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Home , Alain de Lille, John Scotus Eriugena, Marsilio Ficino, PhiloSOPHIA, Philosophia (journal), Sophia (journal)

PHILOSOPHIA PERENNIS ARCHIVES INTERNATIONALES D’HISTOIRE DES IDÉES

INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS

189 PERENNIS

Historical Outlines of Western in Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Thought

By Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann

Founding Directors: P. Dibon† (Paris) and R.H. Popkin (Washington University, St. Louis & UCLA) Director: Sarah Hutton (Middlesex University, United Kingdom) Associate-Directors: J.E. Force (Lexington); J.C. Laursen (Riverside) Editorial Board: M.J.B. Allen (Los Angeles); J.R. Armogathe (Paris); A. Gabbey (New York); T. Gregory (Rome); J. Henry (Edinburgh); J.D. North (); J. Popkin (Lexington); G.A.J. Rogers (Keele); Th. Verbeek (Utrecht) Philosophia perennis

Historical Outlines of Western Spirituality in Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Thought

By Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann Freie Universitä t Berlin, Germany A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 1-4020-3066-5 (HB) ISBN 1-4020-3067-3 (e-book)

Published by Springer, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

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Printed in the Netherlands. For Tony Grafton Acknowledgments

This book is the English version of a study published under the same title in German in 1998 by Suhrkamp. The English edition is more of a re- working than a mere of the German publication. Some sections were left out, others were shortened, and it is my hope that the book has become more understandable as a result. Errors that were brought to my attention in the German version have been corrected. Some new secondary literature has been included in this edition, although I did not attempt a complete treatment of research in the field.

Many people and institutions have helped make this book possible. I name them in alphabetical order: Boris Bayer, Barbara Ertl, Tony Grafton, Anja Hallacker, Sarah Hutton, Millay Hyatt, Sebastian Lalla, Sicco Lehmann-Brauns, Gregg Lyon. The institutions: Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, Philadelphia; Freie Universität Berlin; Herzog August-Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel; Volkswagen-Stiftung, Hannover. I extend my sincere gratitude to all of them.

- vii - Contents

Preface ...... xiii

A. Introduction

1. FANTASY AND THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF IMAGINATION ...... 3 1. Pious Imagination as a Condition for the Understanding of Spiritual Literature ...... 3 2. A Short History of Imagination...... 9 3. Johann Arndt’s of Emblems ...... 22

2.OUTLINES OF PERENNIAL ...... 27 1. Elements of ...... 27 2. Perennial Philosophy in ...... 36

B. Glory

3. DIVINE NAMES...... 59 1. ’ Doctrine of ’s “Divine Names”...... 61 2. the Areopagite’s of Divine Names ...... 67 3. St. ’s and ’s Positive Philosophy of Divine Names ...... 76 4. Raymond Lull’s Theology of Concepts ...... 81 5. Christian Cabala I: Giovanni Pico, Johannes Reuchlin, and Paulus Ricius ...... 93 6. Christian Cabala II: Jakob Böhme’s Doctrine of Qualities..... 117

ix x Contents

4. KOSMOS ANTHROPOS ...... 129 1. Theology of the ...... 129 2. Platonic Myths: Androgynous Primeval Man...... 131 3. Wisdom ...... 135 4. ’s Cosmic Adam ...... 138 5. The Apocalyptic Kosmokrator...... 142 6. The Inner Man and the Aim of Creation: Gregory of Nyssia’s “Oratio de Creatione Hominis”...... 143 7. Eriugena’s Angel...... 150 8. ’s Caritas...... 152 9. Exempla Humanitatis: Alain de ’s “Anticlaudianus” ...... 156 10. Ficino’s Angel and the Intellectus Agens ...... 162 11. Giovanni Pico: Pious Philosophy and the Dignity of Man ... 169 12. Paulus Ricius’ Cabalistic Cosmos...... 173 13. The Threefold Man of ...... 180 14. Jakob Böhme’s Theology of Creation...... 187 15. Abraham Herrera’s Adam Kadmon ...... 192 16. The Pious Practice of the Divine : Gottfried Arnold’s Conversion ...... 202

5. ARCHETYPES...... 209 1. Creation before Time ...... 209 2. Philo’s Archetypes ...... 211 3. The Book Yezirah and the Archetypes of the Alphabet...... 220 4. ’ Spiritualised Space...... 228 5. ’s Free Spirits ...... 231 6. Augustine’s Trinitarian Archetypes ...... 237 7. : The Radiance of the Holy...... 245 8. The Echo of the Word: Eriugena’s Seminal Powers...... 250 9. De Vita Coelitus Comparanda: Ficino’s Cosmological Medicine ...... 260 10. On the Shadows of Ideas: ’s Seminal Combinatorics ...... 265

6. SPIRITUAL SPACES ...... 273 1. The Eternal and the Temporal Beginning ...... 273 2. The Dark Beginning: Plotinus and Dionysius the Areopagite...... 274 3. The Infinite Sphere of Light...... 278 4. The Splendour of the Angels...... 280 5. Space as Bursting Point: ...... 283 Contents xi

6. Magical Rays: Al Khindi’s Theories of Light...... 287 7. The World of Albert the Great ...... 292 8. Giorgio Veneto’s Harmonia Mundi ...... 305 9. Agrippa’s Doctrine of Spiritual Elements...... 316 10. The Dimensions of the Spirit: Nicholas of Cusa’s Conceptions of Space...... 319 11. Giordano Bruno’s Infinite Space...... 321

C. Theology of Time

7. THE RETURN OF TIME ...... 327 1. Apocalyptic Time...... 329 2. St. John’s Revelation as the Type of the World’s End...... 335 3. Origenism...... 339 a. Freedom, , and the Inner Image: Origen’s Christian ...... 339 b. Eriugena’s Resurrection...... 346 c. Pico’s Apology of Origen ...... 350 d. The Unification of All : Guillaume Postel’s Synergetic Apokatastasis...... 352 e. Johann Wilhelm Petersen’s Cosmic Redemption ...... 359

8. EPOCHS AND ERAS...... 369 1. The Turning of History in Christ: St. Paul’s Theology of History ...... 329 2. Sex Aetates Mundi: ’s World-Times ...... 375 3. ’s Typology of the Coming Time...... 381 4. Daniel’s Visions and the Holy Roman Empire ...... 392

9. TRANSLATIO SAPIENTIAE ...... 409 1. The Historical of Perennial Philosophy ...... 409 2. St. Augustine’s Genealogy of World-Wisdom ...... 412 3. The Patriarchs’ Encyclopaedia: ’s Perennial Philosophy...... 416 4. Antediluvian Wisdom and the Peoples’ Genealogy: Annius of Viterbo’s Edition of ‘Berosus’ ...... 421 5. The Third Revelation: Steucho’s Philosophia Perennis ...... 428 6. Johann Heinrich Alsted’s Universal Apocalyptic Science...... 435 xii Contents

D. The Echo of Perennial Philosophy

10. SCHELLING’S “WORLD-AGES” ...... 445 1. Positive, Negative, and Adept Philosophy...... 448 2. Philosophy of Spirit...... 450 3. History of the Father and the Son...... 458 4. History of the Spirit...... 464

Bibliography Abbreviations...... 469 Primary Sources...... 470 Secondary Sources...... 476 Preface

Extent of the concept of Philosophia perennis The term ‘philosophia perennis’ stems from the Vatican librarian Agostino Steucho, who in 1540 first published a book with the title “De perenni Philosophia”. Its subject was the , which he thought to be basically identical and common to all mankind from its Edenic beginning up to his time, the Renaissance period. The concept of one ancient philosophy and theology going back to paradise did not originate with Steucho; it has its roots in late antiquity, especially with the Christian , and was newly adopted by the Florentine Giovanni Pico della Mirandola who called it ‘philosophia prisca’. Pico’s ideas on the offspring and the continuity of philosophy were close to Steucho’s. Their theory consisted basically in the idea that Jewish-Christian theology and pious philosophy derived from participation in the same divine ideas, and that they revealed the same essential truths.1 During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the terms ‘ancient philosophy’ and ‘prisca theologia’, increasingly were used to characterise theories that confronted Asian religious concepts with Jewish tradition and Christian . So the terms ‘ancient theology’ as well as ‘prisca philosophia’ received an anti-Jewish and anti-Christian character. This is why I did not choose the title ‘prisca philosophia’ for the present study, and preferred ‘philosophia perennis’ instead.

1 This is why books like Aldous Huxley’s “Perennial Philosophy” (first 1945), a collection of more or less unreflected quotations from Western and Eastern thought, is not considered.

- xiii - xiv Preface

Furthermore, ‘philosophia perennis’ emphasises the aspect of continuity and tradition, which corresponds precisely with the concept of ‘theo- philosophy’ in Christian antiquity as well as in the Medieval and Renaissance periods. Since the focus of the present book is , it addresses neither Neoscholastic nor Neothomistic philosophy. With the Neoscholastic concept of ‘perennial philosophy’, the 19th and 20th century Neothomistic movement tried to establish a precise liaison between and in the sense of St. . This philosophical movement was however not interested in the patristic and Renaissance origin of the concept.2 Although the idea of philosophia perennis is most widespread in Renaissance philosophy, it extends far beyond that period. The concept has its roots in the theological and philosophical traditions of the Greek and Church fathers, who combined Judeo-Christian revelation with philosophical patterns deriving from Platonism. Platonic ideas were used for the apologetic purpose of supporting the concepts of revelation with philosophical ideas. Especially the philosophical theology of Philo of Alexandria laid the groundwork for this tradition. The framework of philosophia perennis was biblical; the whole concept depended on Philo’s interpretation of the Adamite language. Philo considered Adamite language to be an insight into the essence of things God offered Adam in paradise. This concept was interpreted as the deeper meaning of the Platonic doctrine of ideas. Judeo-Christian spirituality thus dominated every attempt at establishing a philosophy independent of revelation. In this sense, Platonic, and especially christianised Neoplatonic, themes played an important role in the development of philosophia perennis insofar as they could be incorporated into the Judeo-Christian framework. This book concentrates on this combination of Jewish, Christian and Platonic thought. Since it is not a complete history of philosophy, it only cites and deals with the sources concerning the concept of philosophia perennis in its specifically Renaissance sense.3 Seen from the modern perspective of philological historicism, philosophia perennis was, of course, a syncretistic movement, for it adopted and assimilated all available philosophical topics into its theologico-phi- losophical system. This was, however, precisely the working idea of perennial philosophy: Since all possible wisdom stemmed from God’s

2 The Festschrift for the historian of , Bernhard Geyer, which was edited in 1930 in Regensburg by Fritz Joachim von Rintelen, was titled “Philosophia perennis”, and is a good example of this kind of philosophical labelling. 3 Therefore it was neither necessary nor possible to mention all the available secondary sources, in addition to the obvious fact that the author is not familiar with them all. The main idea of the present book is to concentrate on primary sources. Preface xv original Edenic revelation, no human philosophy could be conceived independent of this origin. This concept of the divine origin of all knowledge was the main idea behind the essential unity of theology and philosophy, and was the foundation on which a Platonising Christian philosophy was built. Since Philo was considered by the early Christian scholars to be the first church father, his ideas were widely used, e.g. by and Origen. From these sources the ideas of the original Edenic wisdom spread all over the Christian world. The Latin Church fathers came to know of them, especially via Ambrosius (who translated Philo’s works verbatim into Latin) and St. Augustine’s commentaries on the book of Genesis. Of course it was only within this Judeo-Christian framework that the pagan Neo- platonism of Plotinus and especially of Proclus was assimilated. Here Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and were the most important transmitters of Christian into the . The central doctrine that there could be no difference between theology and philosophy, since both had their sources in God’s original wisdom, hereby always remained stable. This is why the ancient and medieval Aristotelian traditions, including medieval scholasticism, had no important impact on the concept of philosophia perennis. In Renaissance philosophy, this patristic idea of the unity of theology and philosophy was renewed as ‘philosophia perennis’. The first to describe it comprehensively was the Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa. More or less independently from him, and Giovanni Pico tried to re- establish a new philosophia pia. In their footsteps the Vatican librarian Agostino Steucho wrote his “De perenni philosophia” (1540), which provided a name for the whole theologico-philosophical movement. From its beginnings with Nicholas of Cusa, but especially since Giovanni Pico, Johannes Reuchlin, and Paulus Ricius, the tradition of Jewish cabala was incorporated into the framework of this theo-philosophy, and thereby came to play an important role in the Christian philosophical tradition.

Structure and choice of sources The structure of this study follows the central topics of the Renaissance concept of philosophia perennis. This doctrine is concerned with theological ideas that cannot be separated from philosophical speculation. The book therefore addresses the concepts of God’s self-revelation in speculation, in natural theology, in the theology of space, and in the concepts of world- history. The central chapters are divided into two main parts: ‘Glory’ (chapters 3-6) examines the concept of God’s self-revelation and ‘Theology of Time’ (chapters 7-9) analyses the Judeo-Christian concept of world- history. xvi Preface

These two principle parts are framed by two introductory chapters and a reminiscence of the echoing of perennial philosophy in German Romanticism. The first chapter introduces the reader into the mood of perennial philosophy, describes the book’s concept of spirituality, presents a short history of fantasy, and sketches an outline of emblematic theology based on the concept of pious fantasy and philosophy. The second introductory chapter gives a short systematic summary of perennial philosophy’s leading concepts based especially on Nicholas of Cusa’s work. Here the six main topoi of perennial philosophy are briefly laid out: divine names, the divine logos, the primordial ideal world, the realisation of the world in space, the concepts of time and world history, and finally the idea of the tradition of Adamite wisdom through the centuries. These leading ideas make up the core of perennial philosophy. The book concludes with an of the philosophy of the late Schelling as a revival of perennial philosophy. The book’s first main part, ‘Glory’, contains four chapters. Chapter 3 is entitled ‘Divine names’ and treats the idea of God’s self-revelation in speculative theology. The theory of divine names includes the central themes of theologico-philosophical speculation: the beginning, the absolute and the source of all being, which are the quintessential theologico-philosophical subjects. This chapter treats the theory of divine names beginning with Proclus’ Theologia Platonica, and shows how it was brought into a Christian context by Dionysius the Areopagite, especially in his “De Divinis Nominibus”. Independently developed but corresponding theories of divine names were put forth by Isidor of Seville and Raimundus Lullus. These different theories were all taken up during the Renaissance and combined with the concept of Christian cabala by Giovanni Pico, Johannes Reuchlin and Paulus Ricius. The chapter on ‘Divine names’ concludes with a sketch of the theory of God’s qualities as conceived by the perhaps most important Christian cabalist, Jakob Böhme. Chapter 4, ‘Cosmic Anthropology’, describes three central elements of Western spirituality: a) theology of the logos as God’s mirror, b) the concept of man being God’s image, and c) the idea of man as a microcosm, representing the macrocosmic world. The spiritual anthropology presented here includes the theology of the prologue of St. John’s gospel as well as the Platonic myth of the androgynous man, which were absorbed into Philo’s interpretation of the biblical Adam. All these ideas come together in the famous “Oratio de opificio hominis”, which is usually attributed to . The patristic cosmic anthropology was transformed and introduced to the world by John Scotus Eriugena, Hildegard of Bingen and . Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola renewed the Philonian and patristic ideas of cosmic anthropology, and their Preface xvii ideas were also enriched by cabalistic speculation: Paulus Ricius, Paracelsus, Jakob Böhme as well as Abraham Herrera contributed substantially to the concept of speculative anthropology. These ideas also played an important role in the early pietistic movement in Germany, as is shown in Gottfried Arnold’s book on the divine Sophia. Chapter 5 on ‘Archetypes’ outlines a train of thought that became central to the concept of the world’s ideal harmonic order, which was important until the 17th century. After the chapters on divine names and cosmic anthropology, this chapter features the speculative concepts of a theology of creation. It is again closely related to Philonian cosmology. Philo imagined a primordial divine plan before the creation of the real, extended world. This idea was developed in the cabalist book Yetzira, was varied by Plotinus, appeared in St. Augustine’s book on the Holy Trinity, and was especially important for Dionysisus’ concept of the divine hierarchy. It was again John Scotus Eriugena, the erudite at the court of , who brought the idea of a primordial world into the Christian middle ages. In Ficino’s theory of cosmic medicine, the original Philonian ideas were revived for the Renaissance period, and Giordano Bruno employed these ideas in his philosophical concept of an eternally emerging cosmos. Chapter 6 on spiritual spaces concludes the treatment of the speculations on the process of creation. It investigates the theories on how God’s ideas of the world became ‘real’ in the emergence of an extended world. This chapter addresses the theories of the emergence of space and the ideas of the extended world’s beginning. Dionysius the Areopagite adopted Plotinus’ idea of the darkness of the origin. The connection in the book of Genesis between the creation of light and the creation of space stimulated Christian as well as Jewish and Muslim speculation concerning the nature of light. The process of the world’s becoming a harmonic unity is central for Albert the Great and his school. Renaissance inherited these speculations on space and harmony: Nicholas of Cusa’s book on conjectures, Giorgio Veneto’s “De Harmonia mundi”, Agrippa von Nettesheim’s “De Occulta Philosophia” and Giordano Bruno’s speculations on infinite space both use and go beyond the patristic concept of spiritual space and harmony. The chapter on spiritual spaces concludes ‘Glory’, the first section of the book. This first main part shows the stages of God’s self-revelation into his creation as well as laying out the concept of the unity between philosophy and theology. For the representatives of philosophia perennis, this philosophy is revealed, insofar as it is part of God’s creation. The second main section of the book, ‘Theology of Time’, has as its subject the diverse concepts of world history within the tradition of perennial philosophy. This concept of world-time is, of course, apocalyptic. It relies completely on the Judeo-Christian concept of messianism and the Last xviii Preface

Judgement, but is also connected with the Platonic idea of a cyclic structure of world-time. Chapter 7, on ‘The Return of Time’, deals with the two antagonistic concepts of apocalypse and eternal recurrence, in relation to St. John’s revelation and Origen’s Apokatastasis, along with its reception by selected authors, especially John Scotus Eriugena, Giovanni Pico, Guillaume Postel and Johann Wilhelm Petersen. Chapter 8, ‘Epochs and Eras’, examines the diverse concepts of the epochs in world history. It begins with the theology of history in St. Paul’s letter to the Romans and then turns to the most important Christian theories of the epochs in medieval and Renaissance thought: the Venerable Bede’s concept of the six epochs of the world, Joachim of Fiore’s concept of the third reign, and, finally, Melanchthon’s theology of history, which interpreted the German by connecting the biblical book Daniel and its four apocalyptical epochs to the fate of the Holy Roman Empire. The entire concept of philosophia perennis depends on the idea of Adamite wisdom. The ninth chapter, ‘Translatio Sapientiae’, delineates the speculations on this tradition through the centuries. According to the principles of philosophia perennis, knowledge of the truth is only possible through participation in divine ideas. In Adam’s original revelation, i.e. in the lingua Adamica, this knowledge was completed. Since no philosophy of mere human origin could generate the truths of Adamite wisdom, it was essential that this wisdom be transmitted through history. Furthermore, if it could be identified in the most ancient sources, this Edenic wisdom could contribute to the process of making the world more perfect. For this reason, philosophia perennis, which was based on biblical revelation, required a continuous tradition as much as revealed itself. This is why the continuity of biblical wisdom had to be guaranteed by the historiography of the church fathers and the historians of perennial philosophy. Thus St. Augustine attempted to show the continuity of Edenic wisdom, as did Roger Bacon when he renewed the encyclopaedic knowledge of the church fathers. In the late 15th century, the problem became so urgent that the Vatican librarian Annius of Viterbo faked some documents to show that there was a continuous tradition from Adam via Noah to the pagan kings, and his follower Steucho tried to combine all ancient theological traditions into one philosophia perennis. This concept of ideal Edenic wisdom continued to play an important role in the encyclopaedic movement. Johann Heinrich Alsted, the most important encyclopaedist of the early 17th century and the teacher of Comenius, was still trying to regain the Adamite language as a key to universal wisdom. With the concepts of universal history and wisdom, the reconstruction of the concept of philosophia perennis is complete. There are of course many other authors who participate in this concept, especially in the 17th century, Preface xix e.g. , Athanasius Kircher, Johann Amos Comenius and others. The aim of this book on philosophia perennis however is to provide a first perspective on this hitherto neglected pattern of early modern thought.