swedenborgians 381 v. Conclusion 387 10. Conclusion 391 Appendix I: Behmenism and English Radicalism 400 Bibliography 417 i. Bibliographical and Reference Works 417 ii. Manuscript Sources 418 iii. Printed Primary Sources 419 iv. Secondary Works 459 v. Unpublished Theses 501 4 &ek£i©*7l® dgem® nt & In the course of my research I have discussed my work with many friends and colleagues. Dr Nigel Smith of Keble College, Oxford, made some valuable suggestions with reference to the Interregnum radicals. Mr David Napthine, Mr David Campbell and Ms Liz Foyster were all kind enough to read and comment on portions of my thesis. Mr Brian Holton of Durham University's Chinese Department read much of this thesis in draft, and helped enlarge my understanding of the occult philosophy from a cross- cultural perspective. I should also like to record my gratitude to two people with whom I have had no direct contact while working on this thesis, Prof. William Lamont and Dr Jacqueline Rose of Sussex University. My understanding of seventeenth-century history owes much to Prof. Lamont's teaching, and my interest in the history of gender and sexuality was greatly stimulated in seminars taught by Dr Rose. My greatest academic debt is to my supervisor, Prof. Anthony Fletcher of Durham University, who has been generous with his advice and encouragement throughout my research, giving me freedom to develop my ideas within a framework that was both supportive and critical. 1. Since the arrival of the "second-wave" of feminism in the 1960s, several writers have re-examined both the role of women in religion and the gender-identity of God.1 The new feminism was itself part of a broader cultural phenomenon within which other, partly complementary and partly contradictory, trends were occurring. One such trend was the so-called "sexual revolution", to which the new feminists have an ambivalent attitude.2 Another trend was the emergence of "New Age" spirituality, involving a broad religious eclecticism, ranging from Eastern religions to neo-paganism and the Western occult tradition. Inevitably, the meeting of the new feminism and the New Age produced a crop of books devoted to the cult of the Goddess.3 xThere are a number of works dealing with the history of women's role in religion, including Rosemary Radford Ruether ed., Religion and Sexism. Images of Woman in the Jewish and Christian Traditions (New York 1974); Rosemary Radford Ruether and Eleanor McLaughlin eds., Women of Spirit. Female Leadership in the Jewish and Christian Traditions (New York 1979); Joyce L. Irwin ed., Womanhood in Radical Protestantism (New York 1979). For theological discussions of the issue, see for example, Paul K. Jewett, Man as Male and Female. A Study in Sexual Relationships from a Theological Point of View (Grand Rapids 1975); Susanne Heine, Christianity and the Goddess. Systematic Criticism of a Feminist Theology, trans. John Bowden (London 1988); Paul Avis, Eros and the Sacred (London 1989). 2For a good overview of the complexities of feminist thought on sexuality, see the essays in Anne Snitow, Christie Stansall and Sharon Thompson eds., Desire. The Politics of Sexuality (London 1983). 3See, for example, Pamela Berger, The Goddess Obscured. Transformation of the Grain Protectress from Goddess to Saint (London 1988); Shirley Nicholson ed., The Goddess Re- Awakening. The Feminine Principle Today (Wheaton, 111., 1989); Caitlin Matthews, Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom. The 6 Like feminist scholarship in general, much feminist theology has been concerned with seeking roots and precedents. The present study is concerned with the followers of a man who, in some ways, seems to be a precursor of the cultural trends of the last three decades, Jacob Boehme. Behmenism is itself a system of beliefs involving a revaluation of divine gender. If its emphasis on chastity is incompatible with the "sexual revolution", it might at least claim some affinity with radical and separatist feminism. Behmenism is also deeply rooted in the occult tradition which has influenced New Age spirituality. Behmenism, moreover, might be taken as a test-case for the thesis that perceptions of divine gender bear a direct correlation to the status of women in society. More generally, it offers an opportunity to investigate the complex relationship between religion, sexuality and gender in the evolution of modern society. I Jacob Boehme is little known in twentieth-century Britain beyond those circles interested in the occult philosophy, Interregnum radicalism and William Blake. This is probably due to the difficulties of his style. It is easy for the unprepared student to sympathise with Lichtenberg's remark, that Boehme's works were "a kind of picnic, in Divine Feminine from Black Goddess to World Soul (London 1991). Edward C. Whitmont's Return of the Goddess (London 1983) belongs to a different (Jungian and non-feminist) category. 7 which the author provides the words and the reader the sense".4 The obscurity and apparent eccentricities of Boehme's style might also give the impression that his work was purely idiosyncratic. His style, however, is merely an example of what Jung calls the "impetuous language" of the occult,5 and Boehme was very much a part of a group of interrelated traditions whose vitality in early modern European culture has been rediscovered recently by students of the history of science, literature and art. Frances Yates, for example, has argued that modern science is deeply rooted in the Hermetic tradition.6 If there is some doubt about Yates's theory with regard to science, there can be little question that occult thought continued to exert an important influence in cultural life. Fred Gettings has demonstrated that major artists into our own century have worked against a background of occult philosophy and symbolism.7 The 4Cited in Sigmund Freud, Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious, in the Complete Psychological Works, vol. viii (London 1962), p. 86. 5C.G. Jung, "Paracelsus", in idem., The Spirit in Man, Art and Literature, (London 1966), pp. 3-12, p. 8. 6Frances A. Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (London 1964); see also Allen G.
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