| Boehme, Jakob (1575-1624),
German theosophist and mystic, born in Altseidenberg, Silesia. His surname
is also spelled Boehm or Behmen. He received only an elementary education
but was an assiduous student of the Bible and the works of the Swiss alchemist
and physician Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus. Apprenticed to a shoemaker
in his youth, Boehme later opened his own shop in G?rlitz, Saxony. From
an early age he believed that he saw visions, and throughout his life he
claimed to be divinely inspired. About 1612 he wrote Die Morgenr?te im
Aufgang (The Morning Redness Arising), in which he recorded his visions
and expounded the attributes of God. The manuscript, which was published
in 1634 under the title Aurore, was condemned as heretical by local ecclesiastical
and civil authorities. Eventually Boehme was forced to seek asylum in Dresden,
Saxony. There he was cleared of charges of heresy and allowed to return
to G?rlitz. His best-known treatises include Von den drei Prinzipien des
G?ttlichen Wesens (Of the Three Principles of the Nature of God, 1619)
and Der Weg zu Christo (The Way to Christ, 1624). Although written in a
style difficult to understand, his works were received with favor in a
number of countries, particularly Germany, the Netherlands, and Great Britain.
His English followers called themselves Behmenists. Many of them later
were absorbed into the Quaker movement. In his fundamental doctrine, Boehme
held that everything exists and is intelligible only through its opposite.
Thus, he believed, evil is a necessary element in goodness, for without
evil the will would become inert and progress would be impossible. God
himself, according to Boehme, contains conflicting elements in his nature.
Boehme's religious views have influenced modern Western thought in both
philosophy and theology.
"Boehme, Jakob," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 97 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1996
Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. |
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