An Introduction to Jacob Boehme Four Centuries of Thought and Reception [Hardcover]

This volume brings together for the first time some of the worlds leading authorities on the German mystic Jacob Boehme, to illuminate his thought and its reception over four centuries for the benefit of students and advanced scholars alike. Boehmes theosophical works have influenced Western culture in profound ways since their dissemination in the early 17^thCentury, and these interdisciplinary essays trace the social and cultural networks as well as the intellectual pathways involved in Boehmes enduring impact. The chapters range from situating Boehme in the 16^thCentury Radical Reformation, to discussions of his significance in modern theology. They explore the major contexts for Boehmes reception including the Pietist movement, Russian religious thought and Western esotericism, as well as focusing more closely on important readers: the religious radicals of the English Civil Wars and the later English Behmenists; literary figures such as Goethe and Blake, and great philosophers of the modern age, among them Schelling and Hegel. Together, the chapters illustrate the depth and variety of Boehmes influence and a concluding chapter addresses directly an underlying theme of the volume  asking why Boehme matters today, and how readers in the present might be enriched by a fresh engagement with his apparently opaque and complex writings.

1. Introduction: Boehmes legacy in perspective  Ariel Hessayon and Sarah Apetrei  2. Boehmes Life and Times  Ariel Hessayon  3. Radical Reformation and the Anticipation of Modernism in Jacob Boehme Andrew Weeks  4. Boehmes Intellectual Networks and the Heterodox Milieu of his Theosophy, 16001624 Leigh T. I. Penman  5. Jacob Boehmes Writings during the English Revolution and Afterwards: Their Publication, Dissemination, and Influence Ariel Hessayon&l£Š